Fantasy Glamorous bag and its contents

Life the Universe and all thats in it, kindly tagged me to reveal my fantasy bag and what I would have in it.
Since I love a wish list (not having a bean to part with) I happily decided on my summer bag of glamorous -ness! Since ditching the library books I'm all about ease and hands free. The Alexander McQueen Cross body bag in electric blue is a lean mean machine for the summer.
In my bag you'd find a purse. I'm going with this bright pink with this DKNY one

Plus a blackberry, a pack of hankies, my oyster card, keys and my Dior Addict Lip Glow Colour Reviver






I'm meant to tag a few others so I'll choose Faux Fuchsia, and Fashion Pearls of Wisdom do reveal your fantasy glam bag and contents xx

Two euros is all you need

I made two purchases in Paris totalling 2 euros. One on a copy of Grazia and the other on 3 Eiffel Towers - a bargain at 3 for one euro. The Eiffel Towers were to decorate my item that blew my budget a gorgeous bag which is a collaboration between Ally Capellino and Toast the Nairobi shopper
I love the simplicity of the design and the fact it is a fair trade item. I think it makes a change from the lure of the designer worship. I also love my little towers n'est pas.


My other big spend was on a copy of French Grazia, I was slightly amused by their love of Lily Allen, seriously the feature on her was a different angle to our media. In fact the many choices of photos of different celebrities only proves that we are only informed by the images and stories chosen.


The preview of LFW was of interest too. The pictorial choice - will we always be defined by the Union Jack? The rest of the article choose Henry Holland ( Le plus decomplexe - the most uninhibited), Marios Schwab ( Le plus glam - obvious), Christopher Kane ( Le plus actuel - the most current) and Luella (Le plus aristo - obv again) as the best of LFW designers to look out for. Interesting!
However my treat of the week was a super size Sunday Times Style magazine. Not only was Shane Watson occupying her usual position but it included Julie Burchill too. Now next week it will return to its usual insipid ordinariness but I have to say when will publishers get that the texture and size of their offerings are worth it. I love a decent magazine and this edition and the Harper's Bazaar edition in March was wonderful. I always wish someone would be brave enough to do the same all the time.


I will be fighting for a Jade nail varnish, I'm a serial collector of Chanel nail varnish so watch out!

Anya absolutions

Not only was Saturday a wonderful way to while away time in the company of bloggers, but it was the day that Sharon Rose bought her place in heaven. The lovely, generous Sharon gave me so much joy with a thrifted treasure I spent all day Sunday on my knees for her!

My present was a perfect original Anya Hindmarch of which judging by the inner label goes back a fair few years. I will date it and let you know. Anya is my favourite bag designer so I was in pure bag heaven thanks to Sharon.

Oh and Mr MDS earned his absolution's too by putting together our new garden furniture and getting the bed in at the end of the garden to grow vegetables in, while I was in Harvey Nicks! Gosh, I'm seriously going to have to gain mine somehow.

Start saving for spring!

I will never lose my love for designer handbags and this one is top of my Spring 09 wish list given I'm already over A/W 08!

Bottega Veneta Multicolored leather crochet bag (image: Style.com)

All things updated!

Ages and ages ago I ran a style makeover comp and I'm off to Birmingham today to meet with Rachel and it should be fun! Here's a few pics of before and I'll take ones as we go along to post over weekend. The first photo is a party dress pic and the second is a wedding outfit. Rachel is from New Zealand and was working in Australia before arriving in West Wales - the purpose of the make over is to UK (ise) her, style wise!

Plus I reached a decision about my bag, you would not believe how many satchels I examined on ebay or how many I spotted in the streets of London apres my post. Why even in Topshop I saw a satchelesque bag in tan and brown.

However, I had a make do style eureka moment when I combined all the comments and all my thoughts into a bubble, comic style and came up with a solution. I'm going to use my Gucci shopper. I figured it was a good size for bags, not too heavy to start with (thank you Savvy Mode for your top tip regarding leather bags and books being too heavy), it was also sitting gathering dust in it's dust bag because I was saving it for...um best? I need a bag for two days a week to take books and one notebook in plus a few other items so why spend the cash when I've got a lovely bag that needs to be used.

Which means the brilliant Skylark and Son gifted me a new charge card for nowt!

But.. if it was the real McCoy then I'd spend it on these....I still love these little critters! In a twist of tagging you can pinch my card and exhibit your one blow the budget wear!

Chanel bag for Channel swim update

The sale of my cruise collection Chanel bag raised £77.49 for Zimhippo and his cross Channel swim to raise money for Homes for Zimbabwe

I said Chanel not channel

I'm a bit lapsed at being a consistent giving. When I was salaried I had an Oxfam direct debit but as a freelancer you can't do the tax free bit its very complicated. So I have to remember to give and then submit for the tax peeps to give the tax bit depending on my income....

Normally Idon't mention charity or plug an effort as we've all got friends who do their bit which we support in our own way.

However, every Monday I go to swimming training and one guy there is swimming the channel. He's from Zimbabwe and he's doing the channel swim to raise money for people to eat. God damn it that gets to me every time. So I've put up a bag for auction on ebay to raise money for him. I thought a Chanel bag was fitting for a channel swim.

My friend who runs an ebay shop is doing it for me -Closet Encounters

and this is the link to the bag - bag link!

If you want to visit Graeme's blog about his swim (and please note this is a lot of effort and he's not poncing off to foreign lands to do it!) here's his blog link - Zimhippo and here's the charity bit www.justgiving.com/zimhippo

Please get people to bid!!

Thank you xx

What's in a name

When you get an Anya Hindmarch silver plain loose pocket which had been personalised with 'Kate's Handbag Fund' on it, courtesy of lovely hubbie - the next step is to identify which handbag you are going to buy.

My usual wishlist rears in my head - a Chanel 2.55, and something from YSL. I buy both bags in Paris. Then in New York I snaffle a Marc Jacobs, probably a Stam bag although I would remove the chain! Then off to Milan and a browse for a Bogetta Veneta number before returning to London to the lovely Mulberry shop nestled between Oxford Street and St Christopher's Place to for a black Elgin and probably a mustard Poppy.

Given that so far said pouch is yeilding only a tenner - my flights of fantasy are just that - fantasy. Then, I thought I must check out Ms Hindmarch's offerings, given I've collected a few of her items over the years. I've always refrained from buying a tote with a favourite photo on it, opting for a sublte make up bag instead - but I still have to fight the urge for bold tote.

http://www.anyahindmarch.com/

Browsing the catalogue and the website I was struck by the well crafted bags and the beautiful chosen leather. The Osmond woven bag, above, is a gorgeous shoulder bag and looks a dream. But the name! Osmond! I'm sorry but I can't heart a bag called Osmond, nor Clint, nor Cooper to name but a few. In fact factoring out names, I was left with a Purdey, a Kennedy and a Cagney purse with no objection to a clutch named Spider. Seriously, when YSL have a bag called Downtown why would you opt for a Beverly or Bess?