ANNE C AUTUMN HAUL

Last week we saw Anne H's autumn haul of new clothes buys, so this week, we turn our attention to Anne C - me! My first buy was late Summer, with this lightweight floral sweater from Monsoon sales.  In lightweight linen, it is also fairly unusual for me to buy heavily patterned clothes, being short, they tend to swamp me. This one is in off white with a blue floral print, but they now have one in white with a black print, which is fairly similar here.

I am wearing the sweater with some new pale grey skinny jeans from George at Asda.  I am a firm believer in budget buys, since I am short (5'2") so don't have to buy expensive brands because I need the leg length, unlike the other Anne.  I did once buy some Not Your Daughters Jeans which were very good, but much more expensive and which sadly lasted no longer than bargain ones. I tend to go for just colour and fit rather than brands.

I teamed the same jeans with this pretty long-line asymmetrical top also in pale grey.  Made from stretchy cotton and cotton lawn, the A-line suits my pear-shaped body and was bought in a fabulous local boutique in Leeds called New Collection, which I have only just discovered, but which some of my friends have been raving about.  Their lovely casual collection of tops, dresses, jeans, bags, scarves and even shoes means I may have to go back again......

The boots were from Marks & Spencer in the sales last year (no longer available, but there are plenty of alternatives available, including these) and are a a perfect match to the pale grey jeans.

I like to wear one colour from head to toe where possible, because cutting myself in half with different colours can make me look shorter and dumpier than I already am.  Obviously that's not always possible, but with trousers I do try to match the colour of my footwear to the jeans or trousers so that it makes my legs look a little longer.

I don't wear much jewellery in winter since it will get covered up with cardigans, coats and scarves, so I'm just wearing a simple Emporio Armani watch and Pierre Lang earrings, neither of which are still available.  The latter is an Austrian company which used to have agents running jewellery parties, but which sadly seems to have disappeared from the UK though still available online here. I have quite a bit of this range from years ago as I fell completely in love with it, so I'm sad that it's not readily available now.

The photos were taken in Anne H's beautiful garden against a lovely backdrop of colourful Autumn leaves, and while she still has flowering pots, unfortunately mine died off during my family three-week holiday when there was no-one to water them!

This open weave sweater actually looks more blue than grey in this photo, so maybe next time I will style with blue denim jeans instead of grey.  This came from a lovely stallholder whom I see every year at the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate, where I work for a few days each year.  The stallholder actually has a shop in Romford, Essex, though doesn't have a website because he doesn't keep stock in loads of different sizes.  However, I bought this last winter at a very reasonable cost of around £30, and then subsequently saw the same item while on holiday in Santorini this year, but in cream.  As I like it so much, I wanted to buy it until I saw the price tag - it was 90 Euros!  Unfortunately I think some of the Greek shops are trying to recover some of their own soaring costs through tourism.  I left it there!

I am wearing it with the same grey jeans and boots as in the previous photos.