Show Time!

Last weekend my quaintrelle clothing label Candy Violet was featured in a fashion show with 3 of Japan's top lolita designers. I sadly wasn't able to be there in person, but here's a little bit about the outfits we were showing on the Saturday!

I decided to chose a color pallet that represented the brand going with purples for candied violets, and pink for candied rose petals, all with a little fluff or sparkle for sugar. Since I have a long time passion for historical and vintage fashions the show moved from 1770-1950's, every eras dream girls!

Grand Habit a Lolita

This outfit was inspired by an old 18th century fashion plate of a lady dandy, the book talked about how she was over dressed and I thought isn't that what a lolita strives for!?

Chemise a la Reve

The outfit I made for a visit to Versailles and based on the clothes worn by Marie Antoinette and her clique at the Petite Trainnon. (This dress will be available soon for purchase at last in a few different colors!)
Romantic Stroll

I found a lot of beauty in the rather difficult and overlooked romantic era styles. I wanted to include this one as something a little bit different.

Ribbon Bouquet

This outfit is based on one of my favorite designers during the early 20th century. I'd wanted to make an outfit like this for sometime, although I opted for a more mid century silhouette.

Hollywood Rococo

This outfit was to represent our new direction! The inspiration came from the Hollywood epic Marie Antoinette from 1938, and the kitschy Du Barry was a Lady from 1943. The mix of period costume and Hollywood seemed the perfect place to end the show, just like we started but with a bold new outlook!


The exciting news too is that all the items from the last 2 outfits are now available for custom orders in our shop! The chemise dress will be finally joining the catalog too, just waiting on a few details to get the photos taken and up on the site, should be up in the next couple of weeks.

I hope I'll be able to show the video soon, though I'm still waiting to see it myself!

Macaron-i

It was my birthday this week, and over all it was a tasty one! Last year I was in Paris for my birthday eating macarons from Laduree, this year I was at home and the macrons came to me!

I got a big box from Michel Patisserie with 2 or 3 of each flavor they make!

I have to admit I fell in love with these pastries a few years back and am kinda happy that they are getting so much attention over here these days too. I know some people feel kinda iffy about the "mainstreaming of the macaron" with the fear that thousands of poor quality sad macarons will some how spoil the magic. To me however although a frozen Trader Joes macaron won't quite live up to the decadent treat of a hand crafted box of pretty little sweets in exotic flavors, it can chase away the blues on a night at home when you just want a macaron fix.

For any one who hasn't had a rocking good french style macaron Michel Patisserie ship all over the country, you can order through their website.

I love them because they taste great, look beautiful and make my day feel a little more special.

Right now I'm still working towards getting the kitchen finished, but I have a macaron class to go to early August, so I hope I'll be able to make some crazy flavored almond treats from my friends and family (and me!) once everything is finished for the "house warming" party!

Drapes Match the Kitchen

A few weeks back I missed an auction for some crazy awesome 50's wallpaper. At first i was kinda bummed out I had forgotten to bid, but then I remembered that what I really wanted was fabric not wall paper.

The paper has these great googie illustrations of chefs and bakers in those wonderful mid century pastels and brights. I was luck enough to save some of the photos from the auction and have been busy trying to trace the illustrations into Photoshop so that I can have them printed on fabric later for our seat covers and drapes!

The web has a few services out there right now that will turn your digital images into usable fabrics, places like Spoon Flower are a great resource for any one looking to do a retro renovation, and just not able to find the fabrics they want/need. I know I hunted around for a fabric I loved, this one came close from Michael Miller, if it had been turquoise instead of green I'd have snatched that up!

There are some great retro fabrics out there for your home projects, and when the design is no longer put there, you can always DIY! I'll have more on our fabric once it's done!

Light Fantastic

Some people go pretty adventurous with kitchen cabinets, but we're working on a budget which makes Ikea pretty much the natural choice. The fronts we went with are the Nexus Birch. The flat fronts are perfect for a 50's style kitchen, and the color is light enough to take a bold color scheme (turquoise walls and a sparkly red counter top!) One great way that we're hoping to bring some extra vintage flare to the cabinets is with these great fixtures from rejuvenation.com.

I instantly fell in love with the boomerang drawer pulls and the star back plates for the cabinet knobs, so 50's!

The schoolhouse light with the red rings will go over the dining table and should have a nice cheery feel to it?

The site also has some smashing Victorian pieces for cabinets and lighting, my favorite is this crazy over the top bat light! 

Right now we have our floor and the exciting kitchen building part is starting to happen. I can't wait to see and post the finished kitchen.

Pick a Paper

I grew up in a house filled with wallpaper, then one day slowly all wallpaper left my house and the houses of everyone I knew, I hadn't really thought about the stuff for years, but now as we start redecorating, I can't get wallpaper out of my head!

I'd been struggling with the front room design, needing something as a starting point, and decided some swish retro wallpaper was the answer! I'd come across the Bradbury and Bradbury website a while back when I first started thinking about sorting out our bedroom (another project for another day!) and figured they'd have exactly what I was looking for.  They do a great line of hand printed wallpaper which in person are even more lovely looking than online, the layers of ink give them great texture and are so much more beautiful than your average wallpaper. Once the samples came in, it was tough to pick out the winners...

Originally I'd been thinking kinda 50's like our kitchen will be, but then the art deco Aeroplane kinda won over Dusty and myself, so I think that's what it's going to be! Add some fun art deco style accents and it should be a winner?
(The bedroom wallpaper is going to be art deco too, silver Volute!)

I'm a sucker for the 1920's-50's when it comes to houses, but for anyone looking for some great art nouveau or Victorian arts and crafts papers this is the perfect place to shop too! (pricey, but I'm kinda looking at it as art more than wallpaper) Now back to clearing out the kitchen...

No So Depressing

A goth friend of mine recently went nuts for black depression glass, and after getting to see some lovely Miss America depression glass my husband's grandmother used to collect (back when it was new) I've found myself hooked as well!

I've been looking around trying to find the perfect pattern and came up with the geometric Windsor pattern by Jeanette Glass company. I love the way the different angles catch the light, and think it might be the perfect compliment to my ever expanding tea set! Some of the pieces can get quite expensive, but I'm building a list of the items we'll need, and then it'll be like a treasure hunt tracking it all down!

<< I love this old ad for the pattern


There are some really lovely patterns out there, some have a kinda of Victorian or Georgian feel, other are fantastically art deco and modern. I love the bright colors they come in, it's so much more fun than just plain clear!

Red and Blue

We're getting ready to start the big remodel on our downstairs right now as the first step to turning our house into something of a mid century modern Quaintrelle palace! The kitchen is the part I'm currently most excited about, our current set up is pretty non functioning, and more outdated than retro cool. I've been scouring the internet for ideas and coming up with a plan.

A great source of inspiration for interior vintage style has been old flooring company ads like Armstrong Linoleum. American Vintage Home over on flicker has an amazing collection from the 1920's through to the 60's. I love the bright colors and clean lines a lot of them have. In my head I have something of a red and turquoise theme going on with birch cabinets. Something kinda fun and punchy! I'll be taking some before photos and keeping the blog updated with the progress we make!