Purse-nickity

Confession time.  I am a One-Purse-Woman.  None of this "a purse for this outfit" or a "work purse" and "fun purse".  I have one purse.  Well, I do have a summer purse and then switch to a winter purse.  Tan for the summer and black for the winter.  Usually the purses come from Target, WalMart or Shopko.  Tucked away in the back of my closet is this dinky purse for elegant social events aka weddings.  A lipstick, keys and glucose tablets for Kidlet Three fit in the dinky purse.  You know, the barest of essentials.  Back to the One-Purse confession.

Kidlet One and I traveled to New York City.  Before we left, work colleagues were encouraging me to find the best deals on Coach purses while on the trip.  There was a problem.  Coach purses aren't sold where I shop so I had to do some homework on that topic.  Noting the prices on these purses and noting the fact my sensible Target purses hold up just fine, there was just no way that a Coach was needed in my One-Purse-Life.

And in NYC, on almost every populated street, someone would walk up to me and whisper "Coach, you want Coach"?  Maybe my ratty-tatty backpack was so ugly they thought I should replace it with a Coach?   Seriously, when walking into Macy's and seeing the REAL Coach purses with the multiple digits in the price, we all know that the whispered deals on the streets were not the real deal but the knock-off-pretend versions.  I was not interested.

Until, Chinatown.

Kidlet One decided she wanted  needed a designer purse.  She bought such a cute Dolce & Gabbana purse for $15 that I became slightly interested in shopping.  Shop after shop had D&G purses but no Coach.  The Whispering Coach People were on the streets in Chinatown, too.  We didn't give in and headed back to our hotel.  First thing the next morning, Kidlet One wakes me up saying "I want to go back to Chinatown".   Back we went buying perfume, scarves and other D&G purses.  Yup, my trusty black winter purse is a Dolce & Gabbana that I absolutely love and it cost me....$20. 

One of the Whispering Street Vendors was really nice and told us to have a nice day and he looked us in the eye as he said it.  Something inside of, can't say it was the God Nudge, prompted me to give in and I said we were interested in Coach.  Well, off he went and we almost had to run to keep up with him.  Way to the back of his store to a wall that didn't have door until he pressed a button and secret door swung open into a room lined with Coach, Gucci and Chanel purses.  Kidlet One sucked in her breath and exclaimed "OHHHHH MOM!!!!"  I knew that was what she had come for so into the secret room we went.  Three Coach purses later we left the secret room with our purchases in black garbage bags.  Our total bill came to $90 ($30 a purse).

The purse I bought ended up being too small so I swapped with Kidlet One recently.  This fake-oh Coach has been my One-Purse for the summer.  Isn't it cute!

Until the handles broke.  All four of them have pulled apart.  My Dad, being Trusty Handy Man, put pop rivets in my Coach purse to hold the handles on.  Note the silver studs in the picture. 

Even the pop rivets haven't held.  I've had to succumb to using major clips from my desk to hold my purse handles together (SuperGlue, hot glue, all glues I've tried won't hold the plastic together).  Haven't I really "classed up" my Summer-One-Purse? 

I don't think I'm that Purse-nickity.  However, the amount of time and energy I've put into maintaining this Coach-Wannabe is reaching the Not-Worth-It point. 

I may be the only person wanting winter to arrive so I can retire the Summer-One-Purse with the Winter-One-Purse that doesn't need paperclip handles!

Do you have a fun purse story?  Share it with me!!!