The Bag lady: Artist Love

Over the past few weeks, I've seen the inside of quite a few handbags, which are usually quite a mysterious dungeon to anyone but to the handbag owner.

In one of my fabulous books I was given as a gift (The Goddess Guide by Gisele Scanlon), I stumbled across the über talented Nathalie Lecroc, a French Artist who paints the contents of clients (from Fashion Editors, Models, Socialites, Parisian Housewives) handbags at her kitchen table.

Fabulous, no?

images via: Cutoutandkeep & Baby Cino kids

She's been painting these gorgeous handbag illustrations since 1998, which started out as an experiment. However, I hear that she's going to stop painting once she reaches #1,001 illustrations, with plans to publish a book, or rather an "Anthology of bags and handbags".

So what the devil's inside my bag?

The trouble with me is that I like big bags. They have a tendency to swallow everything right up, so if I chuck a lot of stuff inside, it hardly ever makes it back out.

I always carry the key essentials in my day bag:

• Re-usable bag for groceries
• Sunnies - i tend to switch on a regular basis, depending on what i'm wearing
  
• Book - very useful when stuck in a queue, this seems to be a common thing with me - especially at the bank or the Post Office.
  
• Wallet - No surprises there.
  
• Pen - for scribbling randomness
  
• Keys - with mini Swiss army knife (why i need it, i don't quite know), supermarket club card & lucky Jade charm
  
• Random: Eye-drops, inhaler, tissue & effervescent vitamin C- I have the sniffles & a cold right now - I don't get how though, it's like a gazillion degrees in Greece!

Er,,, beauty bits: mainly lots of lip glosses and a strawberry lip balm, perfume, hot pink cream blush and a hair accessory. I often carry a nail file too, looks like the bags chewed it up.

Not really that exciting i'm afraid!

I will say that a friend of mine once went to Rome with her then new boyfriend for 2 days and all she took with her was a tote sized underarm bag. She managed to squeeze pretty much everything that she needed in. I was extremely impressed to say the least! Not sure what airport security screening was thinking though...