Home!

After a fantastic week, we finally made it home at midnight last night. Kinda feel like I have vacation hangover this morning.

We spent out last day hitting the outlet malls--well timed since storms blew through that morning stirring up the sea and making the water murkier and the shore yuckier than it had been all week.

I wanted to do a bit of school shopping for the kids--although we really don't do serious shopping until October. I bought the kids a ton of new clothes at the beginning of summer, and it will be to hot to wear jeans and fall clothes for at least another 6 weeks.

But they did all get new shoes. Believe me, setting 3 girls loose in a shoe store is a true test of patience. DH was a real trooper. My 10 year olds bought size 8.5 running shoes! I wear a 9! They look like they a wearing clown shoes with their tiny bodies and giant feet.

I got some great deals at the Ann Taylor outlet, but my biggest find was a new work bag. Right after I graduated, I took my grad money and bought a giant red leather Fossil bag that was the perfect size for carrying files back. It was very sleek and polished with clean lines--kind of a handbag/briefcase hybrid that worked very well for carrying to court or depos.

I carried that bag every single day for three years. But it started to look pretty shabby. The seams and hardware were holding up fine, but the beautiful red was fading to white (a problem I wouldn't have had with a natural colored bag), and it just felt too worn to carry. Sadly, I tucked my beloved bag into the back of my closet, and began my search for a replacement.

Most recently I've been carrying a huge red kate spade nylon bag that PS has dubbed "the lunch box." I get tons of compliments on it, but it is just not working out. It will hold files, but only vertically, and everything just falls to the bottom and crumples. Before that was a gorgeous burgundy suede Cole Haan bag. It would hold a single file folder, but not an entire Redweld. It wasn't quite polished enough for court, and the suede didn't really work for summer.

So when we were out shopping, I wanted to check out the Fossil and Coach outlets in my new bag search. The Coach outlet had great prices, but nothing like what I needed. And the majority of their bags were the signature print. I really like the clean lines of the classic leather Coach bags. I hate the signature print--in Coach or any other label. At the risk of offending my readers, I'll just say it--I think it's tacky and screams "look at my label."

And then in the Fossil outlet, I spotted it. My exact bag. But shiny and new. And only $80--less than half of what I paid for the original. Now, I did check out the rest of the store. But I didn't find anything else as polished and perfectly suited for work. And so I bought it. Yes, the exact same bag that I bought back in 2007.

Is that weird? It feels weird. But I love that bag. It is exactly what I need, and a bargain at $80.

And yes, all of my bags are red. I guess it's my thing. And besides, I can carry the red regardless of whether I am wearing black or brown and not feel uncoordinated.