The whole time I was making the grocery bags, I was thinking about the travel bags my mom made for all of us.  This is a picture of me in our van getting settled for hours and hours of travel.

We took countless road trips to visit family growing up.  We'd pile into the van, or station wagon, or Suburban and head off on the highway.  Before one of those trips, Mom whipped up bags for each of us to pack up with things to do.

She picked the fabrics especially for each of us.  I don't think the pink one hanging behind my head was mine.  I wasn't a pink kind of girl.  But do you see how awesome it is?  There's a pocket on the outside between the straps and the top of the pocket is edged in eyelet.  What a nice touch.

I can't remember mine, but it must have been purple.  Actually, now I think about it, I'm almost sure it was purple corduroy.  Bright purple.  What ever happened to that bag?  Wait a second ... my current tote bag is bright purple corduroy.  Now I don't know if I'm remembering wrong or if I picked this one because it subconsciously reminded me of my childhood bag.  Hmmm.

My favorite were the trips in the station wagon because I could usually get the seat in the far back facing backwards.  There was only room for one on that seat.  What a rare heaven for a child in a big family.  With my Walkman on, it was like being in my own little world back there.

Look at that hair!  It makes me feel better about my current bangs situation.