Last Monday was the Hello Kitty Gourmet Cafe's grand launch !
At last, after a while. The project started around 10 months ago and the soft launch was held a month back when I was in Tokiyo. So I couldn't make it during that time and I didn't go to visit the cafe since it was opened. I've been waiting for the grand launch. Partly because I want free gourmet foods, partly because I want the free gifts. Hah. This is the invitation card :
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We waited at the Subway near my office, ordered a chicken slice sandwich and discussed about the illustration works for my latest freelance work. The event started around 7.30pm but we were stuck in the heavy rain until 8pm+. We were late, and missed the official ribbon-cutting ceremony and Kitty herself. But we both got in nonetheless. Yeay!
I saw Mandy, Nicole, and Ally afterwards. They were all dressed up and looked presentable. AF and I was drenched wearing our casual office attire. But oh-well.
My phone's battery was slowly dying when I tried to take some pictures to bring back home. I saw stuffs that I designed and things that we all created together for so long. It is finally there T^T This picture was taken from their official Facebook account. Here is Kitty in front of the artwork that I did. Not to say that I'm fully proud of it - it won't even be in my portfolio because I feel like there are disturbing empty spaces in the artwork that I thought of filling later while designing it but got approved and I didn't managed to make any changes. I'm proud of the spaghetti though. It was really hard to illustrate it using that stroke :
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And I also designed the mascot for the grand launch : one in the kitchen suits and another one in a dress. The Sanrio HK did some changes a bit, they added things that they felt suited Kitty better. In any ways, I'm still a proud mama :
*pictures from HK Facebook
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It felt surreal for me to see all these things in real life. We've been looking at it on the monitor for almost a year, can you imagine the wait? I even forgot about some of the little things that I designed early in the process. This is such a great experience for me, other than Begadang Backpackers, I enjoyed this project. Can you see the Coffee chart poster on the wall? Well that was from me :D
*picture from HK Facebook
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The buffet was all special and 'gourmet' as they mentioned. I wouldn't know the differences, I'm not a food appreciator in any way :D I ate minced fruits topped with salmon, spaghetti with mushroom and wild mushroom soups and several mini cupcakes. We were 2 very awkward peoples among all the pretty bloggers and celebrities. Oh, how I love AF for being as simple as we both are.
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I was expecting more sweets and pastries buffet - it was a French themed cafe, and coffee perhaps? But there was none. I can't believe that I'm complaining about the free foods =.= But that's fine, I'm going to feed this random sugar-craving tonight.
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Amber Chia arrived when we were preparing to go home. *Did you heard about the chaos over the Hello Kitty's limo and Rajnikanth? Hah. I couldn't be bothered with all the crowds so we just went out afterwards. Oh yes, I also received 3 Kitty macarons, a small cake, HK water bottle and a paper bag as the gift :
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Congratulation Hello Kitty Team ! :D
