This Week The Mice Have Mostly Been

Well, at the risk of scaring you off before you've finished the first sentence, this week has been an incredibly, incredibly dull week in Miceland... 

Well, it has in Hong Kong anyway. This Mouse has mostly been slaving away over stacks and stacks and stacks of documents. I hate whinging, so I'm not going to. But, let's just say, I've been going to bed every night this week at the sorts of times you usually only see when you've had fifteen Jager Bombs and a round or six of vodka jelly shots... Which given that it's Rugby Sevens week in Hong Kong, is exactly what my week should have been filled with. 

But, no Rugby for me, as I type this, I'm currently on a little lunch break, the first I've taken this week, and one I'm only rewarding myself because I miss the blog and I have now been awake and working non-stop for twenty nine hours and counting - so I'm basically feeling like this...

But because blogging about wanting to sleep is even duller than whining about work, here's a very brief canter through what's been keeping me sane during a pretty hellish week...

Nails Inc Gel Effect Polish
£14
If you have to sit on a call at gone 10pm, you may as well be doing something useful while you're listening... And if you're going to spend the next six hours watching your fingers flying across a keyboard, they may as well be pretty! I did a bit of a Sephora minesweep while I was in New York last month (rest assured a full on beauty haul post is in the works) and this bad boy was one of many beauty bits I snapped up. This shade is Downtown - a deliciously juicy watermelon pink (I may also have popped the coral-tastic Kensington Passage in my basket too...). These aren't actual gel/shellac polishes (see the London Mice's post on DIY-Shellac brand, NK1, if that's what you're after) but they are super shiny and definitely look gel-esque on. Sadly, they don't quite last a couple of weeks like gel, but, as someone who usually gets chips a couple of hours after painting my nails, I can vouch for the fact that these last longer than your average polish. They are quite pricey, but the colours are fab and you get a gorgeously glossy salon-worthy mani - exactly what I needed on a desk bound, dull Wednesday!

Mermaid Candle
US$50
Another New York find, this time a luxe orange blossom scented candle which has been flickering away at the edge of my desk long into the night over the last few days. On our Williamsburg wanderings, we came across girlie heaven, Catbird nyc. While I was trying on stacks of rings and lusting over shelvesful of other pretty bit and bobs, I spied a candle called 'Mermaid' and was immediately smitten. One sniff and I was totally whipping-out-my-credit-card-quicker-than-you-can-say-'overdraft' sold! I'm now trying to eek it out for as long as humanly possible...

Pretty desk accessories

I zipped up to the flower market in Prince Edward a couple of weeks ago and couldn't resist picking up an orchid from a little shop stuffed to bursting with every conceivable variety. The pot it came in was a bit of an eyesore, so as soon as I got home I whipped him out of his old home out and planted him in an old Diptyque candle pot - a much chicer new pad! He now sits right beside my laptop and makes me happy whenever I catch a glimpse of him!  

And a Little Bit of YSL Love 
I first blogged about these YSL Love Postcards almost two years ago and I've finally got round to framing and hanging them above my desk. The perfect eye candy for work-weary peepers! 

I got my set courtesy of the very lovely Mandy in Morocco who if you ask her very nicely will ship you your very own postcard-shaped scraps of love wherever you are in the world!

Elizabeth & James Nirvana White

US$22

And let's end on a sweet note - yet another NYC purchase - Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen's new perfume Nirvana White. The Fashionista sisters' new fragrance line comes in two varieties, a daytime White and a darker, sultrier, Black. I got drawn in by the adult version of sweets at the till while I was queuing to pay for the contents of my groaningly full Sephora shopping basket and snapped up this clutch-friendly rollerball version of White. I now wish I'd bagged the bigger version, I can't get enough of this clean, fresh peony amazingness - it's like spritz of spring whenever I spray it!

And with that I'm off to make a little bit more of a dent into the mountains of paperwork littering my desk... And then my friends, I have some pretty exciting Friday night plans which look a lot like this...

Happy Weekend!

x

The Mice

O Christmas Tree!

So the blog has been pretty much wall to wall Christmas ever since December rolled around and so today we thought we'd bring you…

…a little more Christmas!

Last Sunday quicker than you can say 'first of December' my super amazing advent calendar (thank you Middle and Mini!) was strung up and I was gleefully unpacking stocking number one…

 

...which was stuffed with four beautiful star-topped gold rings!

 

 

Next task for the day was to bag myself a tree so I zipped up to Prince Edward and hit the flower market which was jam packed with pine trees, wreaths and Poinsettia. After a little wander to check out what was on offer I settled on a tree packed shop and got down to the serious business of finding the one…

 

 

It didn't take long, within seconds, he caught my eye, I grabbed him, bundled him into the back of a van and whizzed him straight back to his new home. A little bit of fairy light festooning later and he was glittering proudly in the middle of my living room.

He wasn't the only festive touch in the flat though, hanging on the front door was a berry studded wreath

 

 

and over on the side was a twinkly little star.

 

 

But I couldn't leave my beautiful tree's branches bare so I got straight onto Pinterest to get some Chrimble-spiration. A few days and a bit of DIY-supply shopping later and I was ready to get crafty… First up, some fruity decorations…

 

These couldn't be simpler and have the added bonus of making your house smell festively scrumptious while they bake away! Take a bag of oranges, slice into rounds roughly a centimetre wide and pop them straight onto your oven shelf to bake at 135 degrees for an hour. Once the hour's up, flip your slices, turn the temperature down to 100 degrees and bake for another two hours or until the slices have dried out completely and aren't sticky to the touch.

Once your orange slices have cooled, take a needle and some gold thread, stitch through the flesh at the top of each slice, tie on a cinnamon stick and a little gingham bow, knot the thread, and there you have it - a kick of zesty festivity ready to be hung on your tree!  

 

Next I grabbed my rolling pin, mixed up a batch of salt dough and whipped up a flurry of snowflakes. After a couple of hours in the oven, my snow storm was ready to be painted white, sprinkled with glitter and strung up on the tree.

 

 

By now my tree was looking pretty drop dead gorgeous even if I do say so myself.

 

 

But there was still something missing…

 

As everyone knows, your tree's never fully dressed without a topper. As I already had my star twinkling away on the side, I decided what my tree needed was an angelic touch so I whipped up this little lady, she's called Gabrielle…

 

 

The perfect finishing touch. And the perfect inspiration for Saturday night's Christmas party outfit!

 

 

Only sixteen more sleeps until the big day, hope you've sent your Christmas letters off to the big man up in the North Pole and that you're making sure you're being particularly nice. No one wants to wake up on Christmas morning to find a stocking filled with coal...

 

Ribbons, Roses, Parrots & Goldfish: Market Hopping in Hong Kong

If you decided you were going to open a shop selling goldfish you'd probably think that the worst place to set up shop would be on a street full of goldfish shops. Hong Kong however doesn't seem to follow this logic. Shops and stallholders gather in neatly categorised sections around Hong Kong providing us with a one stop spot for all our goldfish/ floral/ dried seafood needs.

Whether you want peonies or pearls, fighting fish or fabric, there's a market in Hong Kong that has all the choice you'd ever want and more. Fancy stacking your wrists with jade bangles? Head to the Jade Market. On the look out for a beckoning lucky cat? Take a wander around Temple Street Market. "Lewis Vuitton" handbags more your thing? There's a stall willing to take your cash in exchange for a "genuine one-off" at the Ladies' Market.

When I want to stock up on armfuls of lilies and fashion DIY supplies, I sharpen my elbows, get my haggle on and head out to the markets. Even if I'm not looking for a retail fix (unusual admittedly), the markets are one of my favourite places to head with my camera. Always bustling and crowded this is where locals and tourists alike can be found jostling for the best buys. Noisy, dirty and gritty you feel worlds away from the clinical, luxury brand stuffed shopping malls.

Last weekend I headed out for a bit of a wander armed with my trusty Nikon and a couple of hundred dollars. Here's my tour of a couple of my favourite markets in photos.

Starting out on the hunt for bits and bobs for some new season wardrobe DIY, I caught the MTR up to Sham Shui Po where I bypassed the streets packed with electronics stalls and headed for the fabric and haberdashery shops.

Laden down with ribbons, studs and gems, I ducked into a fabric shop to look for offcuts of chiffon but the shopowner was far too busy at the back of the store intently concentrating on a game of Mahjong (a very popular Chinese game which is a bit like dominoes crossed with Rummy).

After winding back through stalls looped with coils of electric cabling, jumbles of chains and radios that look old enough to have been called 'wirelesses' by their original owners, I hopped back on the MTR for one stop to Prince Edward, gateway to a host of different markets.  First stop, the flower market, an area packed with shops and stalls selling every conceivable variety of plant and flower. 

As the riot of colourful trays of orchids and lotus flowers come to an end, you come to Yeun Po Street Bird Garden. Rows of stalls selling birds, bamboo cages and other avian knick-knacks are surrounded by alcoves where bird owners come to 'walk' their pets, let them enjoy the fresh air and sing. Gaggles of old men gather on benches while their birds hang beside them twittering away in their cages.

Doubling back on myself, I wandered back through the flower market picking up three bunches of lillies for HK$100 (about £8) and grabbing a well-deserved iced-coffee. Next stop, Fa Yuen Street Market - much more of a mish mash of stalls selling everything from Hello Kitty watches to heaps of Dragonfruit. Late on a Saturday afternoon this bustling strip of Mong Kok was packed with shoppers but a little group of men had found space to set up a couple of stools and a table for a spot of impromptu Yum Cha.

Wielding my lilies, I cut through the crowds bartering over t-shirts and battled on to the Goldfish Market. Here the streets are lined with shop after shop selling a veritable Great Barrier Reef of fish. Shoals of thumnail-sized, cobalt blue tropical fish dart around aquarium tanks next to racks of water-filled plastic bags from which shy looking Nemos gaze out at you. Symbols of good luck and the perfect pet for the typically shoe-boxed sized flats of Hong Kong, goldfish are very popular here and this is one of the busiest corners of Mong Kok.

Tired and all shopped-out I dragged my weary feet and slightly battered lilies back to Mong Kok MTR station where a very welcome air-conditioned carriage whisked me back to Central. 

The perfect afternoon of shutter-bugging and shopping.