As a wife, a stay-at-home-mom, and a daughter of a thrifty mother, I have always had a hard time buying 'nice' things for myself, like massages, clothes, accessories, etc. There always seems to be something more important that we can be spending money on than, well, me. I'm always buying things on sale or clearance, almost always off-brand. I only recently began updating my wardrobe, mostly out of necessity since I dropped from a size 12 to a size 8 and nothing I had now fits me. And, with my new clothes, I've decided to try dressing myself up a little more with (still cheap) bolder jewelry and the like.
Now, in keeping with my thrifty (or is it 'guilt-driven'?) ways, I've always bought purses that are cheap (under $30), yet still functional. I bought one at Wal-Mart after we brought Rachael home. I needed a small one that I could throw in the diaper bag so I didn't have so much stuff to carry (purse, diaper bag, oxygen tanks, pulse/ox meters - it was a lot to handle!). The one I found was small and black with a long thin shoulder strap and served my purposes.
Over time however, it started wearing out. The velcro that held my cell phone in place stopped velcro-ing. I sewed on 3 or 4 sets of hooks and loops to keep it together. The diaper bag just kept getting fuller and fuller, making me carry my purse around separately, defeating the purpose of having something small. And, the thin strap started tearing away (a fix for this would have been extremely difficult).
Now, we knew we were heading to Europe, with all of its fashion-forward denizens and designers all over. The glamorous ideal I had of Europe began tempting my. Adam knew I'd been limping this old purse along (yelling at me whenever I'd lose my phone because the velcro stopped working). I began making a bunch of ruckus about fixing it and my strap almost falling off and began dropping mega hints ("Oh, I would love to have a new, fancy purse!" Ya gotta be blunt when dropping hints on men =) Well, the strap finally broke while we were home visiting in Idaho. I found myself with a rather large clutch instead. I was at Wal-Mart with my sister Colleen and almost gave in a bought another cheap purse. Thankfully, they didn't have what I wanted. Anyways, we were going to be flying soon and needed to be limiting our carry-on luggage and personal bags.
Fast-forward to last Friday. I've been carrying my wallet, chapstick, passports, etc. in the diaper bag for a couple weeks now. Adam shows up with a pamphlet to this shopping center: Maasmechelen Village. (Check out the short video! http://www.maasmechelenvillage.com/en/magazine/video-gallery/maasmechelen-village-life ) Oh, it's so fancy! It is an outlet mall with 30%-70% off last season's fashions from huge designers. We drive up and check it out. I am thoroughly under dressed in my old tank top, jean capris, and flip-flops. There are women walking around with strappy heels, tight leggings, shiny belts, bangles all over, and huge sunglasses. The kids are dressed better than we are in Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein and leather shoes. But, whatever! Adam said he wanted to buy me a purse, that I deserved it, and he has 150 Euro to get it. Ha! I tell him that might buy the shoulder strap on one! But we start looking.
Maasmechelen Village is awesome. I wish I could have used my camera (the pamphlet had a picture of a camera with a line through it). The art structures of elephants and buffalo are really neat. Other little statues are all around. It's so swanky! We walk by the stores, not finding any that we really want to go into to find a purse until I see the Kipling store. I've never heard of Kipling before, but the store is plum-full of bags! I immediately zero in on the synthetic bags. Adam looks at me and says, "No, I want you to have a real purse." We start looking at the leather ones.
We hone in on one we both like. It's beautiful, made of antiqued cow leather (no, not kangaroo). It is just the right size, big enough to hold my wallet, camera, notebook, and other necessary goods yet smaller than the diaper bag. The straps are just the right length. And, it's so soft! That's the one! Adam even talks me into getting a wallet to go with it. And, because we are buying two items, we get 20% off the already discounted price. We still spend too much money (in my opinion), but I just love it so much. The cashier wraps it in a fabric bag for protection before placing it in the shopping bag, and then we continue shopping.
We stop by the Versace store (just for kicks) and laugh at the ridiculous clothes and the even more ridiculous prices (even the discounted ones are crazy). Adam's been needing a new wallet to deal with all of the extra coins he's carrying around. (There are no single Euro bills here. Instead, they have 1 and 2 Euro coins) He finds one at the Fossil store (another great place for bags). I want him to get a watch, too, because I'm feeling too spoiled myself just getting my super fancy purse. But, he doesn't.
We are all hungry so we get some gelato (well, gelati, at this place anyways). Why is gelato/i so good?! It was just a wonderful way to end our visit to Maasmechelen Village.
Then, the next morning, Adam dresses the kids. In November, his mom bought Zach these adorable little black and white Puma shoes. I haven't had Zach in these for about a week since the weather's been so nice. But, Adam tries to put them on this morning, and they don't fit. Well, why not head to Maasmechelen Village? They have a Puma store there, don't they? Sure! (Thinking like this too much could get expensive! =) We head up again, hit the Puma store, get Zach a new pair of super cute shoes, and let Rachael play on the super fun playground (we are desperate for our own yard and toys!!) What fun!
I know going to Maasmechelen Village will not be a routine event. But it such a nice treat, and an even nicer treat when we can actually afford to buy some things there. We had a great time window shopping and walking around and will probably do it again, though not very soon. I now have the kind of purse I've always wanted, and I'm gonna chalk that one up to having an amazing husband who loves me very much. Now, for all ladies reading this, share this story with your own husbands and make them show you how much you're loved!! Ta ta!
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