Stuff Those Stockings...

So it's Friday, which usually means a This Week the Mice Have Mostly Been blog post, but this week the Mice have mostly been sniffling, coughing, sick kids... So, rather than bore you with our daily routine of medicine, trying to sleep and generally feeling horrible, we thought we'd change things up a little and bring you something a bit more upbeat...

It's the last weekend before Christmas, we're all hurtling towards a few work-free days full of eating, drinking and generally being merry, but there are just a few last things to sort out: 

• getting in enough food and drink to suitably fill our work-free days;
• sorting out a sparkly, pretty Christmas Day outfit with enough give at the waistband to allow for gorging on all that food and drink; 
• setting a suitably aggressive out of office message to scare off any over-eager colleagues working the graveyard shift at the office; and
• of course, snapping up the perfect last minute stocking fillers...

Who doesn't go to sleep on Christmas Eve after carefully hanging a big sock (or pillow case if you're particularly greedy) at the end of the bed hoping that when you wake up in the morning, it will be filled with amazing little gems?! No matter whether you're three or fifty three, you deserve an awesome stocking to kick off your Christmas Day, so if you're in charge of stuffing stockings this year, and you're running low on ideas, Mice to the rescue...

For the Girls...

This is For You - Rob Ryan

(available from Topshop)

£14.99

Image via: www.topshop.com

STEAMCREAM - Award winning moisturising cream sealed with a shot of steam 

(available from Urban Outfitters in an array of fun-popping tins)  

£14.00

Image via: www.twelve52.co.uk

Lipsmackers Coca Cola Lipbalms

(available from Topshop in the UK and from Sasa and Mannings in Hong Kong)

£7.00 / HK$750

Image via: www.topshop.com

Knit your own tea cosy kit
(available from John Lewis)
£12.00

Image via: www.johnlewis.com

Philosophy Hope in a Jar - festive moisturiser 

(available from Philosophy)

£10.00

Image via www.philosophyskincae.co.uk

For the Boys

Pencil Sabre

(available from Topshop)

£4.50

Image via: www.topshop.com

Bananagrams Game
(available from John Lewis)
£15.99

Image via: www.johnlewis.com

Kiehl's No Shine Lip Balm
(available from Kiehl's and John Lewis)
£8.00

Image via: www.johnlewis.com

Gold Nuddie Tees

(available on Amazon, purchase next day delivery to arrive in time)

£4.75

Image via: www.amazon.co.uk

Crustache Cutter
(available from Urban Outfitters)
£8.00

Image via: www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk

And that's your lot little blog buds! The Mice are off for a well-earned Christmas break together! Thank you for all of your support since we started the blog in February. It's been a pretty incredible year and we've enjoyed every minute of it! We'll be back in the New Year full of Christmas tales and Parisian New Year adventures, but until then...

Crafts Mania...

Arts and crafts have always been a bit of a 3BM passion. Mummy Mouse was an artist and from a very young age us Mice spent many very happy (and very messy) hours drawing, painting and making things we'd seen on Blue Peter.

Potato printing and sticky back plastic aside, arts and crafts on a more pro level seem to have been going stellar recently with the introduction of online marketplaces like Notonthehighstreet, Etsy and Folksy. While the craftier amongst us have always created homemade loveliness, the internet now allows anyone with a talent and patience to make beautiful things to set up shop online and sell their handiwork to the world. Millions of people are now crafting niche novelties at home and there seems to be a huge appetite out there for all this bespoke craftsmanship. Many crafters create as a part-time job, a hobby or just as an opportunity to practice and refine a skill. Some sellers are stay-at-home parents, others students and some are even children! We would definitely much rather spend our money on unique, handmade items made with love and care than things churned out of factories in China.

So last weekend when our beautiful friend, Kimberley Rose, surprised us Mice with a little bit of homemade amazingness, we were pretty bowled over. We were handed a teeny matchbox-sized package which we opened up to find these three starring back up at us...

Our very own bespoke 3BadMice! You can imagine the squeals and squeaks of delight! Each felt mouse has been styled to reflect Mini, Middle and Biggy's fashion sense. Kim has dubbed Mini Mouse the 'cosy mouse' and has wrapped her up in dove grey cashmere with a statement gold necklace. Middle is 'party mouse' and is rocking a black and white polka dot dress with hot pink trim and a contrasting chunky jet black necklace. While Biggy has taken inspiration from VB and is 'posh mouse' of the pack in a brushed black silk cape with a bold as brass fastening button topped off with a fabulously fierce glitter collar! Not only are we dressed up better than Baby Harper and Suri Cruise, we also look like we've just come back from the Caribbean with tans to die for!!! 

If you love the handy work of Miss Kimba Rose as much as us Mice do, then get your requests in now! Contact her at kimberleyrosesander@googlemail.com or on Twitter @kimberoses with your individual requests and she will provide a quote and get to work! And, it's not just Mice that she makes, she has been known to create all sorts from bears to cats to Royalty... We'll leave you with some more snaps of Kim's past creations... 

Wedding bride and groom sitting proudly on top of a cheese tiered cake...

A birthday mouse with aged 30 balloon in hand..

A Halloween cat and creepy spiders...

A bow tie Birthday bear...

Kate & Will figurines at a British Royal wedding tea party...

Kimberley Rose
kimberleyrosesander@googlemail.com

Merry XX Xmas

What's the collective noun for a group of sick Mice? A Snuffle? A Kachoo?

Well, whatever the correct term, that's most certainly what us three Mice are this week. Over in London poor Middle and Mini have been floored by the horrid winter sickness bug and over in Hong Kong I've been struck down by Laryngitis - rather ironically, my voice has been reduced to a teeny tiny mouse-like squeak.

So, the week before Christmas and we're not feeling too festive, too ill for Christmas parties, not in the mood for mince pies and mulled wine, all in all a very sad state of affairs. But, in between sipping Lemsip and feeling very sorry for ourselves, we did come across a little festive tune that cheered us up a little... No, NOT Dominic the Donkey (although that is a 3BM fav!), The XX's Live Lounge cover of Wham's Last Christmas...

So, we'll get back to our tissues and onesies and leave you with a little laidback Chrimble loveliness. Fingers crossed we'll be back to high spirits and rocking around the Christmas tree very, very soon...

The XX - Last Christmas

Bag Yourself a Ducie Christmas Bargain...

I first discovered Ducie several years ago on a little weekend wander around Portobello Market. Drawn in by rails of jewel-hued silk slips, I'd soon snapped up my very first Ducie dress and have been hooked on the label's vintage-inspired gorgeousness ever since. 

Designer, Ducie Keam- George is the queen of slinky little silk dresses and beautiful furs, her dresses are the sorts of wardrobe saviours that are as perfect for a summer wedding as chucked over a bikini for the beach. 

Silk Maxi Dress
£190

Star Dress
£110

Rabbit Gilet Natural Brown
£150

Rabbit Jacket Natural Brown
£300

Silk Shirt Dress

£110

Images via: www.ducie.co.uk

This Saturday Ducie are hosting a very special Christmas sale at the Ducie Showroom in London, so if you're in town, get down there sharpish for some snuggly fur and silk dresses at a super bargainous £65!

Ducie Showroom

Unit 14, The Tay Building, 

2a Wrentham Avenue, 

London 

NW10 3HA

HK Mouse's Christmas Wish List

It is now officially one week until the night before Christmas.

JUST ONE WEEK!!! 

But although we've blogged pretty extensively about anything even vaguely festive, unlike everyone else in the blogosphere, we haven't put together any sort of gift guide yet... 

As we gallop towards the big day with shopping opportunities fast dwindling, I'm desperately trying to cram in all my shopping, wrapping and (Oh My God, I really don't want to think about it...) packing... Just the thought of trying to stuff two weeks worth of cosy outfits, a multitude of presents and all the other random stuff I'll need for fourteen days at home is enough to bring me out in a cold sweat. So, in a bid to avoid the inevitable I thought I'd compile a list of all the lovely things that I've been eyeing up for myself while I've been Christmas shopping. Hopefully I may be able to provide some last minute inspiration for anyone still struggling with tricky loved ones, and if Father Christmas is a 3BM fan, then maybe just maybe he'll have the chance to snap me up one of these pretty, sparkly things and totally make my Christmas....

Grace Coddington Memoir
£20.00

Image via: www.glamour.com

Lanvin Russian Dolls
£125.00

Image via: www.lanvin.com

Jo Malone Wild Fig & Cassis Bath Oil
£38.00

Image via: www.jomalone.co.uk

Smythson 2012 Fashion Diary

£200.00

Image via: www.smythson.com

Carine Roitfeld - Irreverant
£47.20

Image via: www.lovemagazine.com

Winter Kate Sequinned Sweater

£101

Image via: www.shopbop.com

Tom Ford Neroli Portofino Body Oil

£45

Image via: www.selfridges.com

Breakfast at Tiffany's Screen Printed Movie Print

(available from Culture Label)

£45

Image via: www.culturelabel.com

Topshop Pearl Embellished Jacket

£95

www.topshop.com

3.1 Phillip Lim Pashli Satchel

£573.95

Image via: www.shopbop.com

Vaseline Limited Edition Pink Bubbly

£3.49

Image via: www.superdrug.com

Bauble Bar Monogram Necklace

£64.80

Image via: www.baublebar.com

Karl Cushion

(available from Urban Outfitters)

£40

Image via: www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk

Accessorize Pansy Clutch Bag

£32.00

Image via: www.traffordcentre.co.uk

Eugenia Kim Florence Wool Fedora Hat

(available from London Boutiques)

£80

Image via: www.london-boutiques.com

This Week The Mice Have Mostly Been...

Eleven more sleeps, ELEVEN MORE SLEEPS!!!

Yes, it's really, really nearly Christmas now and yes, we are about six years old....!!!

Excitement is reaching fever pitch this year, not only because there's nothing us Mice love more than Christmas, but also because last year I had to cover the Hong Kong office over the holidays, so for the very first year ever, we spent Christmas Day apart. Sob! But this year I'll be jetting back to London and we'll be doing the whole thing on an even grander scale than usual to make up for the skipped family Chrimbo last time... cue double the festive films, three times as much champagne and so many presents that we'll still be opening them when the Downton Christmas special starts...(That last bit's obviously an exaggeration, no matter how many presents there are we'll always start opening them at 6am because we're too excited to sleep, and be sat beside a pile of shiny new things and surrounded by mountains of discarded wrapping paper by around 6:12am...).

With less than two weeks to go now, this week's been spent in a haze of shopping, mulled wine and advent calendar chocolates. The London Mice have been flitting around town hopping from party to party while I've been on a work trip in Tokyo where Christmas has a decidedly Hello Kitty tinge...

This weekend is going to be an action packed one for all of us Mice. Middle and Mini are off for a girlie weekend away and here in HK, I have a wedding and plenty of last minute Christmas shopping to cram in! To kick things off though, let's take a canter through the week just gone in Mice World. This week the Mice have mostly been...

Having a Scarlett moment with cocktails and jazz in the New York bar at the Park Hyatt in Tokyo. With the most breathtaking views across the city and killer cocktails, it's not hard to see why this slinky little bar is the backdrop for several scenes from one of my favourite films ever, Lost in Translation. 

The perfect way to round off five days of Tokyo craziness, three days of adventuring around bitterly cold Seoul and a year of travelling to some pretty incredible places. I've generally been pretty bad at blogging about my travelling this year, but have been lucky enough to visit lots of amazing places that have been on my travel hitlist for a while. From Ho Chi Minh to Tokyo with a jaunt along the Amalfi Coast and a little Burma adventure in between. I'm planning to be a good little blogger and spend the Christmas break getting a year's worth of photos organised and writing up the details of where to stay, eat, drink and party in each of the hot spots I've hit up. Watch this space...   

Desperately trying to free up space on my trusty iPad for all the magazine amazingness that's FINALLY available to download! Vogue's app came a couple of months ago and was definitely worth the wait. If you haven't tried it yet hop over to the app store quick smart - slick, interactive and very pretty - nothing less than you would expect from the doyenne of fashion publications. Last week though I was thoroughly overexcited to find out that Grazia had launched its iPad app too. The best news ever for all Hong Kongers used to paying four pounds for their weekly Grazia fix (or skulking around beauty salons trying to get through the well-thumbed copy before your manicure dries and you're kicked out). Rather worryingly, the iPad version of Grazia is fully shoppable, hello 'mistakenly' snapping up everything in the Grazia Fashion Chart...

Image via: www.grazia.co.uk

Channeling the Madhatter and snapping up some serious hat candy... Trilbys, fedoras, beanies and even cloches, I just can't get enough hat action right now! A super chic way to stay cosy and hide any hair disaster days, if an outfit's looking a little lacking I seriously recommend putting a hat on it... I bagged a floppy brimmed black felt one while I was in Shanghai a couple of weeks ago and last week I added an olive green felt trilby from Seoul to my collection. I currently have my sights set on a couple of others, listen up father Christmas...

Topshop Plain Fedora

£25

Image via: www.topshop.com

Madeleine Thompson Disco Beanie

£95

Image via: www.mywardrobe.com

Beginning the biggest ever HK fashion countdown after the news that Topshop is opening up its first Hong Kong store in May! It's always been a bit of a mystery that Hong Kong seems to be one of the only big cities that Topshop's overlooked, so when yesterday it was announced that we'll be getting 12,000 square feet of fashion fabness next spring, there were squeals of delight from fashionistas all over the city. No more bi-annual pilgrimages to the Oxford Circus store in London, we can now get everything from our staple moto denim to our fav Topshop make-up nail shades right on our doorsteps here in Hong Kong. Amen.

And on that note, it's time to get the weekend started! Make sure you manage to squeeze in plenty of mulled-wine fuelled rocking around the Christmas tree between all that panicked present shopping!

Lots of Festive Love,
x
The Mice

Put a Personalised Lid on it...

With only 12 days to go until Christmas time is running out to get everything sorted and the pressure is well and truly on! Last weekend, us London Mice decided to give some shopping a whirl at Stratford Westfield - what a mistake...pushy people, screaming children, queues snaking back from the tills and heaps of clothes everywhere and the whole experience definitely wasn't helped by us only getting to bed at 5am on Sunday morning, so that we had zero patience or energy! 

Unsurprising we left a few hours later with nothing but wrapping paper and an M&S dinner. We decided that opting for Internet shopping from the comfort of our sofa all wrapped in a snug duvet was the only way forward! 

Horrific shopping experiences aside, I do love giving presents, there is something so satisfying about knowing that you have the perfect present idea up your sleeve and, on Christmas Day, watching the faces of your favourite people as they open up your gifts is priceless. Christmas in the 3BM household is my favourite time of year, all together cosy, drinking lots of wine, eating too much food and going totally over board spoiling one another! 

The difficultly comes when we're buying for Daddy Mouse...what do you get the man who buys everything he needs, isn't really into things that are too flash and doesn't really get too excited about anything! Unfortunately I don't yet have the answer for you...sorry to disappoint, but we will continue to strive to find the one thing that astounds him and provokes a manly squeal of perfect present excitement - we'll keep you posted!! 

Anyway in my search for such a gift I did come across a present idea worthy of a blog...if you have a family member or friend who has a passion for Marmite, mustard or Ketchup (or just someone who is very territorial when it come to the fridge!) then why not snap up a personalised Silver lid for their fav condiment?! David-Louis Designs has come up with the fab idea of 250g Silver lids that you can buy in different sizes to bling up various bottles or jars. Best of all, you can get each lid engraved for free to create a perfect bespoke Christmas gift that can be used again and again! Prices start from £69 and each lovely lid can be purchased from the David-Louis Designs shop at the handy Not on the Highstreet.

Ketchup...

Image via www.notonthehighstreet.com

Marmite...

Image via www.notonthehighstreet.com

Mustard...

Image via www.notonthehighstreet.com