So for the 4/18 Club meeting this year, we all convened at Lil A’s parents’ new apartment for the weekend and for a Princess-themed party. The best surprise was having the third member of our club, my first cousin S, also show up for dinner one night. In all the excitement, however, I forgot to take any pics. What a shame as it’s not every day you have three family members with the same birthday in the same room!
Anyway, Club President Lil A started the three-day annual meeting with a breakfast pow wow. The dress code was casual PJs and the guest speaker was Mr. T. We’re still comparing notes on his speech–terribly hard to focus on content when the speaker is so cute:
Then the conference really kicked into gear with topics like “culture through exercise” (her management style is clearly leading by example)…
“dressing for success” (so you see the mini 2.55 flap is perfect whether you are 3 or 5 ft tall)…
“saving the world economy, one ice cream cone at a time,”
and “balancing family with work” (note my bag and shoes on Madame President)…
All very relevant topics in these challenging times for a modern woman. Our marathon meeting ended with a fabulous party overrun by toddlers dressed up as princesses and dragon slayers. Here’s Lil A with her BFF, Lil R (my mom made Lil A’s dress!):
Lil A got tons of pressies and sweets today, but I think her best present of all is having two very loving if sleep-deprived parents:
I was lucky enough to get Mr. T to pose with me in his black tie (What? Don’t you show up in a tux for these shindigs? What are you, a Barbarian?) before he passed out. His gift to the world? Lookin’ handsome, of course!
So I know the title of today’s entry is the ODJ, so here we go…
ODJ: 4/18 Club Third Annual Meeting. Kors black top, some random $15 (no joke) black cropped jeans, JP Tods flat slingbacks, Chanel 2.55 mini dark silver flap. Lil A is in a smocked sundress and DVF for GapKids espadrilles.
After the party we all headed back upstairs and I got ready for my Trans-Atlantic flight. This final pic of Lil A basically sums up my life on the road, consisting of a stuffed suitcase and one tiny handheld gadget…
Wonder what we’re doing for the fourth annual meeting!
This time last year my Belgian host family celebrated an American Thanksgiving by going to bed at 9pm so that we could be out the door by 3:30am for Black Friday shopping. After that experience I grumbled to myself that my favorite holiday had become too commercialized and that perhaps real traditions were going the way of dinosaurs. Fast forward one year later and I am packing for a 2.5 hours ride to the Netherlands, all the while homesick for just a taste of that Thanksgiving spirit. Perhaps it’s all the emails from work with people wishing me a happy Thanksgiving that’s making me a bit wistful. And perhaps the devilish shopaholic in me is wondering what great sales I’m missing at home!
Most of all, I miss preparing a big dinner (what a delightful excuse for indulging in food). But I can’t really complain too much about food either–see last post. In fact, a few days ago I was gifted these stone crab claws…
which I whipped up into a batch of crab eggrolls, even if the crabs were already delicious on their own:
Anyway, back to packing. It’s cold enough here now for me to test drive this very heavy Paris Byzance cardigan-coat…
but depending on the weather forecast I’ll see if it’s the brown 2.55 bag…
or the red timeless clutch that will accompany me on this trip:
The flash makes the bag look so garish, but you can see it matches much better in real life, even from this terribly fuzzy non-flash photo:
So I’ll be back in a few days with hopefully some great photos from a very desolate place; fingers crossed it won’t rain the entire time.
As you all sit down to dinner tonight and take a few minutes to think about the people who can’t make it home for the holiday because they’re serving their country, I’d like to rekindle the real tradition of treating every day as if it were Thanksgiving Day. Happy turkey feasting and let the sale season begin 
!
Tags: 2.55 bag, Black Friday, Thanksgiving, the Netherlands, timeless clutch
After a few rounds of brokering by my new favorite sales associate with other Chanel boutiques in France, the bags I was searching for arrived at the Brussels boutique and I hopped a train ride there last Friday with my heart in my throat. That and a few lozenges to futilely ward off a cold. But it wasn’t until this Sunday morning that I got to open the boxes leisurely in my PJs after a long weekend packed with activities, including helping some friends move from their apartment to a new house.
But enough with the chatter, let’s get to the good stuff, shall we? Why don’t we rewind to Friday. The boutique couldn’t offer me anything stronger to fight my sniffles, but dark chocolate and sparkling water helped as I waited for them to bring out the bags…
and then they jokingly asked which one I wanted to see first, since it was starting to feel like Christmas in October. As I’d been waiting to find a nice red clutch for over two years now, it was an easy choice…
The price on this caviar timeless clutch has gone up 80 euros since I last inquired about it in September, but I can live with that. My camera’s flash makes the bag look a bit brighter than it is; a more muted, darker red in person. I’m still wishing it were the brighter red from the 10C season but I love this one quand même. Probably even more wearable since it’s a more subtle shade.
And then…and then…
Well, remember when I told you I felt instantly smitten by the olive 2.55 bag the last time I saw it? It was still there and I was no less out of love with it. But as you can figure out from today’s entry’s title, I looked at the harder-to-find distressed bag and was definitely bringin’ home the cowboy bag for my matching boots. On my ride back, I was still pondering about my decision–and of course all the RTW I also tried on. But this morning, after opening the new box and dust bag (which I love, love, love),
(btw that’s a catalog she put in my package along with a bunch of perfume samples–have to see what the catalog is for…more temptations most likely!)
and voilà, there are no doubts. It will be hard to find another 2.55 in this kind of leather finish for a while yet…
Can’t wait to reunite the bag with the boots when I get home in a few more weeks.
But I know you’re already in my head. Would a shopping soldier like me ever leave a fallen comrade behind? Let’s see what happens when my fever breaks and I can clear my thoughts a little …
Tags: 2.55 bag, Brussels, Chanel, France, timeless clutch
So I did manage to block off all of last Friday for some R&R. And by rest and recuperation I mean a hunt for a few things on my wish list. Now I should preface by saying I’d already been calling around for stock check at the various Chanel boutiques in Europe. It’s hit or miss, and some boutiques will hold things while most others do not. It’s almost impossible to time the visit to the boutiques, while they supposedly have what I want on hand, with my own schedule and the ebb and flow of tourists, so I’ve told myself to dump the OCD gal at home and just leave a lot of this to chance. Isn’t that part of the fun of the chase anyway? And worst case scenario I can always get them when I come back to the States. So off to the train station…
with my new favorite jacket and very handy Bal bag (isn’t the anthra color just TDF?!) (and yes, those are M&Ms and not some horse pills for my A.D.D.)…
I barely finish reading a white paper related to the project I’m working on, and I’ve already arrived.
Trains are just the best way to commute for multi-taskers like me!
Let’s see what we can find at our boutique no. 1 in Brussels today. I’m here first because they supposedly have the red timeless clutch in stock.
I’m giddy when i pop out of the Louise metro stop. There are already five outfits dancing in my head with that aforementioned clutch.
But now, now, let’s not do any cartwheels through the front door just yet. We’ll save that for when the clutch is in my hot little hands!
I think I’d mentioned before that this is a very compact boutique, with a proportionally small inventory. But I’d found a few goodies here before so you just never know. I’m greeted by a ton of clutches! Green patent, beige caviar, red lambskin. Tons of Just Mademoiselle bags in the perfect shade of apple red. But alas, the red caviar clutch is nowhere to be found.
But they do have this in all its gorgeous 3D self, which looks tons better than this stock photo from my list:
Egad, what was I here for again?!? So I flip out my phone and do some number crunching for this bag and a stunning tweed jacket I hadn’t yet seen in the US.
My head is spinning at this point, because the lovely monsieur also shows me a patent 2.55 bag in a beguiling shade of bronzy olive. So swoonworthy. Must. Get. Air.
So I take their business card and leave them my info in case they can locate the jacket in my size. They tell me if the jacket can’t be found, one of the two olive bags would make a perfect consolation prize. Love that Belgian logic!
Still no red clutch, but now I’m flummoxed. Which makes more sense, the brown 2.55 that matches the boots or the olive one that probably won’t match much but is a huge crush on my part? I’m still debating back and forth while I walk down to the Hermes boutique…God help me if they have a grey ostrich Birkin there!
It’s a lovely boutique but, as with my usual luck at the H stores, nothing from my list. While I’m looking around, I overhear the saleslady speaking in English to a phone customer looking for bags…please leave your contact info, but there’s no Birkin or Kelly available right now. We’re all in the same boat.
I walk around this fashionable shopping area for a few more hours. Found some books at a cool bookstore nearby and worked out my legs some more by skipping over to one of the best lookout points in Brussels:
I need to digest what I’ve seen today and see what else is out there at the next few boutiques before committing. The elusive clutch is still a priority find for me, so I’m trying to not get too sidetracked.
Let’s see if Paris will be more productive…
Tags: 2.55 bag, Brussels, Chanel, timeless clutch
