I swear I’m not obsessed with them… OK, OK, maybe I am… but I am loving these cute postcards from British fragrance brand, Penhaligon’s!
Their Guides to Gentlemanly Behaviour and British Tea Drinking Etiquette are quirky, witty and fun; I’m a sucker for anything done in this vintage-style, which totally fits the heritage of their brand (over 100 years and counting, baby!).
*NOTE: I’ve since been to LOST Hong Kong and it is loads better – I’d definitely recommend it over Freeing!*
“Can anybody see the crystal?”
Hands up if your formative years involved lots of screaming at the telly while watching The Crystal Maze? Well, if it did, perhaps like me, one of your lifelong ambitions might have been to be a contestant on The Crystal Maze (when Richard O’ Brien was hosting, obviously, not that funny Ed bloke that came after), get locked in rooms and use your smarts to figure out how to get out.
Sadly, The Crystal Maze ended almost 20 years ago (God, I’m old!) so there’s zero chance of me actually achieving that dream. However, I may have just found the next best thing to help me live out my 90s gameshow fantasies – Freeing HK.
Tagged Around The World, Causeway Bay, escape the room games, Freeing HK, fun, fun things to do in Hong Kong, HK, HK Escape, Hong Kong, locked room games, Lost HK, Mong Kok, personal, quirky stuff, real-life room escape games, review, stuff to do in Causeway Bay, stuff to do in Hong Kong, stuff to do in Mong Kok, stuff to do in Tsim Sha Tsui, Tsim Sha Tsui
Got problems? I know that feel bro!
But no one illustrates shared problems quite as awesomely as artist Chris Gerringer.
Gerringer’s I Know That Feel Bro quirky series of illustrations takes fictional pop culture characters and draws them side-by-side, consoling each other in their shared misery. A problem shared is a problem halved, right? And judging by his drawings, a lot more cute too!
Posted in Random
Tagged art, artwork, Chris Gerringer, drawings, I Know That Feel Bro, illustrations, pop culture, quirky stuff, Random
Owning two dogs = a whole new bunch of cute things to spend my money on!
Yes, no longer am I restricted to human mo liu, now I can waste my hard-earned cash on puppy mo liu too!
…I jest. In fact, this stuff is not really mo liu at all because dogs are generally overjoyed at anything you bestow on them (socks, string, dirty underwear) so actual treats – be they practical, edible or playful – always go down in a tail-wagging frenzy of licking, jumping and maniacal excitement!
I was introduced to the term ‘mo liu’ by a few friends on Twitter and rapidly found that it seemed to describe my life!
In English, mo liu translates to items of frippery, flippant impulse buys that are super-cute but ultimately functionless. I have always been susceptible to pretty things (and indeed, a whole category on here is named thus!) yet in Hong Kong, such mo liu lurks round every street corner, in every market, on the shelves of every shop, supermarket and convenience store. You cannot escape!
Prime offenders are items emblazoned with the likeness of a certain cartoon cat (previously featured on my blog here). And yes, forgive me for I am weak… for I gave into the cute collecting craze again… not once, but two times!
In Hong Kong, you can often find pretty things in the strangest places… which often means discovering fine art in the most mundane of anonymous corporate offices.
Such was the case with this stunning series of plaques entitled The Cityplaza Copper Suite by Australian sculptors Joan Walsh Smith and Charles Smith in Tai Koo’s Cityplaza complex of buildings.
I was taken aback by the level of detail in these – you could spend ages poring over these still find even more interesting and clever little vignettes revealing themselves in the copper artwork. The style reminds me a little of Jan Pieńkowski’s silhouette illustrations for the Joan Aiken books I used to read when I was little. Click on each photograph to enlarge and zoom in and you can check out some of the detail for yourselves!
Each ‘Rondo-Progression’ has a different theme (unfortunately, I forgot to note them down, bad blogger, slaps wrist!) but I believe they were The Arts, Food, Leisure and Work. My favourite is probably The Arts with its striking centre-piece of the two Chinese theatre masks and loads of other dynamic pictures surrounding it – it’s almost like it’s alive with movement!
You can’t really tell from the pictures (which have distorted the light reflections weirdly) but these are made from copper, which is even more stunning and vivid in real life – and I loved the way the light reflected and bounced off these pieces, making them even more vibrant.
It seems a shame that these are tucked away in a place most people wouldn’t even notice so hopefully this post does its bit to show them off to the rest of the world!
Posted in Hong Kong, Pretty Things, Random
Tagged art, artwork, Charles Smith, Cityplaza, Cityplaza Copper Suite, design, fine art, HK, Hong Kong, Joan Walsh Smith, photos, pictures, quirky stuff, sculpture, Tai Koo, Tai Koo Shing
One of my favourite Pretty Things posts on here is still my blog on the gorgeous travel posters by Brazilian illustrator, Fernando Volken Togni – the colour, the detail, the style, everything! (And I updated it to feature his most recent additions to the series so do check it out!)
Inspired by these, and also the somewhat similar Scandinavian postcards I featured from Ikea, I wanted to share with you these lovely pictorial maps by Canadian artist, Marisa Seguin that I discovered via Design Work Life – and just as I wanted Togni’s work on my walls, I want Seguin’s right up there with it!
What sets these apart for me are the strict but stunning colour palettes she has used for each piece. Again, it’s hard to pick a favourite – the icy cool blues and purples of Vancouver, the strikingly vibrant pinks and turquoise of Venice, the dreamy romantic pastels of Paris, the vivid riot of brights that makes up San Francisco or the dusty sepia tones of Seguin’s current base, Milwaukee.
I also love the level of detail that’s gone into illustrating each of the landmarks; sadly, I haven’t visited any of the cities in question (apart from Paris, which I honestly think looks far more charming here than it does in real life!) but if I do, I’ll be toting one of these and navigating my way in style!
Hope you enjoy these as much as I did – and you can check out more of Seguin’s work on her website or buy these as prints from her Etsy shop.
And I loved the Jellyfish one so much, I couldn’t resist sticking it on here too!
Posted in Pretty Things
Tagged art, artwork, design, drawing, illustration, maps, Marisa Seguin, Pretty Things, quirky stuff, travel posters
UPDATE: This is the post that got my Stitch pillowcase and my boyfriend’s hands forever immortalised on Buzzfeed – check it out here (#35!).
Oh 7-Eleven. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…
I love that you’re never more than 5 minutes away from any given location. I love that I can now buy crisps and ice-cream whenever the hell I want, preferably in my pyjamas. I love your cute collectible promotional toys that I will never spend enough to obtain all of (but I’ll lose my mind trying), and friends and colleagues will harass me for the tokens regardless.
I love that school kids frequent ‘Club 7’ to get their first illicit taste of alcohol, stand outside in the streets drinking it and that staff actually open their bottles for them. I love that we then do exactly the same thing in a loosely ironic fashion and it probably ends up being more fun than a night out in Dragon-I. I love that living it large outside Club 7 is practically a rites of passage in Hong Kong (see above photo for reference, taken in my second month in HK!).
But recently… I love your noodles. Not as much as my boyfriend does though.
You may remember one of the very first posts I wrote on here was about Maison Moschino in Italy, a hotel whose interiors were based on fairy tales. Well, I’ve now found something even better – Alice In Wonderland restaurants in Japan! And we’re not just talking a few perfunctory playing cards here and there, these guys have gone the whole hog… or should that be, the whole white rabbit… and created a fantastical innovative world that’s simply magical. Maison Moschino can consider itself well and truly out fairy-taled!
Of course, if this kind of thing was ever going to happen outside of Disneyland, it was always going to be in Japan, a land where themed restaurants are no laughing matter (yes, I’m looking at you, randomly pirate-themed Satay King). The company behind the Alice In Wonderland restaurants, Diamond Dining, own several other such eateries – themes include vampires, Phantom Of The Opera and Japanese folklore – but the Alice restaurants are surely the jewel in their crown. Similarly, the design brains behind these beautifully-executed, original and playful interiors are the immodestly-named Fantastic Design Works Co. and their work on Alice is the creative highlight amongst their already impressive portfolio.
The photos speak for themselves. I love how truly immersive these environments are – every last detail has been thought of and just looking at these pictures makes me feel like I’m falling down the rabbit hole straight into Wonderland. The use of the old-fashioned illustrations from the original Alice In Wonderland books lends a classic feel to proceedings in a theme that could have easily tipped over into tacky.
The chandeliers in each restaurant (there are three in Tokyo and one in Osaka, all with different décor) also warrant their own mention. Teacups! Playing cards! Cascading red hearts! Cheshire Cat plushies! I couldn’t possibly pick just one favourite!
The theme doesn’t stop at the decoration though. You’re shown in by The Mad Hatter, served by waitresses dressed like Alice, your menus feature pop-up sections, your beverages come with a ‘Drink Me’ note and some dishes are plated up to look like The Caterpillar, The White Rabbit or even The Cheshire Cat! Check out some photos and descriptions on this blog, which just makes the whole thing sound even more wonderful… well, you’d expect nothing less of Wonderland, right?
This is the stuff fantasies are made of, the ideal imagining of the perfect place to have your very own Mad Hatter’s Tea Party. And all the more fitting here, on Through The Looking Glass!
Images from and more information at Fantastic Design Works Co. and Diamond Dining
Posted in Pretty Things
Tagged Alice In Picture Book, Alice in Wonderland, Alice In Wonderland restaurant, Alice Of Magic World, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, decor, Diamond Dining, fairy tale, Fantastic Works Co., fantasy, Ginza, interior decoration, Japan, Osaku, photos, Pretty Things, quirky stuff, Shinjuku, theme restaurant, Through The Looking Glass, Tokyo
In case you missed it (or don’t have 15 minutes to spare pressing the Refresh button), Google have run a series of their infamous ‘Google Doodles’ in honour of what would been the 76th birthday of Mr Men creator, Roger Hargreaves. These are so cute, colourful and charming, exactly in the spirit of the Mr Men series, which I loved as a child – and still do today!
Inspired by Hargreaves’ son Adam asking what a tickle looked like, these characters have been around for over 25 years and been a part of my life for practically as long as I can remember. Sadly, Hargreaves died way before his time in 1988 and his son Adam has been drawing and writing the books ever since.
The simple shapes and bold colours, not to mention the funny stories and pocket-sized books designed especially for small hands, are extremely appealing to children and I was no exception! I still have the complete series of the original Mr Men and Little Miss books at home (if you shelve them all together, a picture forms on the spines!) and would never part with them to this day – and over the years, all kinds of other Mr Men ephemera have joined the collection, including t-shirts, beanies, toys, stationary, bags… the list is endless!
Assigning each character an adjective as a name that encapsulates their personality is such a simple yet clever idea, and it was through Hargreaves that I learnt the meaning of words such as ‘Uppity’, ‘Fickle’, ‘Contrary’, ‘Nosey’ and ‘Fussy’ and also very British colloquialisms like ‘Topsy-Turvy’, ‘Scatterbrain’ and ‘Chatterbox’. I think my Mum said that I was a bit of a Little Miss Bossy too!
There have been various incarnations of the Mr Men and Little Miss characters over the years and they had a radical re-design for the most recent television series, which I absolutely hated! But these Google logos are very much in the old style that I have such fond memories of, right down to how the colours look saturated yet slightly washed-out – exactly how I remember!
The whole concept of Google Doodles is such a clever idea too – much like the Creative Ecologies exhibit where one figurine was decorated and re-designed in a number of different ways, the Google Doodles play with how much you can alter one thing and exercise your creative license whilst still keeping it recognisable.
My favourites here are Little Miss Shy, too timid to join in the dancing, Mr Rush, whose speed lines leave a Google-shaped mark and Little Miss Sunshine, just because she’s adorable! Although where art thou Mr Strong, and what’s with the gender imbalance Google?!
But the big question is… can you name them all?!
[From top to bottom, they are: Little Miss Sunshine, Mr Happy, Mr Bump, Little Miss Naughty stealing Mr Uppity’s top hat (but not his monocle, another new word learnt at the time!), Mr Tickle, Mr Messy, Little Miss Chatterbox, Mr Forgetful, Little Miss Tiny, Little Miss Magic, Mr Funny, Little Miss Shy, Mr Rush, Mr Slow, Little Miss Curious – one of the posthumously-released characters, and Mr Dizzy with these very idiosyncratic pigs, birds and worms that appeared in lots of stories! And I didn’t have to look a single one up, so there!]
P.S. Since it’s the only Mr Men thing I have out here, here’s my Mr Men & Little Miss tote bag from awesome retro tee website, Truffle Shuffle.
Posted in Pretty Things
Tagged Adam Hargreaves, art, artwork, childhood memories, drawings, Google Doodle, Google logo, illustrations, Little Miss, Little Miss Naughty, Little Miss Sunshine, Mr Bump, Mr Happy, Mr Men, Mr Tickle, nostalgia, pictures, Pretty Things, quirky stuff, retro, Roger Hargreaves
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.
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© Rachel Mary Read and Through The Looking Glass, 2010-20.
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Through The Looking Glass 