Meet Bonzie, Pt. 1: Which skirt should I get?

Bonzie is an independent Irish "aunt-niece design duo with a love for an olde worlde time worn aesthetic."  I first discovered them on etsy (of course) months ago and have been in love with their designs ever since.  Bonzie is best known for its boleros, which I'll feature in Part 2, but if I were to get one thing for myself, it would have to be one of these fantastic upcycled skirts.

Combining ladylike ruffles with traditional plaids, hard-edged leather and hardware, they suggest a bit of steampunk, a bit of Scottish kilt, a bit of wayward pirate wench, and all romance.  Problem is, they come in many colors and are customizable, so I'm having trouble deciding on just one style.


Bonzie and Ger were so cute in their response: "Thanks ever so much for your kind words about our work, we are chuffed that you enjoy our designs and would be delighted for you to...be featuring us!"

Dilemmas: Never spent more than $35 on a purse...is now the time to start?

I probably need a more grown-up bag.  The one I've been carrying with the cracked handles is, how you say, ghetto.  I've been on the lookout (i.e. gilt.com) for something in the $100 - $300 range that I can use daily, but nothing's really caught my eye, or if it did, then I didn't get to it in time or I was never sure if it was the one.

I feel pretty strongly against the mass-market so-called "luxury" brands (e.g. Coach) and so began poking around etsy.com - clicked "buy," chose the bag category and typed in "leather" as a search.  It returned some 314 pages and I just spent two hours going through about 200 of those pages.  Who knew there were so many talented leather artists?  I like the idea of a) supporting artisans and b) having someting somewhat personalized.  I culled the best of my favorites here.  Yeah, I can't decide.

Cholosoy is having a sale

One of my earliest posts was asking people which chullo hat I should buy from Cholosoy's Etsy shop, which featured some of the most lightweight, ugly-awesome chullos I'd ever seen (I got the blue-green one).

I thought I got a deal for $18.50...this weekend only, they're having an even better sale.  All hats $15!  Makes you wonder if they are employing Peruvian orphans to make these and paying them $1/day.