The Holy Grail of Handbags & Mountaineering

You didn't misread this one…I climbed a (mini) mountain (scroll for proof) and I've finally found my holy grail of handbags. It's the handbag that goes with everything, always looks fabulous, has the right amount of storage, the optimum number of pockets and zips, sits nicely on your shoulder and doesn't weigh a ton! You may have already seen me wear it in lots of recent posts (here and here among others) - It's the Fossil Explorer Flap Bag in black.

Honestly, apart from one day where I switched to my tan bag, I have worn it every day since early December - and using the tan bag for that one day made me realise how much I missed this one!
I think it's partly to do with the brown strap - this makes the bag very wearable with browns and greens. But it's also the gorgeous soft as butter leather..I have never had a bag made of such lovely leather. This makes it very comfortable to carry and as it doesn't have any pointy corners or edges - it sits close to the body and is easy to tuck under your arm.

There are two large sections to the bag, one is the full length of the bag when you lift the flap up and this has a few different pockets inside it. I use this for my wallet, camera and any letters or books. 

There's a second section that starts just from the point where the flap goes over and in here, there are more smaller pocket, one of which is zipped. I keep my business cards and tablets/tissues/wipes in this section.

Then there is the most useful section, the front zipped pocket. This is really secure as it would be impossible for someone to open without you knowing. I keep my makeup, mobile phone and a pen (or 10) in here.

The craftsmanship on the bag is first class, smooth zips, perfect stitching and as I said above, butter soft leather. It never catches on my clothes - a particular bugbear with some of my other bags.

Why does this work when so many (oh SO many) before it have not? I think it's the shade of black. It's not a really black-black, if you know what I mean? It's got a grey tinge sometimes and a navy one other times. Sounds a bit mad but what I do know is that I'm a stickler for things matching and I used to (before December) change my bags regularly. Not any more. Watch this space…I am sure I'll use my lighter coloured ones in the summer but for now, it's the Fossil all the way. So much so, I have three bags I'm going to put up on eBay over the weekend. 
Thank you to Keith and the team at Menarys for gifting me this bag and I should point out that although I was given the bag, I was not obliged to blog about it at all. 
For all you local girls, the sale is still ongoing in Menary's 17 stores across Ireland, North & South. For the rest of you, the Menary's website is currently offline while some issues are being resolved. Like their Facebook page and you'll be among the first to hear when it's up and running again. 

I'll finish with an outfit photo but not a particularly stylish one. Yesterday, I climbed Cavehill with my friend Claire so this one's taken on top of my world with Belfast and the surrounding suburbs spread behind me. It was a tough climb but worth it for the views on such a gorgeous day. With all the news headlines it's getting this week, it's sometimes hard to believe Belfast is such a beautiful city. It's got mountains and beaches within minutes of the city centre…you could't beat it with a big stick :)