Monthly favourites: October

Hi friends!

In my last post I showed you one of the things I recently bought and am in love with: the Passion Planner. I thought the planner deserved its own post, but it could actually be a part of this little list: favourite things that I bought in October.

1. This cork backpack

I had been thinking about buying a nice backpack for a while, 'cause I only have a very practical, unstylish black Deuter backpack which I think is not appropriate to combine with a dress, heeled boots or certain kinds of dressy coats. Somehow I always feel like adding that backpack to my outfit makes me look like a 14 year old in only one second. It's still a good backpack for traveling, or when I really need to take my laptop with me, but I wanted one that would look great with my outfits and would add value to them.

I saw a really pretty red leather backpack on Asos, but it had a few disadvantages to me:

1) I don't want to buy leather anymore when I don't believe it to be necessary (I do buy leather shoes sometimes since I enjoy my shoes for many, many years and I just think it's way harder to find nice vegan shoes as I'm really specific in what I like. Good quality, durable, non-leather shoes are hard to find for winter if you are picky about the design.) 

2) leather is quite a heavy material. I had a leather bag when I was in high school and even when it was empty, it was still kind of heavy and I hardly ever used it.

That's when I started looking for canvas bags, but they all had leather handles or details which is completely unnecessary to me, and canvas isn't even waterproof. But then it hit me: I had a cork handbag which I bought in Porto a few years ago. I could buy a cork backpack! I had seen those before and they looked super cute. So I started my search.

It didn't take long before I bumped into this adorable natural/red colored backpack on a Portuguese Etsy store (this one). I fell in love immediately. The red accents! The little pocket in the front! The buckles! I don't have to tell you how excited I was when it arrived at home.

Both the bag and the front pocket have magnetic buttons underneath the buckles. 

You close the bag by pulling the straps.

Inside the bag there's a little zipper pocket for your phone, keys or other important things. As the front pocket only closes with a magnetic button, I don't put anything important in there, I put everything in the big compartment. 

The nice thing about this backpack (which was going to be a surprise to me when I ordered it, as there were no measurements on the Etsy page) is that it's lightweight and looks really cute, but it still fits an A4 book or anything sized A4, so I take it with me to university basically everyday. 

I've been loving it so much that I even use it on other occasions as well, now I know what it feels like to live with two completely free hands and arms. To be honest, I don't use my handbags anymore right now.

2. This cream colored teddy coat

I am in LOVE with this coat. I had been waiting for the weather to get cold enough so I'd be able to wear this without looking ridiculously warm on the streets. Now that it's finally cold enough to wear it everyday, I can tell you this is the warmest and nicest jacket I've ever had. It's vegan (the material is synthetic) and it's really lightweight (I have a thing for lightweight stuff). You see a lot of teddy coats at the moment, but I always check out my fellow bears on the street and I'm always the fluffiest. It's just so cozy and soft and somehow random people smile at you when you wear it, probably 'cause you look like an actual teddy bear.

3. This denim jacket with ribbons

I saw this jacket for the first time in a video of one of my favourite Youtubers, Kristin Johns. I couldn't even see it completely but I absolutely loved the ribbons. I saw it a few other times in her videos (maybe also in pictures) and it was still on my mind, so I decided to buy it as I wanted an oversized denim jacket and this one is really me because of the ribbons. It's not just a regular oversized manly jacket but has some frivolous things to it, which is exactly my style.

I've already worn it so many times and the denim is SO soft, comfy and smells amazing. It's definitely one of my best buys ever, and deserves a spot in this list.

I think I will make this a series: monthly favourites! I'll always show you my favourite items that I bought the month before (as it takes a little time for something to become your favourite). What do you think? :)

Lots of love
Manon