Over the weekend, my daughter and I went shopping at TJ Maxx for a few items.
I love that store because it’s one of those places where you can’t leave without browsing through everything and finding something essential to purchase — something you never knew you needed before.
Before we entered the store, however, I grabbed my over-sized beach bag and threw my wallet and everything else that I needed to shop inside. I love this bag because I can toss a lot in it (including my purchases) without having to carry extra bags as well. I also adore that it has a side pocket to store my face mask so that I never lose it. And if it gets dirty, I simply throw it into the washing machine and clean it again. Easy, easy, easy. I made the bag out of an old ugly skirt, which left me enough material for a matching crop-top too.
In any event, as my daughter and I were in the shoe section trying on a few pairs of sandals, a woman and her friend came up to me out-of-the-blue and asked me where I got my beach bag. When I told her that I made it, she offered me forty dollars for it. She absolutely fell in love with it. I had to keep from laughing as there was a whole section of designer handbags to choose from at the entrance of the store.
I told her that I couldn’t sell her the bag as I loved it too. She answered me by telling me that I should open an etsy shop. It’s not the first time I’ve heard this from women wanting my handbags. I run into them all the time…or should I say “they run into me.” And so the scenario begins. My daughter seconded this woman’s enthusiasm with regards to my opening an etsy shop. “We have yet to convince her officially,” she told the woman.
Maybe I will someday, but for now, I plan to keep it as a hobby. Friends, family, and those women who continue to come up to me, in there lies my clientele to-date. I worry that if I turn this talent into an official business that I will lose the overall reason that I create these bags to begin with, fun. Plus, my career passion remains elsewhere currently — of which you will soon learn more about during the last week of August.
Maybe eventually these bags will make it onto the larger shelves but for right now, I’m merely tickled by the fact that I bested a well-known retail store and the many designer handbags hanging about inside.
It made me feel good. What a little ingenuity and one ugly skirt can do!
On that note, I’m heading off on vacation for a week where my beach bag will undergo much use. See you on August 25th when I return for the big announcement. Can’t wait!!!
Stay safe, everyone.