Chez Larsson

NYC Shopping

    

Freezing cold today but at the same time sunny and beautiful. My work mission on this trip is to gather inspiration for next years' Christmas campaigns so what I do basically is to look at the window displays, check out what's for sale and do a bit of sample shopping. Of course I take the opportunity to shop for myself while I'm at it . Not from the store above though. My private shopping is not that high end :)

Love, love, love The Container Store. The plastic squeeze bottles, hanger clips, plastic envelope and baseball card pages are from there. I wish I could get some of the bigger stuff... The metal scoops are from Pearl River Mart, another fun store. 

Finally got the Martha ribbon holder, some Martha pens and shelf liner. The scallop scissors are Fiskars which is kind of ridiculous because that's a Swedish brand...

 

Some lovely holiday issues are coming back with me and I love the color issue of the Oprah magazine. 

Wille ordered a second snoballer. I got him one last year but the fights were kind of unfair so we definitly needed a second one! He also ordered a proper Rubik's cube after having been bitten by the bug and using a cheapo version for a while.

Martin on the other hand ordered some more honey bears and I added an Old Bay seasoning mix to his order.

There are quite a few more things in my bag but I can't show them to you because there are two avid readers of my blog who will have to wait until the stuff's under the tree. Hej Wille och Martin! 

 ~

Ps. Please excuse the horrid photo quality. I didn't bring my own cameras this time but decided to use the new office one. I'm not in love with it. At all.

Pps. No post tomorrow as I'll be travelling back home. See you again Tuesday!

New York

I've arrived!

After a long flight, a little bit of shopping in SoHo last night and a jetlagged evening I had a great night's sleep. Today I've been all over Manhattan. I took the subway to Herald Square and Macy's, walked up 5th Avenue with a detour at Rockefeller Center to take a peek at the tree.

 

I then continued over to 3rd Avenue and walked down a bit and then over to 7th Avenue and finally took the subway to Astor Place and then walked the last bit back to my hotel. For those of you who've never been to New York City this means nothing to you. For those of you who have been here you know it's quite a work out.

 

I just got back to my hotel after a nice dinner with my collegue and now I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is another day of shopping, in the snow! It started snowing as we were leaving the restaurant and it's kind of neat. I mean after all, we're here to get inspired by the holiday decorations and a bit of snow sort of gets us even more into holiday mode.

The photos are of a display at Macy's.

Night and day

This is where I'm staying in Guangzhou... Beautiful but way too glitzy for my liking. I don't know about you but I get really uncomfortable when there's too much staff and when things are so fancy that theres too much detail everywhere. I really shouldn't complain, I just wish they'd skimped a little on... something.

This is the restaurant...

... where I had this for dinner. See what I mean? I don't do fancy.

This is actually a beautiful detail. The sand in the ashtray is prepped like this everytime somebody has used it. It just all seems a little too much.

Here's my room. I alone reside ( you cant really say "stay") in this huge room with two large beds, a flatscreen TV, free mini bar, plush bathrobe...

...and this seating area (or part of seating area as there's actually more) overlooking the swimmingpool and Pearl River.

I do love the lamp!

 

Ok, off into the shower I go...

... Very me, don't you think?! And there are 360 degree mirrors in there... The hotel staff slogan is "It's my pleasure!". All these mirrors in the morning are so not my pleasure...

My collegues and I doubled up in laughter when we opened our closets and found these ruffled umbrellas. We pictured ourselves walking side by side in the street sporting these which are parasol like in size.  Imagine it raining and a man staying in the hotel needing to borrow it :) 

That was night. Here's day!

This futuristic building houses one of the 16 halls of the Trade and Commodities Import and Export fair here in Guangzhou.

 

I was just told over dinner that the square meters which are covered are 1 050 000 (one million fifty thousand)! As you can imagine there's a lot of walking involved at the fair and you really build up an appetite. 

 

This is more or less what's on offer in terms of lunch. They put the whole thing still in it's unopened package in the microwave and when you get it it's all steamy inside and sort of deflates when you take it out :) Ooooh, I so look forward until tomorrow when I can have another one! And it's healthy too!

Japan in Hong Kong

 

This morning my collegues and I got on the train to China but I still have some Hong Kong bits and pieces to show you. Actually they're not really from Hong Kong, they're Japanese. There are many Japanese influences in Hong Kong. Chinese girls of all ages seem to love everything kawaii (cute) so there's an abundance of that.

I love japanese packaging. They have such a nack for wrapping. Doesn't matter if it's a cookie, a book, a pair of socks, it's always beautifully packaged. These are so cute! They are jelly candy and as I'm writing this and read the label it says Made in Taiwan... oops! The shop has a Japanese name though and is clearly inspired by the land of the rising sun.

 

More pretty candy colors from the same place. I've stopped buying this stuff though. To me nowadays it's just eye candy. I used to get a lot because it was so cute and fun but let me put it this way, our tastes are different from over here.

 

This was my view as I was having sushi for lunch at Sogo the Japanese department store. Click on the image to see some cute faces :)

   

I have to go to Sogo everytime I go to Hong Kong or I'm not allowed back home. On my first trip I bought a bag of Wasabi snacks and ever since they have been both Martin's and Wille's absolute favourites. I buy more and more each time and it's never enough. This time I cleaned out the whole stock. All fifteen packets.

Hong Kong

 

Here are some of my favourite things in and about Hong Kong.

Some if the local shops are so beautifully organized. Unfortunately I have no idea what's for sale so I only admire from the sidewalk.

Other shops are not as organized. I'm sure the owner can find everything but to me it's a complete jumble and I love it! It's like a treasure hunt! Plumbing equipment goes so well with wristwatches, don't you think?

Check out this display! Who can't want everything on here? It's all useful stuff. Imagine the possibilities!

 

This is one of my favourite shops, a stationers in Carnavon Road. They have everything; calendars, push pins, business card holders (oops, sorry NAME card holders), tape, lottery tickets, all imaginable filing equipment, scrapbooking stuff, chinese festival decorations. You name it and it's in this shop! 

When I come here I usually stay in Tsim Sha Tsui, the southern point of mainland Hong Kong. There are many other great areas to explore though and the best way to do so is simply to catch one of the many, many red and white taxis. It's so incredibly cheap! You can go through the city for 3 (three!) US dollars. The taxi drivers often don't speak English so you circle on your map where you want to go and point. Put your seatbelt on though, they drive like mad men!

 

Like I said the taxis are great but my fave, fave means of transportation here is the Star Ferry. It's a ferry line which takes you from mainland Hong Kong to Hong Kong island and back. The fair I go is on the island so in the mornings I walk from my hotel to the Ferry pier and pay my 30 US cents fair (again, yes thirty cents!) and get on one of the 1950's ferries and enjoy the quick ride across the bay. Aren't the seats great? When you go in the other direction you flip the whole length of backrests in one fell swoop and always sit facing the direction your going in!

 

Oh, to be as lithe as this lady probably in her 80's! There she is in a corner doing her morning Tai Chi as we're all passing by from the ferry to the convention center.

 

Hong Kong is such a busy city. Everytime I come here something drastic has changed. A building is no longer there or a new huge one has been built. There are still some greener areas about, Kowloon park with all the birds is beautiful but check out this mini doggy toilet just behind my hotel next to a tiny green path just off Mody Road smack in the center of the city.

Ok, it's official. I don't want a job as a builder here in Hong Kong. Check out the scaffolding! And yes, this IS what they use when they build the scy scrapers too!

Yikes!

Tomorrow I'm off on the train into China and the city of Guangzhou (Canton to you and me). See you there!