Time Capsule Diner Hiding in a New Orleans Record Store

I‘m having a very ‘Americana nostalgia’ day here at MessyNessyChic HQ for some reason (see previous post on all things stuck in the 1950s), which segue-ways into today’s second time travelling discovery. I first spotted this retired mid-century diner in the archives of the instagram account American Squares. “A junk store built around an old…

That 70s Home

With stomach-turning wall-papers, nightmarish polyester fabrics and psychadelic nonsense, seventies décor is supposed to be impossibly tacky… isn’t it?! Browsing through these photos however, of 60s & 70s decor from the Encyclopdia of Good Decorating and Home Improvement, I couldn’t help but fall in love with every single overly-textured, madly accessorized, color-blinding décor style. They…

I Dream of a Solex: The Brigitte Bardot Bike

It’s come that time for me in Paris when the charm of the metro has been replaced by lingering unpleasant smells, usually coming from the crazy people trying to approach me almost every time I use it. I think it’s a rite of passage that comes after living in Paris for over a year. And…

It’s my Blog and I’ll do a Wedding post if I Want to

Fine. I’m no blogging expert on weddings– there are plenty of websites for that if you’re looking for some serious advice on planning here, here and here. I do know however, that Bella’s bridal dress from Twighlight: Breaking Dawn, part 1 (or maybe part 2? I’m not sure) is available to buy for $799 (vampire groom…

The Little Shop that Cared & other Tales

– When I was a little girl, I used to play ‘shop’. I set up my own make-shift retail space, carefully displaying my own clothes and toys around my bedroom and for hours on end I happily traded with imaginary customers. I borrowed the colored bills from our Monopoly game and used a real receipt-printing…

And Now, a DIY Steampunk Trailer fit for Travelling the World in 80 Days

For some of us, DIY means hanging up a few picture frames at the weekend, or giving the garden shed a new lick of paint. For Dave Moult of Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, DIY means building a teardrop trailer from scratch that Jules Verne would have been jealous of… This is actually the sixth teardrop trailer David…

Here’s What a Futurist World’s Fair Looked like Behind the Iron Curtain

The World’s Fairs used to capture the public’s imagination. From the millions who attended such iconic Fairs as the ones held in New York in 1939 and 1964, to the nostalgia they’re viewed with today, the World’s Fairs were places where people could catch glimpses of a futuristic better world; seeing such technological marvels as…

The Endlessly Inspiring DIY World of Maude Smith

I’ve just found another kindred spirit. Someone who understands my deep-rooted Capricorn need to find new uses for old or unwanted things. Maude Smith is the kind of person that will cover her entire kitchen in wine corks, shells and pieces of broken crockery. Rather than re-tiling her bathroom, she’ll meticulously paint every single tile…

An Insider Peep into Tokyo’s Secretive Red Light District: Then & Now

Watanabe Katsumi was the king of treading lightly. As a drifting photographer, his lens was a stealthy observer of Tokyo’s red light district, snapping hundreds of photos of its drag queens, gangsters, prostitutes, and other fringe society members in the 1960s and 70s. Few dared enter the underbelly of the city like him and the…

The Day the Black Cats Invaded Hollywood

I’m not really a fan of cats per say (because they’re totally evil creatures unlike dogs) but I think these photos taken at a black cat audition in Hollywood in 1963 are just brilliant. They also raise many questions concerning the sanity of cat-owners in the sixties.