Another Coach bag...Love it!

It was only the last week when I was out at a thrift store with the other blond and her mom, Lee, that I complimented Lee on the beautiful leather purse she was carrying. She always has the cutest bags. And, of course, she had found it at a thrift store for only a few dollars. I told her I was jealous as I never seemed to find very nice leather purses when I'm out poking around.

Well, the goddess of vintage leather bags must have heard me because it was the same day I found the two bags I mentioned in my last two blogs and I just found this Coach bag in perfect condition at the Salvation Army early Black Friday sale.

Oh, how I do love a nice bag...and shoes, but that's a whole-nother fetish.

This one looks like it might go to a buyer in Australia, and I'm going to keep my eye out for more at the thrift stores.I know I'll find one that will have to be ripped from my cold, dead hands before I put it for sale in my etsy shop, but so far I'm happy to send them out in the world and make a little profit to boot.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone and happy thrift storing! I'm going to a sale at a thrift store on Black Friday, can't wait!

Juggler - A Circus Act or Recipe for Disaster

An update on the leather bag in my last post (the one that hadn't sold yet and I was kind of hoping didn't because I wanted to keep it for myself) - it sold too. Which is good for my etsy shop's bottom line, but not for my wardrobe.

So today I will box that up,


along with a divided vintage Melmac bowl that also sold the other day, and head to the post office.

Then home to put on the domestic goddess hat and clean my house and catch up on the laundry.

Because tomorrow I have my second day on my new job and a half-off sale at the Salvation Army for some new merchandise for the shop.

And I really want to get two submissions out to agents of my last manuscript, still can't quite give up on my pursuit for publication.

And my youngest has a food drive for Boy Scouts on Saturday, so up early to drive around the neighborhood scoring canned corn.

And my oldest needs to be run back and forth for set crew all week and weekend because the play starts Saturday afternoon....
Can you hear the circus music in the background as all the balls are juggled in the air, or is that just me?

Ah well, nothing more than most people do anymore with jobs and kids. I'll just keep smiling like the clown...no, wait...not the clown. Clowns kind of creep me out. More like the lady on the high-wire as she smiles brightly while walking carefully across the abyss.

You know what? Its all good, I just remembered I love the circus.

You Old Bag

Some times I feel a bit...well...old.

Especially this week when my son turned 16. How could my baby be 16?! We are going to get his driver's permit next week. Ahhh.

Or, when I'm introduced to my husband's colleague who reveals in the course of our conversation that he graduated college in 2001. Wasn't that, like, yesterday? I gasp. How is he a grown-up, accomplished professional-type guy and graduated in this millennium? I sound old even to myself.

But age has its advantages too. In my early forties vs. my early twenties, I don't wake up hung over after doing beer bongs in smelly frat house basements. I don't buy used-cars based solely on how cool they look and then continually find my cool ass stranded on the side of the road.

And I think I have a little more character than I did in my misspent youth. I don't even mind how my years have made smile lines (I like to refer to them as "smile lines" instead of crows feet) around my eyes (mostly, occasionally I panic a little as I scrape the bottom of my Oil of Olay bottle). I think this applies to well-made leather bags too.

Last week at my favorite thrift store I came across this vintage Coach lady's attache-shaped leather bag. I think it has gained character in its years, the leather buttery soft and supple. And a customer in New York City agreed with me, she bought it an hour after I put it on my site.
And this vintage Stone Mountain leather slouchy bag was in the same bin at the thrift store. It hasn't sold yet, but I'm not sure I'm disappointed about that - might need to keep it for myself.

In fact, I think I will wear my old bag with pride - along with my crows feet -- while I'm teaching my son to drive and telling him the story of how in my day I didn't even have a car but had to walk to school uphill, both ways.