Spring is calling me

I refuse to look outside while I type this. My curtains are drawn and I am sat in mood lighting, pretending its evening. It looks like evening. My fairy lights are on (not just for Christmas!) and so is my bedside lamp. My Yankee candle flickers beside me and my room smells of lavender and lemon. 

For me, Winter is great before Christmas. It adds to the atmosphere and the build up. Putting on my winter coat and looping my scarf around my neck for extra warmth. I get to wear my boots and thick comfy socks and, I find this hard to discuss post New Year, my beautiful Christmas jumper. However, after we've entered the New Year, the world becomes a little bleak for me. I'm sure I'm not the only one. I miss the family time and being home and food and wine and Christmas TV but also, I start to yearn for the Spring and Summer. Maybe it's cause my birthday marks Spring for me, but every year I get like this. I dream of longer evenings, daffodils, having the windows open, fresh grass (as cliched as that sounds), the smell of BBQ's and sitting in the park with my friends drinking Fraps and enjoying the blue sky. 

I start to think of how my wardrobe will change. Good bye boots! See ya later winter coat! Au revoir socks! I want to wear summer dresses and pastel colours and sun glasses and wear a bag with an extra long strap that hits against my leg when I roam the town or walk beside the beach and in this bag, with the extra long strap, will be a nice summery book and sun cream peeping out the top and my skin will smell of coconut again. I wanna wear pumps without people moaning at me because they aren't "appropriate" and put little flowers in my hair and listen to summer music without feeling impatient or nostalgic because Spring is here and I am happy. I want sun and heat and warmth and outdoor living. Cold beers. My hair in every kind of plait you can imagine. Basically, I just want Winter to sod off cause Spring is calling me but it's still so far away.

I write this to you because I have a serious case of the Winter blues.

I'd like for someone to tell me I'm not the only one!

For now I will have to dream of all those things and when Spring does come, I will link back to this post and feel rather happy. In the meantime I will leave you with a song that makes me happy(ish).

always dream big

Dreams weren't made to be small. Yes, they may be unrealistic and they may never happen but it's good to dream big. If I asked you what your dream fashion accessory would be, I would hope (and prey) that you would not tell me 'that black satchel from River Island' or 'this amazing pair of Chelsea boots from ASOS'. If that is your dream then you're lucky cause you're a million times more likely to reach yours than I am mine! 

Money isn't the most important thing to me. Pretty much everything comes before money (my family being the most important but also my friends) but it is also a big part of how we interact with those more important things and whether we like it or not, we, as society. are very focused on aesthetics and materialism. Naturally we are drawn to beautiful things. However, what we consider to be beautiful is another matter. One girls Prada is another girls Newlook...or should that be the other way around?

Here are my dreeeaaam fashion accessories.

What are your dream fashion accessories?

and

What do you think of my dream picks?

Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below or tweeting me @HHeartsFashion with the tag #fashiondream!

Perfume collecting

I've always wanted to collect perfumes. I imagine them all haphazardly arranged on a off white vintage dressing table. I'd, of course, have my day fragrance. The one I'd wear for shopping or meeting for a coffee. I'd have my evening out fragrance, this one would be used for meeting up for drinks and dinners out. Then I'd have my special fragrance for important days of the year. And the rest would be to use when I felt like it. See. I have it all planned out. Problem is, I'm lacking in two things. That lovely dressing table and a vast collection of perfumes. I am only just starting to build up one. It's small and basically just Marc Jacobs but I've decided to make perfume collecting my new hobby for 2014. I think it's the best change I can make for the new year. Here's what I have so far... 

Daisy - Marc Jacobs

I first got Daisy for my 18th. I'd been wearing Britney Spears Fantasy for most of my secondary school years and felt it was time for me to get a more grown up perfume (plus I'd got sick of the sweet vanilla smell and the fuchsia pink bottle!) When I opened this present and tried on the fragrance, I immediately fell in love and knew it was going to suit me well. Now, whenever I smell it, it reminds me of being 18.

This perfume is my favourite. Ever.  I have worked my way through three bottles since. The smell is light and floral and immediately conjures a warm carefree Spring day.  

Honey - Marc Jacobs

This was the perfume I was given this Christmas. Having been a big Marc Jacobs perfume fan, I knew that I would love this. I had tried it before in Debenhams and it had the same sweet whimsical floral smell and the cutest bottle. This is probably my favourite bottle design. The dot one is a little bulky and the Daisy is quite simple. This has a nice nice mix of the two designs.

This is a little stronger than Daisy but not as strong a Dot. It is fruity and a little more tart as a smell, rather than sweet like Dot and fresh like Daisy. It is florally and fruity and perfect all year around. In the summer it accompanies the weather and that lovely sunny feeling you get and in the winter it transports you, taking you away from the rain and the cold and those horrible grey clouds.

Dot -Marc Jacobs

I got this perfume last christmas after pining after it all summer. It first smelt it while on holiday and it seemed the perfect scent for me, however I didn't have enough money to invest in it. When I smell it now, it reminds me of being a Fresher at uni and a series of images flash through my head. My room. My friends. The view from my window. Working at the racecourse. My 20th.

The smells is very fruity and fresh and sweet. It is quite intense but, I like how it adapts to me personally. It always smells different on each person I have smelt it on and it's nice to feel. 

Bell Cherie - Fragonard

Finally! A perfume that isn't Marc Jacobs. This perfume is somewhat more original and hard to come by than the others. It was purchased last summer while holidaying down in the South of France. My family and I took a trip up to a small village called Grasse and visited a famous perfume factory, Fragonard, where perfumes and soaps are made. After taking a tour and smelling all the different perfumes, I chose this. Unlike the others, this is Eau de Parfum (meaning it is the most concentrated type of perfume).

The smell is similar to the ones above, in the sense that I always tend to choose fruity, florally smells. However this is stronger but more subtle. The smell has a note of vanilla and Jasmine but smells quite soft and fragrant, rather than over powering. The best thing about this perfume is it only requires one to two sprays for a whole evening and stays on my skin, developing over the evening.

Are you a perfume collector?

Would you like to get into it?

Have you tried any of the perfumes above and if so, do you like them?

Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts!

That's SO 2013.

 Inspired from a post on Georgina's blog, Cupcake's Clothes, I thought it'd be nice to reflect on some of my favourite outfits over the last 12 months. I decided to go through and pick my top five. I chose the outfits below because I felt like they best reflected my style and it's diversity but also, because I really enjoyed wearing them.

Happy 2014 Guys...

May this year make all your fashion dreams come true!