Typically, most people associate the purse with it being “a girl thing” and a desirable fashion accessory today.  But, the very first purses were not carried by girls and were not considered to be a fashion, or fun accessory.  They were purely functional and carried by men thousands of years ago, way before pockets were invented, to contain their valuable or necessary items.  Pouches, usually made of leather, or cloth, with a draw string at the top, or purses, were used to carry survival items such as flint and also to carry their money, in the form of coins or other valuables.

It is not uncommon for men to carry a purse today and the term used for the man purse is a “murse”.   After all, pockets alone, can’t hold all you need to carry at times, such as electronic equipment, books and documents.  A purse, it’s not just a “Girl” thing.

Although the Birkin bag, by Hermès is free of logos, it is one of the most recognized purses in the women’s fashion industry and by the public. It is highly coveted and, for several years, was believed to have a waiting list of up to 6 years – the longest wait for any purse in history.  As a result of the strong demand, the Birkin purse has a high reselling value in many countries. The bag is a symbol of wealth due to its high price ($9,000 to $34,000 for one of crocodile skin), meticulous craftsmanship and elusiveness to the public. Each purse has a number-coded lock and key. The company’s signature saddle stitching, developed in the 1800s, is another distinctive feature.

The purse is named after actress and singer Jane Birkin. In 1981, Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas was seated next to Jane Birkin on a flight from Paris to London. She placed her straw bag in the overhead compartment of her seat, but the contents fell out, leaving her to scramble to replace everything back in her purse. Birkin explained to Dumas that it had been difficult to find a leather weekend bag she liked. In 1984, he created a black supple leather purse for her, based on an 1892 design. And, thus it became known as the Birkin bag.

Birkin bags are sold in a range of sizes. Each purse may be made to order with different hardware options and customer-chosen hides such as calf leather, ostrich, crocodile, and lizard. A variety of color options are available such as pink, red, brown, baby blue, navy blue, olive green, orange, white, black, and golden tan. The lining is made of goat skin and the interior color matches the exterior color. There are other individual options, such as diamond-encrusting. The purses are handmade in France by expert artisans. Each purse is hand-sewn, buffed, painted, and polished, taking several days to finish. An average purse is created in 48 hours.

The Birkin Bag, with it’s meticulous quality, is very desirable to us girls and has a high price tag. If you can’t afford the real thing, don’t buy a knock off purse. Buying a fake makes you a fake and it is illegal to sell them.

Resource: Wikipedia

You may, or may not feel the need to buy a gift for Grandmother on Mother’s Day.  If your Grandmother is anything like Sharon Barber, quality time spent with her granddaughter, or grandson, would be the best gift you can give.  As women get older, material things matter less and time is valued more.  A one of a kind item that you handcrafted especially for her would be a great gift.

The author is unknown, but this is a perfect quote: “Grandmothers are just antique little girls.”   That would mean she still wants to have fun and likes tasteful, whimsical toys and things.  So, if you really want to purchase a gift for her think,  puzzles, fun, whimsy.  You may even consider toys or books from the baby boomer generation childhood years, something that she can relate to when she was a little girl.

Consider a zigsaw puzzle, crossword puzzle or word search puzzles.  There are many different puzzles, in many different forms, even purses and jewelry, that are fun and provide many hours of entertainment or enjoyment accessorizing herself.

Yellow is a happy color and an attention getter.  It is a hot women’s fashion color this year and it’s showing up everywhere, in all shades, from bright sunshine yellow, cheerful mustard yellow to the soft pale yellow.

Little girls are able to dress “head to toe” in bright sunshine yellow and look adorable, but it’s a little tricky for us big girls.  You don’t want to look like Big Bird. Not everyone feels as though they look good in yellow clothing, but it’s all about choosing the right shade that looks good on you.  Finding that right shade makes all the difference.

Yellow accessories work well for all girls and women and they still give you the trend with just a touch of the color.  Try some fun yellow shoes, glowing jewelry or even a bright sassy purse to brighten up your day.  Chill out with a little yellow fashion fever this season.

Nature influences our life.  Designers use it for inspiration.  The fashion world and many other industries are inspired by it.  Nature has it all.  The shapes found in nature go way beyond the circle, triangle and square.  Color is all around us in natural earth formations, trees, flowers, water and in the sky.  The number of different textures in nature would be incomprehensible.

It’s a never ending source of ideas for all kinds of clothing and fashion accessories, such as little girl’s dresses, men’s shoes and women’s purses.  For example, the purse shown here is a beautiful rich brown color.  The color can be found in much of earth’s soil, but also in the cocoa bean.  The texture is that of water ripples and the natural beauty of wood grain is used for the hardwood details.   The purse’s rectangular shape can be found in naturally formed stones.

Look for earth friendly fashion finds that are easy on the environment to help keep the creative Mother Earth inspiration alive for future generations.

Prom, short for promenade, is a formal event and such an important night for most young women in Canada and the United States. It is held at the end of the academic year for High School Seniors, or in some cases, Juniors may be included. This special time is anticipated mainly because of the formal attire that is required and a girl gets to dress up in a fabulous way.

The dress is extremely important, but choosing the accessories to accentuate that fabulous dress is important too. There are many options for you to find the special prom purse including designer stores, specialty shops or online stores. Many choices of styles are available also. Styles include plain or embellished bags; wristlet, clutch, swinging pouches. The smart choice and the earth friendly choice is a quality transformable purse with a fancy interchangeable cover. You will be able to use it for the prom and use it later in a more casual or fun interchangeable look just by changing the purses accessories. You could even choose to customize your very own to make it uniquely yours and to match your dress.

The ideal prom purse should be a small evening bag, large enough to carry the bare essentials, yet small enough not to take away from the look of your dress. It should be color coordinated with dress color. Stay in the same color family to prevent a big contrast. If your dress has excessive beading, embroidery or sequins, stay away from heavily embellished purses. Simple style is best.

You will be making some long lasting memories on your special night. Have fun ladies! It’s your time to shine.

Contents of a woman’s purse or handbag should be secure.  A zipper is one of many types of fasteners used in the design and manufacture of purses and handbags.

The original zipper was improved on with Gideon Sundback‘s invention of the modern zipper, in 1913.  He added teeth per square inch and scoop-dimpled the teeth to give the closure more strength.  Google, the search engine giant, honors his birthday today with a clever interactive zipper doodle and stitched logo.  You can actually click this fun Google doodle here to unzip it for search results of Sundback and the zipper.

Are the contents of your purse secure? Is your purse zipped up?

The purse choice for prom should be a small evening purse.  Evening prom purses are small so that you look ladylike, but make sure that your purse is large enough to carry the following items.

Enough cash to take a taxi home, just in case you need to.  Girl’s should always be prepared.

Cell Phone, but please keep it turned off unless you need it for an emergency.  Enjoy your prom, you can chat anytime.

A small Mirror, unless it is built into the purse, as in a Sharon Barber purse.

Your Identification

Prom Tickets

House and Car Keys

Breath Mints

Lipstick

Nail File

Tissues

That’s about all you really need.  Keep it simple, less to keep up with and then enjoy your evening.  Have fun!

Every woman has her own unique style and that style can be expressed best with handcrafted fashion accessories. Artisans pay great attention to detail and quality when crafting their works of art.

When you own handcrafted jewelry and purses, you take pride in wearing them and in knowing that it is your one of-a-kind accessory. There is a connection to the designer and artist. Once you have an appreciation for handcrafted items, it is difficult to imagine dressing in anything else.

Girls, if you haven’t already, you will become a fan of handcrafted accessories.

It helps so much to carry as little as possible in your purse.  Minimize and you will have more time to have fun instead of digging through your purse everywhere you go.  It is easy to carry what you need and minimize the amount you carry by using small individual packets.

Single use hand sanitizer packets are great for stuffing in your purse and the extra benefit is that you will not run the risk of spilling the liquid from the bottle inside your purse.  A girlfriend had one of those bottles explode when it got hot from being left in a hot car.  No one was hurt, but it sure was messy.  Small tissue packets are also available and take up little room in your purse.  Dental floss comes in single use packages, it’s a great little size to store in your wallet or with the other packets filed neatly on one side of your purse and right in sight.  First aid items and eye drops come in single use packages.  Look for and use these or make your own small packets using snack size zippy bags to put your “stuff” in.

Simplify, it doesn’t take that much time to organize.  You will be glad you did.

Puzzles are a great way to exercise your mind.  This is a simple puzzle to solve and a favorite for little girls.  It’s a fun little challenge.

Look at the two Puzzle Purse images to the right.  There are six differences in them.  Can you identify them?

Questions?  Contact Sharon Barber Purses here.

One cent isn’t much.  What could a girl buy with one cent?  Not much, but those pennies add up.

In honor of National One Cent Day, we are sharing this calculation to show the power of one cent.  The idea is to compound your money by doubling the value daily, starting with one penny.

Day one – Double $0.01 = $0.02

Day two – Double $0.02 = $0.04

Day three – Double $0.04 = $0.08

Day four – Double $0.08 = $0.16

Day five – Double $0.16 = $0.32

Day six – Double $0.32 = $0.64

Day seven – Double $0.64 = $1.28 day, or just round down to $1.25 to make it easy.

Day eight – Double $1.25 = $2.50 day eight < Here you can see that rounding down by a few pennies simplifies it.

Day nine – Double $2.50 = $5.00

Day ten – Double $5.00 = $10.00

Next it’s $20, and then $40, $80, $160, $320, $640, $1280 (round down to $1250), then $2500 and then to $5000.

That’s $5000 after 19 days.

$10,000 after 20 days of doubling your money.

Double again and so on day 21 you have $20,000, the next day that’s $40,000, then $80,000, and $160,000 on day 24, $320,000 in 25 days.

Keep doubling and now on day 26 you have $640,000.00 and day 27 $1,280,000, then to simplify round down to $1,250,000.00.

Double $1,250,000.00 = $2.5 million on day 28.

Double $2,500,000.00 = $5 million on day 29.

Double $5,000,000.00 = $10 million on day 30.  Now ten million dollars, that would be a really Big Purse.