Bag lady

Moving on from dolls to bags.......here's what I've been up to lately. This is one of many I've made from my own pattern. It's just basically a rectangle for the sides and strips for the bottom and ends, and more strips for the handles. It's lined with bright orange....and I forgot to take a picture.....so maybe I'll just go and do that now. Hold on a sec.

As you can see it's extremely garish, I mean quite festive. I put a patch pocket on the inside. I'm thinking I can use it to carry all of my Chinese souvenirs. That's because I won't need much space for them, since a person really doesn't have to go very far right here in the good ol' USA to find some of those....

Last week I made a bag for my cousin for her birthday. I'm pretty sure she's received it already, so there's probably no harm in posting a picture.

She and her sister (also my cousin..heh...heh..) are planning a road trip to a hot air balloon festival. I bought the fabric quite a long time ago. I was struck by the colors and the glitter...you probably can't see that, but it's sparkly. How convenient that my cousins made these plans so I could put the fabric to good use. This one has purple lining, but no pocket. I hope she doesn't get in a snit about that, but at least she won't be shopping for Chinese trinkets.

So now that the bags are finished, I have a new project I'm about to begin. Here's a little preview. Any guesses?

Check back in a day or two to see what I've come up with. I did buy some zippers today, but otherwise I'll just use up some scraps from my fabric stash.

So Friday I went to get my driver's license renewed. Here in Connecticut the DMV has become much more focused on customer service. They've set up a few locations for renewing your license with a minimum of hassle. I just drove a couple of miles up the road to the local AAA office where I found no line and a smiling clerk. After she took my picture, she very thoughtfully asked if I was OK with it. I told her I was pretty sure I could live with it for the next six years, especially since her camera was compassionate enough to somehow camouflage my sad hair in need of color.

I can only imagine this possible exchange if I were to be pulled over by the local police before my hair appointment on Wednesday:

"We really should write you a citation m'am, but we're only going to give you a warning this time," said the polite young officer.

"Why?" I asked. "What have I done?"

"It's the grey hair, m'am. You need to do something about that at your earliest convenience."

"I have an appointment," I tell him. "I hope Wednesday is soon enough."

"That's fine," he replies. "Sometimes with you older folks we see the grey hair and we know it's just a matter of time before you'll be driving with your turn signals on, or pulling out into traffic and slowing down. Sometimes you even hit the brakes for no apparent reason."

"Thanks for not giving me a ticket," I say.

"No problem, m'am. You have a nice day. And you might want to think about wearing a hat for a couple of days. Maybe keep a low profile, you know what I mean?"