Comparision for Moonfancy – Belen Echandia Rock Me & Make Me Smile Midi

RaeBelle

Moonfancy, one of my friends on Twitter is interested in the Belen Echandia Rock Me.  I have a gorgeous Dark Purple Pebbled Rock Me and I’m happy to share information about it.  Moonfancy and I both have Belen Echandia Make Me Smile Midi’s so we decided to use this as our comparison point.

The Rock Me is a bigger bag than the Make Me Smile Midi.  I like to use cubic inches as a comparison point for some of my bags.
Make Me Smile Midi: 11 (h) x 13 (w) x 4.7 (d) = 672.1
Rock Me: 15.2 (h) x 15 (w) x 5.5 (d) = 1254 (I used the standard width, not the max width)
Which makes the Rock Me almost twice as large and the Make Me Smile Midi.

Since numbers don’t always tell the whole story, it’s important to include some pictures as well so you can really get a feel for difference between these two bags.  My bags are the Dark Purple Pebbled Rock Me and the Petrol Sheen (I think) Make Me Smile Midi.

The two bags sitting beside each other.  I took a picture of the back of the bags not the front.

And now the bags side by side for another comparison view.

Because as pretty as the exterior is, you sometimes need to see the interior, these are the items that I have inside the bag. These are some of the items I carry just about every day.

Here are those items inside my Make Me Smile Midi

And those same items inside the Rock Me.

The Rock me has a ton more space left after adding those few items. Most of the bag was available to add a long sweater on top if I wanted to.

I hope this post helps Moonfancy out and anyone else who’s interested in the full size Rock Me.

Cheetah: A Surprising Neutral

RaeBelle

Recently I was talking to one of my friends about a particular bag I’d choose for an outfit. Based upon what she told me, I nominated my L.A.M.B. Cheetah Mandeville for the outfit. And then gushed at why this was such a good bag for the outfit.

This Cheetah print contains black, brown, and white in the pattern, three neutrals. And since it has all three I’ve always felt fine wearing it with any colour in my wardrobe. I never thought I would use an animal print so often, but it really feels like it could go with almost anything!

And because a picture is worth a thousand words, my Cheetah Mandeville.

The Frightened Gear Head

RaeBelle

As I said in this post Driving = Scary, I’m afraid of driving.  Strangely though, I’m a bit of a gear head.  I LOVE cars.  I watch shows like Top Gear and fall in love with some of the cars they present.  I adore researching cars.  I choose the cars that I’d love to own in a fantasy land where money was no object.  Cars like the Bugatti Veyron and Pagani Zonda fascinate me, though I’ll never see one in person and I’d be too afraid to drive them.  It’s a confusing place to be.  In love with cars but afraid of driving them.

Driving = Scary

RaeBelle

I’ve had my drivers license for a little more than a year now, and I’m still not quite comfortable.  I really wish people had told me how scary driving actually is.  I’ve always been told things like “Driving is so easy” “Driving a car is so much fun. You’ll love it”  They were all lies.  Driving a car still scares the bejeezus out of me.  Cars are big and dangerous and very intimidating. It’s like driving a freaking bomb.

I do drive my car and I think I’ve gotten pretty good at it.  I’m constantly afraid that another car is going to hit me or force me off the road.  I get scared when people don’t signal properly or drive on my tail.  And if strange lights come on in my car I’m practically near tears.  Driving is just not a comfortable time for me.

Strangely though, I’ve driven some very long distances.  I’ve been in my car, alone, for more than 4 hours driving for business.  That trip involves major highway and city driving, mountains and tunnels.  It’s quite an adventure in driving, especially in imperfect weather.  Having 3 tractor trailers behind you, going down a mountain, in the fog and rain will probably make the most experienced driver nervous.  Me, I’m signing at the top of my lungs, trying to pretend they aren’t there so that I don’t freak out.  So far, that strange tactic has been working for me.  And if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I’m hoping that with more experience driving, I’ll become more comfortable and less nervous.  Maybe I should practice with video games some more as well.  They helped me before my exam.  Any one out there have some hints?

Misuse of Vegetarian

RaeBelle

Today I read an article on BBC, The rise of the non-veggie vegetarian and it really struck a cord with me.  I’m a vegetarian.  To be extremely specific, I’m a lacto-ovo vegetarian.  I don’t eat meat but I will consume dairy and egg products.  I love cheese and eggs and see no need to give them up.  It was a process over many years for me to become a vegetarian and I did it for personal health reasons.

The article points out the misuse of vegetarian by people who consume fish and/or seafood.  Those people are pescetarian, not vegetarian.  Unfortunately it’s become very common for people to say things like, “I’m a vegetarian.  Oh yes, I eat fish.”  Which is extremely frustrating.  For about 6 months I would occasionally eat shrimp, lobster or fish.  Never during that time did I claim I was vegetarian, because it was not true.  I gave up all meat over a year ago and feel comfortable saying I’m a vegetarian.

The very common misuse of the term vegetarian has made my personal life slightly frustrating.  When I tell people I’m a vegetarian, I’m often asked “But you eat fish, right?”  This gets old fast.  It doesn’t take me long to correct them to the fact that I don’t eat any meat, but why is the assumption that I would eat meat?  I used the term vegetarian!

I really wish people who eat some meat would stop misusing the term vegetarian.  I couldn’t care less that they eat meat, I just don’t like the assumption that I do.

Handbag Styles and My Thoughts

RaeBelle

There are so many different handbag styles out there and everyone has their favorites and dislikes.  I thought I’d pick a few that come to mind and share my thoughts on them.  These are the bags I thought of initially.  If I think of some more, maybe I’ll add another post 🙂

Hobo – I really love the way some hobo’s look!  Bags like the Belen Echandia Enchant Me and the Tano Minilisa are a pleasure to look at and I’m sure they’d even look good on me (I’ve never tried either).  But something about every hobo I’ve tried just doesn’t seem to work in my life.  Really don’t know why.  I wish I could find one that works for me.  I guess I just need a super lenient return policy to find the hobo that works for me.

Tote – I love a good tote bag.  One of my favorite times to carry a tote is on the weekends when going to one of our many local farmers markets.  They are so useful!  Just sling it over my shoulder and I can carry all of my normal purse kit and my purchases.  I can even carry a few extra fabric grocery bags in my tote!  I even use my totes as a daily bag when I want a bunch of extra room for items like a pair of flats and a chunky sweater.  Some of my favorites are the L.A.M.B. Wiltshire / Williamsfield and the Belen Echandia Rock Me (which I can’t wait to receive!)

Satchel – I adore satchels.  This is my absolute favorite handbag style!  FAVORITE!!  Everything about the satchel makes me happy.  Depending on the bag, I can hand, arm or shoulder carry a satchel and it’s the only type that really works for me.  I like how most of the satchels I’ve seen have some structure and don’t fall all over themselves.The Belen Echandia Charm Me (Currently only available through BE Couture, I own 2), Belen Echandia Make Me Smile Midi and the L.A.M.B. Mandeville (I own many Mandeville’s)

Clutch – I don’t go where only a small bag like a clutch is required, but I figure this is a classic item to have in your bag wardrobe.  To that end, I just ordered my first clutch, a Belen Echandia Clutch Me.  I figure this will be great when I don’t want to carry a large bag, or when I’m traveling for business and need to carry a few important items with me.  I might be going to some business meetings with high ranking executives and I’m hoping the clutch will make me look like I ‘fit in’ a bit more.  I can’t wait to see how I use it!

Laptop Bag – A laptop bag is a must for me.  I travel for business and always need to bring at least my work laptop and sometimes a personal laptop as well.  While my laptops aren’t huge, they definitely don’t fall into the tiny category either.  One of my favorites that I already own is the McKlein Willowbrook.  I love the fact that I can attach it to my carry on, roll it, or remove it from the wheeled base and carry it with the handles or shoulder strap.  Talk about multitasking!  It’s probably my most used laptop bag.  Because all of my business travel involves a laptop, I’m always on the look out for another great addition to my collection.

Messenger/Crossbody – Since I’ve been blessed with large breasts, these bags can be a bit of a challenge.  To date, I haven’t found a messenger style bag that is both comfortable and looks good when worn crossbody.  But bags like Belen Echandia Surprise Me look so darn appealing, it’s really hard not to buy the bag even if I can’t wear it like it’s intended.  I’m thinking about doing some more experimentation with these bags to see if they could work for me.  Or just wear the bag over heavy coats and sweaters so it doesn’t break oddly overly my torso.

Staying Organized: Work

RaeBelle

I love organizing!  It makes me feel calm and together.  Some of my amused managers and co-workers have even called me hyper organized!  Because I like very specific items I buy my a lot of my own supplies for work, so some of the items cross over between work and home.  I thought I’d share some of the key tools I use to keep my organized for work.

Electronic

  • iPhone – My iPhone is wonderful.  I currently have the white 32GB 3GS.  It’s great.  I have so many apps that make my work life easier, like OmniFocus and SplashID.  It also use my iPhone to listen to podcasts and music to keep me focused while working.  It’s a great little organizational machine for me!
  • OmniFocus – This is like my second brain.  I record all of my to do items in here.  If it’s not in OmniFocus, it’s not getting done.  I’m diligent in recording everything that needs to get done in here.   OmniFocus was designed for the Getting Things Done system from David Allen & Co.  While I don’t strictly adhere to the GTD system, I do follow many of the principles.  OmniFocus is flexible enough allow me follow the portions of the system I chose and still achieve my goals.  I’ve been using it on my MacBook since the beta, and on my iPhone since the app was realized.  It’s a dream.
  • SplashID – My company has not yet fully embraced the concept of a single sign on.  So I have multiple logins & passwords for work.  Additionally I need to access websites outside the company for various purposes.  SplashID gives me one central location to find all my logon IDs and passwords for each site or application.  My iPhone app syncs to my personal MacBook.

Analog

  • Moleskine – I love using a Moleskine to take meeting notes for my short term projects.  They are also great when designing user interfaces.  I tend towards the Large Squared Notebook.  The size is just shy of half letter, which seems to work perfectly for me.  I like squared over ruled or blank.  It helps me keep my notes organized and my sketches aligned.
  • Circa – Levenger, thank you for bringing Circa into my life.  I adore these notebooks!  For work I mostly use the Junior and Letter sizes.  I have a customized Junior notebook that I use for normal meetings.  All my current projects have either a Letter or Junior sized notebook assigned to them.  For some of my projects, I’ll even grab one of my leather foldover notebooks or zip folios.  I’ve found these are great for all day off site meetings.  They really keep me organized.
  • Post-It Notes – My favorite Post-It notes are the Super Sticky ones.  I normally use the canary yellow ones because I’m a bit of a traditionalist and they stand out just enough for me.  I use them to take down super short term notes (like voicemail messages) or add an extra note to some printed pages (like which slides for a presentation I’m doing)
  • Post-It Flags – Post-It flags are awesome!  I don’t know how I got on without them.  I use them in my Moleskine’s and my Circa’s.  I use them when I’m taking notes on something printed, to flag where I have questions or corrections are needed.  There are so many uses for these!  I normally use the small tabs because I don’t write on them.  But I have a large collection of colours for colour coding.

I love these tools that help keep me on time and task.  Each items has made my work life a bit easier and more organized.  I’m always ready to learn about new tools to fit into my system.  If I find any, I’ll be sure to share them.

One Day Business Trip & Handbag Choices

RaeBelle

Today I took a single day business trip.  It involved hours of driving and only a few hours in the office.  I had to select a bag to take with me.  I thought it could be interesting to share the criteria I used and the final bag selection.

  1. Professional – The office I went to today is the corporate headquarters for a very conservative company.  While I like my more fun bags, I knew that today they wouldn’t go over well.
  2. Medium Sized – I could not carry around a huge bag today, nor could I carry a tiny bag.  I needed something medium sized to hold all the items I needed but not look out of place in the conservative environment.  I was giving a presentation and a large bag would not have gone over well with the audience.  A tiny bag wouldn’t have carried everything I needed.
  3. Shoulder Bag – I knew that today would involve walking between buildings and in and out of a few restaurants.  I love hand carry bags, but I just could not do a hand carry a bag today.  I needed to carry a cup of tea, swipe & present badges and carry my bag.  This made a shoulder bag the best option.

After going over my list of criteria, I selected my Petrol Sheen Make Me Smile Midi.