Congratulations to our first contest winner, Peggy D.! She won a wonderful box of Vera Bradley bags, including a Vera and a Medium Cosmetic bag in Bali Gold, a Hipster in Cupcakes Green, and a Handbag in Mediterranean Blue! I had so much fun shopping for these lovely bags at the store, but I was sad to see that the most popular colors and styles really disappear fast! I guess I’ll need to do my shopping for the next drawing earlier.

Speaking of the next contest, I’d really like your help in deciding what the prize should be. Unfortunately, Vera Bradley does not offer gift certificates on their site…what is that about?? And honestly, their website is in dire need of a redesign! Nonetheless, Ebags & Ebay both offer gift certificates for Vera merchandise. Or, we could have another poll for some of our favorite styles/colors to get an idea of some of your favorites before I go shopping. Or perhaps everyone really likes to be surprised? I am open to ideas on this, so please share!

The next drawing will be held in July, so please sign up for my newsletter if you haven’t already!

As requested, I’m adding some additional info about the Vera Bradley Outlet sale this year in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The sale will be open to the public on Thursday, April 30 through Sunday, May 3, 2009 at the Memorial Coliseum. The official first day of the sale, April 29, will be reserved for the Friends of the Foundation only. For directions to the Memorial Coliseum, click here.

The savings at the sale range from 40-75% off retail prices, and the new pre-registration requirement will hopefully limit the number of resellers buying up all the good stuff early, so be sure to bring your ID to this event. The only forms of payment that will be accepted are checks, cash, Visa & Mastercard, so be prepared for that, too!

Although they do have several new patterns, most of the sale stuff will be retired or soon-to-be retiring patterns & styles. For the best selection, you should definitely go the first day since everything gets picked over pretty quickly. However, the prices will be highest on the first day and then slowly go down as the weekend progresses. The last day of the sale definitely has the best deals since everything that is left over has been drastically reduced by then.

I’m going to have to miss the sale this year since my twins are still too young, but if you’re planning on attending, I hope you have a great time and let me know what you got!

Just a quick poll to get an idea of everyone’s feelings about the new Vera Bradley patterns that are part of the new Summer 2009 announcement. Vote now and share your favorites with everyone else!

Well, I’ve had this poll up for a while now and it appears that Purple Punch is definitely the most popular new spring pattern. So, I’m curious, have any of you changed your mind about this style since you voted? I’m asking because I purchased a PP Hipster a couple of months ago and I actually got a little tired of this pattern after wearing it a while….I still love the purple color, but with the black background it just seems too dark for most of the outfits I wear. I prefer to wear my Hope Garden Hipster instead. So, I decided to pack the Purple Punch bag away in my closet until cooler weather returns and I need to brighten up my fall wardrobe!

Speaking of polls, I will soon be posting a new poll to decide your favorite new and updated styles for spring. I’d also love to get your feedback on any new styles that you currently own (or would like to own) and how you feel about the bag and whether it holds everything you need. I really adore the new Gabby style, but since funds are tight right now, I really need to hear your comments before I purchase this bag. I’m sure there are lots of us out there who feel the same way about some of the newer VB styles. So, good or bad, feedback is greatly appreciated!

I’m curious to know how many of you prefer the black or espresso microfiber styles over, or in addition to, the cotton ones?

I’ve always preferred to carry the microfiber bags to work and to more formal affairs. The chic microfiber styles go well with both my work clothes and with my white skirts and khaki pants that I wear in the spring. I just saw the new microfiber bags in my local retail store and I have to admit that I was really struck by the distinguished look of the blue and black contrasting threads. The blue stitching gives the bags more character and it looks like it would match my blue jeans!

My all-time favorite microfiber style is the Pleated Tote due to its larger size, but it doesn’t appear to be available in the updated contrasting stitching yet. The largest microfiber bag that my retail store had was the Oh Baby bag and although it’s actually bigger than the cotton version, it still seemed rather small for all that I need to carry.

As for wallets, it’s really fun to match them to the bag, but it saves me a lot more money when I can use the same wallet for all my bags. I think a nice microfiber wallet coordinates nicely with any of the colorful cotton VB handbags. On the other hand, a colorful cotton wallet can add some pizzazz to the standard microfiber style bags, too! I prefer to carry a microfiber wallet, so I’m hoping that VB will offer even more wallet selections in the future.

So, with the economy woes constantly weighing on me, plus the fact that the flu has taken out my entire family…with a large family like ours, when one person gets sick it takes weeks to recover since we go down like dominoes – one person every couple of days …I’ve decided to try to uplift my spirits by writing about why I love Vera bags so much. I’d love to hear from you about why you love Vera Bradley, too, so please help me feel better by sharing your comments with me!

Personally, I like having a unique handbag and I really love the fact that I can buy a Vera bag in a particular style and color that fits my mood, and even though I see Vera bags everywhere I go, I know that I’ll rarely run into anyone who has the exact same bag as me. I just love to go shopping in the springtime when all the dresses and purses are so full of vibrant colors – it really makes me feel good to buy a new floral-print dress and a new Vera bag to go along with it. And the prices are reasonable enough that I can afford to buy a couple of Vera bags and not feel too guilty about it! Speaking of that, I’ll be really glad when I finally get my tax refund later this month!

Vera Bradley just announced that they’re making a few changes to their annual spring outlet sale this year, most likely in an attempt to curb the reselling of their products. In the past, shoppers were able to purchase up to $2,500 in goods every day of the sale. Now, shoppers will only be allowed to purchase $2,500 during the entire sale event and the total number of sale days has been extended by one additional day to 5 total days. Participants will need to register either online (beginning in mid-March) or on-site, pay $5 and show their ID in order to purchase anything. If we register early, VB will provide coupons and promo offers for the event.

There also won’t be a first day, employee-only purchasing event as they’ve had in the past, so the bags that are offered on the first day of the sale won’t have been picked over already. From my experience of the outlet sale, the first day or two offers the best selection, but the last couple of days offer the best prices on whatever is still available at that point. So, hopefully these new rules will be enforced and they’ll provide all of us with the chance of getting the best deals on our favorite bags/colors without having to compete with the resellers for once! Are any of you planning on attending the outlet sale this spring in Fort Wayne, IN?

Vera Bradley unveils new patterns every season and retires some of the previous ones. Most Vera Bradley patterns are retired within two years and many styles are either updated periodically or retired completely. Vera Bradley offers discounts throughout the year on many of their retiring patterns and styles.

The latest retiring patterns include Mesa Red, Pink Elephants, Botanica, Capri Blue and Riviera Blue. Several styles including the hipster, wristlet, lunch bag, backpack, garment bag and baby bag have been redesigned and many other styles such as the Lindsay, Lola, and Toggle Tote have been phased-out of production.

Rare and retired styles are often very hard to locate once they sell out in the stores. Try here:

Vera Bradley Rare Handbags

Vera Bradley Retired Handbags

There has been some discussion about Vera Bradley using Chinese production.

I am equally appalled at the “Made in China” tags that most VB bags seem to carry nowadays. I avoid all toys that are manufactured in China due to both safety and quality issues. Vera Bradley had announced a year ago that they’d chosen to outsource to China due to their inability to keep up with increased demand of their products. I assume that’s just a bunch of PR nonsense since it was probably more an issue of trying to increase their profit margins.

However, I am hopeful that we are starting to turn a corner with regard to demanding the quality construction that goes into a product that’s manufactured here in the USA.

It’s possible that VB may have started to see the effects of the poor quality that is being churned out of China. In one of my earlier posts, I referenced a news article that said VB planned to open a new manufacturing plant in Fort Wayne, IN so that they could bring more production “in house” and have more control over their product’s quality. I know I would be much happier if VB decided to bring all of their production back to the USA.

To their credit, I have heard mostly positive stories about VB standing behind their products. If your bag has a defect, even if it’s a style/color that’s been retired, I would certainly contact VB to see what can be done about it. They’ll most likely tell you to take it to the nearest retailer to see if it’s a manufacturing defect. Most retailers will allow you to exchange the bag or they’ll take your defective bag and have VB mail you a new one directly. This may not always happen, but it’s happened enough that I would certainly give it a try.

Barbara Bradley Baekgaard and Patricia R. Miller co-founded Vera Bradley in 1982. While on vacation, the two friends observed a lack of feminine luggage available for women and then decided to start their own business. The original paisley cotton handbags were so successful that they quickly branched out into designing more colorful handbags, luggage and accessories. They now offer products in silk, tweed and microfiber in addition to their signature cotton collection.

Vera Bradley has debuted in several magazines over the years including Teen, Shape, Redbook, O Magazine and Country Living. Their handbags continue to be popular among women of all ages and they make great gifts for any occasion. Vera Bradley products are not only fashionable, but they’re also durable enough to last a lifetime.

Hope Garden is Vera Bradley’s latest design to support breast cancer research. Ten percent of profits from products purchased in the Hope Garden design will go to breast cancer research projects and the Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer (http://www.verabradley.org).

Vera Bradley has seasonal outlet sales in select locations throughout the United States. The outlet sales are usually announced on the Vera Bradley website and they bring in quite a crowd of shoppers from miles away. The individual purchase limit is usually $2,500 but with such great deals, you can get plenty of Vera Bradley bags, luggage and accessories for anyone on your shopping list.

Valentine’s Day always brings back a rush of memories to me. My husband travels for work, so he’s usually never home for Valentine’s Day unless it falls on a weekend. I gave up on flowers years ago. That ended the year my first-born son caught a virus and I spent the entire day cleaning up puke and holding him, all the while waiting for my flowers to arrive so I could have just one bright spot to my day.

Alas, they never arrived. My husband called to find out where they were and the flower guy said they got so swamped that they didn’t get to deliver all their flowers, so I would have to wait until the day after Valentine’s Day to get mine. I was livid. Since then, I’ve never wanted flowers on Valentine’s Day. Any other time of the year is just fine, though! So my husband has had to change the way he goes about giving me gifts on this holiday. He lets me pick out a Vera Bag (or two!), then he fills one of them with candy, chocolates and a card, and then he hides it somewhere in the house that he thinks I might not look.

I almost have to not think about it to keep from searching and peeking! Then, on Valentine’s Day he tells me where to look and I get to open it. This has always worked out perfect for us, and best of all, I get a beautiful new spring Vera bag every Valentine’s Day. Now, I really look forward to this holiday! What are some of your favorite memories or expectations of Valentine’s Day?

I kept hearing through the grapevine that it was coming…and it did!  I finally got my new Vera Bradley spring catalog in the mail!  I’ve been dragging it around everywhere with me over the last week, drooling over the pages, trying to keep my babies for eating it, and figuring out which new styles I want to get without busting my budget…

I just love the new Purple Punch and Hope Garden patterns – they’re so vibrant and beautiful!  I definitely have to purchase a new Mailbag in Purple Punch and a Let’s Do Lunch in Hope Garden.  The Mailbag seems to be just slightly larger than my Hipster, although the strap is a few inches shorter, and even though it’s more of a hassle, I do prefer the Mailbag’s more secure flap closure as opposed to the zipper top closure on the Hipster.

Oh my!  I just adore the new Audrey bag in Cupcake Green that the little girl is holding in the catalog.  And since my twin girls are about to have a birthday, I just have to get them each an Audrey in different colors - Cupcake Green and Cupcake Pink – because you’re never too young to be a Vera fan!

So far, the best deal I can find on these brand new styles & patterns is on ebay and even their prices are only slightly lower than retail (with free shipping).  But, I can still save over 10 bucks just gauging from the ‘Buy It Now’ prices listed.  Although, the coupon for the free binder clips with a $40 purchase is pretty tempting.

So, what are your favorite spring pieces and/or designs?

Keeping your bag in tip-top condition can be earth-friendly!  I found this great video on YouTube that has awesome recipes for all natural cleaning supplies.  You can use these recipes for many tasks including cleaning your Vera bags…

Save money, save the earth.  Now that’s a green idea I can support in these financially trying times.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Just a quick poll to get an idea of everyone’s feelings about the new Vera Bradley patterns that are part of the new Spring 2009 announcement.  Vote now and share your favorites with everyone else!

Vera Bradley won’t say how much of its sewing is outsourced to China, but they have decided to bring a portion of the work in-house to a new facility located in New Haven, IN.  They claim the move is intended to increase reliability and efficiency of their products, but this also indicates that their profits are skyrocketing.  Personally, I’ve never had any problems with the quality of the signature cotton bags I’ve purchased (even after washing), but I can understand them wanting to have more control over their product.

This move will also allow them to push new designs into production faster.  I am curious as to how they choose which designs actually make it into production.  Do they set up focus groups that allow consumers to choose which patterns they prefer?  Some of the designs I’ve seen were absolutely hideous, but most of the designs are quite colorful and lively.

The question is will they continue this direction with the economic slowdown sure to affect their sales in the coming months?