My guilty pleasure…

I’m not a fashionista, and I truly don’t spend a lot on clothes. But I have to admit it…I have a ridiculously large collection of very expensive purses and bags.

It’s not my fault – really. I personally have spent very little on my collection. It all came about sort of by accident, and then I got sucked in…

You see, I work with about 80 young families in my job. Many of those families are extremely affluent. And one of those families, in particular, is mind-numbingly generous with their Christmas gifts, which always include a designer bag of some sort.

So, even though we’ve got three kids in college, even though we drive vehicles that have no fewer than 150,000 miles on them, even though I work for a non-profit and my husband worked for years in the public sector, I’ve got some absolutely gorgeous handbags.

There’s this beauty – my very favorite Vera Bradley pattern (as evidenced in my banner, above) and their first gift, several years ago. Not pictured: The matching duffel bag and large tote this family gave me the following year. Also not pictured: the matching wallet, makeup bag, and glasses case – because I love the pattern so much I couldn’t get enough of it. Purchased with birthday and Christmas money, though – I promise.

Then the next year they gave me this simple but extremely practical one – I get it out every autumn:

Again, not pictured is the enormous and bling-y Coach bag they gave me the year after that, which is so over the top I can’t bring myself to carry it – it still has the tags and sits in my bedroom closet, taunting me.

This year’s offering from the same family, by Brighton:

Not only is it a work of art, it’s BLACK AND SILVER, my favorite wardrobe color combination. And it’s organized perfectly. I feel like a million bucks when I carry this one around.

And there’s this little number:

I bought this one for myself with some birthday money, and I’m saving it to start carrying as a celebration when the magical day comes and spring returns to our land.

My family thinks I’m bit loopy in the area of purses and totes to haul my junk around in. When The Husband needs something from my wallet and I say, “Just grab it out of my purse,” he quite understandably replies, “Which one?!?” The eye rolling and mocking I get from the kids when I get a new bag is…almost enough to make me put and end to my guilty little pleasure.

Okay, not really. To be perfectly truthful, there are at least five other Vera bags in my collection, which I get out and use every now and then when I need a little pick-me-up. One at a time, I mean. I’m not so far gone I carry several at once. Well, except that every day for work I carry a lovely purse for my wallet and stuff AND one of my big Vera totes for my iPad and my lunch (packed, of course in a Vera lunch bag). I guess I am pretty far gone.

I think I come by this quirk honestly. My grandmother had a different purse for every pair of shoes she owned. She changed purses at least once a day, depending on where she was going and what shoes she was wearing. I watched her, and I learned.

Hey, at least I carry the same purse for at least a month at a time. I don’t have a problem. Except for the fact that I can’t get into my bedroom closet without a purse falling on my head. At least I know it’s guaranteed to be a very attaractive purse.

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