Ellie's Visit and Teapot Purses

Nine-year-old granddaughter, Ellie, came yesterday for her visit and back-to-school shopping. She doesn't have an iPhone yet and prefers playing games over movie watching, so we played several rounds of Cootie, Old Maid, Memory and Checkers to occupy her time.  We don't have the variety of games that she has at home, but we made do.

She slept in this morning and when she awoke we took her to Country Oven for breakfast.  

She ordered bacon and pancakes with lots of whipped cream and the server obliged!

Two grandchildren visits down and one to go.  Landon comes next Monday.  After we met our daughter-in-law at the half-way spot to deliver Ellie, my hubby took me to a nearby HomeGoods store.  It's been a long time since I've been in one, and I wanted to look around.  I didn't come out empty handed.

The first thing that caught my attention was a Spode plate from the Woodland series, with a bison on it.  When we went out west last summer with our youngest son and his family, one of the highlights for Jeremy was spotting a bison in the distance of a Yellowstone prairie.  He patiently waited by the side of the road while the bison meandered its way across the prairie and a couple of ponds until he was close enough to get a good picture.  The plate seemed to have Jeremy's name written all over it.  I bought it and then sent a picture with a text message to him.  He liked it and I'll send it home when Landon comes next week.

I've been pondering getting a porcelain chinoiserie garden stool for my living room for awhile now [a new repro not an authentic antique] and HomeGoods had a nice one reasonably priced, so it came home with me too.  I justified the purchase by telling myself that's why I work.  ;-)

In the past I've shared a couple pieces of tea-themed Kate Spade necklaces that I've purchased online, but last week three of her tea-themed purses came across my Facebook Afternoon Tea Across America feed that left me drooling.

The purse is all leather and fully lined.  The original cost was $399, but it's on sale right now for $239 with free shipping.   I have six colored inexpensive teapot purses that I bought in 2004 [hot pink, silver, neon green, sky blue, gold and red] but they're made of vinyl-like material and don't compare to the quality of the Kate Spade purse.  

I had a black one too, but since I carried it the most it wore out and had to be thrown away.  I never replaced it.

My first thought regarding the Kate Spade purse was "it's way out of my price range" [and it is more than I normally pay for a handbag], but it's not outrageous compared to what other designer handbags sell for.  I browsed a pre-owned designer handbag website and $239 was nothing compared to their prices, and the cost of brand new designer handbags makes my head spin. 

Kate Spade came out with a wicker teapot handbag in 2016 that's no longer available. It originally sold for $398 and if you're lucky enough to find a used one online, it's a lot more than the original price.   It's SOOOO cute!

Here's another clutch tea-themed purse from 2016 that's no longer available.  It sold for $328.  

Do you have any tea-themed handbags, designer or otherwise? What's the most you would pay [or have paid] for a handbag?  The most I ever paid was $162 for my Mary Frances handbag, and I thought long and hard before paying that.   I guess how we spend our money all comes down to priorities.  Teapot purses fall in the 'novelty' category vs. 'practical' but they sure are fun for tea lovers.

One thing's for certain... the Internet sure does lead me into temptation sometimes.  ;-)