Oh Beehive!

A big part of quaintrelle life is style! So perhaps I should start adding a little more of that to the blog these days too?

Last night I was going out for dinner with my fella and felt inspired to give styling my hair into a beehive a try. I've always been a bit scared of them in the past because A) I had blue hair and would have looked like marge Simpson. B) I don't have much hair and didn't think I could to it. C) It looked tricky!

With the power of a little wool padding I was able to get some decent looking volume, and the style went together surprisingly fast! I used a tutorial from "Vintage Hairstyling" as a start and added a little hair rat know how to make it work. I'll try put together a tutorial on beehives for super thin haired girls on the website soon.

I think the beehive drive and a Mad Men marathon were the main inspirations for last nights look.
Jewelry & Dress: from Candy Violet
Purse: Vintage Enid Collins From Dusty's Grandma!
Shoes: Jessica Simpson(I was surprised, but they are really lovely, and comfy for 5" heels!)

Soda Jerk

On a trip to Philly last month, I was lucky enough to be staying in a hotel super close to the amazing Franklin Fountain! An old time soda shop selling had made sodas, phosphates and ice creams all in a super quaint building with a an retro radio kicking out jazz age hits. Now as some people know I'm an old school straight edge girl as well as a fancy quaintrelle, so this place was perfect for me, and sent me back home with dreams of sugar plum sodas dancing in my head.

This week Dusty surprised me with a box of flower flavored sodas to flavor drinks and pastries with (to me there is no group of flavors more quaintrelle than flowers, pretty, old school, rare and fancy).
Last night we finally splashed out on a Soda Stream, so with that and our growing syrup collection we're well on our way to a home soda fountain of our own!

My first drink is a mix of my floral flavor favorites, and a love of New York egg creams I developed since moving to the States. I'm calling it the floral egg cream and it's a cinch to whip up for parties, friends or just for yourself!

 Floral Egg Cream
1oz Flower syrup (I'm using the Monin syrups)
2oz milk
Fill the rest of the glass with soda water
Stir and serve!
(if you have an extra frothy rose or violet egg cream, why not sprinkle with candied petals to garnish?)

So far I've tried this with lavender and with jasmine syrups and they were both amazing, still waiting on my violet and rose syrups to arrive for my next flower mixes. I'll let you all know when we come up with some new soda successes for any one else interested in some home soda magic!

Hand in Glove

Summers round DC are hot, like "this is your brain on drugs" hot, and this Summer has been especially hot. I have to admit when it comes to quaintrelle elegance 100°F temperatures don't lend themselves well to the snappiest of styles. The good news is the recent cooler days have put me in a mind for Autumn, which brings me to a recent style obsession of mine, gloves! For centuries no well dressed lady was stepping out without a pair of crisp clean coordinating gloves!


I've started building up a wardrobe of gloves recently. The goal is to have the perfect pair for every occasion and every dress! My trip to Nashville a couple of weeks back started me off with a few treasures! A superb ceder wood glove box with a kind of art deco feel (hand made by a Mennonite community close my in laws house), an early 1960's corsage (ok not gloves, but put it on the right wrist band and it's working with the gloves!) and 2 pairs of 50's gloves. The short beige ones are a super soft faux leather, and the longer pair go right up to the elbow with little claw set rhinestones. I've added to these my sweet little Dents crochet gloves. The goal is to start wearing them as a wardrobe staple in daily life. they look great, and so far are fun to collect!

New Day Trip Collection

I love a good shop update! Some new items in at Candy Violet this week. There's a selection of skirts and dresses in a super cute "day at the zoo" print, and a new purse based on old 1950's designs and covered in strawberries!

Come See us in DC!

I'm showing some Candy Violet designs in an upcoming fashion show in DC September 10th, 8:00pm. The theme is vintage styles from the 1920's-1950's. It should be a fun event to get dressed up for, and it would mean a lot to see some familiar faces (and pretty dresses!) from our local quaintrelle ranks!

Any one think they'd be up for coming along? Tickets are $15 and available here...

Macarons at Home!

I fell in love with macarons years ago, first Laduree graced my screen in the Marie Antoinette movie, then they peaked out from various skirts and dresses, and finally after a trip to Paris the love affair was sealed! I love them because of their diminutive size, rainbow colors, and the fact they so often show up tasting like flowers!

Whilst my love was strong, getting a fix was hard. So many shops sold rather dry under filled macarons that leave you wondering what the fuss is about, or they rocked but had to be special ordered, an my home efforts were rather pitiful . That is until I was presented with enrollment in to a macaron class for my birthday!! I had to wait for months for the day to come but after it did the macaron method mystery was finally revealed!

The class took a good 3 hours, but we all came home with some great little pastries, and this last week I finally had a try on my own with success!

It seems the biggest thing was to follow the rule of "let them sit before you bake" the 15 minute wait gave them a bit of a skin on top, and that let them rise soft and puffy into the sky, and they came out pretty and tasty!

I had a try coming up with my own flavors and have to admit my favorite home macaron was my favorite Laduree flavor, rose.

for mine I made a classic French butter cream filling with a splash of rose essence. I spread a generous layer of the butter cream onto the bottom cookie, followed by a dab of rose petal jam on top of the cream before sandwiching and leaving to set up in the fridge.

If you are a fan of flower flavors it's well worth a try, rose flavor can be hard to find, but I have been able to source a rose jam here in the states as well as rose extract, you can also use rose water instead of essence, and top with a dab of raspberry jam which are pretty easy to find in the local grocery stores these days(rose and raspberry go great together!)

Some Quaintrelle macaron Tips!
1: Wait: Definitely leave the whites out at room temp for the 3 days recomended, and let the macarons rest for the full 15 mins before baking them, and wait till the next day to eat them. I could never cope with all that waiting before but it really pays off!
2: Extra bang: To get multiple flavors from one batch, make a classic french butter cream to fill them, separate it into as many containers as you want flavors and flavor and dye each batch separately.
3: Remember art school: If doing say 3 flavors, pipe the first set plain white, the second add a little pink dye before adding to the piping bag, the second a little blue or yellow to make lilac or orange colors. You'll be able to get so many combos from one batch and really make a splash when you serve so many varieties for the same work as one!

I already have my next batch of egg whites sitting out on the table ready to go with batch number 2.

Building a Wardrobe of Jewels

Since as far back as the 17th century, a "lady of quality" would own at least one suite of matching jewelry called a parure, which would tell the world of exactly how much "quality" the lady was made. These precious gems would have been passed down over the years for generations to enjoy.

As a modern day quaintrelle and the Duchess of Fancy, I felt it was time I acquired a stately parure for myself! Of course I didn't have a suite of family jewels coming to me, so no diamonds here, but some dazzling paste! (even Marie Antoinette wore paste)

My first parure here consists of a pair of earrings, necklace, a hair pin (which can transform into a brooch), and of course a custom satin lined box fashioned after the style the old Georgian parures would have been kept in.

The design was inspired by a 1770's necklace and grew out from there.This set was started in the middle of last year and only just finished this weekend

One of the best finds for this project was the vintage drops in a mock alexandrite. The colors is a lovely delicate lavender in the daylight, but under florescent light the color turns a bright apple green!

As well as the changing colors of the stone, just like in the parures of old the aigrette is modular so that it can be worn as either a hair ornament, or as a slightly smaller brooch.

I've been wearing this set lately for dressed up occasions, but even for those jeans and a pretty top days, to give an other wise boring outfit just enough history for it to be something fit for a quaintrelle to be seen in!

As for whats next? I'm already working on my second parure which has many more pieces, and will soon be available for sale in my Candy Violet shop as a set or as separate pieces (as well as being open for custom work)! This months Quaintrelle life article will be all about parures too, so keep an eye out over the next few weeks for those!