Shades with Sass: Spangled

Summer hasn't quite hit London yet, however we have had a few glimpses over the last few weeks, enough at least to dig out our sunnies and pretend it's here to stay! 

 

Sunglasses are one of our favourite accessories. They cover a multitude of sins...crow's feet, bags, half hearted make-up and of course the effects of a few too many Mojitos! Every woman's God send regardless of age, these babies will always add a little movie star glam to any outfit and keep those peepers protected! But sunglasses are no longer seen as just a practical item, nowadays they are a way to express fun, trends and the flamboyancy within us all!  

 

Everyone's jumping on the bandwagon, replacing boring black frames for something with a little bit of jazz...

 

Image via http://community.stylecaster.com

 

Image via www.justjared.com

 

 

Image via www.elbowsandkneesblog.com/

Image via www.stylebistro.com

 

http://leblow.co.uk/

The catwalks for Spring were awash with new eyewear trends and since then every high street store and even designer brands are joining the craze! Mirrored lenses, cat eye slants, jewels, flowers, pearls...you name it, we can find it! 

 

However you won't find anything more crazy and pure childhood fantastic fun than Spangled! Their aim is to bejazzle everyone with their handmade items to ensure you stand out from the crowd! That they 100% achieve and more...simply amazing and all for very affordable prices with glasses coming in at no higher than £35! Apparently if you tell them your sparkly fashion dreams they will make them come true?! 

 

Image via www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk, £35

 

Image via www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk, £35

 

Image via www.urbanoutfitters.co.uk, £35

 

Image via http://shop.spangled.co.uk, £35

 

Image via http://shop.spangled.co.uk, £35

 

Image via http://shop.spangled.co.uk, £35

Image via http://shop.spangled.co.uk, £35

 

Image via http://shop.spangled.co.uk, £30

 

And if you love them as much as we do, you can even get glasses frames for every day use!! 

 

*WARNING* 3BM advise to only pull these bad boys out once you have passed your work probation period!

 

Image via http://shop.spangled.co.uk, £25

 

Image via http://shop.spangled.co.uk, £35

 

Image via http://shop.spangled.co.uk, £30

 

This Week The Mice have Mostly Been...

We have been one mouse down again this week with HK biggy living it up in Burma - apparently there isn't any phone reception so she hasn't been able to tweet photos smoasting about her time away - i'm sure there will be many to come! Hmmmm I am feeling like one hard done mini mouse missing out on all the globe trotting fun, however I can't complain as it has been a pretty exciting week here in London with the Cosmo Blog Awards! OK last mention of that I promise! 

When we haven't been jumping about with glee or trudging through the dark, rainy wintery mornings, the mice have mostly been...

Perving on food porn... I am of course referring to the fabulous Nigella Lawson back with her new series Nigellissima! I watched on Tuesday and immediately remembered why I love her so much - firstly she is curvy and happy and nothing will stop her adding an extra block of butter or jug of cream to her recipes. She also has a knack of somehow making everything sound super sexy and luxurious even words like 'ground almonds' and 'whisk' !!! 

Did you see her Stylist Magazine front cover q while back? Nothing like shifting those frumpy, miserable, sweaty stereotypes of a chef like covering your face is oozing caramel is there?!?!

Image via http://eater.com

I sat there transfixed, not on her cooking skills but on what she was going to come out with next! She officially has the best one liners... see our pick of her top quotes below...

"They're not quite as bouncy and proud."

"A bit of pottering in the pantry"

"It doesn't matter if that purple red juice seeps into the cream."

"Cooking is actually quite aggressive and controlling and sometimes, yes, there is an element of force-feeding going on"

"It's a very artistic package you have there."

"Underneath will be a hint of inner thigh wibble."

"It will firm up becuase any minute now it's going to be covered luxuriantly with my summer berries"

Tune into BBC2 on Tuesdays at 8:30pm to catch the new series - we know we will be EVERY week!

Commencing my Christmas Countdown... 79 days until Christmas Day and only 56 days until you have a daily reason to get out of bed (especially during the week!)...to open that little advent calendar door of course! I know it is far too early to be talking Christmas - we are only just into October for heaven's sake ... our cosy mittens and uber long scarfs are still neatly folded however the best pressies are going to sell out fast so start leaving those hints and web pages 'accidently' up on your laptop screen for your boyfriend, husband, mum, dad or very generous sister to see ... I love you lots mice sisters!

We just had to share the best advent calendar EVER! Exclusive to Selfridges you can be the proud owner or the best present giver for a mere £82! This may seem like a lot to a boy but really it isn't. Behind some of those secret cubbies you will find ... Lancôme Mini Juicy Tubes, Kiehls Ultra Facial Cream, Kiehls Hand Salve, Viktor and Rolf Flowerbomb Fragrance, YSL Mini Kohl Pencil and Shu Uemura Brightening Cleansing Oil. WOW! Can you imagine what the gift on Christmas Day would be...!

Image via www.selfridges.com

Crowning DFS our sofa saviour... On a very rainy Tuesday night middle mouse made her way to the Tottenham Court Road DFS store where she was introduced to a very snazzy brand new iPad app DFS has launched to make sofa hunting a doddle.

As goldilocks would say, when you move into a new house/flat everyone searches for that dream sofa that's just right! Well that's exactly what this new app can ensure. It gives you a virtual feel for whether a sofa will or not work in your lounge space. Middle mouse met the app creator, Russell Harte and he helped her draw up a 3D plan of our front room to scale adding in every little detail from our wooden flooring, windows and window frames, our TV, coffee table to the exact colour of our walls. They then set to work and got carried away placing sofa after sofa to see which best suited the space. You can also use your iPad camera to instantly place a sofa or photos you have already captured of the space you're trying to fill. These were our tooshie's firm favs...

The app is free and can be downloaded here. Check out the video below to tell you a little bit more:

Going nuts... for the new Mulberry arrivals - every time they release a new range I fall all over again! I always think how are they going to beat this one ... yet they always do! Well I still LOVE my Alexa and Tilly and I definitely don't think they are beaten but they constantly keep up the good work and new creations!! How??? Well this time it's with the addition of a sweet baby turtle lock, amazing croc print and chunky strap! This mind blowing combination goes by the name of Lily! She also comes with a painful hit to the MasterCard at £1,100 - who says you can't buy taste?!

Image via www.mulberry.com

If the cute little turtle doesn't win your heart then Lily comes in other styles and colours. There literally is one to suit everyone! I would be happy with any of them or even better all of them ... cue 'Dear Old Father Christmas....'

Images via www.mulberry.com

Secretly smug... about not forking out for Anna Dello Russo from H&M. I know I blogged raving about the range recently but in my defence it looked hot in pictures and on paper the concept seemed top notch. In real life however NO NO NO NO NO - a load of brash gold old tosh! 

Middle mouse and I popped in after the Cosmo blog awards en route for more champagne and the window display caught our eye, well wouldn't it you...

 But upon entering we were two very disappointed mice! The clutch bags didn't even close, the necklaces were broken and the sunglasses were flimsy. The only nice piece in real life was one middle mouse snapped up earlier online (phew)...

Image via www.hm.com

In conclusion, definitely a H&M collaboration to sit out - pricey and cheap. Sorry Anna but the mice are saying NO!

Well that rounds up another exciting and exhausting week and we for one cannot wait for celebratory cocktails and LOTS of sleep! All that is left to say is....

Image via www.estyleme.net

This Week The Mice Have Mostly Been...

Friday at last! 

This week the London Mice have been reunited after Middle Mouse's trip to the Big Apple (more to come on what she did, where she stayed and all the presents that she brought back for the spoilt Baby Mouse in the next few days...watch this space). While over in Hong Kong, Mouse Major has been preparing for a bit of an adventure next week in Burma. After months of planning and reading and researching, there'll be a full Burma trip report along with all her photos (or maybe just a few, given that she's likely to take hundreds) on her return.

In the meantime, a speedy round-up of the week gone by, this week the Mice have mostly been...


Practicing our very best Dowager Countess one-liners in celebration of the return of Downton Abbey and Maggie Smith's win at the Emmy Awards this week. The absolute highlight of every episode of our favourite period drama and the very deserving winner of the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series Emmy - no one does cutting quite like the Dowager Countess Violet Grantham. Here for your Friday afternoon time-wasting pleasure are Maggie's best lines from Series 1 & 2 (we can't wait to see what other gems Series 3 brings...)

Counting Down to a very, very exciting day... Only six more sleeps until the 4th October, a day that all three Mice have been thoroughly overexcited about for a long, long while now... 

So first of all, next Thursday heralds the launch of the hotly anticipated Anna Dello Russo x H&M accessories collection. We blogged about the collaboration back in May and ever since then, have been lusting after the sneak peeks we've had of the line making mental shopping lists of all the pieces we'll be snapping up at the launch. Top of our ADR for H&M wishlist?

ADR x H&M Crocodile Sunglasses
GBP29.99/ HKD399

ADR x H&M Cuff

GBP29.99/ HKD399 

ADR x H&M Necklace

GBP29.99/ HKD399

Images via: www.hm.com

Not enough excitement for you? How about an evening date with Cosmo?! Yes, Thursday is the big night when the winners of the Cosmopolitan Blog Awards will be announced! We were beside ourselves with delirious glee when the nominations were announced back in July and we found out that we'd been shortlisted in the Best Lifestyle Blog category. Two months on, and its time for the London Mice to get all dressed up and head on down to the awards with all the other lovely nominees for a few cocktails and lots of blog chat. Expect a full report next week on what we wore, who we saw and who won what! 

Poring over the bumper tenth anniversary collectors' edition of The Sunday Times' Style Magazine. Packed to the brim with reviews of the decade's fashion and popular culture, interviews with the decade's top models and lots of glossy gorgeous photography as well as all of the usual Style awesomeness, we've been rationing ourselves to a couple of articles a day to make it last as long as possible.

First launched back in 2002, Style has gone on to become a total Sunday staple. In those days, HK Mouse was a penniless student scraping by with only enough money to buy VK Apple, Heat magazine and pizza. Not too keen on spending the equivalent of a vodka & red bull on a newspaper every week, she cunningly told her Dad she'd need him to pay for a subscription to the Times so that she could keep up to date with current affairs - essential to ensure that she passed her degree... Little did he know that everyday when the paper arrived on the doormat it was shoved on a pile in the living room - front page unopened, completely unread. Well there's only so many hours in a day - how's a student supposed to fit in studying, watching Neighbours (at 1:45 and 5:30), an afternoon nap AND reading the paper? 

However, every Sunday it was a totally different story. As soon as the paper arrived it was eagerly snatched from the mat, opened and then rifled through for the ultimate prize - the Sunday Times' Style. An hour later, Style devoured from cover to cover, the rest of the paper was tossed aside, consigned to the living room newspaper pile with the rest of the weeks' news. And not much has changed in ten years...(except that she's swapped Nottingham for Hong Kong and a paper copy for the iPad version).

If you're also a bit of a Style fan (and even if you're not), the ten special Birthday issue front covers, each featuring one of the decade's top models, are available for you to snap up here for the bargain price of just GBP4.99 (plus p+p if you live outside of the UK). We think they're look great framed and hung on a wall.

Here are our favs...

Images via: thesundaytimes.co.uk

Raving to anyone who'll listen about the latest Ms Mr track - Dark Du Wop. We first posted about Ms Mr back in July and since then have been listening to Bones and Hurricane on a loop. Not since Lana Del Rey's Video Games have we loved a track so much. Gorgeous melody, hauntingly beautiful vocals and a video that makes your heart hurt (did we mention that we loved it...). If you haven't already heard it, we order you to check it out immediately... 

Happy Friday everyone, have a great weekend!
x
The Mice

3BM Best Bits: NYFW SS 13

One down another three to go. 

As London Fashion Week kicks off, we round up our best bits from NYFW which wrapped up, across the pond, on Thursday.

Christian Grey Turns Muse

In a most un-springlike twist, the New York catwalks were awash with leather, harnesses and black lace - do we detect a little Fifty Shades inspiration?! From harnesses at BCBG Max Azria to leather and lace at Jason Wu, Christian and Ana were clearly mood board staples...

Images via: www.style.com

Catwalk Catfights at Zac Posen

Emotions clearly run high during fashion week when the world's fashionistas are dashing around from show to show existing on coffee, cigarettes and three hours' sleep. Irrespective of that, we weren't quite expecting slapping at Zac Posen but slapping's what we got...

When fire marshals made last minute adjustments to the seating arrangements at the Zac Posen show, sixty seats were unexpectedly scrapped leading to one very angry French fashion journo and one very slapped American PR. Jalouse Editor, Jennifer Eymere, apparently followed the slap up with the utterance "Don't f*** with the French".

Seems that maybe the PR's having the last laugh though having just sued Eymere for US$1million for assault, battery, emotional distress, slander and libel...

Image via: www.graziadaily.co.uk

From Dawson's Creek to Fashion Week
It seems it's a year of firsts for Katie Holmes. First divorce, first time taking Suri in a cab and now first time showing at NYFW. Choosing not to stage a catwalk show but rather to keep it low key with an intimate presentation of fifteen looks to just 150 people, Katie seemed to be shying away from making this yet another media circus. We were particularly taken with the button-fronted black maxi dress and long-line tuxedo jacket and the ruby red short shorts and buttery camel-coloured suede cape. Well played Katie! 

Image via: www.latimes.com

Images via: www.style.com

Surprise Catwalk Guests

Naomi Campbell at Zac Posen and Liberty Ross at Alexander Wang, it was a week of unexpected catwalk appearances. Campbell who also joined Twitter on the day of the show (and to date already has almost 20,000 followers...), drew gasps of excitement when she stormed down the runway.

Image via: www.style.com

Liberty Ross walked for Alexander Wang, her first appearance since Kristen-gate broke seven weeks ago. Looking beautiful but fierce in a white outfit with cut-outs, Ross definitely sent out the message that she was back in business. 

Image via: www.style.com

Harper Made her Catwalk Debut
While it wasn't her first time sitting front row (it was her third time nach...), Harper Beckham made her catwalk debut last week at the tender age of just fourteen months...

We predict that it won't be long before she's strutting out in front of Anna Wintour & co...Looking chic and perfectly put together, Harper accompanied her Dad to the Victoria by Victoria Beckham show and then perched on her Mum's lap while she sat transfixed by the models stalking the runway. We've said it before and we're sure to say it again, what would we give to be Harper?! Sigh...

Images via: www.harperbeckhamfashion.blogspot.com

Indian Princess Met Daisy Buchanan at Marchesa

Always a show we look forward to with baited breath, Marchesa was our absolute stand out collection of NYFW this year. Complete over the top escapism, these were red carpet gowns heavily inspired by India but with a light sprinkling of Great Gatsby-esque chic. Rich jewel tones and intricate gold embroidery pervaded but our favourite pieces were those embellished with fringing and cast in twenties silhouettes. Breathtakingly stunning, we can't wait to see Hollywood's elite parading them down a red carpet in the very near future.

Images via: www.style.com

ADR got Snappy & had a Fashion Shower

It's just a matter of weeks until we can finally get our mitts on what promises to be the best H&M collaboration for a while (and based on our previous H&M collaboration excitement, that's clearly saying something...). Anna Dello Russo for H&M looks to be a mind-bendingly amazing menagerie of uber-fab accessories. In New York last week, ADR rocked a pair of crocodile sunnies and blingtastic A earrings from the collection sending our accessories lust into overdrive. 

Image via: www.harpersbazaar.com

And as if that wasn't enough, ADR has also released a video celebrating the launch of the collaboration where she models the collection while singing about her ten fashion rules. We have this on a loop over at Mouse Towers... PURE GENIUS!

London, you have a LOT to live up to!

Who Wore It Better? - ADR & LDR in Alberta Ferretti in Cannes

What's black and white and fab all over?

LDR & ADR in Alberta Ferretti in Cannes of course!

Proving that simple and sleek has just as much fashion punch as elaborate detailing, the queen of style and the princess of pop, both chose Alberta Ferretti AW12 for their Cannes red carpet appearances this week.  

Image via: www.style.com

Last week we pored over images of Lana Del Rey looking old-school Hollywood stunning in black Alberta Ferretti on the red carpet in Cannes.  Still channeling the distinctly gothic vibe that she'd adopted at the Met Gala, LDR dropped the cape and the vampy lips and instead went back to her Rita Hayworth pin-up roots with tumbling russet curls and relaxed glamour.  We loved the Chopard necklace against the scalloped neckline - one of our top LDR looks to date. 

Images via: www.elle.com

At 24 years Lana's senior, it may seem a risky strategy for Anna Dello Russo to have chosen to wear the exact same dress as the Video Games star just a couple of days later.  This is ADR though... Going white and adding a va va voom train, Anna Dello Russo made the Alberta Ferretti gown her own.  Keeping the accessories simple, ADR let the angelic dress do the talking - and doesn't that expression scream "Lana who?"...

Images via: Anna Dello Russo's Twitter and www.cocosteaparty.com