52 Tuesday's: Favorite Thrifts #15 - Travel Edition (2)

My title are getting rather lengthy...
anywho

What: Woven Everything Bag
Where: I don't remember? Maybe the Ballard Goodwill? eeek!
Level of Love: Tons!

Still traveling this week, so this is another travel edition of my favorite thrifts. As I mentioned last week, I think when something travels with you it's elevated to the level of extra favorite. Which is certainly true of this bag. This bag. Seriously. I called it an everything bag, because it fits just about everything. Original, I know.

This was one of those things I almost didn't buy because I was waffling over whether I really liked it or not. Seems like these types of bags have been floating around in trendy world for a few years now, so I was kind of thinking it was either too late to jump on the bandwagon and I'd look silly carrying it, or I just didn't want to be on that bandwagon at all because it's a little outside my style. Plus, sometimes I think there's this thrifting rule you have to tell yourself where if you're going back and forth on something you should probably put it back. If it's not an omagawd grab and beeline for the checkout then you have no business buying it. It's a bit of a conundrum really: when to buy something thrifting and when to leave it when you're on the fence. I think you have to be even pickier  when thrifting than when you're at a new goods store. I have a few theories about this. First, your standards change by your surroundings. If I'm at J. Crew looking at their cashmere sweaters, I might not buy one because it's not the exact right shade of blue (Note: I've never purchased a cashmere sweater off the rack at J.Crew). If I'm at a thrift store and I see a cashmere J. Crew sweater of any color I'm gonna bring that sucker home. This has gotten me into trouble in the past when I've arrived home, unpacked my bags, and realized I've just purchased a sweater in the most hideous shade of luminescent yellow you could imagine (true story). So, perspective. Second, I think all the randomness of a thrift store can make you loose your sense of your own style a little bit. If you're at a homogeneously decorated and stocked store that fits your style aesthetic perfectly, you have no trouble picking within the family of things to pull out that one extra perfect thing. At the thrift store, sometimes it's all so NOT your style that when you see something remotely close you're like, "dude, that's sooo me". But then it turns out you put it with all the rest of your stuff and it's really not. It just was compared to all the totally random stuff at the thrift store.

See, I've had some thoughts about this.

Back to the bag. The one downside it had when I purchased it was that it was just all one big pouch, with no little pockets to stick your phone or wallet. So, to fix that for travel purposes (zipper your valuables when you travel folks), I bought a big zippered cotton pouch thing, and sewed one side of it to one side of the bag, creating a zippered compartment for my valuables. Oh! This bag has been traveling before. In fact, it has it's very own Tunisia story! We were walking through the coliseum at Al Jem when one of the leather straps suddenly snapped. I was bummed, but was making it work. Later that night, we arrived in Sfax and went to the souk (market). As we were walking through, our friend Rachel pointed out a vendor with a leather goods shop and a manual sewing machine and suggested that if we asked he would probably mend the strap. Well, we Rachel asked, and lickety split it was fixed! It held strong through the rest of our trip - which notably included hanging from a camel - and is still going strong today.