The Perfect Bag...

I have been on a hunt for the last month or so (realistically, more like my entire fashion-conscious life) to find the perfect  black bag. Handbags are my guilty pleasure. Whenever I go into a store, I immediately head to the bag section. I know that bags are probably the last thing that men care about when considering a woman's appearance, but I don't care. I love them. I'm quite particular about my bags as well. I don't often spend very much money on them, simply because I know they're kind of a frivolous item to spend hundreds of dollars on. But if I'm completely honest, there are designer bags that I'd more than willingly lay down the couple hundred to have if I didn't feel horrible about doing so. I just can't bring myself to spend over 100 even though I've lusted bags costing well over that. I just know that next year I won't love it as much and there will be something new I want. I like to change my bags with the seasons. So buying a $300 bag that in four months time I won't use doesn't seem practical. Despite all of this (or because of all of this) I am hunting for a black bag. While black is customarily a fall/winter color, if it were nice enough, black is classic enough to wear all year round. I have the perfect bag in my head but I just can't seem to find one close enough that isn't ridiculously expensive. I want a black faux/leather shoulder bag, two handles, silver hardware, big enough to fit everything I need including my camera, but not an enormous tote. A little bit of design element would be nice but not too much. I want something that if I spend a good amount of money on it I can still wear in a year or two.
My search, up to this point, has been mostly unsuccessful. I've been looking mostly online since the only place to find a nice bag around here is Macy's and there's been crap there lately. The thing about looking online though is that I really wouldn't want to spend over $100 on a bag that I haven't tried on, you know? I don't want to buy a $300 bag and it gets here and it doesn't look as good on me as I thought. I've been looking on ebay and other sites, but usually the ones I find are really cheap looking or ridiculous in price.
I wish I could just make my own. But that would require much more knowledge and skill than I possess. I've found a few possible ones though. They're not 100% what I want, but they're cute nonetheless.

I ended up buying this one. It's not exactly what I wanted but I kept going back to it. Endless.com

B. Makowsky bags (QVC.com)

Besides the first one, these bags are all by B. Makowsky. I have been in love with him since I saw one of his bags at T.J. Maxx. Every bag I wanted was by him and of course still too expensive to buy even at TJ Maxx. The leather on all of them was beautiful. Soft and delicious. These bags are kind of expensive. They're all over $200, but I'm really considering buying one. I just can't decided and I want to be really sure. I think my favorite is the second to last one but I also really love the two big totes that are similar. I'm just worried they'll be too big. I really like the last one's overall look, but I don't like that it only has one handle and flips open. I just don't know. :/
What do you guys think? Should I take the plunge and buy one? Which do you like best??

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I don't heart you San Francisco...No, I don't.

So, we had our San Francisco weekend. Overall Score: Not impressed.
We started the trip with discovering that our gps was stolen out of our car. Boo. But we moved forward and got to San Francisco right about the time we could check in. The hotel was nice. The room was small, but elegant. The bed was ultra comfy. We relaxed for awhile in the hotel before we decided to head out and explore. Our hotel was located right in Union Square so we figured we'd have good walking access to most of the things we wanted to do. We walked around Union Square for about four hours, perusing in and out of shops and trying to find our way around. I felt like we kept going in circles. Or maybe it all just looked the same. I was really excited to go to H&M considering I always see people having cute stuff from there and we don't have one near here. I went into both SF stores and have to say I was completely disappointed. They both were a madhouse and both were a mess. I could not imagine actually finding anything in there between the hoards of people and and stuff all over the place. So disappointing. I suppose I'll just have to wait until they FINALLY introduce online shopping later this year.
All stores were basically like that. Extremely busy, which I'm not used to here in Monterey or back home. Plus, they all seemed high-end. AKA way more expensive than I'm willing to shop. I'm sorry, but I'm not the type of girl who will spend more than $20 on a shirt. A shirt that will most likely be out of style next year and I'll never wear again. I've never spent more than $40 on a pair of jeans in my life (true story). Needless to say I left San Fran without purchasing anything other than food.
On that note. We were really hoping to go out and have fun in San Fran, somewhere near the hotel so we could just walk back. We found somewhere to eat that didn't charge $35 for food. It was nice. Great food and a jazz band. Luckily it was less than a block from the hotel considering I decided to dress up and wear uber high and uber uncomfortable heels. I should know better than to attempt such a thing considering I NEVER wear heels. And never that high in my life. After dinner, we were hoping to find a bar or somewhere to have cheap drinks nearby. Alas, we found one and that one didn't serve us after sitting for fifteen minutes. So we left. We decided to just go buy some drinks and head back to the hotel. Wear I crashed about a half hour later.
I was expecting to get kind of crazy, ya know? Have fun in the big city. So I was needless to say disappointed. I mean, I loved spending time with my husband and we had a good time together, but we could've had just as good of a time anywhere (and not spend $250 on a room when we were told it would be 180...long story). But, at least I can say that I've been there. Done that. I guess I'm just not a big city type of girl. I mean, I love that there's so much to do but I can't take all of the crowds and people and the traffic and I'm kind of paranoid about people stealing or whatever. Not my cup of tea.

Our Bed.

The rest of the room. Yeah.

Walking down the street.

Chinatown

What a looker.

I'm glad we got to do something out of the ordinary for our anniversary though. I can't believe we've been married a year. It seems like just yesterday we were taking endless walks around Quincy together, both obviously having feelings for the other but one of us (yes me) trying to deny it. I remember the summer we first met so vividly. All of the drama. All of the romance. All of the fun. Sometimes I wonder if we're too different. We were too young when we got married. I wonder if we'll make it with everything that's against us. Then again, I didn't think we'd ever end up together in the first place. There's so many things we don't agree on. Things we do differently. Believe differently. It probably, on some level, shouldn't work, him and I. But it does. Somehow, beyond my understanding, it works. Maybe because our foundation, despite all of the differences, is that we truly love each other. We respect one another. We can put up with each other because we can't imagine our lives without the other, and wouldn't want to. I remember when he "proposed" and I asked my mom if I was crazy or if she thought it was the right thing, and she asked something along the lines of do you love him? Can you imagine anyone in your life but him? And I couldn't. I can't. I haven't really dated anyone besides him (like, at all), but still, I couldn't see anyone but him by my side. He's the one I want. He's the one that fits.
Being married has taught me a lot. I know I still have a lifetime to learn. I won't lie and say we're happy all of the time or we like each other all of the time. He does things that upset me. Says things that make me mad or feel bad. I do things that annoy the hell out of him. But we sleep on it, and the next day we're back to normal. At the core of it all, we're best friends who are in love with one another. So much has happened in a year, and so much will happen in the next. I'm just holding on for the ride and am so glad that he's holding my hand right next to me. <3
And now for some wedding pictures. Enjoy! :)

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We'll Find the Right Bridge this Time...Hopefully...

So, tomorrow we are headed to San Francisco!! I'm so excited. It's our one year anniversary and we're going on a romantic escape. We're heading up in the morning and are going to explore all day then check into the hotel and go out. I'm trying to decide what to wear at the moment. I want to look cute, but I know it's going to be a little chilly and we're going to do a lot of walking. :/ Hmm... I'm also debating what to wear to dinner. I'm torn between looking sexy and looking elegant. I kind of want to look sexy, but I have a really pretty dress that I haven't worn due to lack of occasion. Hmm. I should probably figure this out before we actually leave in the morning. The whole packing necessity and all. Hmm. Anyways. I'm really looking forward to this trip. I hope it's as fun as I imagine. Our goal is to find the Golden Gate Bridge this time. We went up to SF a while back and we were on a mission to find it, but our gps wouldn't bring up any kind of directions so we just followed the signs for the bay bridge thinking that was it. Well, it wasn't. We definitely had this moment of, this is it? It's not even golden. Yeah we're lame. Hopefully we correct it this time. Any restaurant or site-seeing spot recommendations would be greatly appreciated!! :)

http://skvots.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/San-Francisco.jpg

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Getting Lost is My Favorite Thing to do as Long as I'm Getting Lost With You...

So, my husband had the whole week off last week. That equaled a very happy me. Wednesday I was also off. Yeah. We wanted to do something fun or just do something, so we headed into town to see what mischief we could find. We went to this amazing bookstore that I love where they sell used books. Stacks, and stacks of books on every kind of subject. I know what you're thinking: Um, hello, what's the library? Well, I do like the library, but they don't tend to have newer books plus I love to fill my bookshelves. I love to own books. Even though I usually only read them once, I love to own them. I love to look on my shelf and say I've read that and that and that. I will admit it's hard for me, however, to enter a store like this and actually purchase anything. There's just SO many books and they all look potentially interesting...how can I choose just one or two?? I very rarely leave there with anything, even after spending several hours there. I need to make a list of books I want to read and take it with me that way I have direction, but I never do. This time I did manage to find a couple of things I have wanted to read. Success!!

Oh yeah, and I found a 1,000,000 bill. :)

The purchases

After we perused the stacks for an hour or so, I had the urge to go to the library(more books!) to see if I could find some photography books that I wanted. Alas, they didn't open for an hour. So, what to do in the mean time? Go to Carmel? Okay! So we headed south to the little shopping village down there. It was a beautiful day for it. We got lunch at this...interesting?...little diner and walked around for a couple of hours checking out the shops. We decided to head back to the car, and what we thought would be back home, but took a little detour that turned into quite a long detour. We ended up driving down along Carmel Beach, randomly attempting to find our way back to the highway. We thought we had, but apparently we didn't. We started going into the valley, not the usual route along the coast. We really had no idea where we were going. We were surrounded by woods and foothills. It was actually quite beautiful to see. My husband was like a little kid. He was taking turns like a race-car driver and was so excited about getting lost. We were laughing and being our random selves the entire time. It was a lot of fun. I don't know anyone else who would have had as much fun being lost. I guess that's why we work so well together. We love to do the most random things. We love to go on adventures like that or even just chill at home. I think that's something that's really important in a relationship. You want someone that you can have fun with, a good time with, but you also want someone you can be boring with, ya know? For the times when life isn't as exciting. You want someone you can enjoy just sitting with doing nothing. Little relationship advice from me to you.
Now here are some of the pics from the adventure. Gave me a chance to practice my "drive-by shooting", aka: taking thousands of pics out of a moving car window.

Deer. Duh.

I kind of like the focus within the blur.

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