With such bright sun during most of the day, ducking into shade for shots becomes a necessity…

As you can see they end up a little dusty looking, but part of the charm I think. Anna Lou of London asked me to take part in their ‘Style it up for summer with Anna Lou’ project and this is the first look of three. I chose the most statement piece I’ve ever worn – this Indian Lemon acrylic necklace; very seventies my mum immediately commented. (Had to translate Indian to Algarvian for the purposes of the post title, of course!)

I love how it’s echoed in colour by the tan of my shoes. The dress is one of last summer’s star buys from fab little online boutique Skinniebelle, and it so perfectly floaty, even if it does show a little sideboob! And that’s this outfit in a nutshell – the bib-like necklace is such a piece, you can almost imagine it holding court at its own dinner party.

I’m still pale in these photos, but I’m writing this after a couple of half-hour bouts of sun-bathing this afternoon while the little one napped and my parents stepped in. I’ve got what I like to call foundation colour, a bit of gentle base tan which can be consolidated over the next few days. I never tan that deeply but I do tan quite easily. And I do try to be careful, after a gung-ho sun-worshipping youth. I avoid the sun from 12-2pm, use factor 15+ on my body and 22+ on my face.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to show you some sun-kissed skin over the next few days, it’s so feelgood! I also did a Pilates session today, as a few bikini top shots earlier on had me wishing for my pre-pregnancy tone. Needless to say, I’m nibbling some super dark chocolate right this minute…

Ps. We have a lemon tree here, I must show you!

I styled my Indian Lemon necklace with a Skinniebelle charcoal dress (it has an amazing cut-out at the back!) and my new Sam Edelman slides