Think of Christmas and you’re bouncing round the room to Slade’s Merry Xmas!  Talk of Christmas and the smell of fires blazing and the sound of wine glasses chinking fill your mind. Imagine Christmas and its Bing and a white one!  Stop! For one moment put all that romantic nonsense to one side.  Instead, grab a credit card, leave the house, drive to your nearest  House of Fraser or Westfields and grab yourself a mitt full of Christmas Cheer – Mulberry Style!

It’s Big!

In rich dark chocolate brown!

With a shiny satin Bow (of Dallas size proportions)!

Held together with 3 golden bright bells proudly announcing “You’ve Got a New Mulberry”

Now that’s what I call Christmas

xxx

What will you be carrying next fall?

Diesel seem to think we will be all going wild for that scrunched up look of a knotted hanky emblazened with studs or is it knots – either way not good for your nose!

Arab News.com caught my attention with a recent headline “The Handbag Society”.

Society is defined as a “particular community of people” and suggests living together in a “more or less ordered community” ….

The article suggested that Arab women feel connected by  handbags and fashion: what they do with accessories is a means of coming together, comparing wealth, keeping up with the Jones and dare I imagine it – speaking a private language.

There is something cosy and intimate about such a powerful mechanism so next time you casually grab your bag spare a conscious thought  for ladies elsewhere on our planet for whom the handbag is their main dose of daily spice and colour!

Taking my step son to university this evening fills me with excitement. I can feel the hope, the expectations of what lies ahead. I can taste his future on the edge of my tongue! Its a feeling of admiration coupled with a sense of ‘do I wish I was starting all over again’?

The power and promise of new beginnings is eternally strong. Generation after generation seeks out new ways to do things, faster, smaller, new food combinations, ‘lingo’ and musical tastes.

I don’t feel a yearning for fresh starts borne out of regrets, far from it. Yet still I feel it!

Stripping the feeling down to its bare bones I realise nothing stops any of us from having a fresh start – whenever we want one. Each year, each season, each day is new: full of promise and opportunity. Each moment within any single minute or hour is a chance to shift perspective, alter our mood, and change our thoughts and feelings. Yet often we don’t. Instead we wait for momentous occasions to signal “now its OK” to think about ‘new starts’. University, marriage, new jobs, recovery from illness are ones many of us identify with.

But is that right? Surely while we wait; aren’t we putting life itself on hold?

As often is the case, we all have the solutions to our own questions and issues. Intellectually, we know we can change our career, hair colour, partner, where we live, what we eat, how we dress or behave at the stroke of a decision. Add a little commitment or effort and “ta dah” – done! Yet when we do that it often doesn’t feel ‘enought’. After all where’s the good in buying a new handbag if we then fill it with the same old “stuff”?

It’s tempting to buy a new bag – yet it’s lustre quickly fades. We can stick with ‘what we have and know’ and try filling it with new distractions (the latest diet, self help book, dance class membership) all the time wondering why we never feel ‘transformed’. Better then to like what we have, and add to what’s already inside by discovering more of who we are – not adding or subtracting – just revealing!

Of course buying a new handbag is still an option – but if recognise these warning signs of restlessness – it might be time for a ‘clear out’ first; mental and emotional!

Research out today says we girls stash money to spend on ‘treats for ourselves’ – Stop the world! Surely not!

Some of my favourite name brands in the social media scene today include:-

IceTheCake

RubyWeddings

LittleStuff

DailyCandy

BHiveClub

SteveCanDo

GiraffeBanners

It has me thinking about personal branding – surely so much more the future focus than commodity or company branding? Now who knows a lot or has a big opinion about it?

Is it true; women claim to call one of their handbags their “best friend”?

It got me thinking… ‘what else would constitute best buddy?’ New or old I do adore my handbag harem.  However, in my house it’s got to be one of my four legged friends of canine or equine classification. Why? They are always there – never putting blokes before friendship; they don’t tut when you pull out last year’s Puss In Boots style foot fashion; nor battle it out to look younger, fitter and slimmer than you – cause they don’t work!

At work? Well without doubt my best buddy would be all those people I don’t know very well, for whom I carry that extra effort of a smile and courtesy which helps keep my spirits high when reasons are failing!

Not to sombre a sentiment I hope. Just a little reality check on a day where best friends have emerged from all sorts of unexpected and delightful places. Thank you!

The words “coffee doesn’t lie” got me thinking…

Coffee – fair trade of course, barista brewed, cradled in cardboard sleeves warming the cockles of our heart and soothing our soul!  A simple promise and such powerful emotions…

Days of the coffee bean as a commodity are over;  tired of brewing our own, we needed educating about our coffees’ origins, packaging and 5 star journey across the continents. Education alone wont  keep us coming back; give us ‘experience’; camaraderie and connection. Better still, see me, know my choice of drink and use my name!  Isn’t recognition the fastest route to feeling “at home”?

Is it me, or do we seem to crave the institution of ‘homeliness’ in homes away from home?

Wherever you are, whatever your beverage of choice, you’ll find a taste of home is always close at hand.  The handbag: at your side: poised and loyal, a trusted best friend.

Fingers laced through her strap you cuddle your coffee and savour his aroma: safety, privacy and humble ‘normality’.  (Not that the contents of handbags are always considered ‘normal’ or safe: knives, shoes, half eaten food, mementos from our travels, tarot cards, bottles of boos, bath towels, spanners, baby teeth and the DNA of a dead horse) – the findings of a bagologist are as diverse as a Starbucks Menu board.

Our world is full of love affairs with strangers new and old: we long for personal connection in the tweets we follow, the thoughts we share and the updates that we score.

Is it in this, our new found world of education, entertainment and experience -that coffee and people still form our core …andthe handbag shares our soul?

On Royal Wedding Day will Kate’s dress be slim and sleek,  bulging and broad or will she go for demure and transparent?

Traditionally brides favour big and bigger and I wonder why? Should we blame our language teachers for teaching us comparatives and superlatives hence seeding our plans for big, bigger, biggest? Or, can we portion fault at the Americans for ‘biggest’ wins the day?

As a handbag therapist I have found that size does matter as a reflection of your expectations of life!

Big handbags, big dresses suggest high expectations of ourselves and others.  We want to experience life to the full and do so!  Watch out -we can easily become restless, have trouble relaxing and generally believe that there is something more out there!  Will Kate show us this side of her nature and roll down the aisle as a big puff ball beauty?

Or will she go for a neatly packed slim lined elegant number suggesting a desire for control,simplicity,  risk avoidance and absolute composure.

Personally, im favouring option three – a demure (not), “I am what you see” and do “what it says on the tin” kind of dress revealing underwear, tummy button and full English wedding breakfast!

So when it comes down to it Kate’s wedding dress is more than just a dress! It will speak volumes of her nature, desires, imagination and expectations of life!

All eyes are waiting….