My Love of Purses

My love of purses began at a very early age. Earliest known sightings are age two at Easter. 

I have had one on my person ever since. Purses were the most important package under the Christmas tree as a child. I am not proud of it, but in 7th grade, I absolutely thought life might be over if I didn't have one of the box purses that everyone was carrying at the time. I spied the perfect one at Gayfers (oh, I still miss Gayfers) in Pensacola. It was navy with orange flowers...you can clearly see how that would be the one..right?! (War Eagle) Well, Mama left the house one day, and I did the unthinkable for my rule following self. Yes, I opened the package to peek in and make sure she got the right one. I taped that little package right back up and thought, Whew!, she got it right. All would be well, for school after the new year. I am not proud of that at all!

There are more of these pictures than anyone would want to see.

I have a definite problem with purchasing too many purses. My family just rolls their eyes. I can't even sneak one in the house anymore. I am always on the look out for the perfect one to store all my belongings, because I am one of those Nancy Drew kind of people that is sure I need to have that item in my purse. You never know when you will need to reach in and grab something for the occasion. Not good for the shoulders, and I have to be careful about buying one not too large, but I certainly can't go for those small bags either. 

I have had some favorites over the years that I have used longer than others, but I just can't pass by a purse display and not look and ponder the possibilities that a particular one might hold.

Important one too... Bermuda Bag that matched the suit Mama made. Pink ribbon. Yes, this was a masterpiece of matching attire.

Some of my favorites have been a Liz Claiborne purse that I carried around in the 90's when the children were smaller. I really like that one, and it didn't even have a lot of pockets. I think it was the shape of it. The late 80's had me with one in the shape of a rectangle with two side by side zip of compartments that I really liked. That one kept me organized. I was never good with those big bottomless pits with no form to them. They might look kind of stylish for the hippies, and I would be drawn to them, but they were no good for daily use and would often end up at the bottom of my pile to be taken to Goodwill. 

I must say I don't really care about the brand, just functional as well as the CUTENESS factor. I fell in love with Vera Bradley's sometime after the 2000's and I have had more of those than I can even really count. They were a school teacher's dream. Totes too...oh my, that is a completely different obsession. Teacher Totes!!!

I love fabric stores and the endless of array of patterns and colors, so could there be any wonder that I would become obsessed with a Vera? I mean really, all those patterns. However, the thing that I loved the most was the pockets. Organization galore. I have had every kind of purse you can imagine in Vera Bradley. Oh, and yes, they are purses, not handbags to me. I am not sure why, but they are purses. I have had different favorites at different phases of life. Anyway, I felt in the past few years, the brightly colored fabric purses were losing their swagger. I was sad, because I was in love with them. I began to look around this wonderful thing called the Internet and learn that I could capture everything in small bags (Vera, of course) and still be organized with a leather type tote, so that set me off on new adventures.

The reason this post came about was this past weekend. I went shopping with my dearest daughter. She had birthday gift cards to spend and off to Destin we went. She just had to take me in this new store to look at jewelry. Well, let's just say, she looked at jewelry, but all I could see was purses galore. I made an impulse purchase, which BTW, her job is too keep me from making any more purse purchases, because even after a purse purge this past spring, my collection was vast and ridiculous, I might add.

I came home with said purse, used it the next morning for church and realized it was totally wrong. A purse must have a wide opening to be useful with or without pockets. IT CANNOT be too deep because keys can be lost in a cavern. IT must be wide enough for my wallet to go in and not have to be on its side. I just hate my wallet on its side. I think that goes back to my precious Grandma. She always had a wide but not deep purse that she used as a FILING CABINET. Ask her where anything was, and it would be in her purse in an envelope, neatly filed away in her purse. She would just peruse through her files until she found it. I wonder if things were alphabetized...probably not, that would just be for truly crazy people like me.

Ok, I digress, back to the impulse purchase. Oh darn, I am going to drift again. Lately, I have done that a ton lately. That is the problem with blogs and Instagram. They cause me to make impulse purchases. I  had a come to Jesus meeting with my self this week over purses and impulse purchases. NO MORE!!! 

Anyway, after realizing my mistake, I took to my closet where I store this wonderful assortment of purses and decided a real purge or at least as much of a purge as someone with a REAL PURSE PROBLEM is able to accomplish, needed to take place. I pulled out six and listed them on EBAY. I sold one already. Didn't make much because shipping is out of control these days, but it was really about trying to tame my addiction. My mom will get a few. She loves my cast offs.

I still have too many, but there will be no new purchases anytime soon, AND furthermore, I will still carry a patterned Vera Bradley even if they are not so vogue anymore.

Now, if you have stuck with me this far, you will have to come back soon, because I am not finished with this post. Like I said, I LOVE purses, so I can find plenty to write about.

We will venture into the closet of purses and even inside my purse if you dare.

Until then...

A stroll down memory lane with purses I found on the Internet that I once had....

I had one like this in 7th grade. Clasp was different.

8th grade and mine was love green. I really liked this one. I even have a photo of it in the yearbook sitting on my desk.

And this was the ONE, that I opened a Christmas package for. Navy background with little orange flowers.

Hope you survived the purse story,

Sandy