How cute is this everyday bag! I love a small, cross body bag I can wear everywhere from the gym, to the market, to a luncheon, and out to dinner. This bag is that go-to handbag! Love!
The Bottega Veneta loop bag is a fabulous handbag to wear on a daily basis. It can be worn cross body or over the shoulder, and it comes in a variety of colors. I chose Parakeet, also known on the street as “Bottega Green.” This is the hue considered Bottega Veneta’s signature color. I love a signature color! I mean, who doesn’t love Tiffany Blue or Louboutin Red? I’m here for Bottega Green!
There are several size choices for the Bottega Veneta Loop bag as well as colors. I chose the smallest size, which is the mini. I wanted a bag which was minimal and just large enough to carry my essentials. The mini loop holds my wallet, iPhone, lipstick, keys, and I have just enough room for some Kleenex, if need be; after all, it is allergy season right now!
What fits inside Bottega Veneta mini loop handbag
What I love about the Bottega Veneta Loop bag in mini is that it is a no fuss, carefree bag. I just throw it on and go! The leather is soft to the touch, yet strong for everyday wear. This bright green hue makes the bag fun, and adds a little spice to everyday wear. I love a bag which brightens up my day!
While the mini size is perfect for everyday use, I can see how someone might prefer the small, medium or large size. I highly recommend choosing the size which is right for you. This is a classic, everyday bag which you will have forever. My mom has a very similar version which she purchased in the 1980s and it is still a workhorse. Her bag is navy blue, and it still looks new! She gets a ton of compliments every time she wears it. This is when you know a designer handbag is a good investment. It can withstand the test of time and still look modern years, if not decades, later.
Shop the Bottega Veneta Loop mini bag online:
I really love my Bottega Loop mini bag, so I would love to invest in another one in the future. Perhaps next time I will pick one up in a neutral color, and a different size, just to mix things up. For now, I love having a piece in Parakeet, aka “Bottega Green,” and the size is perfect for my everyday life.
Have you been wondering how to polish your shoes at home while saving both time and money? I know a lot of you out there are wondering this very question!
For well over twenty years, I have had friends and family members ask me in real life how I keep my shoes from getting scuffed up. Well, I polish them at home! It actually surprised me that most people do not know how to polish their shoes at home. I had one friend tell me once that she gets rid of shoes once they are scuffed; she had no idea you could polish out the scuffs! I have to admit, I was shocked to hear her say this!
When I was a little girl in grammar school, I used to polish my shoes on a monthly basis. I attended a Catholic School and our uniforms required brown leather shoes. I owned two pairs; penny loafers and topsiders. One pair was dark brown, and the other was a medium brown color. My Mother taught me how to polish my shoes at home when I was in the third grade; and I have been polishing my shoes ever since.
It is really easy to polish your shoes at home. Not only do you save time, because it is much quicker to polish them yourself rather then drop them off for a few hours or a day at the shoe repair, you save money! Think about how fresh, shiny and new all of your shoes will look once you know how to polish your shoes at home. Your feet, and your wallet, will be so happy!
So, now I will stop babbling, and I will show you the easy steps to polishing your shoes at home. It only takes five minutes to polish one pair. Love that!
How to polish your shoes at home
As you can see in the above photo, my favorite pair of Gucci loafers have taken a beating. I wear them often, so they occasionally look scuffed up; which means I need to polish them. Read on to see how easy it is to polish the scuffs out of your shoes!
How to use a Cream Shoe Polish
My favorite type of shoe polish is the kind you find in a jar. This is cream shoe polish, and it is the highest quality polish on the market. It not only removes the scuffs on your shoes, it conditions the leather so your shoes look newer longer. Love!
In order to use a cream shoe polish, first put on thin, medical gloves. You can find these really cheap at Costco; they come in handy around the house when you need thin gloves. Over the glove, use an old sock. You can spend money on a polishing cloth, or you can re-use your old socks once they lose their color, or develop a hole. I like to use my old socks for polishing my shoes. It saves money, helps our landfills, and they work like a charm!
In order to use a cream shoe polish, put a dab of shoe polish on the tip of the sock, and then gently rub it into the leather of the shoe in a circular motion.
When you are rubbing in the polish with the sock, be sure to cover the entire scuff, and anywhere your shoe looks dull. Also, be sure to rub it all in until the leather has a flat, matte look. Once you don’t see any clumps of polish, and there is a flat, matte look, your leather is ready to be buffed! You can see an example of the matte look in the photo above.
How to shine your shoes at home
Once you are done rubbing in the cream shoe polish, and your leather shoes have a matte look, it is time to buff them into a shiny new shoe! Using a horsehair shoe shining brush, move in a circular motion over the entire shoe. This will buff the shoe polish, creating a beautiful shine. Be ready to tip yourself, your shoes will look like new!
It is important to invest in a good brush. I have had mine for well over twenty years, and it still works like a charm; and it still looks new! Love that!
Don’t my favorite Gucci mules look shiny and new! Well, aside from the creases which occur from walking, the leather looks black, shiny, and fabulous!
It only takes five minutes to polish and shine your shoes at home. It is so easy and quick; you will wonder why you never polished your shoes at home before reading this!
In order to get started, I highly recommend creating a home shoe polishing kit. I keep mine in a clear plastic shoe box. This way I can easily store it with my shoes, in my closet.
Inside your shoe box, you will need an old sock for each color of shoe polish your own. This is important because you won’t want to polish a white pair of shoes using a sock you recently polished a black pair of shoes with. Your shoes will end up charcoal! Eeek! Definitely have one sock for each color of polish, this is a must!
You will also need a high quality, shoe polishing brush. Horsehair brushes are the best, but if you don’t feel comfortable with using horsehair, there are plenty of synthetic versions on the market.
Lastly, use cream shoe polish. These are the shoe polishes found in a jar. I recommend owning one black jar, one leather conditioner jar, and one medium brown jar. You will need multiple brown polishes if you own a lot of brown shoes in different shades. If you own white shoes, add a white shoe polish jar to your collection. Remember to always match the shoe polish to the shoe color.
You can purchase these items at many shoe repair shops, and Nordstrom carries shoe polish in the men’s shoe department. You can also find everything you need online in the shopping widget below:
You are ready to polish your shoes at home! If anyone ever asks you how to polish your shoes at home, you will be ready to answer!
Have you ever been invited to an event and wondered if you can re-wear a dress from your closet? Do you have a fabulous gala gown just collecting dust in your closet that you would love to wear to another gala but you are not sure if it is OK to rewear a formal dress? We have been programmed over the years to never be caught wearing the same special occasion dress twice. Therefore, it can be difficult to know what to do with a formal dress hanging in our closets!
Special events are just that; special. So we all have this subconscious feeling inside which tells us we need a special, new dress for the occasion. While shopping for a new gala gown, or cocktail dress, is a lot of fun, it can also add up! Think about how much you spend each time you attend an event. Could that money go towards a fabulous designer bag you can wear on a daily basis? Or maybe that money could buy an entire new summer wardrobe, or pay for a trip to Hawaii. Perhaps the money could be used for a new washing machine. (I know boring, but reality)
Saving money, and still making a special event feel special, is easier than you think! You can absolutely re-wear a special occasion dress, gala gown, or cocktail dress; again, and again, and again! The only rule of thumb is to never wear the same dress, to the same event, twice. That silver cocktail dress you wore to your friend’s party last week? You can’t wear it with that group of people again, but you can easily wear it to the upcoming charity event you are attending, and then your second cousin’s Friday night wedding. Get the idea?
While it seems to be a simple thing to be able to wear a dress over, and over, there is one easy way to remember where you have worn each dress. I easily forget where I wore a dress; especially if it hangs in my closet for two or three years. Since formal attire trends don’t change often, you can hold on to a dress for several years and continually re-wear it. Love that!
I have one simple system I use to help me keep track of where, and when, and with who, I wore a dress. In order to keep track of where my dress has been, I make hang-tags which I keep on the hangers of my dresses while they hang in my closet. This tells me when I wore a dress, which group of people I wore it with, and to which event it attended. This enables me to get many wears out of a cocktail dress, gala gown, or party dress without getting caught in the same dress twice, with the same group of people.
Here are the steps for making your own hangtags! You can see what they should look like in the photos below.
Use a hole punch on the end of one index card to make a hole about a quarter-inch from the top. Hold the index card vertically when you punch the hole so that the hole is on one of the short ends of the card, not the long end
Using scissors, cut a straight line from the end of the card to the hole.
Make three columns on the card and label them “Date,” “Event,” and “Group.”
Fill in the card with the event information from the place you wore it.
Hang the card on the hanger; and voila! You have a record of where. and when, and with whom, you wore each gala gown, cocktail dress, and party dress!
In addition to a special occasion dress, you are likely to own special occasion shoes, and clutches. These can be re-worn over, and over, and over again. If you have a clutch, or a pair of shoes which are kitschy, they will have a shelf life and should be labelled, so that they are never re-worn to the same event twice. If you tend to own classic formal accessories, like me, then you can easily re-wear them to the same event, and with the same group of people.
When it comes to formal accessories, I recommend owning three formal clutches or mini-bags, one in black, one in silver, and one in gold. I also recommend owning three pairs of formal shoes, one pair in black, one in silver, and one in gold. My black satin mini bag is fifteen years old, yet every-time I wear it, the bag looks fresh and new. Look for formal accessories which are classic and can be used over, and over. You will save a ton of money over time. Besides, when you attend an event, everyone is looking at your dress, not your shoes or bag. #FunFact
There you have it! It is OK to re-wear a formal dress to another event as long as you are keeping track of where you wore it before. Do you have a system to keep track of where you wore your gowns? If so, please share in the comments below!
Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy saving money by re-wearing your formal gowns, cocktail dress, and party ensembles!
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