I've always wanted to be invited to do one of those "What's in your handbag?" articles for a magazine. Now YA author Simmone Howell has given us all the chance. (You can also see the handbags of other lovely authors Penni Russon and Lili Wilkinson).
I was planning to carefully tailor my handbag to create the impression that I'm an artsy quirky hip young thang but LET'S FACE IT I'M A MUM WHO IS VERY ORGANISED so no one would buy it.
So I just dumped it out on the bed, shuffled the pieces a bit, and took the photos. My bag contents are from a day I'm at work, and doesn't contain a book because the book I'm reading is a proof and it's HUGE and doesn't fit in my handbag.
The bag itself is from Catherine Manuell (where I buy all my handbags as they're relatively cheap, always have lots of pockets, and she uses pretty materials):
And the contents:
My handbag is mostly REALLY BORING. Sunscreen, bandaids, pawpaw ointment, sunnies, keys (plus mini-sharpie for impromptu toilet wall graffiti), wallet, little container for cards that don't fit in the wallet, lippie/gloss, Moleskine diary, hand sanitiser, phone, various crumpled receipts.
Yawn.
But I like that the most interesting parts of my handbag are the parts couldn't belong to anyone but a woman, and most of them couldn't belong to anyone but a mother.
There's a dummy. It's not actually required when I'm at work (though sometimes I look longingly at it), but it's always in my handbag for tired baby emergencies.
There's a washable menstrual pad from Moonpads. I love these - I react to commercial disposable pads (to a requiring-cortisone-cream point), and these have been a godsend to both my wallet and my nether regions. They're machine washable and come in pretty and cute designs.
There's a breast pump. It was a work day, so I'd expressed twice during the day - partly for Luka (he loves his mum feed from a bottle while I'm at work) and partly so my bosoms don't EXPLODE during the day.
That's my bag, baby. And my baby bag.
What's in YOUR bag?
Actually, come to think of it, there's usually a pen in there.
Who took my pen?