The Cherry Blossom Girl

Happy Friday Dears!  What do you have planned for this weekend?  We are having a birthday party / housewarming party on Saturday at our new place, however due to the fact that we sold our old couch this week and our new one isn't arriving until next week it appears we will be couchless for the party.  Guess folding chairs will have to do!

One of my favorite things about the blogging community is being able to connect with individuals across the globe.  It is no secret that I am a total Francophile, so I definitely have a special place in my heart for the Parisian bloggers, especially Alix of "The Cherry Blossom Girl."  Alix is a gorgeous fashion blogger with the most impeccable taste for all things feminine, retro {check out this amazing "Valley of the Dolls" inspired shoot}, whimsical, and coquettish with a dash of designer chic.  Even her blog design {which she sketched herself} is adorable.  And her blog name?  It comes from the song "Cherry Blossom Girl" {one of my favorites, you can listen to it here} by the French band AIR.

More photos of her beautiful style below...

PS - Follow Dreams in HD on bloglovin' here!

Photos via

Flower Cones

Oh summer - how I love your breezy nights which act as a much needed respite after days of hot, balmy sun.  On evenings like tonight there is nothing more I could want than to eat ice cream while laying in the yard surrounded by flowers.  Apparently photographer P.H. Fitzgerald was in the same mindset when he shot these gorgeous photos for Kinfolk Magazine.  Brilliant, eh?

Hope you are all enjoying your summer!

Color Inspiration

My dears, I am so sorry for the prolonged absence.  I feel like my routine has completely been thrown out of whack with this move, and with it I seem to have been ignoring my little blog over here.  Now that we are all moved in we are realizing more and more that we need so many things for the house!  Bed frame, dining room chairs, couch, rugs, paint colors, drapes, table lamps...these are the things that have been filling my dreams at night {that is when you know you are too deep into the home decorating process}.  I keep telling myself that it takes time, however on the flip side I so badly want our place to feel cozy and lived in, and it can't really do that with empty walls and floors.  I guess it's just a balancing act...and honestly I don't think I will ever have my home "completely decorated" as half the fun is changing things around.

That being said, I have the basic design for our master bedroom laid out in my mind.  I was going back and forth on colors, but for some reason the above photo just stuck with me.  I love the minty aqua walls with pops of gold, pink, and canary yellow, so I decided to use this photo as color inspiration for the room.  We painted our walls Aqua Glass {shade by Pantone} and will hopefully be getting these sheets.  I would seriously love to have a gorgeous yellow chair for our reading nook, but may have to settle for a pair of canary lamps instead.  It is still most certainly a work in progress {I cannot for the life of me decide on a bed} but I am so excited about the concept and cannot wait to show you all the final results!

Image via

Twenty Six

Today is my 26th birthday, and I couldn't be happier to be celebrating it over the next week and a half with friends, family, and Ryan.  Today I plan to enjoy the gorgeous weather by the pool with a good book.  I'm not sure what this year will bring, but I am hopeful that it will be the best one yet.  

Image via

À La Plage, À La Piscine

I'm not sure what it is about summer, but it always makes me so nostalgic for those wonderful and oh-so-fleeting summer vacations of my youth.  Living in the Midwest {read: landlocked} meant a lot of hot summer days spent at the pool, daydreaming about the beach.  How perfect it would have been to hop in a friends car and head off to the beach for a day of sun, surf, and sand...drinking Diet Cokes, reading Seventeen magazine, and packing a picnic lunch to eat on beach towels? 

So maybe it's this nostalgic longing for my youth that makes me so attracted towards Gray Malin's amazing "À La Plage, À La Piscine" series in which he shoots beaches from Bridgehampton to St. Tropez from a doorless helicopter.  What may be a crowded, hot beach, filled with people, chairs, and umbrellas from below instantly becomes a beautiful pattern of color, repetition, shape, and form from above.  I absolutely love these photos blown-up and hung in a super traditional space {and this one looks pretty amazing as well}.  So what about you?  Will you be spending your summer at the beach?

Images via Honestly WTF

Celebrating Mothers

A few weeks ago I went home for the weekend to celebrate Mother's Day with my mom.  Our kitchen is absolutely gorgeous, so it is always a pleasure to do some serious cooking there.  I woke up early in the morning to make a special brunch celebrating my mom and I must say it turned out even better than I had anticipated.  I baked Blackberry Lemon Scones {the recipe calls for lavender, but I subbed lemon for it as ours was not quite in bloom yet}, an Asparagus Gruyere Tart, and threw together a simple fresh fruit salad with mint.  My gift was all based on our recent trip to Paris {photos from our adventures here, here, and here} and included the beautiful Ladurée Sucré cookbook, a lovely little glass decoupage tray {with the Eiffel Tower on it, of course}, and a framed photo of us in front of Notre Dame.  All in all it was the perfect way to celebrate the best mom in the world!

Hi There!

Hi there long lost friends!  I can't believe it has been nearly two weeks since I have posted on here...shame on me!  We were without internet all last week, and I was totally caught up with the big move.  I went home this past weekend for a good friend's wedding and spent the whole time {plus a few extra days} with my dear friend Ashley who was in-town from London {see photos from our last visit here and here} catching up on lots of lost girl-time.  It is amazing how no matter how long it has been since you have seen a true friend, the second you reunite it always feels like no time has passed at all :)