My latest obsession. . . Kate Spade Small Leslie

I'll spare you the backstory to how this purse came into my possession (I deleted it because it was looooong). Basically it was a matter of it right price, right bag. It fit my needs, and it was a slight (albeit better) variation of what I originally wanted.

A while ago I mentioned the purses I was looking at. The Small Leslie is similar in size to the Cobble Hill Little Minka, which is the larger version of the Mini Minka, which is way too small after all is said and done.

This little speck of purse beauty (in my eyes, at least) is the Kate Spate Cobble Hill Small Leslie in Storm. It's smooshy leather is a nice shade of grey; not too light, not too dark. It has a zip closure which folds over, and is secured via a magnet. There is also a sneaky pocket that runs the length of the back, and a decent portion of the height. I bought it for about 40-something% off at Kate Spade's Thanksgiving weekend surprise sale.

-My thoughts-

Quality: superb. I would expect nothing less from Kate Spade. I literally can't walk into the local outlet store without buying something, even if it's just cute earrings. The metal hardware feels sturdy (it's apparently 14kt light gold, which has my husband concerned), and the leather and the bag in general feels very well made. I definitely got what I paid for, and so far its worth every penny.

With the removable crossbody strap on the shortest hole (there are five) the bag hits below my hip. I'm 4'11", btw. The top handles are too small to put on my shoulder, but that doesn't bother me since I don't want to carry it that way. It can be held on the arm. The bag is light, and doesn't add too much stress on my shoulder even when full.

The zipper lifts up from its magnetic closure to reveal the inside of the bag, and a decent sized pocket in the front. It's large enough that my Nook fits in there comfortably with a few other items. Inside there are two pockets, and a zip pocket. I feel like I need a flashlight when digging around in there, it's so dark. I try to keep the random items from floating around. I'm afraid I'd never get them back.

When I first played around with the bag the zipper wasn't really functional. It was difficult to close, but with use, its gotten significantly better. I'm not sure what caused that, but I did have an issue with my Kate Spade Wallet, which I had to exchange since that one just flat out broke (prior to my review).

I can already tell that it's going to slouch over time, which is what I want. When a larger purse hangs that low, I want it to be slouchy. It looks more casual, and is closer to my day to day style (not that I really have one).

-Complaints and Drawbacks-

Sadly, even though I love it there are a few things about it that I would have changed. 

The handles become less stiff if they're pushed down, which isn't the best for me since I want them to stay up. I think the bag looks nicer that way, and they make it easier to maneuver it in and out of my husband's truck. If you want the handles to stay up, please don't push them down.

I'm also not a huge fan of how dark it gets inside. It's fine now that I've come to terms with the fact that I can't keep anything loose in the main compartment, but if something were to go in there, I would have to dig out a flashlight of some sorts.

As you can suspect, it does get a little cumbersome getting things in and out of the main compartment. It's not made to be zipped with one hand, and with the zipper still not 100% where I want it to be, it's slightly difficult. That can be solved easily by keeping the most reached for things like my phone, and maybe even cards in the front pocket.

I'm probably going to show you what I keep in the purse later this week, or even next week. I really (to the umpteenth power) love this purse. It's comfortable to carry on my shoulder, looks great, and holds my favorite things. Plus it just fuels my Kate Spade obsession. Eek, I need an intervention. Stat!