In the bag

Today we start the first installment in the Handbag Series at Orchard Ranch, with the fine specimen my colleague M-- brought me from her business trip to Italy last week. I handed her a fistful of dollars and asked her to pick something out for me as I love her taste, and here ya have it. Lavender glazed leather, with removable, reversible handles and a pleasant peridot green cotton lining. It's from Z&R, a shop in Brescia. M-- even marked the shop's location on a map for me. I've put my stuff in it already, making it the Current Purse of Choice. I really, really like this bucket shape.

For the past couple of years, I've been carrying really small purses. This habit goes back more than twenty years, to when I had a boyfriend who liked to hand things to me and say "here, put this in your purse for now." I'd end up with a shoulder- or backache because of the ton of things I was carrying around, so I downsized my bags in self-defense. And that was great for a long time, but in the past couple of years I've had to re-think this plan. To begin with, the Emperor doesn't ask me to put stuff in my purse (possibly because he's always known me only to have a small one). Then I started wearing prescription sunglasses, and my eentsy purses weren't big enough to carry them around, too. Consequently, I expanded my carrying wardrobe to include a tote bag. At first, I used whatever free floppy canvas bags were handed out by the most recent professional conference I had attended, but then, the Emperor gave me this for Christmas:


It's not all that big, but it carries everything I need beautifully. I use it as my carry-on bag for traveling, too, as it will hold an Aubrey-Maturin novel, an issue of Gourmet or Saveur magazine, a knitting project, and whatever else small bits I need and the top zips closed. I can tuck my tickets and the ziplock with my Burt's Bees lip balm in one of the side pockets. The fabric is heavy enough and the bag's sewn solidly enough to withstand the rigors of travel, and my teentsy purse will slip in on top in case the airlines decide that one may only take on a single piece of luggage.

No real craft news for now... I've been fighting off a cold and not much in the mood for picking up needles of any sort in the evening.