A Walk Through Handbags

I have three designer purses.

Three.

Coach. Linea Pelle. Rebecca Minkoff.

The Rebecca Minkoff is the most recent edition to my tiny collection. None of these designers is so called high end, but I still like them. I've lusted after Rebecca Minkoff purse for years, at least four. I stare at them, see the price and find myself sighing loudly and waiting for a sale. When I lived in the Dirt Hole, I told myself I'd hit up the after Christmas sale next year, as I was amazed at how much I could get a Morning After Bag for (now I don't remember the price).

I never did buy one.

Then, in the fall (I think), I discovered Bluefly. Or rediscovered it. I don't know what lead me there, or how I got there, but I was there, looking at Rebecca Minkoff purses and drooling once again. One day, I was going through the SUPER SALE on handbags the site was having and came across this Linea Pelle bag that was, well, TARDIS blue. I thought the brand name looked familiar, so I used Purse Blog to check it out and sure enough, it was a brand they'd covered. They had even reviewed the bag.

So I bought it. For something like $180, which for the fracking size of this bag, that was a good price. (It's leather.) I was so excited when it finally showed up. It's really a great purse. It's HUGE. Things get lost. But you can cram a whole coat in it! Among other things.

Well, it's summer now, and technically, I could carry a purse of my own creation. But then it rains and cotton purses don't do well in rain. So, I kept carrying my TARDIS blue hobo bag. (Which did really well this winter. You just brush the dirt off!)

A few weeks ago, I was staring at Facebook. Or Twitter. Or both at the same time. One of these outlets informed me of a sample sale Rebecca Minkoff was having.

Online.

My eyes bugged out.

I wasn't holding out too much hope, as the last few collections she's come out with haven't really caught my fancy. Why? Because I'm boring. I like her orignal line of handbags. I don't like my handbags cluttered with...zippers, studs, or whatever. I like Nikki, the Morning After Bag, Morning After Clutch and the Manatiee (a bag she doesn't really make any more...) I like the mini versions of these bags. (Well, not the MAC mini, it's just too small.)

The sale was going on a week. Or something. And daily, the selection changed. Sometimes it changed hourly. (Yeah, I checked it often.) I know what I want, which is a tragic thing as usually when I know what I want, I cannot find it. However, low and behold, the bag I wanted magically appeared.

Well, one of them.

The Nikki and MAB that were on sale weren't what I wanted. I wanted colored leather, not too bright, with silver hardware. Most of the bags seemed to carry gold. Not into gold. Then it appeared: a full size MAC in purple with silver hardware.

I stared at it for a full twenty four hours before I bought it. I spent the next day freaking out, but then rationalized myself off the ledge. I was bouncingly giddy by the time it arrived. I opened the box and found the purse packaged the same manner I package my own purses (tissue paper with a sticker bearing the designer name). Granted, the bag was also in a plastic bag and came with a dust bag, but it was similar.

I spent the day peeking at the purse, unsure if it was really here. I still catch sight of it and think, "Do I really actually OWN a Rebecca Minkoff purse? Did I really only pay less for it than I paid for my hobo bag?"

Yes. That is the answer to all those questions.

The Coach purse cost roughly $300 dollars. I used it till I wore it out. I spent a lot of money on it, when I didn't really have a lot of money, but I had my first real job and I wanted a nice purse. After I got it, I always regretted not getting the little hobo bag in all leather and going for the stupid bag in canvas. But, I still brought it out when I needed a "nicer" purse. The major issue with it: it's a arm purse, meaning it's meant to be carried on your forearm or in your hand. It fits over my shoulder and into my armpit, but it's not meant to be there. And don't try it if you're wearing a winter coat. You'll pull a muscle.

It got squished in our last move. I unpacked it and it was...dented.

I tried to be outraged. I tried to get mad.

I didn't care.

This of course alarmed me greatly. I should care. I spent three hundred freaking dollars on a purse! What is wrong with me!?!?!?!?

So I hung it on the back of the closet door and forgot about it. I have not carried it since I left the Dirt Hole, which was when I discovered a plastic bit sticking out of the bottom piping and thought, "WTF? I paid three hundred dollars for this stupid purse."

When I traded the Linea Pelle hobo for the MAC, I put it in its dust bag (after I fished it out of the pantry...dont' ask) and hung it on the back of the door with the Coach bag (which has a dust bag, I just don't know where it went.)

I ought to find the Coach dust bag. I think I stuffed with fabric remains.

The Linea Pelle purse isn't falling apart. Granted, I only carried it through the fall and winter, but still, I dont' think it's got any plastic bits in it. Honestly, plastic bits?

I love the MAC. It the perfect size for me and things don't get lost. I also can wear it cross body, so it doesn't fall down on my arm and try to rip it off. I could use a smaller wallet though, as my wallet takes up the whole purse almost.

Not that there's much I carry besides the wallet.

The wallet is Coach. I bought it after the purse, at an outlet mall. The day after Thanksgiving. It's leather. Brown and cost roughly 80 bucks. And would have matched the purse I should have gotten instead of the one I got.

Notice a trend? The one I paid the most money for, I regret getting at all. Hmmmm....mental note: only buy things on sale.

Black Friday Bust

Well, I got my sale notice up, posted several new purses and has hardly any hits. I know there are a few more hours left in the day (not to mention the weekend), but this whole Black Friday thing has been a major bust for me. And not just sale wise.

I've been tired and freezing all day long. I fell asleep on the couch for awhile, woke up groggier than before. My back aches (still) and I seem to have come to the end of the internet. I just don't know what to do with myself.

I don't do shopping on Black Friday. I have never really been shopping on Black Friday. I think maybe once or twice I've ventured out. Once I went to Carsons on Black Friday. I remember freaking out and leaving. Last year I went to Wally Martinos. There was like no one there. I cannot remember why we went there, but we did. I remember we had a large conversation about whether to go. And one year, the first year I knew my husband, I spent Thanksgiving in Indiana and was totally bored the day after. We went to the outlet mall and I bought a Coach Wallet for 80 bucks. I also did my Christmas shopping for the most part. Also, this time, there was hardly any one around. But I've never gotten up early to go shopping on Black Friday. I went to work early once. There was a huge line. For Best Buy. Where I did not work. We were busy that day at work, but not as busy as Best Buy. That was also my first day working the service desk. Someone threw a check at me. I can't remember why.

Well, my dog zonked out on the carpet in the family room. I'm thinking she's got the right idea.

Stalking the Morning After

I have been stalking the Morning After Mini bag by Rebecca Minkoff for about nine months now. I used to only stalk the bag online at her site, waiting for her to post new colors of the bag, wistfully thinking one might go one sale. Living in a dirt hole has given me a lot of time on my hands, so I have move past stalking the bag only on the designer's website.

Last week I went onto the Purse Blog Forum looking for information on the Bokier bags at Target and stumbled upon the tag for Rebecca Minkoff bags and found sites selling the bags. These sites have sales. The site I've taken to stalking on a daily basis now is Luna Boston, which has a new bag I've fallen for: The Mini Nikki. I always liked the Nikki bag, a classic hobo type of bag, but between the $600 price tag and the fact it looks HUGE, I wrote it off. But this mini! It seems to be the right size...

Not that I have the funds to be buying any purse over twenty bucks currently. I have been reading The Purse Blog for awhile now. At first I began reading it because I was researching Hermes bags for no reason other than I was bored and I liked to tell my husband I wanted one while he told me he wanted an expensive car. At some point I just took to reading the blog, as it fascinated me to no end. How did this writer do all this research on new purses, work, and still buy tons of handbags over the 1000 dollar mark? I still have no answer to that question and I am still amazed when she lists off the bags she has ordered/bought. I thought I was hot stuff when I bought my first Coach purse and wallet after I got my first 'real person' job. It was only after I had bought these two item did I realize that everyone and their mom has Coach bags and it did not make me special in any sense of the word. I had wanted it as a status mark: I had made it now! I owned a 300 dollar purse!

Whatever. Everyone from high school kids to grandma's own Coach purses. I needed something different. Thus, why I zeroed in on the Morning After Mini. It was only 200 more than I paid for that first stupid Coach purse. And not everyone I knew carried one.

In the dirt hole I've only seen Coach bags, or LV logo bags or knock offs of either two. No one carries a RM bag here.

I have realized I will not be owning one any time soon in the dirt hole. And yet the prospect of owning one fascinates me to no end. These people who spend a small fortune on handbags in a year fascinate me. And thus, I will continue reading about the newest Burberry bag or about how wonderfully soft and buttery leather is on a bag that I have never heard of. I will never join these people in owning pricey purses. I actually have recently realize I hate carrying a purse and wish my wallet had a chain or something so I did not actually need to carry a purse. I judge people by their purses and I always feel I do not have one to match with how I want to be judge, because I am a deep repressed cheap skate...I know people who will find that hard to believe, but alas, I am. I almost had a heart attack when I bought the Coach purse over two years ago or so, and I still sit there thinking, "God, did I spend that much on a purse? I am insane?"

And yet, now I dream of a more expensive one. But I am older and wiser now, thus I might not cave and believe I need it. I am insane. It happens to the best of us.