Having been hidden behind a construction wall the last few months when I tried to show out-of-town visitors how cool The Glamour Bar is, the wall is finally off and the newly done over Glamour Bar is a refreshing re-do to an already beautiful bar/lounge.   A new entrance makes you zig and zag now until you get to the main lounge which seems to have opened up quite a bit—-perfect for their numerous special events, readings, talks and recitals.   The blend of Shanghai art deco and modern chic is balanced and inspired.

The mirrored bar in the shape of a ship.

Their beautiful cut-glass stemware in hues of blue, yellow and orange looks like a chandelier as it hangs over the bar.

Thank you to Creative Hunt and editor Frances Arnold for a great article on Paper Tiger in this week’s issue.    Click here to read the full post.

Tangs Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur

When we used to live in Singapore, one of my favorite department stores was Tangs on Orchard Road.  I had forgotten about Tangs until my recent trip to Kuala Lumpur over Chinese New Year.  To my delight, there she was at the Pavilion decked out in her finest Chinese New Year garb.  I loved Tangs for its inspired store displays and windows and I wasn’t disappointed at their KL store.

It seems most retailers over Chinese New Year follow the same script—Red, red, gold, red and more red.   I love that Tangs follows their own script and adds pinks, purples and other colors to celebrate this time of year.    Of course red is the dominant color theme in their display, featuring an abundance of silk plum-blossom flowers, chrysanthemums, jasmines…etc,  but it also focuses on the Spring aspect of what the holiday is also referred as —”Spring Festival” (Chun Jie).

'handbag' package of CNY food treats

These beautifully designed packages for Chinese New Year treats are refreshing and inspired.

'Suitcase' made out of heavy cardboard filled with treats

More beautifully packaged treats of biscuits, candies and other traditional Chinese New Year sweets inside.

Truly a nice break from the traditionally garish and gaudy packaged Chinese New Year goods I normally come across!

January 23 is the start of the lunar new year of the Dragon and in China, begins an onslaught of firecrackers and fireworks to rival any military war zone.  With a brief respite in the daytime, firecrackers begin as the sun goes down to ‘chase evil spirits’ away and do not let up until the wee hours of the night.  For our family, the novelty of the fireworks wore off 7 years ago and really, after that first night.   This year we flee to the warm climate of Malaysia, where I’m hoping their celebrations are a little bit more controlled.

Chinese New Year is a time for most Chinese around the world to be reunited with family, no matter where you’re living or working, hence, the massive migration of the people in China during this time to return to their homes.   Living in a small Long Island suburb growing up—my cousins, aunts and uncles would ‘migrate’ from the city to our family’s house to celebrate together.  It was a time of eating a lot, folding paper money to be burned in our front yard for our ancestors, watching the adults playing endless hours of mahjong, and of course receiving ‘hong bao’s’ (red envelopes) filled with money and then gambling it playing dice games to try and double it.    I have such fond memories of those days.

I made some of my own ‘hong bao’s and fortune cookies from some left over paper I had from the holidays.  I took apart a real hong bao envelope and traced out a template using my paper.  For the fortune cookies you can follow these super easy steps from this link here. How are you celebrating Chinese New Year?

Thank you Sbanghai Talk for the Paper Tiger feature in your Green Gift Guide!

If you’re in Beijing on December 10 come out to the first Handmade Holiday Fair from 11am to 6pm at No. 32 Qianliang Hutong, Dongsi, Dongcheng District (tel: 6404-6297/13436702545)  featuring the very best in art, designs, home furnishings, clothing, plants and more.  Visit the Paper Tiger Shanghai table and say hi to Juliet!  Food and free mulled wine will be on hand to keep shoppers happy.   Map to the cafe below.

12月10号周六11点到晚6点 又到了为亲爱的人挑选礼物的季节。我们搜罗远近，找到最珍贵，最有个性的手工礼物。第一个纯手工礼物市集，艺术的，设计的，家居的，织物的，植物的，还有更多！ 欢迎早来参加抽奖。可口小食，圣诞热酒。温馨提示：只能接受现金。另外，胡同里不好停车，请乘坐地铁或公交，或者无惧严寒的你骑车来吧！ 地址：北京市东城区，东四北大街，钱粮胡同32号.  电话： 010 6404 6297 / 134 3670 2545

Quick, get this one into your calendar

We’re featured in the December issue of Time Out Shanghai’s Style File page.  Woohoo!  Here’s a sneak peek at a cropped version.  Make sure you pick up your December issue for great holiday gift ideas!  Thanks Time Out!

Time Out Shanghai/Dec issue/Style Files

The Christmas Bazaar season frenzy officially kicks off this coming Saturday, November 19th at Concordia International School in Pudong.   Hope to see you at one of these!

A client contacted me recently to help her wrap up Christmas gifts for her fiance to take home to the US.  I love wrapping gifts whether they’re for my own friends or family or for people I’ve never met before.

Gift giving is usually filled with joy, expectation and surprise and I like being a part of that.  In China, giving gifts varies and can sometimes be loaded, depending on who is giving and receiving and what the occasion is.   Many households give and receive gifts casually in the form of fresh fruits, foods or plants/flowers and almost never wrapped in anything fancy (unless it’s for a patient who is sick and then you see traditional fruit baskets or flowers wrapped in cellophane and ribbon).

Having grown up in the US, my custom of course is anything that’s going to be given as a gift has to be  wrapped up.  Bagging it with a fancy bow  just doesn’t cut it.   Although I respect the practicality of the Chinese way of not going to too much trouble to wrap gifts,  it sure is nice getting a gift shrouded in paper and feeling the joy, expectation and surprise upon opening it—isn’t it?

The Melbourne Memory Game was a little side project that I worked on with Melbourne-based photographer Marieke Kern, this summer.  I designed the box for the game with the images photographed by Marieke and Petra.    The design is influenced by Australia’s colorful and rich Aboriginal art, which I am a huge fan of.  The game is based on the classic memory matching game where you match up 2 identical images.  In this case, the images are Melbourne specific landmarks, well-known locales and neighborhoods.   Info on how to get the game go to their website here.