I'm not really a girly girl...but I love my purses

Throughout my entire life, I've considered myself to be somewhat of a tomboy. "Girly" stuff has never really interested me. I want to believe with all my heart that I'm a tomboy, but there are things that make me think maybe I'm wrong...

Consider the evidence:

When we moved to Gig Harbor and I got to pick the color I wanted my room painted. I picked pink. And not just any pink: Pepto-Bismal pink.

When J brings me flowers, I have no shortage of pretty vases to put them in.

I don't wear dresses or skirts...but I would love to!

When I bought a new cell phone, I was told it came in pink, blue, and black. I seriously considered getting pink before I chickened out and got the black.

I have too many pairs of shoes. And too many watches. But I have to match my outfits.

When J and I were shopping for new sheets for the bed, I was inexplicably drawn to the frilly flowery stuff...he had to argue hard to get me to compromise on tone-on-tone stripes.

I don't wear makeup that often, but I own a bunch.

When I buy scrapbooking stuff, I find myself oohing and aaahing over how cute everything is.

I have a drawer full of cloth napkins, napkin rings, and table runners.

I needed a lightweight, waterproof jacket for spring around here, so I bought a pink one. (For winter, I have a black wool pea coat or a blue men's Columbia ski jacket.)

I don't need J to open doors or carry things for me, but my heart just melts when he does.

I decorated my entire guest room around a duvet cover I bought two years before I even had a house. It sat in the bottom of the closet until we moved. Then I pulled it out, and matched the paint to the ribbons and flowers on the duvet.

I used to use lotion on my hands, but only during the winter when I absolutely had to. Now I use moisturizer every morning.

When J tells me I'm cute, I pretend to hate it, but I really love it.

And the most damning evidence of all: I have a new obsession with Coach purses. I blame my sister for this...she gave me my first real "grown-up" purse last Christmas, and I've been addicted ever since! In less than a year, my Coach collection has expanded to include: a black wristlet, a black purse with a matching wallet, a brown and white purse with a matching wallet, a teal green leather purse with a matching wallet, a patchwork print purse, and a key chain. See pictures below.

The wristlet T gave me when she first started at Coach. It is so cute!! (I use it as "female product storage" in my purse. Shh....don't tell anyone!)

This is the purse T gave me last Christmas. She knows me so well! I didn't think I liked Coach purses, but I fell in love with this as soon as I opened the box!

This is the wallet that matches my first purse. My parents gave it to me for Christmas when T gave me the purse.

The cutest key chain I ever saw! Also from T, also last Christmas. Again, I'm inexplicably drawn to pink!

I carried the black purse for several months. Then it was spring. I felt an unexplainable urge for a "spring colored" purse because the black one was too somber. I searched the Coach website, then called my sister and asked her to use her discount to purchase me a new purse! The color of this one is technically "pond" but it's a teal green, leather purse. I never in a million years would have thought I'd carry a green leather purse, but I LOVE it.

How cool are the stripes on the inside of the purse?? I think I like the inside almost as much as I like the outside!

A few months later, I purchased the matching wallet. Again, T was more than generous in her help! This wallet also has the same striping as the purse on the inside. How cute is it?? It's called a "French Purse." I love the turn lock closure!

When I did some traveling this last summer, I realized that neither one of my purses was very good for travel. When carrying the black purse, one hand isn't free. The teal purse goes over my shoulder, but is SMALL. When traveling, I like to have room in my purse for a bottle of water, a magazine, a book, my iPod, and a few other "essential" items so I don't have to have a carry on and a checked bag. With the new security rules, I like to travel as light as possible so I can get through places quickly. So I consulted my personal Coach shopper T again, and we decided that this patchwork bag would be perfect. It's big enough for what I wanted to carry, and it's got so many different fabrics / patterns, that even if it gets a little dirty traveling, nobody will notice.

My collection of Coach is becoming large...my sister's collection, however, is quite extensive. So much so, in fact, that she decided to sell some of the purses she doesn't really carry anymore. She let me and L, and our mom and step-mom have first dibs on her collection. I was sitting next to my husband at the bar at his friend's birthday party when T sent me pictures on my cell phone. I think it may have helped that J had been imbibing and was feeling pretty good when I told him that I wanted a new Coach purse for a 4th anniversary present. He was agreeable, and called T and handled everything!! He even got her to throw in the matching wallet! (He did admit that he felt odd buying me a used purse for a present...but I convinced him that it was exactly what I wanted. And, she only used it a few times before it got stored in the dust bag. And even though he pretends to be annoyed with my purse obsession, I think J secretly approves. After all, he doesn't have a problem storing some of his stuff in my purse! Sunglasses, cell phone, whatever he doesn't want to carry, he'll sneak into my bag.)

This wallet is tiny, but it works. And it matches. And I now have a thing about my wallet matching my purse: it has to.

Each of the purses comes in a brown cloth dust bag for storage. I don't know why I took a picture of this, but I did. So here it is.

Well, after looking at all of the evidence, I'm sad to admit that is might just be possible that I'm becoming a girly girl. I hate it, but I love my purses!