are you packed yet?

In less than 24 hours I leave for the great state of Texas to spend about a week with my sweetie. For Mr. B, this trip means work. For myself and some other blessed ladies around the country, it means a few days and nights fun and fellowship doing all kinds of girl stuff.

Less than 24 hours-gone for a week.

You would think a gal would have a bag uh....or two packed, right?

Not this girl.

I am thinking about luggage quite a bit lately.

Due to various airline machinery chewing up the family Eddie Bauer basic black set (this last set was wrecked in record setting time), I found myself searching high and low then high again for a new travel bags.

In my quest to find new bags I stumbled upon the luggage of my dreams.

My friend Donna of Your Hearts Desire Boutique creates some beautiful as well as practical fabric creations. Low and Behold she was selling the unique three piece set above at a very competitive price, so my bags could be cute, distinctive (not likely to be lost among the 'black upon black here's red ' luggage carousal) and once I painted them with a heavy armor of Scotch Guard...I was sold.

Like I always say, 'Nothing like a good rationalization'.

I admit to a few hesitations prior to purchasing such lovely totes. Considering the way our old bags have suffered through the years, seems unlikely these would fare any better.

In making this purchase I had to be willing to either pack all my wears (whether a day or a weeks worth) in the carry on.

Not possible - where would I put my make-up and hair products?

Instead the question became how might I wrap these bags in a virtual force field of protection.?

For starters-Scotch Guard, every mothers friend. Supposedly this set was created with soil resistant fabric, but hey, I don't think you can be over-protective...with your luggage that is.

After thoroughly coating my bags with a couple of cans of SG, my next worry was leaving my lovely cases with baggage busters handlers.

As luck would have it, the first time I traveled with my new cases the female baggage handler measured,weighed and wrapped it in a red ribbon...really!

The ribbon had an Italian word repeated all over it-'Fragile'.

Of course she could see, the bags were most delicate and needed to be handled with care.

My luggage arrived in pristine condition. I was beside myself with joy! (did you notice I kind of LOVE my luggage?)

Since that first trip I make a point to give the handlers an extra tip and always request exotic stickers or tape that mark my bags for the dainty darlins they are, 'Fragile'!

So far, still lookin good.

Oh, another thing about that first trip?

Once I arrived at my destination and unpacked, I immediately began tallying numerous things I forgot...most probably due to my waiting until the last hours to pack.

Well, I better get a movin, I think I hear my luggage calling me!