The second in my unplanned-but-inexplicably popular posts about cute novelty tweezers:
These are possibly even cuter than the last lot, again from Ella and again yours for the princely sum of just $10.
I go to Ella so much that they finally gave me a VIP card – and so much that my boyfriend constantly tries to steer me in a different direction when we approach the shop. More pretty things from Ella to come…
Posted in Hong Kong, Pretty Things
Tagged cute, Ella, HK, Hong Kong, novelty, Pretty Things, quirky stuff, shopping, tweezers
Take a step back from your monitor to admire this very pretty advertising hoarding/mall takeover from Lane Crawford (HK equivalent of Selfridges) at Pacific Place, Admiralty. It may have been very inspired cover for refurbishment work – certainly beats seeing a load of sweaty workers and sawdust, right?
My first thought was that this is the kind of thing Giselle from Enchanted would mistake for her dressing room and try to clamber on.
Posted in Hong Kong, Pretty Things, Random
Tagged advertisements, adverts, HK, Hong Kong, Lane Crawford, mall, Pacific Place, Pretty Things, quirky stuff
How cute are these novelty tweezers?!
These are exactly the sort of pretty little things that I love – and exactly the kind of pretty little things HK offers by the bucket-load!
Only HKD$10 from Ella (a great shop for spending hundreds of bucks on several other pretty cute things too – don’t say you weren’t warned).
Posted in Hong Kong, Pretty Things
Tagged cute, Ella, HK, Hong Kong, novelty, Pretty Things, quirky stuff, shopping, tweezers
Another Chinese custom (yes, keep up, there are many) is to have fresh flowers in the house at CNY for good luck. Every year, there is a big Flower Market in Victoria Park in Causeway Bay for you to purchase your flowers at ridiculously over-inflated prices but it’s become almost as much of a tradition to take a spin round here for luck as it is to have fresh flowers in the first place. And it is spectacular to visit – the perfume of all those blooms is just amazing (indescribable – you have to experience it first-hand) and the flowers themselves…! Wow! Forget the Chelsea Flower Show, there’s nothing quite like seeing the most beautiful perfection of orchids, lilies and gladioli in a rainbow of colours accompanied by squawking Chinese hawkers yelling ‘Good price, lang mui, good price!’ with the smell of curry fish balls hanging acridly in the air.
Nowadays, you’ll find as much CNY tat (giant inflatables, cuddly toys and costumes of whichever animal’s year it is) and dubious street food as you will fresh flowers, yet that’s all part of the appeal. Last year, my auntie and I discovered a stall selling deep-fried ice cream on sticks. We started with one to share between us to try – and five each later, we were hooked. I barely remember if we bought any flowers that year… but alas, battered ice-cream wasn’t there to distract us this time. Novelty windmills also appear to be lucky judging by their prominence at both the fair and the stalls around Chinese temples; we bought this very pretty ribbon-y fish one (pictured installed on our balcony).
We’re savvy sorts so we didn’t actually buy any flowers from here, merely “got inspiration” before getting them cheap at our local wet market. Buying fresh flowers always seems such a silly idea as they’re dead almost before they’re alive but they really do look gorgeous and bring you some sort of unique special feeling and pleasure. These sweet peas were my choice, as they were never strong enough to survive the hardships of British weather in my garden at home. I guess a garden is one of the few things I miss about home – but I never had to look after it did I?! Perhaps the life span of fresh flowers is just about right for my current level of responsibility-taking.
Posted in Hong Kong, Pretty Things
Tagged Asia, Causeway Bay, Chinese New Year, CNY, Flower Market, flowers, HK, Hong Kong, photography, photos, Pretty Things, sightseeing, things to do in Hong Kong, Victoria Park
Kung Hei Fat Choi! It’s Chinese New Year and rawr… it’s the Year of the Tiger. I’m a tiger so it’s my year – and I went to the temple today to do a few bows for the gods just to make sure (more of that later).
CNY has many benefits – three-day public holiday, free spectacular fireworks show and the custom of lai see. Oh, lai see, how I love you. Also known as red packets, these little envelopes of money are given to you (traditionally, if you’re young and unmarried) by relatives, employers and even randomers to usher in good fortune for the coming year. [To emphasise my randomer point, my auntie today gave one to a waiter and last year, I was given one by a lovely little old lady who I’d only ever seen in the lift to our flat – still not had any luck tracking her down this year!]
Having never received pocket money as a child, teenager or indeed adult, the combination of birthday (November), Christmas (December) and CNY (January/February) money would often have to tide me over the whole year!
Traditionally, as the name “red packet” suggests, these should be red as that’s the lucky colour in Chinese custom. But Asia being Asia, nowadays you can get them in any colour that features on Joseph’s Dreamcoat and even with Hello Kitty and her pals on (then again, what can’t you get with Hello Kitty on here?!). You know my penchant for pretty things… these red packets my auntie and I spotted at the Flower Market (another Chinese custom… more of that later) were tooooooo cute. They’re shimmery, they have colourful cute tigers on (or cute children dressed as colourful tigers) and of course, I’ve dark-holed one of each for keeps for me to stroke before my auntie went gleefully red-packeting.
Posted in Hong Kong, Pretty Things
Tagged Asia, Chinese New Year, CNY, HK, Hong Kong, lai see, Pretty Things, red packet, Year of the Tiger
The first posts of blogs are usually not the most thrilling affairs and I expect this will be no exception.
The picture illustrates the reason for this blog title. Namely: oooh isn’t the front cover of this book pretty. It’s also a really good book and errr… I want this to be a really good blog.
…But I’m a sucker for pretty things and wanted the whole collection of these specially-bound Penguin classics (other patterns were somewhat less delightful – Jane Austen’s Emma was just a load of chairs…). I settled on Carroll because it was magically 100 dollars cheaper than the others (a sign from above, obviously), because I didn’t own a decent edition of it already and so I could legitimately post a picture of it for you without being forcibly ejected from the bookshop. So one thing you can expect on here is postings of pretty things I encounter.
“Through The Looking Glass” also encourages thoughts to do with mirrors and reflections, which is about as deep as I can go after a full day at work spent helping (i.e. doing everything for) 2-5 year olds to paint pictures of pandas. So there will be a fair few reflections on life, “stuff” and my adventures in Hong Kong.
And finally mirrors = beauty and I’ll be writing about make-up, clothes and style. I’ll also be writing be reviewing music a lot, maybe film too, although I am yet to figure out a convoluted connection between that and the blog title. But they’re the things I love (and write about anyway as Music/Style Editor for Teentoday, so two birds with one stone).
Hmmm… that doesn’t sound like nearly enough… perhaps I’ll throw the kitchen sink in too…
Posted in Pretty Things
Tagged Beauty, first post, life, Music, personal, Pretty Things, stuff, Style, Through The Looking Glass
I'm Rachel Read, a Hong Kong-based freelance writer and editor, make-up addict and general layabout. I'm powered by bacon, cupcakes, nail polish and the needs of two cute Yorkies.
All products/meals were paid for by me, unless otherwise stated.
Contact me at
rachelmread+ttlg@gmail.com
Photo by Sabrina Sikora Photography
© Rachel Mary Read and Through The Looking Glass, 2010-20.
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Through The Looking Glass 