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While polling shows that many are sick of social networking sites, we are still on them! I’ve always been on Facebook and have loved adding Twitter to the mix. With the addition of group pages and fan pages, we had to add both. Our facebook fan page just opened up and is growing steadily. Make sure you join us on all of our social networking ventures; it is another place to hang out and we will have exclusive giveaways for our Facebook and Twitter members!

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Original post by Megs Mahoney Dusil

Ok, you know me, I am pretty honest with you all. If I love a bag, I tell you. If I hate a bag, I tell you. And all of that is true no matter if you agree with me or not. So here is where you can continue to express your opinion… TWEET WITH US! Many of you follow us on our Purse Blog twitter page, but there is another one you should know about and follow.

Our Bag That Style twitter page. And trust me, follow us… it will be worth your while! If you like celeb gossip and style (whether you admit it or not), this is the site for you!

Original post by Shannon Mahoney

We’re not going in any particular order this week. It’s late and order is not my strong suit at this point (that’s right, kids, I write these things the night before so that all the ridiculousness is fresh in my head). I think you have to be feeling at least a little bit addled to truly understand the Real Housewives of New Jersey, though, so really I just do this all for you guys. The theme of this week’s episode was the wretched (well, mostly wretched) children that all of these women have brought forth, so we’ll talk mostly about that, mmkay?

The first thing that sticks out to me…the balding, greasy, be-pinstriped a-hole that lonely, unstable, painful-looking Danielle is “dating” IS NOT 26. I am 23. I date 26-year-olds, and have for years now, I know what they look like. He has not seen 26 in the past decade. Maybe longer. Which is fine, since Danielle is middle-aged, but why in the world would they say that this guy is in his mid-20s when any one with two eyes that can think thoughts is going to realize that he’s not, even after a few adult beverages? And then she asked the guy to sneak in to the restaurant’s bathroom, and I almost threw up the 6 dollars worth of pizza that I had for dinner, and you better bet that if I had, I would be sending Bravo a receipt for it.

And I actually had a moment where I had a wee twinge of sympathy for Danielle. Weird, because she’s mostly loathsome, right? I do have a little grinch heart in there somewhere, I guess. But if you’re married to a guy, and you get divorced, and you get the kids, then you’re entitled to the assets necessary to support those kids. I feel like that’s pretty basic, even if the mother works, or even if the mother is a giant, walking pile of bad ideas like Danielle. A divorce doesn’t mean that the dad gets to stop being a dad to the kids and contributing to at least half of their upbringing, and it looks like he has checked out entirely. And that really sucks, and no one deserves that, because she does seem to give at least half of a crap about her kids. Even if to her, that means encouraging them towards skinniness with obsessive exercising. Hey, it’s working. She’s got nice-looking kids, and they didn’t aggressively misbehave on this episode.

And then whatever sympathy I had for Danielle went flying out the window when she had the most excruciatingly awkward interaction with Dina that I could ever imagine. The fake niceties made even ME uncomfortable, and I was just sitting on my couch in my pajamas, watching from a distance. Danielle had a past rift with Dina over God knows what and is now trying to repair it in hopes of getting into the social good graces of…I have no idea, since these people don’t exactly seem like society matrons. But she doesn’t have a job, so I suppose she has to entertain herself somehow, so now she wants to be Dina’s bestie and tries to do it with heaps of fake flattery and comments on her buhbbies. Dina, to her credit, is totally creeped out and makes a funny ‘Silence of the Lambs’ joke about being in Danielle’s basement and being made to rub lotion on herself. Dina? Quicker on the uptake than she seems at first, just like I said last week.

Another person I had sympathy for is Jacqueline. Jacqueline is PEOPLE. She seems like she has a heart, and a conscience, and thoughts about things other than her hair. She also really, desperately wants to have another baby and her womb isn’t cooperating, and that’s another one of those sorts of things that I wouldn’t want to wish on anyone. And you kind of even feel okay about her teenage daughter, even though her grades are in the toilet, because she goes with her mom for the fertility doctor to be supportive and then dutifully waits in the car as asked, probably because Jacqueline doesn’t want her daughter to see her upset when she gets the bad news from the doc. And, come on, awww. Even if her grades are bad, that’s a good kid, at least in part.

But then even Jacqueline, the least terrible of the housewives thus far, loses a few points by throwing her six-year-old at what might be the most forehead-slappingly extravagant kiddie birthday ever. What are the odds that, in 25 years, any woman is going to be able to make that kid happy? Slim to none, I’d say. I mean, there were ponies.

This party is where the fake-nice debacle between Dina and Danielle goes down, but Dina has slightly (and only slightly) more interesting things up her sleeves, like hiring a twee little teenage boy assistant in what may have been the most awkwardly innuendo-filled job interview I’ve ever seen. I think she realized what she was doing, because I think Dina is smarter than that, but she continued to make insinuations about non-cash payment and still loving her in the morning. I think we all know what kind of personal helper THAT is, ladies. She might as well just call him the pool boy.

Speaking of the Manzos, we also have Caroline. Her family actually seemed kinda normal this episode, and by normal, I mean dysfunctional. At one point, either Caroline or her husband full-on called their daughter stupid (which, granted, she might be), but then seemed to have some reasonable suggestions with what she might do with her life to take advantage of the talents that she has, and how she could then turn that endeavor into her own business, which they think she would be good at running. And isn’t that how everyone’s family is? Kind of undermine-y, but ultimately well-intentioned?

I thought that Caroline’s family’s whole interaction brought up an interesting point about this group of housewives - they’re much less class-conscious than any of the other three seasons, who all seemed to want to be considered socialites very, very badly. These women seem to have no such aspirations for themselves or their children, and aren’t concerned with how stuff like sending a kid to beauty school would “look” to polite society. Or even average, middle-class society, which now expects all of it’s children to go to college and obtain a degree, lest they spend the rest of their lives desolate and embarrassed by their lack of education. These women seem to expect their kids to find their own way, one way or another, and to build success on what they have. And that’s maybe…kind of refreshing?

Why am I thinking positive thoughts about these people? No more drinking for Amanda.

As for Teresa, I’m not even going over her part of this episode. I don’t suffer children well, especially at those ages, and watching her kids run through that store made me claw at my sofa. So she gets the shaft until she puts the kids away, or at least until she doesn’t make me watch them act, for godssakes.

Original post by Amanda Mull

And now for something completely different. It’s kind of a dreary Monday in my neck of the woods, and even if it wasn’t dreary, it’s still Monday, right? As a result, I thought we might do something a little different today and have a special non-handbag post to perk everyone up. So ladies and gentlemen, have you seen Stark Trek yet?

Because if you haven’t, you really, really should. Even if you don’t like science fiction - I personally hate it. And in this case? Doesn’t matter. At all. I couldn’t even tell you what happened during the movie. Why? Because of those two lovely gentlemen right over there. On the right, we have Chris Pine, who plays the brooding, sexy Captain James T. Kirk. On the left, we have Zach Quinto, who plays the half-human, half-Vulcan Spock. And those two, my friends, are why I have no idea what happened in the entire film. Pine is blond, blue-eyed and unreasonably, distractingly gorgeous. Spock is more of a dark, intellectual, thinking-girl’s heartthrob, particularly when he wears the space-aged movie garb. I’m usually one for the dark and quiet men, but I found myself a bit mesmerized by Captain Kirk and his perfect blue eyes. He’s not my type, but he’s so cartoonishly attractive that it doesn’t even matter. So I find myself torn - Kirk or Spock, Spock or Kirk? Megs and Shannon both vote Kirk. Tell us who you’d rather cuddle with in the comments.

Original post by Amanda Mull

I…I just…I don’t know where to start. There’s just too much. It was too good. And just to think, the Real Housewives of New Jersey has only just begun. So we’ll go one by one, I suppose, until we get to know the ladies (broads?) better and get more of a storyline.

We’ll start off where the show started - Teresa. Teresa might be the tannest person on the show (which is quite the…accomplishment?) and may also be the tannest person I’ve ever seen in my entire life. We won’t even talk about the hair line, because I’ve yet to decide if it’s natural or a lace front yet, and if it’s a weave, she needs to find a new weavologist. Her husband is so swollen, oiled-up, and greasy that I felt like I needed to go wash my face after seeing him. She describes him as “juicy,” which is just about as disgusting of a word as I can even imagine to describe his state of being. He owns a “construction business” which they might as well just call a “concrete business” - it smells like a mob front from all the way over here. Teresa watches the three kiddos (two of which are cute, the oldest of which looks like she might be possessed by Satan), pretends she’s not a stage mom, and spends her husband’s juicy money on tacky furniture for their palatially tacky new house. She’s also contemplating spending some of it on new “buhbbies,” which are forthcoming. Can you wait? I can’t. Teresa isn’t part of The Family (I’ll explain in a moment), but she actually does appear to be friends with the rest of the women in real life, unlike a lot of the Real Housewives in other cities. She also makes the best facial expressions of any of the women, by FAR.

Next, Caroline. She’s the matriarch of sorts of The Family - three of this season’s housewives are related. She’s the oldest and toughest of them and she’s got three grown kids with her husband. One is going in to law school and the other two work at the Brownstone banquet hall, which is the family business. My FAVORITE moment of this episode was watching her two grown sons fight over which of them was more of a douche - to which, I think, the only answer is that they are both TREMENDOUSLY douchey. And they both obviously know that. Which is part of the charm of this season so far - these women appear to at least partly understand that they’re ridiculous, and they embrace it. Caroline’s part in this episode was fairly tame, but if the previews are any indication, I am going to be terrified of her by the time we’re done with this.

And then there’s Dina, Caroline’s sister and wedding-reality-show alum. Dina also works at the Brownstone as an event planner since she is married to her sister’s husband’s brother - try to wrap your head around that for a moment. Two sisters, married to two brothers. Dina, I think, is a bit quicker on the uptake than she seems. Which is to say, she seems like a total idiot at first, but I don’t think she is. She has a daughter from a previous marriage that seems to be so spoiled that she will surely make some poor guy totally miserable in a few years, and she also has a feud going with Housewife Danielle, which seems totally reasonable, based on what we know about both of them.

The most interesting information about Dina and Caroline? The brothers that they married are the son of a real Made Man. Their father-in-law, Alberto ‘Tiny’ Manzo, was found shot to death, naked and hogtied, in the trunk of his Lincoln back in the 80s. There are very few times in my life where I get to use the phrase “naked and hogtied,” so just let that one sink in for a second.

And we’ve got Jacqueline, sister-in-law of Dina and Caroline. She’s married to their brother, and has therefore been inducted as part of The Family. She’s the non-native Jerseyan (Jersian? Jerseyite?) of the group, but that doesn’t mean she can’t still fall victim to the terrible hair that the state of New Jersey apparently imparts on all of its residents (or maybe just its residents that star in reality shows). She, like Dina, also has a daughter from a previous marriage and also a son with her current husband. She wants more babies (not to be confused with buhbbies - she already has plenty of those), and apparently can’t have them, which we’ll learn more about as the season goes on. She seems generally good-natured, but I guess most people do after about an hour of airtime.

Lastly, Danielle. Holy crackers, Danielle. She’s friends with Jacqueline and really NOT friends with Dina, which will assuredly be a problem for her in the future. Danielle takes up most of this episode’s mini plot by attempting to meet up with an internet interest named GucciModel with whom she has been having naughty phone conversations for two years. She has no idea what his real name is, and apparently won’t ever know it because he totally stands her up at their date. Jacqueline and Teresa had played detective, though, so they were hiding at the restaurant (with enormous binoculars), ready to swoop in. And they did, although no one knows what they actually did after that. Danielle seems totally and utterly unstable, particularly when it comes to men, which should make for some FANTASTIC television in weeks to come. Also, she has one of the most painful-looking boob jobs (and eye jobs, while we’re at it) that I’ve ever seen. For someone that was formerly married to a multi-millionaire, you’d think she would have invested a couple grand in getting some buhbbies that don’t look like bolted-on grapefruit halves. Seriously. Ouch.

But that’s the moral to the Jersey story, folks: money doesn’t buy taste or decorum. And these ladies - who are actually housewives, unlike a lot of the other seasons - know it. And they love it. They seem a lot more candid and real (in a ridiculous way) than some of the others, and that’s what’s going to keep me coming back week after week. I can’t wait until the real plotlines get going…

Original post by Amanda Mull

You guys, my day was kind of meh yesterday and my hormones are making me a crazy person, but when Megs called me to tell me about this article, it totally turned it around. My love for the Real Housewives of New York is fairly well-documented to those that know me, and my love for Alex and Simon in particular has grown this season. They seem kind of nice and normal, I think, particularly when juxtaposed with megatwit and enemy of all things intelligent and logical Kelly Killoren Bensimon. Plus, I liked their renovation a lot more than I liked Jill’s (they used the same color scheme that I have in my bedroom!), but don’t tell her that, because I’m fairly sure she’d cut me.

Anyway, when asked by NBC New York about the actual, real-life color of Kelly’s ridiculously over-tanned skin (my friend from New Jersey would call her “too tan for February”), Simon responded that it changes every day (which is kind of what we suspected), and also mentioned that the ladies on the Blog and Forum refer to her as Kleather. BAH. You mean girls are famous now! All thanks to our dear friend Simon.

The mean girl in me really hopes that Kelly already knew we called her Kleather, and that if all that Botox allows her to frown, that she did when she heard it. I think my little grinch heart just shrank two sizes.

Article via NBC New York

Original post by Amanda Mull

No need to write much right now, other than tell you about our new website!

Please welcome Bag That Style, a site devoted to celebrity handbag style. Check us out over there and make sure to check back today to hear more about our giveaways!

Original post by Megs Mahoney Dusil

We have been keeping everyone following us on Twitter up to date on our latest endeavor. The Purse Blog Team has been hard at work the past few weeks, getting a new website ready for all of you! We will launch the website today at 12:00 p.m. EST. We will be having giveaways on the site, so make sure you check back on PurseBlog or our Twitter page to find the website address at noon EST.

Also, Purse Forum is down for maintenance right now. Vlad seemed to want to guarantee he would not sleep tonight. So on the eve of our new site launch he is also performing some scheduled maintenance and upgrades on the forum. Sit tight!

Original post by Megs Mahoney Dusil

PB: The question every interviewer probably asks, how did you get started in handbags?
Jackie: I was a lawyer and looking for something to expend my creative energy on. Whenever I went shopping I thought many things could be improved. And I was living in Spain, surrounded by beautiful leathers and soft colorful handbags. I realized that women would love it if we could make their lives beautiful by combining friendly, specialized, personalized service and beautiful products and we started with handbags because I love colorful leather and I there were no independent international handbag companies to speak of, certainly none providing the kind of service that we provide. And here we are, 5 years on.

PB: How did you come up with the name Belen Echandia?
Jackie: Belen Echandia is a Spanish girl’s name and our story began in Spain. I lived there and was inspired to create BE there when I discovered soft leathers, colorful skins and came up with details I knew women would love. I wanted the name to reflect the history of the brand, its roots, its origins and I also felt that it was pretty romantic. Given its length, we often shorten it to BE. And that has turned out to be the perfect abbreviation. BE beautiful, BE stylish, BE independent, BE confident, BE.

PB: When you are designing your handbags, who (what kind of demographic) are you designing for?
Jackie: I am designing for the woman who is stylish, curious, intelligent and independent in spirit; the woman who seeks out well-made, well-designed, items produced in a socially responsible way. I am designing for the woman who has the confidence to know what she wants. There isn’t a particular demographic – these are women of all ages, from all walks of life, with all kinds of adventures and all kinds of stories – although Italian-made bags are relatively expensive, so our customers tend to be relatively affluent.

PB: Handbags are here to stay. Despite the economic status these days, why do you think women will always spend money on handbags?
Jackie: Because a fabulous handbag lifts the spirits and makes everything else look expensive. I also think that women will always love the unique couture service we offer because they get so much choice!

PB: Where do you draw inspiration?
Jackie: I am a very curious person and I find inspiration everywhere. More concrete places include vintage magazines and my friend Jonathan Ward (a former fashion designer from NYC). But mostly bags are inspired by the lifestyles of the women who wear them and created as a work in progress. Drawn, tweaked, refined. It is a time-consuming process.

PB: Which existing handbag designers have you always loved and/or admired? Why?
Jackie: I love the Hermes bags which are still hand-stitched. There is something immaculate and flawless about them.

PB: Working in the UK, do you find it easier or harder to tap into other markets? Why?
Jackie: The internet makes everything easier. London is a great place to be because there are so many entrepreneurial people cheering one another on. And all the best buyers come here. London is a hub of creativity. Customers also love the fact that our bags are made in Europe – I have traveled a lot, and in my honest opinion this is the best, if not the ONLY place handbags should be made.

PB: Why do you insist on making your bags in Europe, specifically Italy?
Jackie: We believe that how you make something is as important as the end result.

One of the main reasons I went to South America in 2007 (on a press trip to write a piece about keeping the artisan tradition alive) was to look at the leather work, because I had heard that Argentineans make great bags.

Whilst in Ecuador and Argentina we looked at some leather goods to see if we could work with some artisans there, but the South American leather work and design we found was frankly too basic for BE. And China…I have nothing against China per-se. But the extent of mass-production required, the stories of burns from poisonous chemicals in leather sofas and handles disintegrating, – it is all too scary even to contemplate. I recently went into a store in Stockholm, one of the “top” brands there. All the tickets said “Designed in Sweden, made in China” Those words just immediately degraded that product for me.
Not only that – Italy has a long tradition of expert leather work. All the best ateliers and tanneries are in Italy. All the best hardware producers are in Italy. They are a dying breed but I am on a mission to keep the ateliers alive. Women don’t realize what they will be missing out on if they disappear completely. Prada has already acknowledged in the Italian media that there are not enough Italian artisans left for them to produce everything in Italy even if they wanted to.

This is also another way we distinguish ourselves – for example virtually no brands available in the US produce everything in Italy any more, if they even produce in Italy at all. They might say they do, but…

PB: Celebs. There is certainly a celeb craze. Do you have a celeb following? If no, do you hope to see a celeb carrying your bag someday? If yes, who are some of the celebs who carry your bags?
Jackie: Claudia Schiffer, Kylie Minogue and Kate Middleton (Prince William’s girlfriend) all carry BE bags. Of course we love it when stylish women wear our bags. But we don’t really mind whether they are celebrities or not.

PB: When it comes to handbag trends, where do you see your handbags going over the next couple seasons?
Jackie: That would be telling! I never like to give away too much in advance but let’s just say there will be some amazing new designs and more of the soft cervo leathers that are becoming so very popular and for AW09 lots of dark jewel colors.

We do also have a few new ranges coming out, but more details at this stage would spoil the fun! Ultimately we have a lot of things happening just now – we are setting out to change the world of online retail as you know it. But that will take years, probably!

PB: You pride yourself on interacting with your customers - what is some of the best feedback you’ve received?
Jackie: Where would I even begin? We get truly amazing feedback every single day. Sometimes it makes me cry. People really appreciate the amount of time we spend with them, the way we interact as a team and the lengths we go to at all hours of the day to assist and support them. The BE kind of service just doesn’t really exist anywhere else on the internet and I am so excited to be a part of what we are creating. It is an amazing feeling to watch all your hard work and ideas become reality!

We don’t always get it right, by the way, but the line between customer and friendship is always blurry for us. The best feedback does not come in words but in actions – the vast majority of our custom is repeat business and that says it all for me.

PB: What are the next steps for BE? What can Purse Blog readers expect/be excited to see?
Jackie: We have just launched BE Couture. Yay finally! BE Couture is a unique service for the luxury fashion industry, allowing customers to order their handbags online. It was originally planned for last summer but it has taken us longer than expected to perfect because we wanted to create a sophisticated system enabling customers to do everything online – place their order, change their minds, choose to have it produced in the future, see whether it has been cut yet, check the production calendar, see bags ordered by others, get together with others to order the same bag.

5 years ago Belen Echandia was the first and remains the only luxury company to offer a made-to-order handbag service on its entire collection of leathers and styles and we are very proud to be finally bringing the service online. It is already a pretty sophisticated system and there is more to come.

PB: How did you come up with the idea for BE Couture?
Jackie: When we started producing handbags in 2004, we offered a bespoke (made-to-order) service. I have a habit of always taking the difficult route in life because I always want to be different. If someone says something isn’t possible, I always want to know why. It was the same with our bespoke service.
I loved the idea of offering a service that didn’t exist at all in the luxury market – since you cannot just walk into a luxury handbag store and say “I love that bag but by the way I want it in this color, with this lining and this hardware. And could you please add me on a messenger strap and change the buckle?” Everyone I spoke to thought I was crazy but I couldn’t understand why this shouldn’t be possible. Or at least, if it was even a remote possibility I was going to make it happen.
I don’t need to tell you that women loved it! The press went crazy and the unique concept really launched BE into the luxury handbag market. This eventually became too time-consuming and too expensive for the Spanish workshop we were working with, but our bags are now produced in Italy and we have reintroduced the service. We have been planning and developing the online platform since January 2008.
It is exciting because 5 years since we began offering it, there are still no other luxury handbag companies offering this service on their entire collection at this price point. Anya Hindmarch has one bag you can put your name on and Mulberry offers one or two styles and a small selection of leathers. Hermes does offer a bespoke service but their made-to-order bags cost a fortune and their waiting lists can span 6 YEARS.
We will be introducing a more expensive range very shortly, because there is demand amongst some of our customers already. And I don’t rule out a cheaper range as well (retaining our quality, our ethics and our Italian production). We want to make everyone’s life beautiful, so we want our world to be accessible to as many women as possible.

PB: How does it work and where can we try it?
Jackie: You can find the service on our website at www.belenechandia.com. I won’t reveal more here so as not to spoil the surprise. The only thing is that we don’t always have the exact combination pictures on our site because we have over a million combinations and would have to render the pictures in Photoshop, which doesn’t look good at all.

Waiting times for our bespoke service is currently between 2 and 6 weeks and we will do our best to keep it that way.

And now a few fun questions:

PB: When you aren’t designing handbags, how do you spend your time?
Jackie: When I am not working, I particularly love working out and spending time with the people I love. I spend so much time at my desk that I try to get out and exercise twice a day, even if just for a walk or a swim. I love going to the movies, reading, running, pilates, traveling for fun (as opposed to work) and learning new things. I am always learning something new. Of course, I also like shopping, but these days I prefer to do it online as much as possible.

PB: It seems like almost every time I talk to you, you are either coming or going. Do you love the traveling lifestyle?
Jackie: Actually no, I don’t love the traveling lifestyle. Yes, I love visiting new places, Yes, I love staying in fabulous hotels, Yes I love different cultures, but I also like my routine – my favorite cafes, my exercise regime and spending time with my friends and my fiancé. And sadly I can’t take those with me when I travel! Although I do take my trainers and I once had my free weights confiscated when trying to board an airplane with them in my cabin bag. My traveling companion thought it was hilarious!

PB: With all the traveling you’ve done, tell us about your favorite trip.
Jackie: The best trip I ever took was a press trip to Ecuador. Ecuador has beautiful scenery, traditional haciendas and amazing food. It is definitely a best-kept secret destination.

PB: What is something you can’t live without?
Jackie: A beautiful handbag of course! Currently I could not live without my black glossy Hug Me. I take it everywhere. As I write this I am sitting on a plane, looking at the snow over Stockholm. The Hug Me is at my feet full of 10kg of my belongings and still looking as great as the day I bought it. I use it as a day bag almost daily with just a wallet, keys and notebook. People must be sick of me harping on about my Black Glossy Hug Me! I promise to get a new favorite soon.

PB: Can you leave us with a final thought about BE, that you would like everyone to know?
Jackie: The BE team is dedicated to delivering a genuinely amazing customer experience and everyone who works with and for us is 100% committed to and passionate about everything we do. We love getting close to our customers and whatever happens we will always retain our old-world values and our small-company heart. Watch this Space!

SHOP BELEN ECHANDIA

Original post by Shannon Mahoney

I think it is fair to say that we are all familiar with the social networking craze. From facebook to twitter, there are countless ways to stay connected and in the loop. Personally, I love it. I love keeping myself up to date with the latest and greatest going on in my friends’ lives. Recently, I’ve had the opportunity to hear about an awesome site dedicated to networking in the fashion world! That’s right, HauteNet is the fastest growing professional network for the fashion and beauty industry. The site connects people working in every segment of the fashion industry.

Here at PurseBlog, we love to bring you different aspects of the fashion world. From designer interviews, handbag reviews and fashion related stories we love keeping you in the loop. If you are looking for other ways to stay involved in the fashion world - especially if you are in the market for a job in the fashion world, head over to HauteNet and get connected - for free! And after you’ve signed up, make sure you check out our weekly posts in the Expert Advice section.

Click here to check out HauteNet!

Original post by Shannon Mahoney