I think, personally, that a hand bag is a very private thing. I think every girl, lady, woman, boy or man that carries a bag with them has different necessities that they must have on their person at all times, and sometimes they don't want to share what they keep on them.. I am not one of those people and I quite enjoy seeing people on YouTube go through their bag and empty it for all to see. I've found quite good tips for keeping a clean handbag through these videos and I also love to see what purses people have, what make up they carry around and what bag they're using at the moment. I can agree that my bag is nowhere near as cool or as exciting as any YouTuber or blogger that you may have seen take part in this tag, but I don't care!
My handbag was bought in the Christmas sales 2016 and is from Accessorise. If I remember correctly, this bag was originally like £45 and was reduced down to £18 in the sale! I really liked the colour and I liked the size as it has plenty of space inside.
Firstly, I have my purse, an item you will find in most peoples handbags! Mine if a very lovely Ted Baker purse in baby pink that I grabbed for a total bargain on Depop. I'd been looking for a new purse for months and I really badly wanted a Ted Baker one, but I was not handing over £75 minimum for a purse! I managed to get this purse in near perfect condition for only £23 including postage! That is a bargain in my opinion! I want to get a new purse so I think I'll wait till the after Christmas sales at the end of this year and hopefully I'll be able to grab a new Ted but for a cheaper price. I really like the style of this purse, it's a great size, I have plenty of space for cards, notes and change! I also have some very cute (of Reece!) photos of myself and Reece in my purse which we took in the one and only photo booth we've ever been in together, as you can tell, I was slightly camera shy!
I carry my diary with my in my bag at all times. I use my diary to keep track of doctors and hospital appointments, birthdays, LUSH releases and most importantly, my flexi hours at work. As I work in an office, many days I work more than my contracted hours, so I get flexi time. This is where I can build up extra hours and either take a shorter day or build up enough to take a full day off work. It's really helpful when I need to leave work early for any reason and also for if I have a really busy day and need extra time to complete my tasks. It's also good for keeping track of my holidays and being able to see how much time I have left to take. I used to use diaries when I was a kid to keep a memory of what I did each and every day. Every year I try to keep a full diary, accounting the days, but in the last few years I've failed within the first month. It is quite nice to read over the diaries I have from when I was younger and I do wish that the past few years I'd kept a diary. I do have a travel diary for when I go abroad, but I haven't been abroad since 2012 so it only contains memories from that year. I'll definitley keep that one up as I think it's lovely to look back on.
As I said above, I haven't been 'abroad' as such since 2012. Going to see Reece doesn't count as that's Northern Ireland and I don't have to get money changed! So I don't carry my passport around with me for travel reasons, I carry it as a form if ID. Lately, I haven;t been ID'd for age restricted items, but I know that I'll be caught one day with no ID and I'll be stuck! I also like to keep it on me as I do travel to see Reece quite a bit and even though you don't need a passport to travel to Northern Ireland, you do need proof of who you are and this is all I have as I don't drive. I know for a fact if I didn't keep my passport on me, I'd end up misplacing it somewhere in my room and when I come to go to Northern Ireland, I wouldn't be able to find it. So in a backwards kind of way, it's safer if I have it on me at all times!
Yes, you guessed it, I carry keys with me. This includes my house key and a key I have to my mum best friends house as I look after her house when she is away from home and I also used to look after her kids a lot when they were younger, so it made sense for me to have a key of my own. My favourite part of my keys, obviously, is my key rings. I have a chunk of amethyst that I bought the first time Reece came over to England to visit me and we visited my cities cathedral on his last day before he flew home. I also have a geode that I bought when me and Reece visited the continental marker on our first Christmas in Belfast. This has now become a tradition of ours, where I visit him every year the week before Christmas and we go to the continental market because I love it so much! I get so excited every year! And the final key ring is a chunk of citrine that I bought the first time me and Reece visited the Lake District together and went to one of my favourite shops, The Rock Shop in Ambleside. I love that shop and all the crystals that they sell, so I wanted to mark the occasion that Reece finally went after me telling him out if for years.
Like most, I keep a small make up bag in my handbag at all times. This one, I bought in TKMaxx for a whole £3! I really liked this one as I thought it was quite Kate Spade esk. In here I tend to keep whatever lipstick I am wearing that day, which to be honest accumulates to about 20 lipsticks and I carry my bag around wondering why it's so heavy or look in my make up drawers for a particular lipstick that I can't find! Today I have my Kat Von D mini in Bow and Arrow in there today as I have been totally loving this liquid lipstick lately and it is the perfect size for keeping in my make up bag. I usually have a LUSH solid perfume in here too, and as you can see I currently have my The Comforter solid in there. A new addition to this bag lately has been my sunglasses as we have officially hit the British summertime and the sun is so bright on a morning it makes my eyes water when I'm looking for the bus, so these are a must have for me for now. I also keep my medication, tampons, some mints, a bottle of deodorant, my work pass and flexi card in here, but I highly doubt you all want to see them!
I have always been into reading, I remember as a kid, other kids my age asked for PlayStations and bikes for Christmas and I always asked for the latest Harry Potter or Jacqueline Wilson book. Ever since I came back from staying with Reece, I have really got back into reading. I always read when I travel as the signal is awful on the train to Newcastle and of course I can't access the internet on my crappy easyJet flight! I was reading Girl Online: Going Solo during my travels but I finished it when I got into Newcastle. Typical easyJet being delayed, I missed my train back to Carlisle so I had to wait for two hours in the train station for the next train out. Luckily, Reece's mum had given me a book when I was over there and really recommended it to me. I nearly forgot it as I had put it with Reece's very few books but she reminded me just before I left. I started reading the book, No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay and I totally fell in love with reading again. I read it on the train home, on the bus to work the next day, on the bus home from work and I finished it on the Monday night. I really got into the story and I'm not going to give anything away, but if you enjoy a mystery thriller book, this is the one for you! I am currently reading The Girl on the Train which Reeces mum bought me for my birthday back in March and I am really enjoying it so far!
I also carry one of my LUSH tote bags with my everywhere. I buy my dinner every day for work and I use my tote to carry it back to the office with me. I also need a bag on me at all times because I never know when I'm going to pop into LUSH on my dinner and buy a couple of products, and even though their bags are free and they are paper so harmless to the environment, I can take my own so why not? I love this tote bag that I have been using lately. This is the Botanical tote bag that was first available in the kitchen last year. I really wanted this tote but it sold out really quick and I had no spare money to buy one at the time. I was so upset! But I managed to find a lovely girl on Facebook who was selling hers and her Botanical t-shirt so I bought them both and they got to me just in time for my birthday way back in March! You can now purchase this online and in your local store for a limited time so go go go! I will leave a link at the end of this post!
As I said, my bag is really boring! I keep it clean and I don't keep old receipts for long so there were no interesting purchase reminders hanging around in the bottom of there! I'd be really interested in what you keep in your bag, let me know down below in the comments if there is anything I carry around with me every day that you do too!
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Please take a look at these articles and web pages-
Ted Baker purse (closest I could find!)
Kat Von D Everlasting Liquid Liptick in Bow & Arrow
LUSH Botanical tote bag
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**Disclaimer: All views, opinions and photos are my own.**