A Life At Work, 40 Years Ago - and Link Up

Forty years ago I started work as an apprentice journalist on the Mirror Group training scheme.  The national daily trained a group of reporters every year to staff its stable of regional newspapers in the Westcountry. This weekend some of us met up in Plymouth to celebrate our anniversary.

Five For FriYay: Reading, Podcasts, Beauty

Welcome to Five for FriYay, my occasional post on what I've been reading, listening to, watching and trying.

I look like a magician above but those white gloves are a godsend if, like me, you have ruined sheer tights just pulling them on. I have had so many instances over the years where a finger has created a hole or ladder, and I was unable to wear the tights in question!

Purple and Pink

Dear friends. Regular readers will know that I like pink, particularly in the bright fuchsia shade which suits my cool / clear colouring. I also like purple and lilac, which look great with pink. Certainly in this combination none of us will be invisible.

The velvet midi skirt from Kettlewell has a lovely sheen and I added a bit of extra sparkle with metallic tights.  I've been finding so far this year that dark opaque tights aren't doing it for me. They suddenly look too solid, and dated with midi skirts. So I'm preferring thinner denier tights like these and the embellished brocade tights worn here.

The purple is echoed again in the infinity scarf, described as "pansy" by Kettlewell and a shade that is said to suit everyone. I don't really wear scarves except the Rew type shown here, which has a button fastening, but this scarf is good because it doesn't need tying.

Silver ankle boots and a cute micro bag provide finishing touches.  As an aside, I'm standing in front of one of our stained glass windows. The house dates from the 1920s and in the area where we live it was a big feature to have particular designs of stained glass in certain streets. A few years ago we replaced the windows. I managed to find a vendor who was able to take the precious original stained glass and encase it into the new frames. I'm passionate about retaining original features in houses, so this made me very happy.

I had to do this shoot in a big rush, after work, before it got dark as I didn't have time at the weekend. But phew, I got there.

Disclosure: no items were gifted for this post.

Now it's time for #WowOnWednesday.

Last week's most clicked post was by Emma from Style Splash, "Rust Checked Wrap Skirt and Navy Sweater." Emma is very skilled at colour mixing and always has quirky, fun accessories.

My favourite was Darlene from Aquamarina Style and her post How to Style a Faux Leather Skirt for Fall.  I often look at the racks of coated, faux and leather skirts and trousers and then move on, thinking it's not for me. I've only ever had one faux leather skirt which was silver and hardly ever worn because it was always too big. So Darlene has given me a welcome push to think about adding a faux or leather item to my wardrobe. I think I will need to try on several to find the right fit so this will make a whole post on its own!

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All-Green Monochrome Look

I'm going through a monochrome phase at the moment where I like to wear one colour in tonal shades. This all-green outfit combines two of my loves, green, and sequins.