Wednesday, April 30, 2008

The only super positive thing about living in the middle of nowhere...


Yep. We live an hour away from Fort Wayne.. the headquarters of Vera Bradley handbags. Every May they have a huge outlet sale where they sell their bags, wallets, belts, flip flops and purse dog bags (sadly not kidding) at a discounted price. (And I make fun of the dog bags but I'm pretty sure if I had a purse dog, I would have a Vera purse to house him in. With his own personal water bottle with the Vera bottle cover.) If something is slightly wrong with the bags or they are discontinued they are sold at this massive sale at the convention center.

Two weeks ago I get a call from Liz (sil) asking me if I was interested in going to the sale. I haven't gone to the sale since high school but my love of everything Vera has not wavered at all.

But of course I would love to go!

She told me that she had tried to purchase the $10 tickets to go to the Wednesday and Thursday "preview" sale but they were sold out. She had been to the "public" sale last year on Friday and Saturday and didn't quite enjoy the vulture ladies that grabbed every bag in sight and then retreated to a corner where they eagle eyed every bag to see what was wrong with them. Women would hover over them waiting for their rejected bags. No spanks. She thought it was a long shot to email Darin and Eric's cousin who started working at Vera in December to see if he had extra friends and family tickets. They give a certain amount of Tuesday night "preview" tickets to their employees for their friends and family to go. Um, he had 3 tickets. So yep, we had the pre-preview tickets to the Vera Sale. May God bless you & keep you, Andrew!!

So we get to the Fort Wayne Colosseum and start walking to get to the back of the line. We get there 35 minutes before the doors open and then proceeded to walk for a good 5 minutes (doesn't sound like a long time, but this is 5 minutes of walking with people jammed into a line) we finally get to the end of the line. While standing in line we so conveniently got a "picture of us waiting" so I could show you this poor man...


Pretty sure he's the only man out of 5,000 women waiting in line to get their discounted bags. Well, maybe he's married to a bag that made him come! HA! That was a horrible line.. notice I'm not deleting it because I was kinda proud of the pun. Anywho, I'm sure the dude was hit over the head, drugged and was made to go to the sale. He's just covering up the bruise and drugs well. Maybe he held the bags for his wife as she hurled them at him. That's probably it.

We get through the doors to see this....


Stacks and stacks of Vera. It's Vera heaven. It smelled like Vera. You could swim in Vera. Pretty sure if I went to the bathroom I would have wiped my hiney with Vera. Okay, maybe not but man was the Vera flowing.

And the bad part is that Darin and I are still on a super strict budget. Suck. BUT he okayed a tote to act as my purse and Adie's diaper bag. Came home with a tote for a fabulous $24 in MOD pink. Saved $20 so I feel as though my trip was worth it. (And of course my blog loves a good story.)

Really would have loved to get Adie this super cute mini purse, the "Katie" but....


it was still $15. And going through mommy's purse and emptying it every single day is okay with her. She doesn't need her first Vera at one. But it had green leapord print in the inside.. so hard to put back. =/

So yeah, I know some of you are non-Vera lovers but if you walked into that convention center with Vera stacked on tables for as far as you could see, you may have walked away with your very own purse dog purse. Even though you don't own a purse dog. Promise.


And as I promised, showing you Adie's 1st B-day invites!



My sister and her twins are coming tomorrow for a visit! They will be here for 3 weeks.. I CANNOT wait to see them! I haven't seen my nephews since they were 2 weeks old.

I.

Cannot.

Wait!!!

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13 comments:

Shelly said...

Ok, so I kicked myself all night for not getting a diaper bag and your pics made it worse! Oh well, maybe next year :) Lots of random things spill in the diaper bag anymore. I just didn't know if I could justify a diaper bag that I didn't want to get dirty...

Kat said...

just got myself my first vera, it was an overnight bag thing for my tooth brush, etc. fun fun!!!!
LOVE the first bday invite! so stinkin cute!

island jen said...

oh my...that is vera heaven!!

Andrew and Denise said...

The boys and I are packed and ready. They are practicing the drums now to play for you. Oh, wait they stopped for the "Days" into. Sad, huh? See you tomorrow. Yeah! Tomorrow. glad your internet is working because I am sure I will want to use it!

Unknown said...

YAY for your new Vera!! I love love love Adie's invites, she's too cute!

Amy and Scott said...

That invite is awesome! And, being a lover of ALL handbags myself (yes - I will be that person who has the purse-dog bag soon), I sent Adie a little something for her b-day today. You'll have to wait and see... I think you will like it. She may even let you borrow it. :)

rev said...

yeay for your new bag, they look cool to me (don't have 'm here, but maybe that's for the better :D). and only you could take that fun pic of the guy. he looks very very uncomfortable though.. poor guy.
and look at your princess. time sure does fly sweetie. only 2 weeks and turning one. wow.
xoxo

Unknown said...

yeah!!! your sister is here. whooohoo. Those invites are adorable. So crazy that our children our almost one. wow!! time flys. huh? :) See you tomorrow.

tblevins said...

We love "Vera" too! My mom goes to that sale every year on the first day and always gets TONS of stuff. I went one year and it was crazy madness! (Oh yeah, and my Grampy was dragged along with us and, yes, he was one of the only men there! Hee!) But, I like using the backpacks because I can fit a lot of the boys' things in there instead of dragging around a diaper bag!

Hope you have fun at Adie's b-day party! Love the invites! And, enjoy every minute with your sister and her boys! :)

Take care!

Erin said...

I have a Mod Pink Vera! It's my favorite pattern. That looks so awesome...so wish it was closer!

Susan Weinroth said...

Oh darrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrcy!
this is the BEST POST EVA!!!!
#1 i love adie's invite. SO CUTE. you did a great job.
#2 i didnt know that there were vera dog purses?! ummmmmmmm. NEED ONE for little toby.
#3 im so jealous of the vera sale....
#4 MOD pink is the best pattern!!!!
ok that's all my #s. LOVE your photos from the event. have a blast with your sister!!

Anonymous said...

oh you lucky lucky duck!
i am swooning over the fabrics....yum!

love the invite too - absolutely adorable!

Jill H said...

oh my, i cannot believe a MAN went to that sale...hehehe poor guy :P

LOVE those invites for Adie's party, SUCH cute picture of her!! have an awesome time with your sis and her boys :)