Handbags and Hairbrushes.......

As the More is More Mom® you know that I am a hoarder of all things; silly fun, connections to people, moments in time, meaningful experiences………..and lots and lots of stuff! My desire to create beautiful experiences is insatiable and rather time consuming. I am a huge treasure hunter, and when Nick and Amanda were little I would drag them along for the ride in my quest to find the perfect…….everything. Tuesday Morning is a fantastic place to dig for treasures. Perhaps you are familiar with this purveyor of fabulous finds. They are sooooo much fun! After they restock their shelves with amazing wares, Tuesday Morning opens their doors at 8:00 AM on a specified….Tuesday morning. My equally obsessed treasure hunting friends and I would load up our SUV’s, with our kidlet’s in tow (and plenty of bribes…..like doughnuts and drink boxes) and stand in line at 7:30 AM (in the blistering heat, damp rain or freezing cold….why it was better than a trip to Disney Land!) just for the opportunity to have the right of first refusal on fun stuff we didn’t need. Hey, if I had to suffer through an eternally boring afternoon at the Children’s Museum or Chuckie Cheese, these kids could certainly suck it up while I cruised the aisles in my own little Nirvana.


You know how much I like a good handbag and a sweet deal. About ten years ago my girlfriend Judy (well, she’s actually more like my sister, and since neither one of has a sister, we decided that we would be each other’s sister) invited me to a purse party. When we are not volunteering at school and caring for our homes, these are precisely the sorts of silly things that suburban housewives do to while away the hours until the real work starts when the kids get home from school. We packed up our Pre-Schooler’s, trekked two suburbs to the South of Winsome, all for the chance to ogle fake handbags, pashmina’s, and pretend Tiffany Jewelry in some strangers basement. It wasn’t at all cheap and tawdry. It was amazing. We had never seen such a thing……handbags, impersonating handbags like Kate Spade, Gucci and Todd’s, right here in the suburbs! Bliss. I knew right then and there that the girls in Winsome would sell their first born for such a deal, so I booked a party on the spot!


As you can imagine, word spread like wildfire and I had women in my basement, rifling through boxes of purses, cocktails in hand (I can make a party out of anything), with a line out the door, and around the block, all desperately wanting to buy fake handbags. They were making appointments to come for private showings and clandestine meetings. Husbands were ordering purses as Christmas gifts. It was absolute madness. Quite frankly, with all the activity at our house I was concerned that we were going to be raided by the fashionista police, and I didn’t want to hear Ricky, I mean Chuck, say, “Lucy….you have some es-plaining to do.” But the very best thing about my fake purse party was that I got to know Michelle, the gal that colors my hair, formerly of the Fabulous and Fancy Hair Salon.
I had this crazy flashback as I thought about how long I have known Michelle, and had quite a chuckle about how we got to know each other while on my most recent visit with her at her new Serene and Calm Hair Salon. I was self styling after my services when the gal at the reception desk was admiring my method for drying my hair. I have a method for everything, and as the More is More Mom® you know I love more of everything, which would include….hairbrushes. I apportion my hair in to seven different sections and enlist the aid of seven different round hairbrushes, one for each section naturally, to act in much the same way as hot rollers. Then I have a big flat brush and a skinny round brush for backcombing.

The gal at the front desk was very impressed with my unique and efficient method of drying my hair. She said she too would give it a try…….if only she owned seven hairbrushes. Oh shoot. How is it that I have acquired more hairbrushes than ladies that work at hair salons? It looks like I’ve got some more es-plaining to do. Oh, Ricky……