Anna's Island Style

Another weekend outfit

Hello again! How was your weekend? Busy? I managed some downtime with a couple of swims and a walk in the sunshine on Sunday afternoon which was lovely. I'm painfully aware that the feel of the island will change soon once we become fully open and that's essential to keep us all in gainful employment, but I will miss the peaceful walks and empty beaches. I also know that once the season starts we're all suddenly 'on' becoming acclimatised to that position overnight. I'm really not complaining, simply saying that the year is most definitely a game of two halves.

I'm sporting my new silver puffa jacket (£10 from Vinted, the brand is Parisian) along with an outfit that's all old pieces - shopping from my wardrobe as the wonderful radio presenter Gabby Roslin says.

What an absolute joy is was to see the sun! Honestly, we've had rain and fog for days and days over the past couple of weeks and it's all a bit wearing.

Nothing new with the jewellery either, but these rings and necklace all tone very well, don't you think? Do you have a rummage in your local charity shops for jewellery? It's one of my favourite things when I'm off-island. Even if I'm not in the market for some new clothes (take my temperature - there must be something wrong with me!) I do love to find some hand me down and vintage jewellery. I have mini-pots for all my rings, one in each colourway, from silver and gold to pinks, oranges and blues. My sunglasses are by Radley London.

This may not be my most glamorous of outfits, but weekends do mean comfort for me, that plus practicality. I run about at home doing chores and cooking, making beds and taking out the rubbish, talking of which, I've recently promoted myself to Waste Manager on the home front and what sense of good deed done it gives me! Our waste bins aren't emptied for us, instead we have a local recycling area. In another life I think I might have made a good binman! How tragic am I talking about the rubbish on my blog!!!!!

Very soon my blog will be populated by work outfits, but for the moment, I thought it was fine to let you see me in casual mode. I've been beetling away behind the scenes at work all winter, visiting cottages across the island to check and update art in the newly renovated houses. Hill Top, Doctor's, Nurses and Reading Room cottages have all had new bathroom upgrades, so once those were completed my job was to rehang and exchange art to enhance the overall look - it's a very satisfying part of my job.

Many thanks for dropping by. I do hope that life is treating you well! Enjoy the rest of the week and I'll be back on Monday with our monthly style challenge, so do please swing by to see how that goes.

Anna x

Hello and how are you? How was your weekend? We had a mixed bag of weather and I timed it badly just missing the sunshine that I'd hoped would be the backdrop for my photo shoot. I tweaked the brightness on the photos as it was turning showery and grey. By the time I'd taken six shots the rain started!

I seemed to spend most of my weekend cooking, doing prep for meals this week and then catching up on laundry, so pretty much all that domestic stuff that just keeps coming. My outfit is super casual, but worth mentioning are these fab orange boots from Vinted, costing me £12 (River Island is the brand). Hubby thinks I've been influenced by all the workmen that are busy on the building site that Tresco is at this time of year as roads are resurfaced and houses are renovated.

As you may already know, I love the colour orange, but also I do have a passion for a rugged, chunky boot. This look is not for the faint hearted, but what can I say? I love it!

It really excites me to be able to mix things up from a tulle skirt one week and camo trousers with builders boots the next. How wonderful to be able to change one's personna so quickly and easily. Thank goodness I'm living now and not 100 years ago!

My black puffa jacket has been a go-to this winter - it's so cosy and even has a tog value just like a duvet! The brand is Zara and I actually bought it (new with labels on) from the British Red Cross charity shop in Truro last year. They receive goods direct from Zara that are end of line or returns from online sales. It has a huge hood which came in very useful at the end of this shoot.

And this is the moment it started raining! I couldn't help but laugh as honestly I'd procrastinated for most of the day to get outside and take blog photos thinking that it would be sunny forever.

I quickly whipped off my jacket to reveal the orange roll neck sweater, not new, but perfect for this this outfit. The necklace is by Charlie Dodge, a jewellery range we stock at Gallery Tresco. The orange belt is old too, from Primark.

And quick, it's time to go!

I took shelter for a while and then eventually gave up and walked home in the rain. Thanks for joining me again! Wishing you a good week ahead.

Anna x

Hello again, and how's tricks with you? Recently my sister-in-law, Gill, celebrated her 70th birthday and we had a lovely family gathering to mark the occasion. Do you remember Polly who was my gallery assistant a few years ago? Well she and my nephew David had a baby six months ago - this is Mose in the photo. We had a very long and lazy lunch party for Gill, with delicious food and an endless supply of champagne.

Gill's children had clubbed together to pay for a week of luxury in the newly converted Blockhouse Cottage which was the childhood home of Steve and Gill so you can imagine how the memories came flooding back for them. They had such fun reminiscing about the good ol' days while they told us stories about their time growing up on Tresco.

This was what I wore that day. The jacket was a purchase from Vinted, trousers are old (from ASOS) and the River Island top was also from Vinted.

I love the combination of peach and lilac together. My jewellery is all old too - necklace was from Debenhams many moons ago and the perspex rings are pre-loved.

The white patent leather boots finish off this retro look perfectly. What a great excuse the party was for me to dress up! Luckily for me, the next evening we were invited to join with the family again to celebrate my birthday. Gill's birthday is the day before mine, but I was happy to turn up to sweep up the crumbs from her party table. We had drinks that evening outside by the fire pit which was a great start to the celebrations. From there we had a running buffet followed by a beautiful birthday cake made by my neice Zoe of Bryher Bake Box fame.

Zoe had been very clever in managing to decorate my cake in the same colours as my birthday evening outfit.

The rose gold ensemble matched my cake beautifully. My rose gold shoes were from, yes, you guessed it, Vinted as was the sweater. The Iris skirt is from Eleven Loves, but is all sold in out this blush colour. You can find a berry version on their sale page here.

Evening indoor photography isn't my forte, but I wanted to showcase this fab tulle skirt regardless. I recently showcased a cream skirt so very similar to this one, but this really is a different one.

Note the cute tiny shoes beside me. These belong to Raffy, one of my great neices. The week was a great opportunity to catch up with all of Steve's family who had travelled to Tresco for the houseparty. They raved about the on site spa facilites and yoga room which they used every day, in fact they raved about the whole experience!

And this was another shot from my 66th birthday. After the picnic lunch with Steve, I had a bit of downtime that afternoon and then swam on the high tide as the sun was setting at about 5pm. All in all, I'd had a pretty perfect day.

Anna x

Hello and welcome to this month's Style Not Age challenge! Jacqui has chosen Red Alert as this month's theme and it certainly was a fair challenge for me as reds are so few and far between in my wardrobe. Luckily I've been wearing this co-ord (old from Zara) that Sash passed on to me in December and it was perfect for the festive season, also great for the winter months generally as it's super cosy. But let's continue first with the ladies of the collective to see what they came up with...

Jacqui is looking fab in this feather topped jumpsuit (borrowed from her daughter) with her black oversized jacket, finished with blood red shoes and lipstick red handbag. Find out more on her blog Mummabstylish.

Gail has brought out all of the reds from her closet to great effect. In particular, I love her second hand coat from Coast, tres chic! Read all the latest from her on Is This Mutton blog.

Emma's tomato red top and trousers are from River Island topped with a vest from Principles. Her funky bag steals the show however, don't you think? It's from Jayley. Catch up with all her latest on The Style Splash.

HIlda's red trousers and yellow cardi tie in perfectly with her leopard print courts and what a statement this ensmeble makes - I love it! Follow Hilda on Over The Hilda blog.

My chunky knit two-piece has been aired quite a lot during December and January, mainly because it's so blooming comfortable! The pull on trousers have an elasticated waist which has been ideal for the post-Christmas tum and the long tunic top hides any such evidence too!

My massive Koi boots in cow print (from Vinted) are a brilliant pairing for the outfit as the whole thing is quite over-sized. The chunky heels and platform soles help to balance out the weightiness of the co-ord .

Necklace, rings and sunglasses are all old, but work really well with the colourscheme of today's outfit. Again, red isn't one of my oft worn colours so it was a bit of a rummage that took place to find these. The sunglasses are my old favourites from Quay Australia.

Our Red Alert challenge has brought forth a lovely and diverse range of outfits to hopefully inspire and entertain you. Many thanks for dropping by and I look forward to chatting to you again soon!

Anna x

Hello and thanks for coming! Today's news is that it's my birthday and I'm 66, officially an OAP! I don't know why I'm so shocked by this, but I somehow don't feel ready for free bus passes and whatever else may be due to me now. I suppose we're all the same; the age we feel inside is gradually drifting further and further apart from the image we see in the mirror. I'm not so vain that I'd resort to fillers or surgery of any sort, but maybe I'm guilty of refusing to dress my age - I certainly pay no attention to the advice given by the late singer, Prince, that of, "Act your age not your shoe size".

Steve and I had a picnic lunch today at the Ruin Beach cafe overlooking Raven's Porth beach. It was beautifully still as the tide gently rolled in and was a lovely backdrop for our time together. As ever, I used the occasion as an excuse to dress up and Steve stepped forward as blog photographer for the day.

I'm well aware at there may be many (women) who'd happy level the accusation of mutton dressed as lamb at me, particularly when you see the heels on these boots, but frankly my dear, I don't give a damn! Life is too blooming short for me to weep and worry at what others may think of me. My outfits do no harm to anyone and I certainly don't take myself too seriously as if I'm some fashion guru. I simply love clothes, always have done and thoroughly enjoy the creativity to be had from playing around with colours and textures of pieces to create new looks for myself. You're a long time dead, so for goodness sake, let's have some fun now!

So, on to the details of the outfit. The shorts suit is from Primark, bought on Vinted not so long ago. The sweater also comes from Vinted, as did the boots. The tights are from Snag and fur coat was from TK Maxx a couple of years ago.

All of my jewellery is old, some also pre-loved. Sunglasses are by Radley London, but not new either.

We had a stomp about on the beach after lunch and Steve took this post-shoot shot, very casual of me in wellies but looking suitably relaxed and happy - a true reflection of where I find myself at this juncture in my life. We sat together and counted our blessings for the life we've had here over the years and how lucky we were to find each other.

This evening we're off to join all of Steve's family who are staying in the newly converted Blockhouse Cottage where his sister yesterday held her 70th birthday party. I have photos from that and my outfit of the day, but that will have to come another day. I must make myself ready for my birthday bash as we're expected soon. Thank you so much for joining me on this special day. Monday brings our monthly Style Challenge and thereafter I'll give you all the news on both of my party outfits.

Anna x

Hi there! Thanks for swinging by again. I'm posting on Blue Monday, allegedly the most depressing day of the year as we're all supposed to be in a full post-Christmas slump, but hopefully it's not been too much of a trial for you. This year it's on the 15th of January which is my daughter's birthday (she's 35). We met up with Sasha yesterday to have brunch with her in one of the Seagarden Cottages where she's enjoying a few days of luxury as a gift to herself. I dodged outside to take a few shots of my outfit, but couldn't find the right spot either out of the sun (too bright)...

...or in the shade (too dark). The view was pretty spectacular though!

I've been itching to wear this wonderful waterfall tulle skirt since I bought it recently on Vinted. I can hardly bear to tell you how much it cost. What do you think? Would you believe that even though it's brand new it only cost £5? Honestly! The rest of the outfit is from my wardrobe, nothing new. The waistcoat is years old and may not ever have been shown on the blog, but do tell me if I'm wrong. The blouse is ancient, was a charity shop buy from years ago, boots are from ASOS, sunglasses are from Quay Australia and cream tights are very old indeed.

Later on I swapped the waistcoat for this fitted jacket (very old). I really like this look; the yellow tweed jacket has a gold fleck to it and works so well with the soft fluid nature of the tulle and chiffon. The chunky boots toughen the look up without being too overpowering.

The broad tan leather belt is another way to add an accent without it becoming too much of a focal point. For me this outfit is all about the skirt, so hopefully the balance with the other pieces works to allow the tulle to remain at centre stage.

Nothing new with these citrine rings - I've had them for years now - they were gifted to me as part of a collaboration with Gemporia way back in 2017 (see here).

No doubt you'll see this skirt again and again and again this year. It's an obvious piece for summerwear, but I so wanted to try to winterise it successfully and think I did. Do you agree? I actually wore my cream cow print fur coat over the top of this as it was so chilly - sorry I forgot to get shots of that but we were running late. It's great to have your company again - many thanks and have a great week!

Anna x

Anna's Island Style

Another weekend outfit

Weekend wind down

Two birthday bashes

Red Alert! - our monthly style challenge for January.

OMG - OAP!

Blue Monday post