For some women, it’s shoes. For others, it’s jewellery. For a third group of women ‘accessories’  mean bags. I fall firmly into the bag category and can never pass a great looking bag without purchasing. Sweet Outfits Creations have a free grip bag gift out now.

I do like to treat myself on holiday, and bags are something that will regularly be on display at local craft shops. Why I like these shops is that the artefacts on sale are often handmade, so it’s unique, and it’s a case of servicing the local economy. I always support such shops, hoping that they will survive and thrive and produce quality stuff that means that I’m not paying ‘big business’ and my conscience is also clear in terms of me not having supported some sweat shops around the world where ‘designer’ label items are produced in horrendous conditions for just a few cents/dollars and then passed on with a huge mark-up.

I do also tend to find that I often end up buying a bag with which to bring home the trinkets I’ve bought while away. In this respect, cheap and cheerful fits the bill.

If you’re like me, you’ll fly on budget airlines, where there’s a strict baggage allowance. We’ve all experienced people really pushing the envelope with their luggage, attempting to squeeze silly bags into the overhead lockers. I look at these people disdainfully, I’m afraid. If it was going to be that problematic, why didn’t you check it into the hold?

There I am, with little more than my passport, boarding pass and Kindle in the smallest handbag you’ve ever seen.

Of course the flight home is a different story! 🙂 I have become one of those sweating, panting travellers shoving a stuffed to capacity bag into a locker half a dozen rows away from where I’m sat, hoping that beautifully packaged gifts make it home in one piece.

While not ‘naturist’ in any respect, for me this grip bag is synonymous with the flight home from many trips abroad.

There’s just a couple more days of ‘free group join’ at La Vian & Co, which Barbara blogged here, and as you can see I’ve headed over there myself to pick up not all, but a selection, of what’s on display, including this dress. As Mr. Pookes & I often holiday late-season, it’s not uncommon for us to arrive back at one of London’s airports inappropriately dressed for what is often early autumn, deftly stepping over puddles, shivering in the drizzle, as we try to remember where we parked the car on arrival at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted or Luton. I do recall one near-midnight return where we both went up and down rows of cars for twenty minutes, pressing the key fob until the lights flashed. Welcome home to reality!

Pookes