Megan Eaves

it’s monday and what could a girl want more than some great travel reads and a cute clutch to throw into the luggage for a night out when travelling? to that end, i give you irish jaunt and kattybabylove purses.

i am a big believer in self-employment, handmade items and personal attention in this world that is so corporate, global and unattentive. that’s why i absolutely adore the handmade purses, clutches and wallets that my good friend kathleen has started making and selling through her etsy shop, kattybabylove. the clutch above is a sampling of the items that will become available in her shop over the coming weeks – items that are handmade by kathleen and sold straight from her. i love this concept and i admire anyone like kat that has a knack for sewing.

i particularly love the little clutches, which have a magnetic snap and are lined inside, but soft. these are the absolute perfect travel accessory for a girl on the go – something sweet and pretty that you can stick into your luggage without taking up much space or weight. then, when you need to dress yourself up for an evening out in some exotic and wonderful place, just pop out the clutch, throw in your lip gloss and mobile phone and, voila!

i’m most excited, today, though to announce the launch of irish jaunt, a travel website that bill and i have put together as our own personal project and a chance to write our own site. irish jaunt is something like an online travel magazine loaded with feature stories about places, events and things travelers to ireland will definitely want to read about. these are interspersed with hi-res photos (many of which snapped by us) within a very clean layout.

we think (and hope) irish jaunt fulfills an area sorely lacking in the irish travel website genre – a clean travel site with hip writing and pretty photos. we’ve labeled it a “leprechaun free zone” and hope to keep it rid of the bad graphics and cliched writing that permeates most of the travel sites about ireland out there.

we would also love to accept guest posts or photos to feature on irish jaunt. and we someday hope that it will earn some revenue.

so your thought for this monday goes back to a post i wrote for students in europe last week about an exhibit at the danish design centre, which compels visitors to consider the addage that “every time you spend money, you are casting a vote on the kind of world you want”.

i want to spend wisely.