My Bag's Been Tagged!

Theresa tagged me with this fun meme - or rather, she tagged my bag! The gist of it is to show the contents of your pocketbook in all its glory (or not). The good (pretty wallets), the bad (old receipts) and the ugly (half-eaten fig newtons). All of these things are known to show up in my purse, but let's take a look inside today.

Actually, you've caught me on a good day because I just cleaned it out! (Convenient, huh?) And just so you know, I threw out some crumpled tissues, old shopping lists, cracker crumbs and Dunkin Donuts napkins before I began replacing the contents.

I try to stay on top of my bag because when it's messy it really fouls me up. Per my weekly routine, I assign the task of cleaning out my pocketbook to Thursdays, as part of my "desk day." Saturday is when I do the bulk of my errand running, so it pays to have my bag ready to go bright and early that morning.

Like Theresa, I have a thing for pocketbooks. I am especially fond of Vera Bradley bags - the quilted, brightly-patterned kind. I do have one smallish black handbag which I use for church and social functions like showers and dinners out. Otherwise, it's all color and cloth for me ...

Do I always match my cardigans to my purses?

I'm afraid so. :)

Here's a peek inside. It's particularly stuffed today because we have speech Friday mornings, so I bring some things to look at while we're there. Let's dig in shall we?

Here we have, left to right, my month-at-a-glance planner, the Spring 2007 CHC catalog, and my weekly folder (described in better detail, here).

I also keep my journal with me at all times (the notebook on the left). I've blogged about my journals before - which are catch basins for all the thoughts that race through my head in a given day. I've switched to a smaller size because I find it more manageable than the standard size notebook. As you can see I like to dress it up a bit - a bit of scrapbook paper and a page from my page-a-day calendar. This tells me at a glance the date this notebook began (I fill them up in a month or two).

On the right is my fairly new datebook. It is made by Franklin-Covey, a company that makes planners I've long admired and at one time used excusively. At some point I stopped using them because they really didn't mesh with my mothering/housekeeping/homelearning lifestyle. I am forever in the process of making my own customized planner, but for now, this spiral-bound page-a-day calendar seems a good fit. I needed a place to write down things for a specific day, and this has all 365, in a size that's easy to manage. Obviously I couldnt leave the plain butter yellow cover alone - pretty though it was - and added all those nature stickers to make it more "me."

Next we have a brochure from the Hallmark store (I signed up for their frequent shopper program recently). In the middle is our Feingold Shopping Guide and on the right is my coupon packet. I really need to purge that packet! I also keep those retired page-a-day calendar pages for notes and weekend errands lists. They fit perfectly inside the coupon packet, and the packet fits perfectly in my bag's outer pocket.

And here's the nitty gritty, clockwise from the top left corner:

• lip balm (not nearly as purple as it looks)
• handi-wipes
• notecards and stamps
• sticky note pad
• rosary card
• keys
• pencil (my pen is MIA)
• raisins
• Cocoa Krispy bar (EB always has one after therapy)
• my wallet
• cell phone
• tissue pack

So there you have it - my bag inside and out. How about you? Would you be willing to share with us what your bag looks like right now? I'm tagging anyone reading this post who would like to join in! Leave me a comment and I'll link you!

Tagged Bags:

• KC
• Lindsey
• Elizabeth