Friday, August 31, 2007

So, Day 2 of 5.

I leave the house today all hot to spend money. I planned to come home totin' a nice, professional lady new bag, and a MacBook like this one for Girl. (She's paying half, half is on me, I'm fronting it because the student deal will be over before she has her bonus check in hand.)

First bag that caught my eye - Ferragamo. Very nice. Very serviceable. Very $1250. I was floored - back in the day, in my first pass through college, I worked in a high-end department store in the DC area, so I know from Ferragamo. I was expecting three hundred bucks, maybe five hundred, tops, which is beyond my sanity limit, but Jesus, $1250? It was very nice. That's all. Obviously, I have been out of the Ferragamo Loop for decades now, and I had no idea that it had become one of Those Brands - for the more money than brains crowd.

I will drop upward of a couple of hundred bucks on a classic bag I'll own for years (I still have my favorite Coach bag from the 80s, though it is now a little too loved for that professional lady look) but there is no way in hell I'd ever spend that kind of money on a bag, even if I win Lotto. Ciao, Salvatore.

Went to Coach store. It breaks my heart to say this, but I hate Coach now. They used to be my favorite, but now it's all blingy and buckle-laden and in ugly colors and logo fabrics. What the hell happened? They only offer their "classic" (not ugly as sin) bags on their website, and how do I know they are just like the originals? Maybe they aren't the same "Can stuff with all your worldly goods and then drag behind a truck for miles," quality they once were. No Coach bag for me.

Onward, to the Apple Store. Where a nice young man explained the details of how you get the college student deal - if the college student doesn't want to order it online, she'll have to show up in the store in person. Even though it says parents can buy them, in reality, not so much. They need ID, lest the student use the discount for everybody in town. Okay, I can understand that, I should have read the details. We will try to do this Sunday or Monday, when she is off work, if that doesn't work, online it shall be. So I didn't tote a MacBook out of the mall either.

Thank God the Mall at Millenia has a L'Occitane
and a warm, bubbly saleswoman, and great stuff on sale. I am going to experiment with their new grape extract line. Anything that reduces tiredness in my legs at the end of the day, I'm in. It will at the very least make my skin soft. And of course, there are the soaps. I really went there for the soap. I love their soap - I've never seen soap last like this. I have had the same SMALL cake of soap in a dish at my kitchen sink for, I am not kidding, a year, and I know I use it at least 4x a day. And the lather, ooooh, it's so creamy it's like whipped cream, even in this lousy hard water. So, I bought 3 large cakes of soap, the grape extract leg soothing anti-water retention gel, and the bath stuff to match, which was only $5 more. I'll report on both - I do love the smell of the grape stuff, it's light and fresh and not perfumed. It makes me want to invest in pretty girly nightgowns instead of sleeping in yoga pants and a t-shirt.

So, that was Day 2 of 5. Relaxing, though not full of the accomplishments I'd envisioned.

Knitting; I'm having a fit of Start-itis, but I am resisting. I have the Big Purple Sweater, a Red Scarf scarf, and two pair of socks for Boy on needles. That's so restrained, isn't it? But they are all on deadline, so no matter how much my heart yearns, I will not start anything else until they are done. I am going to soothe my Startitis by going through my books and noting patterns and yarn needs for the things that are tempting me.

From Blogthings' lips to God's ears:
Your Theme Song is Back in Black by AC/DC

"Back in black, I hit the sack,
I've been too long, I'm glad to be back"

Things sometimes get really crazy for you, and sometimes you have to get away from all the chaos.
But each time you stage your comeback, it's even better than the last!

Swiped (as usual) from Cursing Mama.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just read a BYT book review on a new book called "Deluxe: How Luxury Lost its Luster" by Dana Thomas. Sounds pretty interesting- on how the brands we used to think of as the true quality brands sold their soul for luxury profits and cheap goods and labor. I'm with you on Coach- I have a bag from the 80's that I took into my local shoe reapir guy and had him dye it for me - looks brand new. I'd carry it except it doesn't zip closed and since I live on the road traveling, I cant do that. Their stuff now is simply c**p. So I go with the unattractive Healthy Back bag and love it beyond all reason.

Kimmen

Catherine said...

I found my favorite bag on ebags.com - it's by Piel. Never heard of them, but my big brown tote bag is the "small" (it's huge) Piel Shopper. Lovely soft, well made, I love it. I am looking for a serious bag of that quality that is about half that size for when I don't need to carry all that I own and the kitchen sink. I may end up back on ebags.com at this rate.

Catherine said...

I will have to look for that book. I see this happening - back in the day I had quite the wardrobe of shoes and bags at cost, thanks to my job. The difference between Coach then and Coach now is stunning, it's trendy crap now. And the Ferragamo bag price just about killed me, 30 years ago I had Ferragamo shoes in my closet. They were very nice. They were a few notches above Candies in price, much better made, but not in another world. The crapitazation of what were once just good, quality brands is very depressing.

Bess said...

Ditto with you on the demise of the Coach image. When the started making them from that repulsive fabric in those vomit colors I almost wept.

Used to be they were guaranteed for life! I still have my small saddlebag version from the 1980's - back when I thought I'd lost my mind for paying $125 for a purse for heavens sake!!

But - at $6 a year - amortized, that is - it was a bargain. And yes. It's shabby (chic?) now. I just don't buy lables anymore.

(Oh la! I'm on a tangent now)

I went shopping this summer and wandered into Copland's - where they had $600 blouses. I sew. I know what goes into fabric and construction and I can tell you - there is no way on earth that blouse was 10 times better than it's mate across the street at the chain department store. Maybe 3 times better - maybe maybe even ... nope. No blouse is worth more than $180. sheesh! Not unless the embroidery is real gold thread.

Hope the next 3 days are blissfully rewarding.

Hugs

Lulu said...

i am happy to see you are doing well..

Anonymous said...

I am with you on the Coach thing---I treasure the Coach bags I bought in the early 90's---I know I'll never be able to really replace them. Even in my small town in Iowa, the nice department stores are carrying all the over-priced-for-what-you-get fabric bags in those ugly colors. The prices on them just floor me.

Anonymous said...

Great.
30 SECONDS on eBags, and I find something I'm not sure I want to live without.
Arrrggghhh.

Amy in StL said...

Hey, I've always sworn by taking vitamin E for legs. My dad had me taking it in high school when I worked in retail and was on my feet all day on concrete. It really worked then and it works now when I'm running around outside half my days. It takes a couple days to help, but one capsule a day seems to do it for me.