I am currently finding myself in this situation, and having a pretty poor memory, I’ve been searching to find some way to document, cherish or create a special memento to help me remember this time in my life.

At this moment my life represents so many wonderful feelings, things and hard work. I am full of love, happiness, blessings, dream chasing, hustling hard and embracing the most wonderful job I will ever have… being a Mom.

While juggling everyday life, maintaining a healthy marriage, being an awesome mom, and kicking a** at my day job…I am also trying to build my brand shoptini!

It’s nothing short of exhausting but in the most amazing way … if that makes any sense!

I am personally quite proud of who I have become as a Mother and who I am becoming as a brand builder. A few of my goals for the year have already come to fruition and so many more opportunities are on the horizon.

Beyond shoptini.com and my social media, I have been looking for a way to create a memento that represents today. Where I am and who I am now, as well as the awesome journey, the hard work and the reward.

That’s where this really cool idea came into my mind! I started following Vintage Swag a few years back. Over those few years a couple of my close friends have worked with Kay to create beautiful custom pieces. Kay’s business is based on the upcycle and repurpose of gently loved vintage Louis Vuitton couture handbags to create newly loved bags with a bohemian / country chic aesthetic. In addition to the custom leather trims and fringe she takes it a step further and creates a custom leather strap for each bag! All straps are individually tooled and hand painted by top notch artists.

I thought a custom bag, specifically the strap, might be a really cool and unique way to capture and represent my life as it is now. I originally reached out to Kay last summer to get an idea of how the process works. Simultaneously a good friend of mine got engaged and started planning a bachelorette party for Nashville {a perfect place to take a Vintage Swag custom LV bag}!

All kinds of signs pointed to this being the time… I’ve been working hard, achieving some goals, creating new ones and my trip to Nash-Vegas was only a few months away! I back reached out to Kay again in February and we started on my bag!!! Only I wasn’t sure which bag I actually was going to pick because I love big bags! The bigger the better… I pretty much carry my life in my bag! Buuuuuuttttt… I kind of wanted a bag for going out to festivals, concerts and evening events (which also meant I should choose a bag with a closure to secure my items while in very public places). Ultimately I chose the vintage Louis Vuitton Saint Cloud GM. Step one: decide on the bag… check. That only took me a few weeks lol. Then we started on the strap… Kay was amazing and really let me take the lead on the strap design. She knew how much this meant to me to represent my life and she wanted it to be perfect for me! {And so did I}.

I knew I wanted my strap to incorporate my family, my brand shoptini and the color pink… my fav! I had probably about twenty different designs or iterations before finally narrowing it down to one. I like balance and symmetry so I chose to have shoptini centered on the strap flanked with peonies {one of my favorite flowers}, many of you know this already but Kade’s nickname is “Moose” so we added Moose antlers on each end with leather pieces and my husbands secret nickname (or not so secret name I used while we were dating and working at the same company) was “SS” so we added “SS” on one of the flower petals.

I received my bag just a few weeks ago and was dying to open my package but ended up waiting a few days because I really wanted to take the time for a proper unveiling and I’m so glad I did!  It was late one evening after Kade had gone to bed and Spencer and I were finally sitting down for the night.  I opened it with him {he knew this bag was something special with so much more meaning than just having a couture handbag}.

The smell of fresh leather was rich, as I opened the box… I saw the bag first and it was gorgeous!!! I was even more impressed seeing all the leather fringe details in person! My custom strap was wrapped separately.  As I unwrapped the surrounding bubble wrap the strap started to become more apparent and tears started to well up in my eyes. As I held the strap in my hands touching the fine details of the “SS”, the moose antlers and my Shoptini logo tears rolled down my face. It was PERFECT… perfect in every single way! I texted Kay immediately, thanking her for her wonderful business and all the time she put into making this bag perfect for me.

I am not sure where this bag has traveled before or why the previous owner decided to part with it but I do know I will cherish this bag forever and always remember where I am now.

Thank you Kay for your inspiration, patience and your incredibly stylish & responsible fashion business!

Thank you Matty Tae Photography for a fun afternoon capturing all these beautiful images of my custom Vintage Swag LV bag!