I was torn on which blog to put this on. I finally decided that, since this was my art bag, it should go on the art blog. I have the COOLEST art bag. It has hidden pouches and pockets for everything; from paint brushes and pencils to a spot for wallet, phone and mp3 player. It has so many pockets that I am often hard pressed to fill them (which is a feat, as anyone who knows me can attest. I LOVE pockets.) I got it at an Army surplus store, though, so it is that army green color and not so pretty. So, me being me, I had to decorate. Painting the bag wasn’t really practical, even with fabric dyes and paints (they tend to bleed, or flake off and the good ones that don’t do this are more expensive than what I wanted to spend considering the darkness of the army green would muddy the colors and make them look not so nice), so I purchased patches. There are seventeen on right now, with four more on the way (including a Cheshire Cat and a vampire smiley face, YAY!). So here it is, the now decorated art bag:
The front flap of my bag, that has an external large pocket and a large clear pocket on the inside when you flip it up.
A close up of my robot.
The inside front of my bag, with spaces for pencils, plus a largish pouch at the bottom (where the owl is) and a pocket behind the space for pencils, as well as a pocket with a flap that just happens to be the exact size of my wallet (Where the initials and the butterflies are). It was like this bag was MADE for me, I swear.
A close up of my pocket. The butterflies came in a package of twelve, four of which were pink, two light and two dark (the rest were various shades of blue and green). I was going to use all of the pinks for something for my niece since she LOVES pink and I tend to think of pink as a faded red (and red is a glorified pink, so there you go. Not my favorites), but, looking at my bag, EVERYTHING was green, or blue, or black and white (with the exception of a guitar, which is a play on words, to be explained later), and so I decided I needed a warm color to off set all the cools. So I chose one of the darker pink ones. I think it came out nicely, AND I still have three more to use for my niece.
This is the guitar on the pocket on one side of my bag that I use to hold my cell phone. I got this one because I LOVE music, but I can’t play guitar (I was trying to learn and then got my hand mauled by my cat [which is a LOOONG story that you can read about here, here, here, here, and here, if you are so inclined] and since total dexterity and strength has yet to return despite being MUCH better, guitar lessons are on hold), and not only can I not play guitar, I have a very good friend who CAN play guitar who covered a song called, you guessed it, Can’t Play Guitar (to hear his work go here). So, basically, it is a big ol’ inside joke. But know you all know about it, so it really isn’t inside anymore. Cheers.
This is the peacock on the back of my bag, which unzips to reveal a whole secret compartment for paint brushes, paints, and dry pallets. The peacock is because I had an ex who decided that he was going to be rich, and that when we were married in our large house with our kids, we were going to have, no joke, peacocks in the front yard. Because, you know, EVERYONE wants to wake up to “INNNG-YAAA INNNNG-YAAA INNNNG-YAAA!” every morning. But, that is what he thought rich people had, and since I have always thought peacocks were beautiful birds, and it was a happy memory, here is the peacock. AND this one is quite, so win win.
These are the butterflies on the strap of my bag. I LOVE them. I am just having a hard time tacking them on. They are iron ons and, after I iron them on, I sew them on, but these are not cooperating. Worst case scenario I will use fabric glue, but I think I have it figured out.
So, that is what I have right now. Four more in the mail, and I have a State Park patch in my room (that may or may not go on, I haven’t decided yet). I still have lots of spaces and lots more story to tell, and I still want a fairy, a turtle, and a kokopelli. Amongst others. So, the search is on for more, but I am pretty pleased for the time being. 
