We headed to Richmond a few weeks ago during a rare gap in the weather to shoot the latest instalment of our series with Toast. It was a bit of a trip down memory lane for us as we lived just outside Richmond for the first 10 years of my life. It is such a pretty place, particularly when bathed in winter sunshine.

We always base ourselves in the Toast shop when we do our shoots. I honestly think that Toast have some of the nicest shop assistants i’ve ever met (and I have met ALOT). The girls in the Richmond store made us feel so welcome and bent over backwards to help us. I’ve often witnessed shop assistants make people feel worse and not better about their shopping experience. I guarantee that these ladies would help you to feel relaxed and at ease whilst providing excellent styling advice (they’re all impeccably dressed themselves!).

Our first stop was Bramble & Moss, a really lovely florists on Richmond Hill. Again, the people that work there were so warm and friendly. Their flowers were to die for and so we enjoyed a good mooch around.

This basket is the perfect bag for errand shopping but would also make a great beach bag. The jumpsuit that I am wearing, I absolutely love. It was sooooo comfy. It comes up quite big so I would suggest sizing down if you were thinking of buying it. Here I was wearing a navy blue polo neck (from good old M&S) but in the summer I will wear a white t-shirt or a blouse. I absolutely love pieces like this that can be worn in the winter and the summer. As usual, Mum and I layered up. Toast clothes lend themselves to being layered and as they tend to stick to similar colour palettes season to season, we find that current and past pieces always slot together well.

I’m sure that the Toast devotees amongst you will already know this but Toast have started two initiatives to help with the issue of sustainability. The first is a free repair service in their shops where you can take in torn or worn garments and have them repaired by their in-house technicians. The other is an initiative called Toast Circle which encourages customers to bring in their own worn pieces of Toast clothing and exchange them for other worn items. I LOVE this idea.

NB - other brands that offer free repairs or alterations include Levi’s, Burberry, Whistles, J Crew, Patagonia, Uniqlo and my husband’s favourite Finisterre.

Mum is wearing a fitted wool jacket under her knitted coat. They are both patterned and so the trick to layering multiple patterns and it looking purposeful (!), is making sure that all the colours are taken from the same palette. The checked knitted cardigan mum wore all day and found extremely warm. Toast call it a coat and she would agree that it would be warm enough to wear as one (but maybe not in the depths of winter).

In the late afternoon we headed to Richmond Park and the light was beautiful. It reminded me so much of summer evenings as a child, heading to the park after school for an evening stroll and an ice cream. On this particular day the weather was mild but certainly not mild enough for an ice cream. A hot chocolate was more appropriate.

I’m writing this on an extremely gloomy afternoon, dreaming of summer days that look more like this picture and less like the conditions outside my window. Who else is ready for spring?!