Searching for the Perfect Handbag

I've been looking for a new handbag for a month or so now. A handbag is supposed to be my birthday gift from my parents, but I've been slow in picking one out (my birthday is on Christmas day, and with the distraction of the holidays, I just never found the time to pick one out!) I am visiting New York City with my family the weekend after next, so I'm probably going to wait until then as I couldn't possibly make my choice without first looking in Bendel's and the real Saks Fifth Avenue. However, I've decided to do some advance "research" online because my father will be with us in NYC and he, being a typical man, has limited patience for shopping! And I'm sure my mother and I will be testing his patience greatly when we drag him to the J Crew sample sale :)

I'm looking for a good-sized, wintery bag. My go-to summer bags are a Kate Spade canvas tote and the small Lonchamp Le Pliage. I love the Kate Spade one because it has a hint of color (but you can still carry it with almost any outfit) and it's large enough to fit my laptop.

So far, these are my favorites:

Longchamp Planetes Tonal Shopper

I've been leaning towards this black on black combo, but I really like the versatility of the basic Longchamp Le Pliage with black and brown and was considering just getting that one size up from my current bag. But it seems odd to have an identical bag in two different sizes - what do you think? Maybe a monogram would make it sufficiently "different"??




Kate Spade Tarrytown Small Maeda

I love this bag! I saw it in Nordstrom yesterday and although you can't really tell from the photo, the handles are long enough to go over your shoulder. The green version is absolutely gorgeous too.

On the subject of shopping, I bought a few super cute things in J Crew yesterday. Unfortunately, I can't share all of them because they were all PINK and, therefore, I got extras for my partner in the swap hosted by Kappa Prep. One thing I can mention is a hot pink passport cover marked down to $6.99 from $29.50!