Adding a flowery touch to my handbag

I love colour, and quite often my handbags are colourful too. I do have some more sober ones, but they get used less if I’m honest. During the past year and the various lockdowns handbags have become kind of superfluous - as has lipstick - and it was way into the summer last year that I realised my purse and keys were still in my ‘winter’ handbag.

Since then I’ve mostly used a vintage tan handbag - which I’ve had since new! - and my favourite bright yellow Joules handbag, with a few excursions into bags for special outings, which at points during the past year or so could have been simply visiting a restaurant, afternoon tea or seeing family as special occasions have really been few and far between haven’t they?

But both the tan handbag and the yellow Joules bag have started to show signs of wear. I’ve bought some leather nourisher for the tan bag, which I have yet to get onto the leather and I know it won’t do any good until I do. It’s the straps though on the yellow bag, the top coating of the surface is peeling, and it’s not a good look. Since I’ve been wearing the bag on my shoulder more it’s taken to leaving the peeling yellow vinyl on my shoulder, so it looks as if I have a special kind of yellow dandruff on my left shoulder. So this needed fixing, but the bag’s too good, and too much loved, to be retired or fully replaced.

As it’s yellow buying new straps is possible, and I think will be the ultimate solution even if they’re a different colour but I needed something now to get me through. And so I’ve taken a slightly left field and creative solution.

The straps are the buckle sort, not the clip sort, which I think helps a bit. So detaching them from the bag, I’ve glued some pretty yellow and orange flowery bias binding around the straps (having first removed as much of the vinyl that was peeling as I could).

As I was gluing - just PVA craft glue - I realised it would be best for the straps to dry as they’ll be used, rather than dead flat. With the use of some pegs and the bannister on the top landing, I was able to recreate the handbag strap shape. I was quite pleased with myself!

I wasn’t sure how I’d finish the ends tidily, so I took a different approach and decided to stop the fabric just short of the buckle hole that I use. I looks a little peculiar without the buckle, but I was confident that it would look better when the straps were back on the bag.

And I’m really happy with how it turned out.

The next few days I’m going to be out and about for work more than I have since March 2020 and now I’m confident that I’ll be able to use my summer bag, which I know is big enough to chuck everything I need in, without the weird yellow dandruff - which is a very good thing!

And I get a individually styled handbag at the same time.

My vintage Boden: Classics that keep on being useful

When I learnt I could take two bags into the cabin on my recent trip to Kufstein and Munich, my heart did a little dance.  Not only because of the extra space, but also because I knew just which bag I'd take.  My new stylish Freitag bag was already earmarked for clothes, and I'd recently re-found this leather satchel bag, a purchase from Boden many years ago. I'm not sure how many years ago, but it's a good few. At the time I think I used it occasionally but it never became a regular go to handbag.

I liked it's classic styling and neutral olive green and brown colouring, and I knew it was a great bag, but it's taken its time for me to really appreciate its usefulness. I rediscovered it - not that it was actually lost - as I tried to locate my big woolly lime green scarf, also by Boden. The scarf was a regular go to item, along with the matching beret-style hat, being a regular addition to my velvet coat, also Boden, and also still hanging in the wardrobe in the spare room. I tell you, their stuff lasts.

I was looking out the scarf as with the forecast negative temperatures I knew I'd welcome something warmer than my now more usual fabric scarves. Unless it's very cold, these do me, mostly thanks to my overactive thyroid I guess, where internal body heat is never far away as I rarely feel the cold, even with medication to control my thyroid.

 With both found, I was struck by how good they looked together as they waited for the off, sitting patiently on the futon.

The scarf is well worn, but still soft and it's classic design means it'll have plenty more years in my wardrobe. At the time lime green was a bit of a departure for me colour-wise, but I still love it.

And the scarf came into its own in Munich where it was reportedly minus ten. I was wearing it, with my new bobble hat as I explored the Hofgarten in the snow, where I think my face tells you just how cold it was!

TRYING NOT TO LOOK TOO COLD, AND FAILING

So there you go, some savvy shopping in the past is paying rewards now. MOH is very much of the view that if you don't use something then you should chuck it out, whereas I've a different view where if I think I'll use it again, it's worth keeping. You'll know I aimed to throw out 2016 items last year, and didn't quite make it, but just imagine how disappointed I'd have been if I gave in and got rid of these.  And how chilly I'd have been in Munich too!

Do you hang onto things you'll use again, or have you got rid of things you now regret?  Or do you have things, like me, that you put away for a while only to enjoy them again when you pull them out of storage?  

Popping into the Tusting pop-up in Brick Lane

One of the evenings I had in my busy blog week recently was a trip into London's East End to visit the Tusting pop-up shop in Brick Lane. Tusting, if you don't know, are a luxury leather goods family firm based in between Bedford and Northampton, in the heart of leather country.

And they have a wide range of bags and briefcases with many of them on display during my visit. There were classic briefcases to modern totes, clutches and satchels and some gorgeous luggage which I was very tempted by. I'd craftily arranged MOH to meet me there, so we could ostensibly go out for dinner. But, as I'd hoped, I was also able to point out some potential items that would make a good Christmas gift for me. I've learnt over the years that subtle doesn't work with MOH.

Statements like "this would make a nice Christmas present for me, wouldn't it?" work much better. And usually a week or so later, he'll remember and say did you really want that, and sometimes he surprises me without mentioning the item at all and then when I unwrap it I'm surprised. Often surprised he was listening, but it seems he hears more than he lets on...

So what would be on my Christmas list?

Well first up, it'd have to be their signature tote, the Kimbolton, in either the caramel or orange. And in case you're wondering the orange was much more vibrant than in my photo below. Very orange. And I did like that. 

KIMBOLTON LEATHER TOTE IN CARAMEL SADDLE

OR MAYBE IN HONEYDON ORANGE?

But when I saw this shades of pink tote, I was drawn to it. The colours are officially aubergine, blossom and rose, and it is gorgeously soft.  Plus what I quickly learnt was the Tusting approach to detail, just look at the interior.

ASHTON LEATHER TOTE SMALL IN AUBERGINE BLOSSOM AND ROSE

DETAILS IN THE INTERIOR

It was the pink though that held me back. I know, what is happening?  But I saw the tan, navy and cream colourway and realised these are much more my colours this autumn. I did well to put this one back on the display shelf. In fact the only thing stopping me was it's open top, I prefer to be able to protect the contents of my bag with either a zip or fold over flap (yes, that's a technical term!)

ASHTON LEATHER TOTE SMALL IN TAN, NAVY AND CREAM

But then I saw the Donna, and confusion reigned. It's a classic isn't it?

DONNA LEATHER HANDBAG IN CRIMSON RED

Or there was the luggage. Another classic both in design and colourways. The canvas and leather explorer holdalls would make travelling anywhere seem a luxury. We did have a discussion about size on these, I wasn't sure the medium one would be big enough and unsure if the large one would go in hand luggage, because there was no way I'd be putting these beauties in the hold. 

EXPLORER HOLDALL IN OLIVE CANVAS WITH TAN LEATHER

AND DETAILS

So with MOH suitably briefed, and tempted almost as much as me by the luggage, it was time to move on and time to ponder what might actually make it onto the purchase list for presents this Christmas. I'm curious though, do you have tactics for sharing what your other half might buy you?

* With thanks to Tusting for the invite to view their range.