I carry a backpack because it is functional. I believe this multiple compartment beauté was a Target purchase right before a business trip to Toronto in 2010. It was for a Coca-Cola / McDonald’s ideation session. This trip was the beginning of a journey that has led me ultimately to the graduate degree in creativity that I start this June. Hence the book “Out of Our Minds – Learning to be Creative”.

(click on the image to search through my bag)

So what else do the contents of my bag say about me?

My mother gave me the second book because it joins two of my passions – animals and healing. I recently received my Reiki Master certification and have found that it is a great way to treat animals suffering from pain and anxiety. I have not been able to read the whole book though because many of the stories are just too gut wrenching.

Next, you will no doubt notice that technology is my friend and “Hi, my name is Lauren and I am an Apple addict”. iPhone, iPad, laptop–at least one or more are always with me.

For our first wedding anniversary, my wife gave me the St. George cards as my paper gift. Saint George is said to be a dragon slayer from the 17^th century. I like the idea that my last name both represents bravery and the Florida island where we fell in love.

Car keys are a pretty standard item in a bag, but I have to admit– I loooove my car and am very lucky (knock on wood) that I haven’t gotten a speeding ticket. My mechanic, with a grin on his face, once told me that she purrs at 122 mph.

Notebooks are a must. It is strange to think that in the not too distant future there will be generations of people who don’t know how to hand write anything. Oh and the sticker on the front is from Awesomeness Fest. You should definitely check out this conference. It is unlike any I’ve been to before.

Nike Fuel Band, fabric grocery bags and a protein bar are all me trying to be a better person

(click on the image to rummage through my bag)

Where my bag shines a little light into my personality might be in the ways I use it. Most of the time it serves as a bin of unfinished projects that I carry around with me. Unopened mail, disks and hard drives with varying projects on them, documents that I need to sign and mail, phone numbers and business cards that are unfilled anywhere else, stray brochures and flyers that are handed to me on the street, note books and unfinished/un-read books.

I guess most of the time it serves as an overflow bin for things I haven’t made time to deal with.

In a sense, most of the time it’s just baggage (in either meaning of the word). I guess the bag gets a little lighter when I’m doing alright managing life and a little heavier on those rougher weeks. It would appear that it serves as a litmus test for how I’m feeling a lot of the time.

So if you ever see me swinging my bag around loosely, you can bet I’m probably not quite as weighed down at the moment and have lots of my special attention to go around : )

(click on the image to enlarge)

I absolutely LOVE this bag for a few of reasons:  1) It’s so durable it can withstand my extreme mistreatment and abuse– I think you’d have to drop this thing into a pit of fire to bring any harm to it. 2) The simple, classic design goes with literally any outfit.  It’s an easy, go-to bag that allows me to not have to think.  And not having to expend brain energy on things like matching bags to outfits everyday is a good GREAT thing. 3) It’s holds a lot of stuff, which means I have room to carry around random little items like my painted inspirational rocks, which make me feel good when I see them.  (Yes, I do carry rocks in my purse.   Yes,it is heavy.)

I have to say, that seeing the contents of my bag laid out like this is honestly a little shocking even to me.  I never really realized how many little colorful non-essential items I carry around.  I feel like it kind of looks a little like it would belong to a teenager with hoarding tendencies–  but I’m not ashamed.  You see, I’m just now realizing that I am the girl that likes to be prepared.  Need some gum? Mint?  Sure thing.  Advil? Excedrin?  No prob.  Lotion?  Of course.  Lighter? Highlighter? Mini Etch-a-Sketch?  I got you covered.  Someone has to be that person, so the rest of you minimalists can have someone to borrow things from.

(click to zoom into my bag)

I wasn’t always a bag person.

I even had to be convinced as a teenager to give up my wallet for a purse. Now I have quite the collection! So as I  browsed the internet, I saw an image of an amazing Prada purse I “needed” but couldn’t spend the hundreds to own it.

So between my husband and I searching for a Christmas present, we found a very similar “hobo” style bag with simple lines and a deep reddish brown leather that was an equivalent match. Plus it was about $20!

I haven’t changed purses since I found it, which I should do soon

Most days I have it filled with the basic girly essentials: makeup, lotion, bobby pins… and on the weekends I add mommy must haves like granola bars, an epi pen and a toy or two. I love my bag and am especially glad I didn’t spend a fortune on it!

(click to zoom into my bag)

Now that we are inspecting our bags, I realize that I have had this bag for about 9 – 10 years! But it was love at first sight, so in my eyes the bag still looks as good to me as it did the first time I saw it in the window of a small shop in the middle of Rome, Italy.

I had just finished visiting the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. It had been an interesting day of meeting a lot of people and having a delicious Italian lunch on a patio under a roof of leaves. On the way back to the hotel, I remembered that I had seen something out of the corner of my eye when I had rushed by that morning. Now, I was determined to look more closely. And there she was! Such a beauty – and with a price to knock my socks off!

Well, what can I say; what could I do in the eye of love? You might think I am the stoic German. But hey.. here I was in Rome..in Italy, and just had to give in to the romance of it all!

And as with any good love story, we live happily ever after. We are getting a little frayed at the edges as we go through life together, but she holds my secrets as I will hold hers.