Happy Monday: A LIttle Time-Wasting Whimsy, or the Next "It" Bag? (SpiceLines)

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If you’re like me, the dreaded To Do List just keeps multiplying. Every time I cross one item off, two or three more take its place.

It’s clear that I’ll never ever reach the end. Once the very thought could make me frantic.

But a luscious stay in Paris has changed all that. Sometimes you just have to put that oh-so-American list—the sign of a busy, busy person, but maybe not such a contented one—on the back burner and engage in a little non-productive, time-wasting whimsy.

Yesterday I broke into a smile when I saw this mossy bag sprouting baby succulents. It might be the next “it” bag—and compared with Proenza Shouler’s $2,290 PS1 Navajo-style satchel, lust-provoking as it is, I must say this $20 find looks pretty good.

No, it’s not from Paris, though I could easily imagine a dozen of them suspended in a chic shop window, each brimming with berries or tiny flowers or lacy panties—whatever temptation was being dangled before our eyes. (You do know that in France, window-shopping is lecher la vitrine, or licking the window, n'est-ce pas?)

I actually found the petite satchel at our own farmer’s market at a flower stall that also had the most stunning bouquets of giant dahlias. It came home with a carload of crazy pumpkins—the veined orange and yellow one, topped with a leafy gourd, is called One Too Many (as in bloodshot eyes, the morning after)—and other autumn delights.

For me, the moss bag is a kind of jollifier--one of those "sentimental things that spread a little joy." Deborah Needleman, author of the forthcoming The Perfectly Imperfect House, says we all need a few of these in our lives.

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Now whenever I walk downstairs, I feel happy. Even on Monday, when the To Do List is nipping at my heels. ( By the way, there's room in the bag for a passport.)

Put time-wasting at the top of your list this week!