you never forget your first (designer handbag)

The Kate Spade brand was my first foray into designer handbags (with the iconic boxy "Sam," of course, which was all the rage back in the day), and to this day, I love its shapes and styles. Name unseen, my eye is almost always drawn first to a Kate Spade handbag, both while browsing online or in a store. There's just something super cute and fun about them.

Anyway, this one caught my eye recently at Nordstrom Rack:

Kate Spade "Quinn Villabella" in Black/Natural



Isn't it totes adorable?! So much of their stuff is, really. And for me at this point, it's not nearly so guilt-inducing as some of the other stuff I've been buying, because it's at a fraction of the cost of those high-end luxury brands.

(As an aside, I managed to put some money back on my credit card today -- v. proud of myself. I returned FIVE other handbags that I got: 2 other Kate Spades, another Marc Jacobs, and 2 Marc by Marc Jacobs.

As another aside, if you're wondering what the difference is, "Marc Jacobs" is his high-end brand, while "Marc by Marc Jacobs" is the mid-brand that competes with the likes of Kate Spade, Coach, etc.

Anyway. Point is, I am proud-ish of myself.)

the thick plottens

♠ I should be working on my original novel right now, but I am procrastinating instead (obviously). In awesome but somewhat flabbergasting news, I have reached 109,416 words. The bad news is that I don't know how far along I am in the story. Maybe two-thirds of the way through? The even more bad news is that it is missing a lot of components that I'm going to have to add in once the initial draft is done -- such as tension. I don't feel like there's a lot of tension in the story right now. Like, what in the world is keeping the two protagonists apart other than stupidity and lack of communication? :/ (It's a YA romance.) So. A lot of work to do in the future. But still, 109k words, the most I have written of anything original, ever. So yay.

♠ NFL draft: The Seahawks did their usual baffling style of drafting. I love it though, because the pundits are now leery of criticizing them, for fear of looking like idiots. So whenever the Hawks drafted a player that no one was expecting, the analysts/commentators just kind of paused, talked a bit about the player's stats, made some vague allusion to how it might fit in with our scheme, then changed the subject. LOLOL.

Part of this is because, two years ago, the Seahawks 2012 draft class was universally panned. Draft analysts gave it grades between a D+ and an F (Bleacher Report). That class included players like Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner, JR Sweezy, Jermaine Kearse, Bruce Irvin, Robert Turbin, Derrick Coleman... all players who make regular contributions to the squad and had playing time in the Super Bowl. So yeah. Pundits just sort of sidestep John Schneider's head-scratching choices. :)))

( Russell tweeted this after the SB smackdown: )

♠ I read The Maze Runner and its sequel, The Scorch Trials, and skimmed the third book The Death Cure. The first couple of books were entertaining reads, even if there was some awkwardness with the writing and I had my doubts about where it was all leading -- it was way convoluted -- but I enjoyed them. However, about three-fourths of the way through the second book, I started to get suspicious about something. I therefore did something very bad and skipped to the end of the third book to see if my suspicions would be confirmed -- AND THEY WERE. I was really, really upset about it. :/ That's why I ended up skimming the third book instead of reading it... the protagonist, who always had his moments of being irritating, suddenly became totally intolerable to me. I didn't agree with his choices, I thought he was hypocritical and inconsistent -- being overly hard on one character while too lenient on another, and there was just too much "action," like it was Michael Bay movie put into words.

This is one instance in which I hope the movie series DOES change the book, and "fix" the problems I had with it. :P I'm pretty stoked that Dylan O'Brien is playing Thomas, which is how I got turned to the series in the first place.

♠ Speaking of having problems with book-to-screen adaptations, I have decided to stop watching Game of Thrones. I no longer find it enjoyable, and in fact, it enrages me on a regular basis.

( Click for my reasons. )