first fatality of purse week, purse shopping with Mom, & my daughter fell in love with an ugly bag (gasp)

First let me start out by sending my heart felt condolences to - myself and a mateless right shoe.

It seems that during the purse photo shoot I moved a pair of shoes to the top of the closet, where it fell to it's death somewhere between the hours of 1800 and 2400 hours. Of course the fall was not the cause of death, it was the torture that ensued once on enemy territory. A dog that I am not speaking to today, found the poor lost sole and devoured the straps, like the animal that she is!

I got these fun shoes for my birthday and they were amazingly comfortable. I actually bought them and then Megan took them off my feet, handed me cash and wrapped them so I could open them at family dinner. Look, just what I wanted!

I had planned to wear them with my bag from BJ, but alas it will never be. Rest In Peace.

Ok onto happier times:

So I had planned what to talk about tonight, but I got a hot lead that I had to follow.

My mom called today and said "where is the best place to buy a purse?" WHAT? Hu? what was going on, this is so random, yet it was I she was calling as a purse consultant - yippee. I told her without hesitation "ROSS, what's going on?" She said that since it was purse week (yeah!) that her and her friend Joann were going to go get one for a lady they work with who has a birthday this week.

I got so excited, you know, the purse shopping rush. I immediately asked if I could go with them and document the trip. They said yes (but I know they thought I was kidding, or crazy, or both).

Well Jojo and I met them at the said Ross after work. I had already scoped it out and had fallen in like, maybe even love a few times. We had fun looking and scouring the racks.

Now, this is not an ad for Ross, it is just that if you want a very large selection and want to get the most for your money without spending hours on sale racks, Ross is a very good place to do it. They have many brands, several isles, styles and the tag shows original price and markdown price. They try to keep them organized and do a pretty decent job of it.

We searched for the bag for the lady they work with, and then I (might have pressured) encouraged them to get new bags for themselves.

They were so cute, Joann fell in love with her backpack purse immediately. This is the first BLACK BAG she has ever bought! Come to find out she is a brown bag girl usually. Get this, she even bought a pair of BLACK Clarks AND a BLACK wallet to match! I loved your finds Joann.

Now onto Mom. She had several characteristics she was looking for: not small, big is ok, lots of pockets and/or compartments so she can keep it organized, and a decent strap that would hang nicely on her shoulder and wouldn't be cumbersome. She was a good sport, I don't actually know if she wanted a new bag, but I was not letting her give up. We looked at A LOT of bags, picked a few, put down a few and finally found the one.

What about me you ask. Well yes in the search I did fall in love with a beautiful silver Kathy Van Zeeland bag, it fit perfectly on my shoulder and was the loveliest bag there. The original tag was $99 and was marked at $39. I think that officially made it one of the most expensive bags there. I (am a dork) went to the cashier and asked her if there was a way this was mismarked, it wasn't marked down enough. She looked at me, then the tag confused. She said "that's the price". SHOOT! I solemnly walked back the the purse department and said farewell to the most beautiful bag I had seen all day. I can't pay $40 bucks for a bag that was $99, that's like only 60% off, that doesn't even give me bragging rights. (that's it, the one Mom is holding)

Although I walked out empty handed, Jojo found the littlest, ugliest purse with lots of fashion less things going on. HOWEVER it was $1.50 (marked down from $25) and Mom and Joanne thought she needed it. So there we go, ugly bag for cheap. (I'm sorry there is no picture, I'm too vain to mess up my blog's ambiance with it's homeliness)

Thanks for letting me hang out with your girls, I know you weren't thrilled about the camera - but you were wonderful!!

I hope you love your new bags!