Last day of Summer

Hello everyone,
Hope you are all doing well.

I am very happy today, because in about 2 hours the last day of Summer will have come to an end here in Sweden. Autumn is here!

So I am sharing with you, the last of my summer outfits for this year (unless the weather turns warm suddenly).

I wore this lovely blue dress from Lindy Bop to an outing at IKEA, and just as I was rushing to leave two of the buttons popped off the dress. I don't know if the dress was trying to tell me that it was too tight, but I didn't heed the warning. Instead I grabbed two trusty safety pins and pinned together the front of the dress!

The dress is mended now, and I've worn it without the buttons popping off, so I take that as a good sign. It really is a lovely dress, very lightweight and perfect for a hot summer's day.

I got it on sale from Lindy Bop. I've mentioned this before, but it's worth another mention -- Lindy Bop has the best sales. And there is actually one on going right now!

Dress: Lindy Bop (old)

Flats: Asos (here)

Earrings: ModCloth (old)

So that's that, and summer is no more!
To which I say - "Yay!" and "Welcome Autumn".

Much love,

Vintage Summer

Hello there,
I truly hope you are doing good today!

I am squeezing the last out of summer and wearing my sun dresses and such for the last time this year. This lovely fuchsia dress was my first vintage dress that I bought (not the first to wear, see my other vintage dresses here and here). It's a wee bit too small, but I couldn't let it go! And so I got it from the lovely shop Simplicity is Bliss on Etsy.

I adore the colour, that is a mixture between hot pink and red - I think it's a very flattering colour on me. The dress was not deadstock, but could practically have been so. It looked completely unworn, the buttonholes look like they were just made and the fabric is crisp. The tags look brand new (Bobbie Brooks, people!!), and it is in impeccable condition. In other words, it was the perfect vintage dress to start with!

Wiggle wiggle

I couldn't have been happier with this fantastic dress. I love that the condition is so good that I'm not afraid to wear it. With other vintage dresses I have felt like the piece is so fragile that I'm almost scared while wearing it. This dress even had it's original belt, which is always something I look for when searching for vintage. The one thing I could complain about are the pleats - that are a pain to iron, but it's a small price to pay for the magnificently full skirt.

Dress: Simplicity is Bliss (vintage)

Petticoat: ModCloth (here)

Flats: Asos (here)

On another note, this is the last week before my holiday to London and I am beyond excited! We've got so much planned, but if you have any tips of things I just can't miss, please let me know in the comments!

I wish you all a splendid weekend!
Much love,

Style Icon: Jean Truscott from "Breathless"

Hello all you lovely people!
It is once again time for one of my Style Icons. And since last time's style icon was from the tv series Breathless and I mentioned that there was another lady in that television series that inspired me, I though I'd share that lady with you today.

Today's style icon is the character Jean Truscott from Breathless, played by the gorgeous Zoe Boyle. Jean is a former nurse, that is settling into life as a housewife to a young gynaecologist surgeon. The series is set in the early 1960's London and Jean is young and hip. She dresses in what at the 60's would have been real modern clothes. She has a flirty and sexy style with tight-fitting dresses and cool coats with awesome silhouettes.

My favourite outfit of Jean's is a black, tight and sexy dress, with dainty gloves and a stunning hat (seen below). She looks a million in that gorgeous outfit, and I seriously want the exact replica of that dress, it's so chic and lovely.

Like I said last time, I wouldn't necessarily recommend Breathless, but if your interested in vintage fashion or costume design then it's a very beautiful and suave series.

Much love,

Country life

Hello you beautiful person,
I hope you are doing well.

This dress makes me think of country life, of vast wheat fields that are begging to be frolicked in, of the sun softly burning your skin and the scent in the air that is unmistakably 'summer'.

Instead I settled for a huge and lush tree as my backdrop whilst out playing Pokémon Go. It wasn't too bad either.

This dress is one of my favourites from Miss Patina. I adore the sweet collar and the soft pale pink is wonderful against the vivid colours of summer. It is also one comfortable and breezy dress to be worn when the weather is just too hot.

Dress: Miss Patina (here)

Hat: ModCloth (here)

Flats: Daisy Street via Asos (old)

I was thrilled when I found that the lace around my new hat matches the dress exactly. This hat keeps my dark head of hair cool in the warmth of this season. And the dainty roses add the right touch of femininity to the look.

Summer is coming to a sharp end here. In fact I could almost claim that the seasons have changed and my favourite time of year has begun. But I have lots more summer outfits I want to share with you, so I am going to pretend that it is still summer!

Have a beautiful and sunny day.
Much love,
Mona

Chocolate Galaxy

Hello all,
I hope August is treating you well!

This is the first Lindy Bop dress I've worn on the blog (not my first ever though...) and I got it even though it was a wee bit big for me. I couldn't help it. Something drew me to this dress! It reminded me of something I couldn't quite put my fingers on.

I only discovered after I'd worn it what it had reminded me of. And I discovered it while scrolling through YouTube, being bored as ever. I sometimes decide to watch scenes from films that I love, and I was watching a scene from Funny Face, when in the Suggested Videos list my dress appeared. On Audrey Hepburn!

The above video is a commercial for Galaxy Chocolate and they produced these scenes by CGing (is that a word?) her face on to a lady's body. And isn't it marvellous?

I had seen this commercial ages ago and completely forgotten about it, but at the back of my mind I had registered the dress she wore in the video, and recorded it to my memory.

I was more than delighted when I realised that my dress was similar to a dress that Audrey Hepburn might've worn! I was so close to buying the navy one instead as well, but in the end decided on Chocolate Brown, what are the chances!

As for Lindy Bop - I love their garments! They have sales all the time and they really do slash the prices.

Dress: Lindy Bop (here, navy here)

Belt: With the dress (here)

Scarf: With the dress (here)

Flats: Asos (here)

I wish you all an amazing and beautiful day!

Much love,

Match made in heaven

Hello all,
Hope you're doing great!

I want to share with you a baking "experiment" if you will. It's not really novel in any way, but for me it was quite exciting because it was the first time I made this dough.

I baked éclairs!

Éclairs are these delicious little pastry made with choux dough, or pâte à choux, which is a dough that you cook. Yeah, you heard me. You cook the dough, and instead of a raising agent, the steam incorporated into the dough helps it poof up!

I've only ever tried éclairs once when I was in London, and bought a chocolate éclair from Ladurée. It was delicious, but I don't feel like it prepared me for the adventure of baking my own.

I decided to take the vanilla route myself, but then added chocolate ganache on top as a glaze. Yummy and a match made in heaven in my opinion - but apparently not something you'd do classically as a pâtissière, I was informed by a French friend. I have started rebelling lately after my quiet and calm adolescent years, so I'll put it down to that.

I've split up the recipe into two parts. One for the actual pastry dough, and one for the vanilla pastry cream that goes into it. For the chocolate ganache that goes on top click here.

Chocolate and Vanilla Éclairs

Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking.

Choux Pastry

INGREDIENTS

• 65 grams flour
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar
• 55 grams butter, cut into pieces
• 120 ml water
• 2 eggs

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 200°C.

Whisk the flour and sugar together. Bring the water and butter to a boil in a saucepan. Remove from heat and the add in the flour+sugar mix. Return to heat and keep mixing until the dough comes away from the sides of the saucepan and forms a ball. Pour the dough into a mixing bowl and beat for about one minutes to let some of the steam rise away. Once the dough has cooled a little (it's still warm to the touch) add the eggs. Beat until the dough becomes a smooth, thick paste. Pour the dough into a piping bag and pipe oblongs, about 2 cm wide, and however long you want them to be. I made small ones of about 8 cm. Bake for 15 minutes, and then reduce the heat to 180°C and bake for another 25 minutes.

Pastry Cream

INGREDIENTS

• 300 ml milk
• One vanilla pod
• 3 egg yolks
• 50 grams granulated white sugar
• 20 grams flour
• 15 grams cornstarch

DIRECTIONS

Scrape out the seeds in the vanilla pod and add that as well as the actual pod to a saucepan containing the milk. Bring the milk just to a boil.

Mix the sugar and egg yolks together. Mix the flour and cornstarch together and then add the egg mixture to it.

Remove the milk from heat (remove the vanilla pod) and add to the egg mixture whisking constantly. Then pour everything back into a saucepan and cook until boiling, whisking all the while. As it comes to a boil, let it continue for about a minute as the cream thickens up. Pour the cream in a clean bowl and cover the surface with plastic film. Let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate.

Assembly

Before filling the oblongs with pastry cream, dip the prettier side of the oblong in chocolate ganache. Let it dry for a couple of minutes and then you can either cut each oblong into two halves and add pastry cream in the middle. I used a piping bag and filled it with the pastry cream and then stuck the tip into the uncut oblong and pressed the pastry cream into it. It's a bit trickier, but it looks neater. I also added some 23 karat edible gold leaves as decoration to make it even fancier. I got my gold from the Etsy shop Layer Cake Shop (here).

Hope you all have a lovely day!

Much love,