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My beautiful, custom-made, all hand-made handbag. The embroidered flower is speckled with crystals from one of my grandmother's clip-on earrings.

I don't usually buy myself birthday presents, but this year I turned 40, and I decided to treat myself.

A good friend has been making lovely felted handbags, and I commissioned her to make me one.  Not only are the colors and the yarns gorgeous, but she adds all these other beautiful touches that make the bags treasures.

One thing she does is to incorporate vintage jewelry into the decoration.  I brought in a few things that used to belong to my grandmother, and together, we chose a beautiful earring that had, long ago, lost its mate.  It had a cluster of sparkly crystals, so my friend took them off the earring and used them as accents for an embroidered flower on the outside of the bag.

She hand-sewed the lining and added a little pocket for a cell phone or whatever.  She even included her custom labels inside: "jane de la terre."

I wore the bag for the first time the other day and felt like a million bucks, very grown up.  You know, grown up in the fun way, the way you always wanted to feel when you were little.

40 and fabulous.  Why not?

Thanks, jane de la terre.