Thursday, March 31, 2011

eight tubes of lipstick and a buckeye


No woman I know 
could ever be a terrorist. 
Put a bomb in a Gucci bag? 
Oh, no way! 
 Joan Rivers


I'm not the only one who puts on a few extra pounds in the winter.  My handbag does, too.  Several years ago, when the extra gigantic bags were in, the average woman's handbag weighed nearly a back-breaking 7 pounds, 11 ounces.  Thank goodness, everything's a bit smaller now, including the electronics, but by the end of winter, mine's heavy.

This week was time for the annual spring purse purge.  The contents is dumped out and weeded through, like a garden. All kinds of odd junk, quite forgotten at the bottom of the bag, is excavated, including chopsticks, fortune cookie fortunes, eight tubes of lipstick and my lucky Ohio buckeye.

The sorted stuff went into my new waterproof vinyl spring bag, a great find on the TJ Maxx clearance rack for $24.99. It has all kinds of nifty zipper compartments and even came with a matching umbrella, even though I'm not really an umbrella using kinda girl.  It also has my main criteria; an over the shoulder strap, for hands free shopping.

I love my glow-in-the-dark plasticized beetle key chain. It makes finding keys at the bottom of a very large, dark bag a breeze. You can find them here.


I'm thinking balls are to men what purses are to women. 
It's just a little bag, but we feel naked in public without it.  

Sarah Jessica Parker, Sex and the City


What do you feel naked in public without?

57 comments:

  1. I finally found a purse that my husband will hold for me without looking like he's holding a dead mouse. It is very small and has forced me to take only the bare essentials. Yes, it was traumatic. What can't I leave home without? With the exception of keeping what God gave me covered? My bank card.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tempted to say 'my clothes' but that's a bit obvious. Although true. So I'm going for my 'phone. I sometimes do forget it and... well, it's like those dreams when you're the only one without clothes.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cash, wonga, filthy lucre, dosh, readies. Like MBJ, it has to be MONEY.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I have always been jealous of women and their purses and bags, the sheer variety of different containers with all those wonderful pockets and zips. What do we men have by comparison? Nothing! Boring stuff. Briefcases, backpacks. Boring.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm always amazed at how much y'all can get into those bags...wow:) For me it's sunglasses, can't be without them, if not on my eyes, then on my head:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh yes spring colors and pockets would be good ! I wouldn't mind vinyl either.
    Small yet flexible- expandable.
    Naked without- ? a shawl, shirt, even a sweater; in case the sun goes away!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I just purchased a lemon yellow spring purse from Guess...love it!...feel naked without my teeth brushed.. (will purchase your book soon...love the dandelion and the title)...and your writing of course

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi, I love this post and your great blog. so true, the bigger the handbag the more stuff you find to put in it.

    What do I feel naked without in public? I would have to say pockets. Gotta have a pocket somewhere on my body. If not, the bra will do. And like you, LIPS are an absolute must.. Keri

    ReplyDelete
  9. I need a purse with pockets and zippers...I'm tired of digging. I need to go to the bookstore on my lunch hour, but I was just thinking that I need to take some junk out of the purse if I plan to walk around in there for any time without breaking my back.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh, love this post. So much.

    It made me look down and the bag that is exploding with stuff and wonder just what is in there. I think i have you beat on number of lipsticks, as it is *the* thing I can do without, but that glow in the dark key chain rules.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Don't use lipstick any more, but gotta have my lip moisturizer (any brand will do).

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love getting a new purse. Something I don't do very often. In the fall I crave a tan leather purse and in the spring, a white straw bag or an oversized beach carry all. I usually indulge in a new bag every few years and just switch back and forth between my old favorites in the spring or the fall. I carry only keys, cell phone and wallet and a lipstick that I seldom use. I do have to clean out receipts and coupons that accumulate, though.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Such a delightful stroll through your purse. I have a very small purse, and even it gets extra "stuff" sometimes. Like every woman I am always looking for the perfect purse. Sometimes I find one. Eyeliner is a must.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I do have a buck eye, though, from a visit to a friend in Cincinnati. I think it is very beautiful, but can't figure out what to do with it. My friend said half of it is edible, but no one knows which half.

    ReplyDelete
  15. The one thing I always have to have with me is spare batteries for my implant. Once the batteries go, they go without warning and when they are gone I stop functioning.
    As for your troublesome boiler - why doesn't that surprise me.

    ReplyDelete
  16. After seeing the view from your kitchen window I would think that my "feeling naked without item" would have to be my green wellies. (i.e. tall green rubber boots)

    ReplyDelete
  17. Friko, believe it or not, I have a pair of green Wellies. The real kind.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Shari, the candy buckeyes are popular in my neck of the woods. They are chocolate with a peanut butter filling, look just like the real thing, only taste like a Reese's.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I just did my spring purse switch last week. I found the keys that LT lost when we moved last month.
    The thing I'm lost without is my phone. It has become an extension of me. I think someday they will implant them in our hands : )

    ReplyDelete
  20. Your bag looks pretty much like mine - a receptacle for many things 'just in case' - a habit formed when children were young and never quite lost!
    I can't leave home without tissues. If ever I have done so I have felt the need of a tissue within a very short time. Sad, really;-/

    ReplyDelete
  21. I am naked without my SmartPhone DROID and without Several C-Notes in my pocket--no wallet necessary!

    Hey a pair of trousers does help!

    TESS, are you kidding us? Still snow on the ground? You must live in the Swiss-Alps!

    PEACE!

    ReplyDelete
  22. I feel naked without my glasses. Of course, I can't see well without my glasses so this is an item I am not likely to forget.

    Loved those 2 quotations!

    ReplyDelete
  23. I feel totally naked without my digital hearing aid - because I can't hear a thing!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Pardon my ignorance, but what
    is a buckeye, a worry stone, an
    agate, a state coin?
    My Melva only carries a very
    tiny purse these days; just her
    credit cards, some money.
    She loads up the car tray
    between the seats with lip
    balms and hand sanitizer
    and lots of other junk, like
    fingernail emory boards,
    clippers, gum. I would be
    naked, or feel naked in public'
    without my britches.

    ReplyDelete
  25. In my dotage, I have begun keeping a neat pocketbook. I am still shocked when I open the zipper and there are my wallet, daytimer, eReader, address book, and spiral bound notebook, all neatly lined up, not buried in a pile of junk. The little inside zipper compartment holds a couple of pens and a squeezy coin purse. My smartphone lives in an outside pouch. I clean receipts out of the purse on a regular basis. It's a little frightening, actually, to have visual evidence of my descent into fussiness. More frightening, though, is the fact that even with all this whittling away of junk, my pocketbook still weighs at least a ton.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I feel naked without my wedding rings :)

    Glenn - a buckeye is a nut off of the buckeye tree. It's the Ohio nut. Or tree. I'm not sure. But I like the ones made of chocolate & peanut butter better than the actual nuts. Heh.

    ReplyDelete
  27. That is a fantastic post. It reminds me that I don't just have one bag to clean out but two. You asked what makes me feel naked in public without and I can actually answer that. Simple - earrings. If I don't have earrings on I have to go back and put them on. I hate being without earrings. I've been known to leave without makeup, my wedding ring and even my purse but I can't do it when the earrings are missing. Weird I know but that is just me. I've even made a pair before leaving the house just because the five million pairs I already own didn't work for me. Oh an you should see my key chain. It has a bag inside a little snap purse - so I always have a shopping bag on me.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Glenn, The Bug, also an Ohioan, described the buckeye well. It's a nut from the buckeye tree, with a smooth shiny surface. They're actually quite lovely. If you look just to the left of center in my pile of junk, you can see mine. You mean to tell me, you've never heard of The Ohio State University Buckeyes?

    ReplyDelete
  29. Decent into fussiness. Sandra, I love it.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Kristen, ever since I've started wearing my hear in a chignon, I've rediscovered earrings; the bigger and danglier, the better.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I too am a victim of the huge purse syndrome. I always carry a digital camera and would feel naked without it. Now I have to carry a smart phone, the Droid, which works well and a lot of other things. When I go into NYC I only wear a mini string purse. Just cash, the camera, and opera tickets. Sometimes I break down and bring a Chapstick too. Love the day-glo key ring. Great post. Do men envy women's purses? The quote from Sex in the City is great!.

    ReplyDelete
  32. too funny that joan rivers quote....and i kid you not..i made those same cookies yesterday too,my friend

    happy to see you today

    love
    kary
    xxxx

    ReplyDelete
  33. I carry a library tote bag... more masculine looking... hee hee! :)

    ReplyDelete
  34. Or you could call it a "European carryall" like on Seinfeld!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Great post -- I go back and forth between a big purse and a little purse, but mostly, like lipstick or fingernail polish, I buy the same purse over and over again. I see some fingernail polish and think, oh, that's a nice color, but when I get it home it's exactly the same as the other six bottles I already have.

    I feel naked without nail polish because I've been wearing it for so long, my real fingernails look really yucky.

    ReplyDelete
  36. You have that much snow still?? We're wearing shorts out here in the desert and contemplating running the a/c! Unbelievable, the vast differences in climes here in the states!

    PS: Love this post, although I'm more of a backpacker than a purse girl.

    ReplyDelete
  37. last year's buckeyes are keeping company with my house cactus.

    they get along

    ReplyDelete
  38. I could say I'd feel naked in public without clothes. But my Bearskin is totally adequate, and needs nothing else.

    You ask terribly tough questions.

    ReplyDelete
  39. I would feel naked without Burt's Bees Lip Shimmer in "Watermelon"

    it's only $4.99..I have tubes of it everywhere :)

    ReplyDelete
  40. Ooh, my handbag too, watch (can't stand not knowing exactly what the time is!) and lipstick. Current fave YSL 'Rouge Volupte' (#17). It's a great red.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Lipstick and/or cherry chapstick. Now and for always!

    ReplyDelete
  42. I have to empty out my bag almost daily--I bring along so much every day that it takes me forever to find anything in it unless I regroup every day and organize it all over again. I hate that, about me, but what can I say. Your lipsticks look just like mine.

    ReplyDelete
  43. ps
    I make those buckeyes around holiday time--everyone loves the darn things. They're fun to make, but my recipe makes tons of 'em, so I wind up having to give lots away. They are good.

    ReplyDelete
  44. My camera. If I ever walk out the door without my camera, there's sure to be some wondrous something that won't stay around for another minute.

    ReplyDelete
  45. That is such a cute quote (that I just stole for my Facebook status.) :)

    I absolutely hate going through my purse and sorting through the collection of junk at the bottom. But alas, it must be done!

    Sarah
    TheWeatheredWord.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  46. Well, now I'll have to settle down and get my winter purse changed over to my spring purse. We too had a whiff of snow last night, making the leap into spring a bit chilly. Lately I've been feeling naked in public without "my face". My mother would always yell..."Just a minute!, I'm putting my face on!" A smattering of makeup wears well these days :)

    ReplyDelete
  47. Hey Jim, time for a Manbag!!
    Well, glasses of course and if at home in Winter a Shearer's Vest, if out and scrubbed up, decent shoes.If Summer, sunnies.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Tess -- My over the shoulder goodwill bag that is eons old. A fantastic zipper closes the Guatemalan bag -- sized perfectly. Don't know what I'll do when it wears out. -- barbara

    ReplyDelete
  49. we are getting snow today as I type (friday).

    I have a small handwoven bag that just about works although I am always afraid stuff will fall out if I forget to button it closed. great quotes

    ReplyDelete
  50. Oh! I like that... the European Carryall.... it's so me! :) xx

    ReplyDelete
  51. Rene, isn't Burt's Bees the best? I'm nutty about their lip balm and cuticle cream.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Vicki, it's a guarantee, every time I forget my camera I encounter something special. When we had the ice storm, some time back, I missed a shot of 12" dangling icicles from a street light. It would have been a spectacular night photo. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Dark plum lipstick, dog biscuits and a book.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Definitely my lipstick! When I don't have it on, I might as well have my skirt hem stuck up in my wasteband. And when I don't have it on (my lipstick) people ask me if I'm sick!

    ReplyDelete
  55. my freshwater pearls. love this post.

    ReplyDelete

Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)