13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. LIII)

1. Moving House in Los Angeles (1950-1970s) found on the Los Angeles Times via Retronaut. 2. Humorous Penguin Classic Matchboxes Available to buy on Etsy 3. A Real-Life Central Perk In a sixth floor of a Beijing apartment block in China, the fictional coffee shop where Friends Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and…

Meet Messy Nessy

Last summer, some lovely folks from Swedish style channel, State of Style asked if they could follow me around Paris for a day and get to know Messy Nessy. So I said, why not? and today, the result of our time together popped up in my email inbox. If you’ve ever wondered who is the person rambling…

Santa School Circa. 1961

With Christmas being so close you can almost taste the eggnog, I thought I’d better step up my Yuletide game here at MessyNessyChic. So let’s hop on our sleigh and travel back in time to 1961 Albion, New York, and take a tour inside Santa School … (it’s basically better than Lapland). Established in 1937,…

Step Back in Time: The Forgotten Family Shoe Store Closed for 40 Years

Behind the security grills and dusty shop windows of a neglected building, hides an unlikely secret fashion museum of footwear dating back more than 70 years. And what do you do when you discover a goldmine of untouched vintage shoes? You put it on the internet of course! Reddit member Oktober75 shared photographs documenting…

The Parisianer: A Dream Magazine

I returned to Paris early this morning after ten days of travelling in Sri Lanka, swapping a tropical climate and kaleidoscopic colours for crisp winds and grey rooftops. Unpacking my treasured souvenirs and island memories, I was admittedly feeling the blues in an apartment that seemed a little more gloomy than I had left it–…

The World’s Largest Mall Has a Less Than 1% Occupancy Rate

Welcome to the New South China Mall, better known as the world’s largest “dead mall.” It was built in 2005 on farm land by a billionaire who made his fortune in the instant noodle industry. Did his luck extend to commercial retail? Not so much. The mall has remained 99% vacant of commerce since the…

13 Things I Found on the Internet Today (Vol. LII)

1. A Helium Balloon Bridge French artist Olivier Grossetête used three enormous helium balloons to float a rope bridge over a lake in Tatton Park, a historic estate in north-west England. Found on Dezeen / photo by Duncan Hull 2. Totally Awesome Birdhouses All made by different artists, installed around Portland, Oregon last year.…

My Grandmother was a Total Babe

Guest Article by Pretty is our Playground “I was on a date in Worcester” said my 87 year old gram when I found this well hidden photo on an old slide this last summer. The lady who can not remember what she asked me five minutes ago could recall every detail of the evening she…

Lights On But Nobody Home: Behind the Fake Buildings that Power Chicago

Guest Article by Chicago Sun Times columnist, Neil Steinberg Chicago is justly famous for its architecture. Birthplace of the skyscraper, home to the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere (still, the emotion-driven claim by New York’s One World Trade Center, based on the dodge of calling an antenna a spire, is easily dismissed) Chicago offers…

Inside a Hidden Parisian Workshop

A guest post by L’Instant Parisien If you give a meeting point to a Parisian near the Guy Môquet metro stop he or she will inevitably come up with an excuse for not making it. Too far, in the middle of nowhere, there’s nothing worth seeing… how wrong they are! In Paris, behind the austere…