2018 resolution - shopping my own bag and wallet collection. Any one else?

[HopelessBagGirl]

Oh I'm so relieved a couple of you know where I was coming from with my query. In my IRL life it's also either your birthday or its not and the idea of a whole month seems a bit foreign to me. But since I've been away from the US for ages I just figured it was more reverse culture shock. I was nervous to ask for fear of it coming across as snarky to those who use the phrase.
I love how spark's family makes a fuss of each other. I would totally do that and do that to some extent with my kids except it's pretty much consolidated to just the actual day and party day if they are different, and with my husband he hates being the center of attention and he has no interest in making a fuss over me so the adults get no fuss. Boring!

 

[Cookiefiend]

I love this idea for your DH! How fun, and truly in the spirit of appreciating a loved one on their b-day.

I never heard of celebrating a birthday month before tPF, but it would have been a great solution for my birthday as a child. My birthday falls very close to Memorial Day, so my friends were always away when my mother was planning my birthday party. Now, I kind of like that my b-day falls around a holiday weekend, but as a kid, it sucked!

+1
I love that idea too - so sweet!
We have birthday weekends - because it can be hard to celebrate on the day of!

 

[dcooney4]

I like Sparkletastic idea of doing things that show you love the person. The notes idea is wonderful and doesn’t involve money.

 

[ElainePG]

My bag wardrobe
Tidy bag setup = peace of mind

And updated family pictures of what’s inside

Wow, @Miss_Dawn , what a feast for the eyes! I love the way you revealed your bags by color. Such a well-curated collection. And your storage system is excellent.

 

[ElainePG]

I’ve celebrated my (and my family members’) birthday month for as long as I can remember. My parents actually did this with me.

It’s really about two things that have zero to do with consumerism / presents. First, it’s about having fun with the people you love and making a huge deal out of the fact that you “get” to have them in your life. A month of fun activities, focused on the person makes them feel super special. For example, when Mr. S turned 50, on one of the days in his bday month he awoke to learn he had to scavenge around the house for 50 notes - each saying something different that I love about him. It took him almost a month to find all of them and he looooooved it. Fun things like that happen all during our birthday months.

Second with super busy lives and rotating days of the week on which the birthday falls, it allows for fully celebrating the person no matter what else comes up on the specific day. It’s takes the pressure off of making a birthday that lands on a Tuesday when people may be studying for a final exam, traveling for business or sick, etc. feel special when it can be fully celebrated on another day. Or when a celebratory trip is planned for a completely different week.

So, I adore bday months and wouldn’t have it any other way.

I love, love, LOVE the scavanger hunt you designed for your husband's 50th birthday. What a sweet and loving thing to do.

My DH have celebrated "birthday weeks" (mine in December, his in March) for years. Just because it's fun.... not to get extra presents. The Birthday Person just gets to feel special for a whole week, rather than just The Day Of. My memory is that this started a long time ago, when we were both doing a lot of business-related travel and often were apart on birthdays... his more than mine, since mine is December 25.

I agree with you that having a birthday week, month, or whatever takes the pressure off the rest of the family to pinpoint the specific day in the midst of busy lives. Besides, any excuse to have more celebration time works for me!

 

[Sparkletastic]

tPF is the only place where I’ve heard people talk about their “birthday month.” Maybe it’s common in some places, but with the people I know IRL, it’s either your birthday or it’s not. I kind of feel like “birthday month,” is an excuse to shop all month long — not that that’s a bad thing!

I don’t know that people actually shop all month long for the birthday. Plus most TPFr’s seem to shop all month long every month. Hence the major slippage on the ban island threads. LOL!

I love this idea for your DH! How fun, and truly in the spirit of appreciating a loved one on their b-day.

I never heard of celebrating a birthday month before tPF, but it would have been a great solution for my birthday as a child. My birthday falls very close to Memorial Day, so my friends were always away when my mother was planning my birthday party. Now, I kind of like that my b-day falls around a holiday weekend, but as a kid, it sucked!

Thanks! We do try to be creative to keep things fun. Plus both of us are goofy. That helps. LOL!

My mother’s bday always fell around Memorial Day which was a bit of a hassle for her too.

Happy Birthday, Spark! hope you have a great time and fun!

Thank you!!!!

Oh I'm so relieved a couple of you know where I was coming from with my query. In my IRL life it's also either your birthday or its not and the idea of a whole month seems a bit foreign to me. But since I've been away from the US for ages I just figured it was more reverse culture shock. I was nervous to ask for fear of it coming across as snarky to those who use the phrase.
I love how spark's family makes a fuss of each other. I would totally do that and do that to some extent with my kids except it's pretty much consolidated to just the actual day and party day if they are different, and with my husband he hates being the center of attention and he has no interest in making a fuss over me so the adults get no fuss. Boring!

We definitely make a fuss over each other. For any reason. If someone has a good hair day, I want to celebrate. Lol!

And we’re pretty over the top in celebrating every single holiday. Literally. Here are pics from one of our Groundhog Day celebrations. That year we made groundhog pop up cookies. Lol! They were gawd awful disgusting to eat but it didn’t matter. We also have traditions like we always watch the “Groundhog Day” movie and wear these perfectly awful ground hog socks that my DD found. (This is my DD taking photos of the cookies for her instagram).

I think I celebrate a lot because my childhood was pretty austere in some ways. My parents worked SO hard to get ahead and put me in a good position. There wasn’t a lot of time or money (especially early on) for silly stuff. That made my birthday month super special as a result. My mom would make a shaped cake for each year of my bday. So on my 12th bday I got 12 cakes shaped like circus animals! (After that she switched to one amazing, over the top cake) Memories of those times made me want to feel that all the year as an adult. Hence me celebrating any and every thing! Heck, life’s is short and then you have stupid knee surgery. Why not?

I like Sparkletastic idea of doing things that show you love the person. The notes idea is wonderful and doesn’t involve money.

Thank you!!
Gifts you can buy can be pretty cool. (Especially when they are shiny. Lol!) But I think it’s still true that the thoughtful gifts mean more. I know when my kids do something meaningful for me I’m reduced to a pile of blubbering tears.

I love, love, LOVE the scavanger hunt you designed for your husband's 50th birthday. What a sweet and loving thing to do.

My DH have celebrated "birthday weeks" (mine in December, his in March) for years. Just because it's fun.... not to get extra presents. The Birthday Person just gets to feel special for a whole week, rather than just The Day Of. My memory is that this started a long time ago, when we were both doing a lot of business-related travel and often were apart on birthdays... his more than mine, since mine is December 25.

I agree with you that having a birthday week, month, or whatever takes the pressure off the rest of the family to pinpoint the specific day in the midst of busy lives. Besides, any excuse to have more celebration time works for me!

Yes, yes, yes! Any excuse to extend the fun!!!

 

[Sparkletastic]

Back to handbags.

I have a craving for a type of bag that I know is a disaster for me. I feel like I need a proper every day satchel / tote in my collection. Something serious and stately like a Birkin, LV Capucines or Burberry Banner that I could arm carry.

But, whenever I buy something like that, I don’t wear it. I’m not “stately” in my personal life. I like fun, small / medium (not mini) shoulder bags. The closest I have to a proper satchel is my YSL sm mono cabas. But it having black hardware makes it a little edgy. And it’s structured but soft so while it looks sophisticated, it doesn’t feel serious.

Do any of you ever get bag cravings that you know won’t work for you? Do you ever give in and just have the “one” of that style you couldn’t resist? Do you wear it?

 

[Sparkletastic]

Fun handbag trivia. Did you know that many times, the costume departments of TV shows and movies will create handbags out of bits of other bags for actors to wear? This way they don’t give free advertisement to brands who don’t pay sponsorship fees

There are people who specialize in handbags for TV. I guess like some people specialize in lighting design or soundtracks. http://dallas.culturemap.com/news/f...welry-tv-shows-dallas-tnt-crazy-ones/#slide=0

The tote carried by the lead actress on The Closer was made up from concepts from Furla and Prada. It was so popular they eventually sold its lookalike on QVC
Do you do any bag spotting on TV? Seen anything cool?

 

[Cookiefiend]

Fun handbag trivia. Did you know that many times, the costume departments of TV shows and movies will create handbags out of bits of other bags for actors to wear? This way they don’t give free advertisement to brands who don’t pay sponsorship fees

There are people who specialize in handbags for TV. I guess like some people specialize in lighting design or soundtracks. http://dallas.culturemap.com/news/f...welry-tv-shows-dallas-tnt-crazy-ones/#slide=0

The tote carried by the lead actress on The Closer was made up from concepts from Furla and Prada. It was so popular they eventually sold its lookalike on QVCView attachment 4278584
Do you do any bag spotting on TV? Seen anything cool?

HA!
Guilty as charged!
Diane Lane carries a very nice bag on House of Cards (last season) - I searched and searched to find what it was but never found a thing.

 

[Cookiefiend]

Back to handbags.

I have a craving for a type of bag that I know is a disaster for me. I feel like I need a proper every day satchel / tote in my collection. Something serious and stately like a Birkin, LV Capucines or Burberry Banner that I could arm carry.

But, whenever I buy something like that, I don’t wear it. I’m not “stately” in my personal life. I like fun, small / medium (not mini) shoulder bags. The closest I have to a proper satchel is my YSL sm mono cabas. But it having black hardware makes it a little edgy. And it’s structured but soft so while it looks sophisticated, it doesn’t feel serious.

Do any of you ever get bag cravings that you know won’t work for you? Do you ever give in and just have the “one” of that style you couldn’t resist? Do you wear it?

I have two weaknesses...
1) I love lady-like bags. The sort of bag Grace Kelly would carry, the darling little bags that I see on Insta from @focusonthefrock. My Miss Alligator is a lady-like bag and so is my new Gucci Padlock. They are terribly impractical for me - I need a bag I can put on my shoulder and get right into - but ohmigosh - how I love them. Like cray cray love.
(btw Sparkle - you were right about the Padlock - it is smaller and dressier than my Loewe, and not as easy to use…. but I still love it!)
2) Black purses. It's hilarious how much I love them. I'm always looking at them! In the past (as in pre-tPF) I bought them willy nilly and then either wore them to death (I still have a small Coach from the 80's) or discovered I didn't like something about them and then donated them.

 

[Miss_Dawn]

Back to handbags.

I have a craving for a type of bag that I know is a disaster for me. I feel like I need a proper every day satchel / tote in my collection. Something serious and stately like a Birkin, LV Capucines or Burberry Banner that I could arm carry.

But, whenever I buy something like that, I don’t wear it. I’m not “stately” in my personal life. I like fun, small / medium (not mini) shoulder bags. The closest I have to a proper satchel is my YSL sm mono cabas. But it having black hardware makes it a little edgy. And it’s structured but soft so while it looks sophisticated, it doesn’t feel serious.

Do any of you ever get bag cravings that you know won’t work for you? Do you ever give in and just have the “one” of that style you couldn’t resist? Do you wear it?

Sparkle, you just described my comfort zone. Often in fun colours, which takes away the stately, but this is the style I need for work most days. I have so many structured top handle bags. It’s a style I gravitate to, and I do wear it, but I like having a shoulder strap option to vary with hand carry.

 

[Miss_Dawn]

Wow, @Miss_Dawn , what a feast for the eyes! I love the way you revealed your bags by color. Such a well-curated collection. And your storage system is excellent.

That’s so kind of you, thank you!

 

[Miss_Dawn]

We celebrate everything too Here’s a "just because” surprise that was waiting for me when I finished work today

 

[whateve]

I just got a Christmas card from an eBay buyer who bought my Michael kors. She sent me a benjamin because she felt the auction ended way lower than it should have. That is the nicest random act of kindness since Odebdo sent me a gift Massaccesi Angelica in the mail this past summer. Pocket Purse Peeps are the best!!!!!! I'm just so floored. This will go for my kids' Christmas bounty!

That's amazing!

OOh that’s smart~! Even more next level would be to take a photo of the bag and make little laminated tags for the dustbags with a photo of the bag so you can see what it is. OR even more next level would be to take photos of the bags and have fabric printed with that picture and sent to an etsy seamstress to make custom dust bags from them so each dust bag clearly shows a bright and clear photo image of the bag inside!
I have too much time on my hands to ponder this....

I like the way you think!

 

[ipsum]

I think it’s classic and fits your aesthetic.

My auctions ended in abject misery. I’d NEVER do it again. My Celine went for nothing. My Dior went for half of what I got an offer for two days later on another site. NEVER again. So, I would set a starting bid no less than my minimum acceptable.

I appreciate your input. Only thing keeping me from purchasing is the price. I'd probably have to take a hit of $1-2.5k when I decide to sell it later.

So sorry to hear about your low ball sales. At least you don't have to allocate any time trying to resell them anymore. I'm glad you had better luck with jewellery. My instalment buyer offered to pay the rest before Christmas so I do hope to get at least one bag sold.

Do any of you ever get bag cravings that you know won’t work for you? Do you ever give in and just have the “one” of that style you couldn’t resist? Do you wear it?

My cravings literally get smashed in a second when I figure out certain models just don't fit me but I do have addiction towards white purses and lamb leather besides tan bags which are hearder to smash. White just doesn't work since I hate seeing stains. Lamb is so butterly soft and I do realistically believe it could work in smaller bags but I'll never buy a hollday in lamb again. Lesson learned.