Since I'm jealous of Heather's lovely blog posts about her cross-stitch projects, in the best tradition of bloggers everywhere I'm brazenly stealing her idea and trying to capture the progress of my latest crochet project.
I love me some Vera Bradley handbags. I like to joke that I have "a little problem" with them, because I own a half dozen or so; then I went to my friend Fran's house and saw her bedroom redo, which included a special purse hanger on the back of her door for her SEVERAL DOZEN Veras! It made me feel much better... ;-) Lately I've mostly been carrying the basic Vera Handbag design in the (soon to be retired *sob*) Botanica fabric. I like it a lot and it works well for most of my needs, but for my daily commute I'd rather have something hands-free, preferably a bag I can wear with the strap cross-body. Vera doesn't do a lot of long-strap bags; her handbags usually have long enough straps to be used as shoulder bags, just not across the body. I see they are discontinuing the Hipster bag, and I almost bought one at 30% off last week, but couldn't pull the trigger; though if they had it in Botanica I probably would have bought it! It's close to what I want, but not quite. This is one of the times I wish I could sew, because I could probably make up a nice bag, though maybe not with the fabulous Vera fabrics. I used to carry a Betsy in the (now retired) Chelsea Green fabric, which was great but a little big for my needs right now--and again, not a hands-free bag. It makes a great carry-on bag when you're checking a rolling bag, though--it sits nicely on top of the rolling bag and I love all the pockets and organizational features. I dare say TSA loves it, too. No clutter means happy Xraying for TSA. I actually bought my rolling bag in green to match it. ;-)
I also love my Pacsafe Metro 100, which I use for sightseeing and traveling. I love the built-in security features. I've had my eye on the Metro 200 for a possible daily-commute bag. I've decided to hold off till I get a netbook. That might not be till next year, if Toshi the Portege stops acting up. (Though I might contravene my self-imposed rest-of-2008 gadget moratorium and buy a Dell E...it will make my autumn trips to Chicago for the JASNA AGM and San Diego for the Hornblower convention SO much easier. We'll see.)
But I still want a hands-free bag. What to do in the meantime?
Over the weekend I thought about possibly crocheting a bag with a nice long strap, but I was concerned about the strap stretching out under the weight of all the junk I carry on a daily basis (tho' compared to some women I see on the train, who carry a purse AND a tote AND a briefcase/messenger bag, I travel relatively light). I started thinking, if I could only combine the best of Vera and Pacsafe with crochet techniques, maybe I could come up with something...
And I think I have. :-) More soon!
This is such a great story...I'm kind of a Twitterer in waves, but I love how an American grad student who was photographing government protests in Egypt used Twitter to get word out that he was arrested so his friends back home could get him immediately freed.
He kept working to get his translator, an Egyptian national, freed as well, and when he succeeded last week, he put the word out on Twitter as well. See, this Web 2.0 stuff isn't as useless as it sometimes appears!
....because our boy's an ALL STAR! And he had a real Philadelphia-style greeting for New York, too, bless his heart. (Warning, ungentlemanlike language...) Yes, I know he apologized, but here at home there was no need to...it's endeared him to Philadelphia sports fans FOREVER. What the heck was ESPN doing INTERVIEWING DAVID WRIGHT (Mr. Only Got In Because Someone Else Got Injured Anyway) while Chase was batting in the Home Run Derby???
