Persona

So hubby recently ran across a flickr photo stream by J Trav, a photographer out of Atlanta. His collection, Persona, offers a wickedly enjoyable voyeuristic look at individuals' most personal of possessions: the contents of their bags.

I love this. It is amazing how much you can learn about a person, just by peering into their bag. I know without a doubt that if you were to look into my purse, you'd know first and foremost that I am a mom. But I wonder what else?

I had to find out. So, here is my own version of Persona. A photographer I am not, so you'll have to bear with me. But let's take a little looksee into my hidden world: unedited, unpadded. Just the real me.

OK, so starting at the top left, right out of the gate we've got my blazing, flashing neon sign : I AM A MOM - indicated by the wipes case, changing pad and diaper. Next to the wipes case are papers giving instructions for the princesses' ballet recital (which was a month ago). A Tide stain stick to go comes next, followed by a stack of important documents like our social security cards, which I grabbed as we ran out the door to take cover from a tornado. I probably shouldn't be carrying those around anymore!

Back to the left are my car keys, a tiny hairbow, a loose key (not sure what that goes to), a Littlest Pet Shop fish, a pair of Pedipeds shoes and a kids twirly straw (Again, there is no doubt I am a mom!).

An assortment of hand moisturizers, a compact mirror, Clinique lipstick and lip gloss from Sephora make up my pitiful personal care collection.

Directly above that is a daily planner that has never been used (oh the irony of that is rich!), and a book that I rarely get to crack open, but it's there just in case!

My wallet (the shiny silver thing) lies next to the book and next to that is just trash. For the record, when I finished taking these pictures, the trash did not go back into my purse! A church bulletin and some bracelets I had to take off because Princess #4 wouldn't leave them alone last Sunday finish off the row.

My terribly outdated sunglasses and a pair of sunglasses for a little one are above my camera, which hubby bought for me for my birthday when I complained about having to haul around our digital SLR all the time. Next to that is a Mother's Day card that I forgot to mail. Sorry about that Nana!

Some loose change ($0.36), baby shower invitations, an Incredible Pizza game card, our passports (again, the tornado) and stamps round out my little world.

Oh, I just realized my iPhone is missing from the pic. It's usually in my purse but Princess #1 had snagged it to play Cooking Dash while I wasn't paying attention.

Clearly, I am not the metropolitan that most of J Trav's subjects are. But it's fun to take a little look anyway. I'm proud of the fact that my possessions in my bag reflect what's most important to me. My kids and family.

So now, it's your turn! Wanna play along? Dump out your bag and take a pic, let us see what's in YOUR world. If you choose to do so, link back to this post and let me know! I can't wait to see!