what . . . another bag?

Some women love shopping for clothes (I prefer “old and comfortable”) and some love shoes (I’d rather go barefoot) . . . But I’m always searching for just the right bag! For times when I wish to carry  a larger selection of sketching tools, my iPad, and several books, a larger bag is needed. I ordered one a couple of years ago from Amazon that seemed functional and had great ratings, but it was sewn of a canvas material that was just too awkward and heavy for me.

I saw a Baggallini at a local hardware store (yes, Ace Hardware in Brenham has a boutique in it!) but it was well over $100 — not my kind of money! So I looked on eBay. And found this extremely lightweight, gently used hobo bag for a mere pittance.

My paternal grandmother may be to blame for my shopping for purses. It seems that she gave me a new one every Christmas! But as I find new ones, I’ll usually give another one or two away; I really don’t need that many choices.

The Lamy Joy fountain pen I used here is fitted with a regular XF nib and filled with a custom sepia ink I made from combining the remains of Noodler’s polar black with Noodler’s polar brown. The redder ink in the coral colored Lamy Safari is my try at a burnt sienna ink, mixing De Atramentis document red with some document black. The ink in both pens is waterproof, allowing watercolor washes over them with no bleeding. The bag is a solid brown with red stitching and red lining, but the burnt sienna ink didn’t show up like I had hoped.