Happy Hanukkah, 2018! We’re three days into our festival of lights, bookish joy, giveaways, and mayhem.
I look forward to this week all year, and I hope you enjoy it, too.
Ready for today’s giveaway? Seriously, as much fun as it is to build the gift guides and shop for all of you, it is extremely enjoyable to shop handbag stores looking for adorable bags that are low-maintenance, not too heavy to carry, and above all, hold a book (or books) (or ereader) (or ereaders) easily.
So let’s do this!
Today’s prize is:
A kate spade Dawn Place Mini Kona Deep Plum Velvet cross body bag!
Want some specs?
- Lots of carrying options: it has double handles with 4.5″ drop, plus a detachable adjustable strap that can expand to a 21″ drop
- Triple entry top with front and back zip compartments, and a main center compartment with snap closure
- Interior double slide pockets and zipper pocket
- Bag measures 9″ W x 8″ H x 4.5″ D
Want to enter? Yay!
Just leave a comment telling us your favorite purchase this year! Some awesome fluffy socks to keep your toes warm? Did an Instant Pot change your life? Let us know!
Standard disclaimers apply: I am not being compensated for this giveaway. Void where prohibited. Open to international residents where permitted by applicable law. Must be over 18 and ready to lint roll the heck out of this purse if you own pets and/or children. We also won’t judge you if find yourself absently petting your new velvet purse. And romance authors, feel free to steal the euphemism of “petting your purse.”
Comments will close Wednesday 5 December 2018, at or near 12pm ET, and winner will be announced shortly afterward.
Good luck, Happy Hanukkah, and thank you for being part of Smart Bitches!
Winner update: Congratulations to Make Kay! Please check your inbox and spam folders shortly.
We have several days of Hanukkah-palooza giveaways left!
I purchased a handbag to give as a gift.
A pink leather cross body bag and a red leather structured hand bag. It’s shallow, but looking at them, even when not in use, makes me happy.
Happy Hanukkah!
My favorite purchase was plane tickets so that my husband and I could attend my niece’s wedding.
The best purchase I made this year was a new mattress! We got a Zinus mattress-in-a-box from Amazon, and it’s SO comfy.
My favorite purchase this year was my wedding dress! I spent a fair amount of time trying on dresses and explaining to salesladies what I wanted, but feeling like I’d be stuck in fluffy princess land. Then, oh then, bhldn came into my life with all of its slinky lacey stretch-satin-lining goodness. 🙂
I bought an air fryer as my Hanukkah gift to myself. It was regularly $100, but I got it on sale for $50. I am making potato latkes in it, and they taste delicious with a fraction of the oil in the pan. Also, it’s less mess.
My favorite purchase of the year was the Kindle Oasis. Reading in the bathtub is much less nerve-wracking now! It’s also so much smaller and lighter than my Fire! I don’t have to carry a huge bag anymore!
Robot Vacume. Completely changed my life!!! I have all hardwood floors and a dog that sheds when he breathes I swear!
I have been on a very strict, necessities only budget for a while now so I don’t think anything could be described as favorite. I did pick out a beautiful picture frame for part of my Goddaughter’s wedding present. Let’s go with that.
my favorite purchase this year is my Oasis Kindle e-reader
I finally bought the “period-proof” undies from Thinx, and they’ve changed my life forever. No more stained underwear or bedsheets!
Definitely the frame for the geology degree I earned this spring.
My fave purchase this year was my new winter boots. My old Sorels’ sheepskin liners were worn thin and the replacements were not effective, so, as much as I loved them, I really needed to make sure my feet didn’t freeze off.
Thank you for all the giveaways & happy Hanukkah!
A really nice pro yoga mat. It makes a huge difference.
Gorgeous bag! My favorite purchase of the year was a leather sofa. It’s easy to wipe off muddy paw prints.
I love my Sodastream so much. Bubbly water on demand just makes me feel a bit fancy 😉
I bought a new kindle fire because one old one was full and I couldn’t figure out how to archive stuff–believe me, I tried everything, and my other one is having trouble staying charged.
I received the gift of an instant pot and it was a game changer.
So, I broke my ankle a couple weeks ago, and right now my favorite purchase is the knee walker I bought from Amazon and which arrived in two days. So much more freedom than with a pair of crutches!
It is so fun to read everyone’s favorite purchases!
My favorite purchase has been the Apple pen for my iPad. I didn’t know it existed until we were at the store and I asked this sales guy what it was and he showed me. I looked at my husband and said, “I have been looking for this for years!!” I have needed a way to make notations on e-sheet music and everything else had too big of a point that it was impossible.
Okay, I know it’s a boring, practical thing, but I bought rubber wheels for my home office chair (like roller blade wheels) and they’re a game-changer! My wheels damaged our laminate wood floor and after fixing them I knew I needed to do something but didn’t want an ugly mat. These wheels make sitting in my chair like floating on a cloud! Should have done it years ago. Thanks for the giveaway and Happy Hanukkah!
A 10 day cruise for myself that I leave for tomorrow. The time away from work when I can just focus on reading, eating and sleeping is priceless.
I kitted myself out to travel in and out of the city through extensive trackworks, and other – surprise – events.
1 I got a micro-USB to USB adapter, scavenged a wired keyboard from a desktop set, and hooked up my tablet to create a setup I prefer to a laptop. (On weight, size, cost per data storage and processing power, but especially on the ‘damn laptops have to cost an arm and a leg OR put a touchpad where I want to rest my hands’. The PC makers are happy to sell us Neanderthals keyboards with a cushion pad at the back. But the portable device makers try to stick us with wireless keyboards which lag behind medium speed typing and eat batteries. No more.)
2 I got the next step in affordable headphones. Still with a port for the detachable audio cable (scavenged again). Bigger ear (and specs) space. More streamlined cushions. And *swivel* earpads. That means they can sit, headband around the back of my neck, earpads flat against my collarbones. Which is a politer position than the neck – and less uncomfortable in the climate mostly, and climate-controlled zones. That makes it easier to interact with staff on the train and selling things in shops. If I don’t have to wrestle wires at the risk of uprooting them, then I don’t have to be particularly on the ball to show my train ticket or buy something and refuse bagging. I could have been asleep on the train. Often was and that was great, because it made up for longer journeys or having to take an earlier train to be on time.
3 I repurposed (no alterations) a pouch with carabiner clip meant to hold a camera extension lens. Just right for my washable ‘eco’ (?) coffee cup – functionally, my water bottle/mug.
4 I repurposed a conference-style nametag + retractable thread clip attachment as a public transport card holder. I had lost two with chunks of credit on them earlier in the year.
My luggage logistics are less satisfactory. For most of what I need, I use a laptop bag with messenger bag strap. But I wear it like a backpack, vertical. At that angle, it’s no wider than my torso and doesn’t get in anybody’s road. It will only be ergonomic with some re-rigging of luggage straps, though.
I thought that through looking at the display bag and reading some of the commenters outlining the conveniences they’d found to make their lives easier. (I was aware I could use something more adapted to my luggage…but I thought it would take starting from scratch, measuring and sewing. That’s a steep learning curve upskill.)
I reckon it emerges from this account that I am not suited to velvet bags. Feel free to redraw if you land on me. However, I hadn’t realised how much I had managed until I reviewed it, nor assessed the next step in comfort as achievable in the short term. That was a gift, though it took some ‘unwrapping’.
I hope everyone willing to partake in seasonal cheer will be able. I wish you all strength and stamina.
(And, since I like there to be a tinge of realism in the picture, it occurs to me there is a good chance, comparatively, in other parts of the world. We are not used to such a wintry ‘spring’ in Victoria, Australia (or, more accurately, for the appropriate First Nations season for the applicable regions, which seasons usually number more than four, to be this cold). We are not so practiced at ramping up our program of social contact in the face of it. I think I may be sanguine in my hopes for practiced people.)
My favorite purchase was two Silpat mats for my baking pans. No more scrubbing after making all of those one-pan dinners or cookies. I love them!
My favorite purchase this year is a box of disposable, heated and scented eye masks from Japan. When you open them, they warm up and release the scent of lavender for 15-20 minutes. I think. I always fall asleep with them on! They are awesome!
I got one of those faux fur throws from West Elm during Black Friday, and it’s the best thing I’ve ever felt in my life.
My favorite purchase this year is a combo: a pair of actual dance ballet flats and adult ballet classes at a local rec center. I need to start working out again and I’ve been really struggling with depression. I’ve been secretly wanting to start dancing again, hoping it will help me both physically and emotionally. So when I got some birthday cash I bought the shoes and signed up and I start this month!
My new iPad Pro! My last iPad (which still works) was 6 years old. And since my laptop is acting screwy (& is 7 years old), I needed something reliable as a laptop replacement.
IT’S SO PRETTY.
It might not technically be a purchase but the best thing I’ve spent money on this year was paying off my student loans!
I started indulging in my love for dresses from Trashy Diva which are expensive but super flattering, and they make me happy! My favorite styles are the 1940s dress and the Jenny Long Sleeve Dress. Excellent for the curvier ladies among us.
I’m a bit of a shopaholic and it is hard to narrow my favorite thing. If I had to pick I guess it would be my new kindle! It’s something that I use everyday!
A jar of quince paste! I loved it as a kid and forgot how great it was.
Yo-Yo Ma’s new recording of the Bach Cello Suites. Need I say more?
Happy Hanukkah!
Goodr sunglasses for running. They look great, aren’t expensive, are super light, and don’t chafe behind my ears on long runs. Sometimes the littlest things make all the difference.
My fav so far is a Nespresso, my keurig got jealous and broke shortly after.
An electric blanket – both me and the cats looove it. There might have been a bit of self-care snuggling required this year.
I bought a couple of Funko Marvel t-shirts on clearance at BN and ended getting like 4 shirts for the price of 1.
I had an event to go to–a cocktail party–but I am not the cocktail party type. I found a Gap dress at TJMaxx–wooo hooo. Something I might actually wear again. Plus it is silver and I am a total magpie.
I have a tie. I went shopping in my jewelry box and had a pair of my grandmother’s screwback earrings reset with leverbacks so that I could wear them. They turned out to be amethysts and are one of my favorite pairs of earrings. I need to buy more purple now! I also had one of my dad’s tie tacks converted into a charm so that I could wear it on a necklace. Much better than buying new jewelry because of the sentimental value of these pieces that I can wear again! Definitely my favorite purchases of the year.
I bought a three inch gel memory foam mattress topper for a camp bed this year. The rolling up and riding around in the car split it pretty badly by the end up the season, but I duct taped it up and put it on my bed and have been sleeping in much more comfort ever since.
I love my Dansko XP Professional clogs. They keep my feet happy, and if my feet are happy, I am happy! Love all the Bitches!!