I am so glad for you; first that you found it, and second, that someone was honest/kind enough to turn it in. Isn't it wonderful and strange what thoughts of Spring can do to one? Within the last two weeks, we cancelled our credit card, b/c I've put it away so carefully--I haven't been able to find it! I'm sure that sooner or later, it will turn up, but we didn't want to take the chance that I may really have lost it! Again, it's great that you found your purse.

Wanda, These are great! We own a small store- would you be interested in selling me a couple or so (depending upon their price) to sell in our shop? I am always on the lookout for unique, hand-crafted (but not too pricey) items. My favorite one is the red and black one! Susan

your grandson will love those! Very cute!

Ah, well - it's only ridiculous because you can make it yourself - possibly even out of the stash you have at home. If the shop is selling them for $160-$200, let's work out where the $$ are going... Usual markup for retail is 2.5 times, so the store bought it from the knitter for around $64-$80. Artists' rule of thumb is to mark up materials by 3, so materials could have cost around $21-27. If the ribbon was actual silk, and the beads swarovski, then that could be about right. Depends on whether they got wholesale or not. Or used Michael's coupons or whatever. Plus you'd want to count something for shopping time. And either gas or shipping to get materials. That leaves $43-$53 for the actual labor. If it takes an afternoon to do one, say 4 hours, then the artist gets $10.75 - $13.25 per hour for their work. (And delivery to the shop is free, with no allowance to pay for parking, gas or time required to get there.) Of course, that $10.75 - $13.25 per hour is gross, so take out 25% for taxes and the artist's take home is $8.06-$9.94 per hour. Where I live that ain't raising-a-family-with-a-mortgage money. As consumers, we just get used to seeing Asian labor prices on everything. Unique handmade designs are expensive. We knitters are lucky that we can DIY.