Those of you who take the time to read my blog posts will know that most days I start out by walking the dog.  The weather is irrelevant – the dog needs to go out, so come rain, hail, sleet or (too rarely) sunshine, I am out walking Poppy first thing.  This morning the walk was a pure pleasure, with a cloudless blue sky and bright sunrise.  I looked up and saw an aeroplane seemingly heading towards the moon, and the song in the blog post title came into my head.

I live slap bang on the west coast of Ireland, and we’re on the flight path for most of northern Europe and beyond to the United States and Canada, so seeing the contrails in the sky is a regular thing.  But to see them so clearly in a cloudless sky is a treat.

And these aeroplanes got me thinking about travelling, and the fact that I have to pack all my bags and my displays up when I got home to prepare for Showcase, which starts on Sunday 22nd January. And then I remembered that people I know who have bought bags had sent me pictures of the bags on their travels recently.

So here we have a large messenger bag in Blue Paisley, alongside a purse in the same fabric, about to head off on its travels.  Apparently the trip closely mirrored several scenes from the film “Planes Trains and Automobiles” in the number of travel variations unexpectedly taken by its owner in order to try to get to her destination. And here’s a Meadow Bag on a trip across the Irish Sea recently, having been on a visit to the UK.

Why am I telling you this?  I suppose because I love to hear from people who have my bags and finding out where they have gone to.  By selling online, I have sent bags and purses all over the world.  My list of states within the US where there is now a Sallyann Bag is growing, with Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Georgia, New York State, Minnesota and Kentucky leading the charts!

The bags have also headed off the Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK to live. The range of destinations the bags have visited on holidays is long and eclectic. Sunny favourites such as the Canary Islands, Spain, Greece, Italy and France top the list, but they have headed further afield to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sweden, Denmark, Hong Kong, Belize, India, Indonesia, Thailand and South Africa.

Please do send me pictures of your bag when you’re away, if you think of it.  I love to see where the bags have got to – I am always amazed how far they get.  The bags are designed to be good travelling companions, but I’m always interested to hear your feedback too, so if you think of a little tweak which might make the bags even better, please let me know, and I’ll see if I can incorporate the improvements into future bags.

For now, my next trip with my own handbags, together with a raft of display bags is to the RDS in Dublin, to Showcase 2017.  I’m hopeful that by exhibiting at Showcase, I will be able to work with shops across Ireland, to increase the number of outlets where my bags are stocked. I appreciate that not all of you want to buy online, and you most certainly don’t all live within easy reach of Chapel Lane Market in Ennis (but do try to visit Chapel Lane Market – it is FAB!), so more outlets around Ireland would be fantastic.  In addition, buyers from across the world also attend  Showcase, so who knows where my bags might end up being stocked in 2017?

And the good news is that Chapel Lane Market will be reopening for 2017 on Saturday 11 February at 10am! If you want to nudge someone in my direction with regards to a Valentine’s Day gift that you’d actually appreciate, let me know what you’d like and I can ensure it will be on the stall on the 11th.

See you after Showcase, when I will report back with all on my adventures in the big smoke, Dublin!