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!