Lady's got a brand new bag!

That's right! Me. I've got a brand new bag. Mega Messenger/Laptop bag to be more specific.

Yes, it looks quite a bit big on me, but any laptop bag would. This bag was made to my specifications by Candy Glendening who's business, Candied Fabrics has seemed to have taken off in the last few years. She starts with her hand-dyed fabrics and creates from them scarves (silk), totes, purses, clutches, even journal covers (and more!). She allows her customers to personalize every inch of the bag which in my case even included the size of the inside pockets (there's a pocket for a pen or pencil and a slightly thicker pocket for my slightly thicker than usual lipgloss) as well as the exact dyed purple fabric patch.

I chose the flower on the front - an Echinacea.

I chose the 'squigglies' (her technical term is 'fiddlehead') for the side cell phone pocket.

To further personalize her bags, Candy gives her customers the option to stitch their names on their bag. Odd as it may sound, I find it kind of weird to see or hear my name so I didn't want that but I still wanted to make it personalized in that way. So I decided a great idea was to choose one word that could be a positive reminder to me every time I opened my bag. And so I chose:

Generosity. Candy liked the idea. So there you have it. My very awesome, very sturdy, very ME bag.

There are some more photos that she put together for her blog that I'll share:

HERE

HERE

Now, it wasn't cheap and I really did fight myself over it for a while. I caught my first glance of Candy's work at the Orange Muffin Festival in Redlands (urgghh... old people) I believe back in early 2010 or even late 2009, I forget. But I couldn't bring myself to spend that much money on something like a bag. I'd read her blog and see her in our paper every so often. Then I saw that she made Natalie, a line dance instructor I had, a laptop bag. Then I saw Candy in a photo in our paper the same week. And THEN as I was composing an email to Candy to tell her I think it was time for me to give in to my urges (after having talked it over with Chantal - she said I deserved a present to myself - 'go for it'), my co-worker Joy said something out loud about her. Cur-azy! So all that kinda sealed the deal.

I will still look at it and say "God, I can't believe I spent that much" but she let me know that the bag she's using now has held strong in the past year and she uses it often, so hopefully in a year I'll look at it and say 'damn, you're still here, you're still beautiful and now I see you're worth the money I spent on you.' And then I'll probably hug it. Because that's what I do (I guess I'll have to start hugging things now).

Unfortunately the next week is when our work told us our pay is being cut 5.5% but oh-effing-well. Got the bag, it's cool and I gave her a deadline so that I could have it just in time for my flight to AZ which is this coming week. I'm taking one overhead luggage bag and my laptop bag and that's it. I'm still worried about what to take and not take, but I guess I'll deal with that a little later. I set up a date to rent a car so that's taken care of now.

Bars, bags and Sim addiction

Watching: History Channel (Nosradamus: 500 Years Later)

Firstly, I'd like to give a shout out to my peeps; Chantal, Joy, Kevin and Nigga Ray. On Saturday we did a Redlands bar crawl. Started out at Romano's (tried Dirty Bird but I could barely move there were so many people). Bethany was with us and Kevin's cousin Amir was also there. Started off great when a very short drunk woman began chatting with us, assumed Chantal and Amir were dating, Amir corrected her saying that they were engaged to marry in 2 months. I'm sure the conversation got better, but I missed the rest. We had some pizza and more drinks then made our way to the Falconer. Was there for... 15mins?

Moved on to Chucks Nuts for the gals to piss then on to The Underground (we ended up not making it to the Vault). They were having karaoke!!!!! Drank more, sang 'Hot Blooded' because I was pretty drunk and couldn't hold a real note for nothing. Good times.

On to something more current: today! I went to see Candy Glendening (of Candied Fabrics) to discuss the laptop/messenger bag I have commissioned her to do. It's going to cost almost $200 but I've reminded myself that not only is this a laptop bag that is cushioned to protect my laptop, but it has the ability to act like a purse and school bag at the same time. Also, we all know I love to wear/own thing that represent me and that I like to support handmade arts/crafts. One of the strongest convincers is that the quality of the material is great. It is a sturdy bag and it is going to be gorgeous and it is going to be me. And yet it's still a lot. I will get over it. Once I sent that first email letting Candy know that I was ready to have a bag made, I had committed to giving up my money.

On another note, I'm addicted to Sims3 (like I knew I would be). We know the story of me being upset by my aging Sim self and now I have another story to share.

I created a Sim Chantal. My goal with her was to find a rich man with a nice house, marry him, move in and have children. I moved her into the cheapest house and she began gardening in the backyard which eventually allowed her to quit her business job because 1. the bills are cheap 2. she can sell/eat what she grows 3. she has the ability to go out to eat for free at any time. So Sim Chanie found a guy, spent a lot of time with him and then one day I noticed it said he had a wife! He didn't have one before so during the time Parker and Chantal were considered in her relationship bar to be 'romantic interest,' Parker had gone off and gotten married to Holly! I was pretty pissed. (I finally went online to look up how to make a sim date/engage, so on to the next step). Parker came to Chantal's house, she romanced him until 'ask Parker to leave Holly' came up, his response was 'I guess you're right, it's not really working out for us.' Then they agreed to go steady. When Chantal proposed to Parker the next day, she was given the option to move. The default was for Parker to come live in her dinky place. Instead, I chose to move his parents out into Chantal's house, and move Chantal in with Parker (and 2 other people who already lived there). So yes, in only 2 days Sim Chantal ruined people's lives. HAHA! IRL Chantal says I made her a homewrecker... but whatever.

On a final note, I'm super excited to finally get a book from on of the Kickstarter projects I backed; The Word Project. Of course, photos will be posted when it arrives.