Just a Note about Vera Bradley

I just wanted to say that I am thrilled that you are all so excited about the VB give-away. I figure if I have had them stashed for 2 years - it's time to get rid of them. I didn't know what type of response I would get since they are just small pieces and retired items at that.

How do I happen to have "extra" Vera? The only reason that I have so much VB is that my daughter lives in Fort Wayne, IN and hits the annual outlet sales. We get pieces for about 20-25% of msrp that way. You don't get a lot of pattern or style choice but as long as you are not set on getting a specific item, it can be a lot of fun. I've managed to get "sets" of almost all of my patterns - a purse, wallet and cosmetic. And, I have one pattern that I probably have 15 pieces of - it's my travel set so I have all sorts of different pieces to vary depending on the situation.

In case you think you might ever want to go to the outlet sale, here's a little more info:

The year I went to the sale, the doors opened at 8 and we sat outside in 30 degree weather from about 2:30 until 7 when they finally let us into the lobby. It is insane but the building has a capacity and once they hit that number, no one else can go in until some leave. And, obviously, the first people in get the best selection of merchandise.

It works best to go as a group so you can divide and conquer. I went with both of my girls so we each took a third of the sales floor. When you go in, you get a large plastic bag (think garbage bag) - you walk up and down the aisles and grab ANYTHING you even remotely think you might want. Then you go to sorting areas and look through your stuff and toss what you don't want into large boxes. The staff restocks those items to the tables. Compare notes with the other people in your group and then one person holds everything and you run around again looking for anything you might have missed. They bring out more stuff as tables empty so its always good to hang around for a little bit. I bought about 15 extra pieces that were exceptional bargains - used a bunch of them for birthday gifts and such for co-workers and friends. (the ones I'm giving away are the last of that bunch)

It made for a good girls day out for the 3 of us - with the girls grown and Jenn living in Indiana, we don't get many of those. Maybe we'll do it again in a year or two if they are still having the sales by then.

I have a free VB svg file available here.

I'll leave you with this layout I did of my daughter's first VB sale from 2008.