Another Saturday Shopping Spree

My sister Sid is staying with us until the closing of her house in Natchitoches.  In the meantime she's bored and needs some furniture since her furniture is in storage in another state while her husband is overseas.  For the last few weekends we've been going to antique shops, a flea market, and few other places.  There are still a few to go if we're to hit most of the places in the state, and I have a feeling that's her goal!

The funny thing is that she looks and I buy.  I know, it's backwards!  We go shopping for her house, and I buy stuff for mine.  She's very particular and wants things that will fit into her 1950's style artsy house, and I'm anything but particular so if I like it, it gets to come home and join my eclectic combination of odds and ends.

Getting any sewing done is almost impossible, however.  Between work and play, I've had to stick to small projects.  One small project I have worked on is a new purse for myself.

A couple of weeks ago I purchased this lovely yellow  Mill Creek drapery fabric with a coordinating plaid silk for just this purpose.  I've been using the same red purse for about two years now, so it really was time to find something.  My problem is that I'm as particular about purses as Sid is about furniture.

I based the bag on one I've had for a while and another that I just bought for carrying my lunches to work.  Since I used the purse on today's excursion, I can report that it's a good design.  If there's one thing I would have done differently it's that I'd have added a closure.  I meant to do that and have a magnetic snap somewhere in the studio, but I simply forgot to put it in.  Now that it's all closed up, adding the snap would be difficult, so I'm thinking about putting in a different closure.  We'll see.

Tonight after our excursion, I stole a few minutes and ran into the studio to add two little accessories to the bag.  A small bag shaped like a coin purse but a bit larger to put all those little things that I like in my purse but do not like them flopping around in the bottom: lens cleaner, lipstick, hand cleaner, nail clippers, etc.

I have to keep a calendar in my purse so that it is where I am when I need it.  I decided to make it match the bag by slipping it into a neat little book cover made to fit.

I added a ribbon bookmark so that finding the correct month is easy.  To help keep the paper clean and dry, I've made the cover large enough to slip the plastic cover into it with the calendar inside.  Turns out it works very well.

I have plans to make three more items: a bag for my rosary, a wallet for holding business cards,  and another to hold all the items in my regular wallet, except the coins.  I haven't decided what to do about coin money.  I really don't like to carry coins because they add weight so quickly.  I guess I'll figure it as I go along.  If you have suggestions, I'd love to hear them.  Tell me what you do to carry coins?  Do you find them heavy as I do?  How do you manage or organize all the things in your bag?  Please do share!