I am now the proud parent of the coolest handbag EVER!!!

See what I mean??

I have been wanting this purse since I first saw it during last year's holiday season. It's Coach's holiday print bag. And I LOVE it.

It's not so much that it's a Coach bag; I don't really care what brand it is. But I wanted a high-quality bag, and I absolutely fell in love with the print of this bag. I could not resist the patchwork and the way it's put together. It's so me!!!

I believe this purse retailed for around $368. At least, that's the price of most bags of its size on the Coach website (it's the larger version of their tote).

However, the Navy Exchange was selling it for $295. And without tax, that makes it an even better deal.

There are a few benefits to being in the military!

Kurt had decided that this bag would be my Mother's Day present, but when he went to the NEX to buy it, he couldn't find it. I mentioned something about it a couple weeks ago to him, and when he told me he'd tried to buy it for me, I informed him it was a holiday edition and that it was probably sold out.

Au contraire!

I was in the NEX today looking for a summer fragrance (although they had crap for selection today... oh well), and Kurt had gone to the uniform shop to get a new patch sewn onto his summer dress whites. Yes, I normally sew on his patches, but it's really hard to sew his rank onto his sleeve with my sewing machine, and it was only $2 to have it sewn anyhow.

Exasperated by the lack of any good summer fragrances, I headed into the main part of the NEX, where I was confronted by an entire table of Coach bags on clearance. I swear a bolt of light shone through the clouds and lit up this purse!! At least, that's how I felt! I grabbed for the one bag left that still had the strap all folded up (you can unfold the strap for a much longer length), but another woman saw me going for it and snatched it away first.

I swear, we nearly came to fisticuffs!

Fortunately there was another bag there, so I let the lady live. Later we came back to the table to find that she'd decided not to purchase the bag after all, so I did get the bag with the folded strap.

Oh, and did I mention the bag was only $177???

SCORE!!!

Yes, that's a hell of a lot of money just for a purse, but it's a COACH!! For $200 less than I should have paid for it. And I will have it forever and ever and ever and ever. And I love it.

Plus it's my Mother's Day present.

My sister is incredibly jealous... tee hee.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!! Even you, Art -- you're Creamy's mother! *wink*