So my birthday is next week. It used to be my tradition to buy myself a really cool birthday gift..something kinda pricey (for me) or totally not something I would normally buy myself. Years ago, at my old job, my boss or his investors/friends (he was a hedge fund manager) would give me money or gift certificates for my birthday (yeah, banking and hedge fund money is quite nice) and I would use that to buy myself a nice gift.
Then I got married. And decisions became not all about what I wanted. And then we bought a house. And I love my house. But having to buy furniture, or dishes or towels or paint walls or new garbage cans and NOT buy cashmere or a cool bag! WTF? Who signed me up for that??? And this was with no kids….just imagine…eeks! (of course once we got the dogs, a lot of my money went and continues to go happily in their direction.)
Anyway, this year I went back to buying myself a gift. I work a lot…all the time, whether at the office or at home, so I wanted a cool prize just for me. What I really want is a very nice, soft, chocolate brown bag but the image I have in my head of this perfect bag might never be found (or at least affordable…I did find it…for $2100..here it is…sigh….drool…the Jimmy Choo “Ramona’ in this cool crushed leather:
Jimmy Choo Ramona
I “tried it on” at Nordstrom…it is exquisite…and I fell in love…but moving right along….
But I’ve also wanted a cool red bag for a couple years now. I don’t wear red so I thought a striking red bag would add a cool splash of color to any number of outfits I could be wearing. But the problem is, even with really fancy, expensive bags, the red leather looks cheap. So I kept looking to no avail for 2 years. Then Kate Spade had their Friends & Family sale….I immediately looked for a cool brown bag. No luck – not a single, solitary brown bag on sale! DOH! But then I found my red bag..the New Canaan Rudy. And it was 50% off from retail!
Now, I haven’t bought myself a really pricey item retail in a very long time. I have nice things. But I have found them on deep discount, or eBay, or any number of shopping forums – a lot of them pre-owned (doesn’t that sound SOOO much better than used?! I think Certified Pre-Owned even!)
So anyway, when I was pulling the trigger on this purchase I could hear my husband’s head veins popping (well, how they would when I told him) but I did it anyway :) And then had to wait for it to arrive. I am going out of town tomorrow for 9 days so I was hoping it would arrive before I left. And it did – today!
When I got it home, I opened it up and hoped I would love it as much as I thought I would. And when I unwrapped it…and unwrapped it some more (new stuff from cool stores always comes all wrapped in many layers of fancy tissue – helps justify the cost I think) I LOVED it!
Now I just had to show husband…sigh… So when he came home, I said “So I bought myself a birthday gift. You know I wanted a red bag. I found this one for 50% off retail and that’s that.” (strike quickly without allowing your opponent time to think!) He came over, looked at it, said “wow – soft. How much? Holy crap, that’s 50% off retail?? ok…” And that was that. (always present the awesome deal you got..note to self: need to try that with Tiffany’s)
So now I am styling with my new kate Spade New Canaan Rudy in red for this 4th of July :) And Happy Birthday to me :) YAY!!!
My new Kate Spade bag!
