spring fever.

(photo ganked from ringo! have a banana, aka one of the most adorable blogs in existence.  

she's got the right idea with these lilacs, here.)

GUYS.

I REALLY CAN'T CONCENTRATE. like, REALLY REALLY can't concentrate. like it's writer's block and daydreaming about spring and portland this weekend and picking out what color i'm going to paint the walls of my new room next week and...... other things. all combined. in mah skull. i'm staring at four open word docs at my desk, i'm caffeinated, i have clients calling me every five seconds and i can't seem to just simmer down and get to work.  i would so much rather be in my bed with my laptop and some tea with the windows open doing my work from there, especially if my window had some beautiful flowers in it like the lilacs above.  a girl can dream, right? that would fix this crazy creative slump, right? GYAH!

this is for a multitude of reasons, but i think it just wittles down to the fact that it's been rather pretty out, it's finally time to tune up the bike and that my absolute favorite time of year in boston is here.  i'm missing my favorite holiday (marathon monday) in favor of exploring one of the best cities on the "best coast" for the first time, but i'll be celebrating the unofficial kickoff of spring with one of my favorite people in a place i'm bound to love, so it's ok.

for those of you with any portland (OR, not ME) advice to impart, out with it.  never been, so stoked to be there, and i want to make the most of my weekend!

oh, and while we're on the topic of procrastinating/not concentrating - i have to find a dress to wear to my dear friend erin's wedding, as the one i ordered on sale from anthro is hilariously small.  the wedding's in the afternoon and the reception is in the evening at the biltmore in providence at the end of june - how do we feel about this one, or too casual?

ok. need to buckle down and write some stuff, the next installment of defend yourself! that's getting published in the weekly dig next week.  did y'all read my feature on freelance whales? if not, go put on "Generator ^ First Floor" and start scrollin'.

X H

hil's the hoarder: random collections.

confession time: i need to cut up my credit card. BAD.  sales have been too good to be true lately and if one more package is delivered to my desk while i'm at work i think my coworkers are going to start judging.  after ordering a necklace with a key charm on it [more on that later] and receiving the latest edition to my closet [a pair of kelsi dagger flats that i'm absolutely in love with] i realized that i've got a few collections of some pretty random things.  with inglourious basterds on tv in the background, i had a baby photo shoot of said random collections on my living room coffee table.  warning: there are lots of photos all up in here.  so, without further ado, hil presents I COLLECT THINGS YAYZ:

blue suede shoes

this grouping is definitely an accident, but a happy one [and how can anything remotely related to elvis be a bad thing?!]  the first pair on the left, the flats with the ankle strap and bow at the toe, were scored at a sale at the urban outfitters on first avenue sometime during senior year.  the other two, the gola skate shoes and the kelsi dagger flats that look like they're wearing necklaces, are two real recent purchases from gilt groupe.  i didn't realize that i had not one, but THREE pairs, of blue suede shoes until the daggers arrived and i went to add them to my closet shoe rack.  i love my new sneakers and the detail on the dagger flats, but my first blue suede shoes, though a little dingy, will always be my favorites.

floral headpieces

this fascination started when i saw one of ban.do's creations in an issue of nylon, and i was thinking about buying it for myself last year for my birthday when los, best friend extraordinaire, made the gorgeous peach flower headband you see above.  that was followed by a poufy turqoise headband and then the gigantic netting/tulle pink flower i snagged at an anthropologie sale this fall.  i think that my obsession for floral headgear stems from my flamenco dancin' days.  i plan on rocking the pink flower at erin's wedding this june with a strapless, sweetheart cocktail dress [if i can find a navy/peacock blue one that'd be perfect].  i am constantly, constantly on the lookout for pieces like these and am still seriously considering grabbing the ban.do #10 if a special occasion pops up out of the blue.

vintage clutches

this collection is one that started with a few vintage clutches that my mom found in a client's house - basically, her client had an attic full of hand-me-downs, costume jewelry and antiques that were all in fantastic condition and the client just didn't care about them and was going to throw all that glorious stuff aWAY.  [shudder.]  the silver clutch and mustard clutch with the handle above were picked from the litter; the gold clutch and the black and white beaded clutch were found at poor little rich girl [which is definitely my pick for local vintage.]  because i love these bags so much, here's a close up of my two beaded babies:

and the most recent addition to the family: a clutch i picked up at london's absolute vintage, which is supposedly one of the best second-hand/vintage spots in the world.  their selection of bags, scarves and riding boots was enough to make me SWOOOOON and esme and i spent a good hour perusing through the goods until i laid my eyes on this little darlin.  i'm particularly obsessed with the zipper detail:

seriously.  love at first sight.  also, it holds a surprising amount of stuff - as someone who's constantly carting around a notebook, a wallet, a phone, a camera and a tape recorder on any given evening, the roomiest of this little bloke doesn't go unappreciated.

postcards

when i unpacked my suitcase upon arriving home after my year in argentina/spain, i had amassed a huge pile of postcards somehow and i have no idea how the hell i managed to grab one from pretty much every museum or random shop i stopped into while abroad.  i like pretty pictures, ok?!  anyways, when i moved into my apartment last november i knew that i wanted the postcards to play a part in my decorating as i've got two huge maps on the walls and thought the well-traveled theme would work out.  this bulletin board pictured rests on top of a bookcase in my living room.

and these postcards are hanging above my bed.

favorites: flamenco singers from granada, hungarian postage stamps picked up at a flea market in budapest [fitting those all into the frame wasn't easy], murakami postcard from the mori art museum in tokyo, promotional postcards for movies and vintage stores in lisbon and a photo from an exhibit at la MALBA [museo de arte latinoamericano de buenos aires] which is one of my favorite museums, ever.

skeleton keys

arguably my most active pursuit when it comes to collecting stuff: i try to pick up an antique skeleton key in every city i visit abroad.  this started in vienna at the naschmarkt, where i found the gold, ornate skeleton key [second one from the left on the bottom] and wore it on a long black chord for months.  pictured, we've got keys from budapest, istanbul, london, buenos aires, granada, tokyo, berlin, prague and vienna, duh.  i friggin' love skeleton keys, how they look, how they feel, how much they weigh... so naturally my key kitsch expanded and now i have two key necklaces, too.

(the lock and key is from urban outfitters; the blue lanyard key necklace is by karin andreasson and was found at broadway market in shoreditch, london.)

vogue international

yeeeeah it's no secret: i love magazines.  love them.  and i love vogue.  and i love british vogue and spanish vogue and italian vogue and vogue paris and russian vogue and... yeah.  i started picking up vogue in whatever country i was in, if they had it, and my collection so far includes australian vogue, vogue UK, vogue paris, vogue españa, vogue brasil, vogue portugues, russian vogue [if i knew how to type that in cyrillic i would!], vogue deutsch [german, ja], vogue nippon [aka japanese vogue] and vogue hellas [aka greek vogue].  all i need copies from italy, china, korea and india, so if any of you plan on visiting those countries in the near future, pick one up for me :)  favorites: vogue paris and russian vogue.  ughhh. the parisian pictorials make me want to do nothing but drink wine and smoke cigarettes and marry a man named jean-luc with a rusty bike.

sooooo yeah.  i guess i'm kind of a packrat, huh?

X H