I love knowing what other people have in their bags! It is the ultimate voyeuristic act. Don’t you think it provides an interesting insight when you find out what people have prioritised as being important enough to carry around all the time?

The contents of my bag change constantly. For a start, I have two handbags I rotate between — a pink bag by B. Makowsky & a purple embossed satchel from Cambridge Satchel Company — & they hold different amounts of stuff!

The satchel is perfect for quick, uncomplicated excursions, while my pink bag is better for all day or high-maintenance expeditions (when I need everything but the kitchen sink!).

To the left you can see some zipper pulls I attached to the pink bag. They’re from the Things That Hurt series by Kid Robot.

My Filofax, wallet, keys & phone are always on me, but the rest of the list expands & contracts depending on the circumstance. Often, in addition to the list below, I’m also carrying my MacBook Pro, Leica D-Lux 4, & a couple of bags for dog poo. (It’s a glamorous reality!)

Here’s what I’m normally schlepping around town…

Deux Lux Chubby Heart wallet
Classic Filofax in pink
HTC Droid Incredible with pink case
Kinky Girlfriend pill box
Opal & hematite essences
Rose quartz & amethyst bracelets
Deux Lux Sparkle Baby heart pouch
Chloe 2145 sunglasses
666 Photography business card case
M·A·C Cosmetics Lipgelée in Cellopink
Keys (& attached bits & pieces: personal alarm, Tarina Tarantino heart keychain, David Barton membership card & New York public library card)

The perfect wallet

I have been on the search for the perfect wallet for what seems like forever, & of course, as soon as I mentioned it on Twitter & Facebook, you all came to the rescue! (I knew you would & I love you for it!) A handful of people suggested Deux Lux to me, & after some excited perusal of their website, I ended up ordering both the Chubby Heart & Sparkle Baby purses. The Sparkle Baby is much bigger than I was anticipating, so I use it to hold little things which might otherwise be lost in the depths of my bag.

I love the Chubby Heart wallet so much! It’s quite big but appears to be really well-made & I think it’s so cute! It has mega pocket action & is sparkly & a great colour. When I was initially thinking about buying a new wallet, I couldn’t decide whether I wanted pink or gold. This colour is called champagne & is the perfect combination of rose & gold. (It’s hard to photograph the colour accurately, but it is great!)

The Sparkle Baby colour is mint & it is beautiful. LOVE!

Lip gloss & gem essences

This M·A·C Cosmetics Lipgelée looks super-bright in the tube but is thankfully very easy to wear. It has barely left my kisser since I picked it up at the Las Vegas Premium Outlet a few weeks ago.

The Alaskan gem essences were bought at Flower Power. They work just like flower essences — you put a couple of drops on your tongue whenever you feel like it.

Opal: Increases psychic awareness, spontaneity, sensitivity; calms overwrought states; brings joy & creativity. Draws hidden emotions to the surface to deal with.

Hematite: Strengthens energetic boundaries in the emotional body; promotes emotional independence rather than co-dependence; helps us maintain a state of compassionate detachment while witnessing an intense emotional experience in another, & contain our own emotional experiences in a responsible way.

Who knows whether they work, but I like having them with me regardless. They’re 20% brandy so even if they don’t make magic, at least they make you feel good!

Filofax mania

A couple of days after I published A Filofax Love Affair, a box arrived on my doorstep with a new Filofax inside! Thank you, organisation gods! Included was a Classic organiser in pink, a Filofax pen (in pink, bien sûr!) & even more accessories. More accessories than I know what to do with! I swiftly moved everything over from my Metropol & I’m delighted.

My organisation fever has reached new, ever more obsessive heights, by the way. I have more coloured tabs, dividers, inserts & madness than ever before. I’m totally into it. Being able to write everything down in one place is SO wonderful. I feel like my productivity & creativity have reached new heights, I’m really happy!

Tins & cases & madness

Isn’t this the most amazing business card case ever?! It was sent to me by 666 Photography in Austin, Texas (which is owned & operated by a woman called Gayla!). They have an amazing range of merchandise which they just released — more news on that later!

Anyway, I have never owned a business card case before, if you can believe it, so I’m really excited to put this to good use. In the past I have just secured my cards with a bulldog clip, which is very utilitarian & efficient but not very fun!

I’ll show you what’s inside the case in a few days! Or, what will be inside… I just had two new, different types of business cards printed up & I am dying for them to arrive!

The “Kinky Girlfriend” pill box originally held mints. Now I use it to hold a day’s stash of vitamins, & it’s always in my bag. Sometimes I forget to take them in the morning, so if I have them in my bag, disaster is averted! I love the picture on the front, & it is the perfect size for indulging my vitamin obsession.

I bought a round metal tin with a picture of Kali on the front at the same time. It contained “curry flavored Kali mints“, but unfortunately it is too small to hold anything useful. Or at least anything useful that I can think of! It’s preeeeeetty rad though.

Sparkles akimbo

More often than not, there are errant pieces of jewellery floating around my bag. I get restless during the day & take my accessories on & off all the time. I also hate wearing rings while I eat! So sometimes my bag is like a little treasure chest.

This skull ring came from eBay. It was a blinkin’ bargain & I love it! The skinny one beside it came from Claire’s in Las Vegas & is simple but sweet. Other things you are likely to find in my handbag: headbands of all kinds, dozens of bangles, rogue Swarovski crystals (I find them everywhere!).

Bag candy

This heart keychain is by Tarina Tarantino. It’s good to have a bit o’ bling on your keychain, don’t you think?

Some of the aforementioned rogue Swarovski crystals probably fell off of this heart. I don’t mind.

HTC Droid Incredible

A friend of mine, who works in PR, hooked me up with an HTC Droid Incredible phone a little while ago, & it is rocking my world & blasting my mind wide apart! While I love my Kin for its fun social networking ability & rad display, the Incredible is, well, incredible. It’s immensely powerful, fast & sexy. I’m a huge fan.

Lately I’ve been geeking out over the apps you can download for it. I’ll probably write more about this at length later on, but for now I can tell you that I’m loving Last.fm, Google Sky Map, Twidroid, Yelp, Jonathan Cainer’s Horoscopes, eBay & Ustream. (I haven’t used the Ustream broadcaster yet but the possibilities are so exciting!)

I bought a pink case for it on eBay which cost me about $7 & will hopefully prevent it from smashing into a million pieces. Not that I have ever really dropped a phone… but I love this one too much to take any risks!

What’s in your bag?

What do you carry around with you? Are you a minimalist or a maximalist? Do you ever entirely purge the contents of your handbag & clean it out, & if so, do you agree that it is immensely satisfying?