Vera Bradley Winter 2011 Review - Shopping for Suzani and Floral Nightingale

I never would have dreamed that I would be this busy when I moved to DC! Between work, meeting new people and just daily activities and errands I have been way busier than I thought that I would be. So it has been hard to get into a routine of blogging. I used to prefer to blog in the mornings (probably afternoons by the time East Coasters would read it). But now I get up early because I have to catch a shuttle to the metro to get to work. I get up at 6:30am to make sure I am on time, and getting up earlier just isn’t an option. And my nights are filling with a longer commute than I am used to plus there is so much to do in DC, so it is hard to get home and blog on a consistent basis. My new plan is to blog about 3 times a week…that seems doable! Plus I should be able to up the number of Vera Sightings that I have since I see them everywhere! I just feel like there are more people in general though and people can see me taking my stalker photos…creepy! So I haven’t been taking very many.

Well on to our main subject…Vera Bradley! Last week one of my Vera friends let me know that some of the Vera Bradley signature stores were having their Winter 2011 Preview! I couldn’t believe it, it seemed like they had just previewed the Fall line. So I immediately called the closest store to me to see if they were participating in the preview and sure enough they were! I hoped in the car and drove 30 minutes to Vera Bradley! When I got there the staff was wonderful! I met a couple of women who read the blog (Hi ladies!) and of course they knew what I was there to see, so they showed me where they had the Winter items. I was soooo excited to see them in person. The west coast stores never participated in the previews…not that it would have mattered since the closest one was two and a half hours away!

Each color had its own shelf and were of course beautifully displayed. My first thought was that Rhythm and Blues looked a lot like Blue Rhapsody. And for a split second I thought that they had Plum Petals on display, but when I got closer saw that it was Floral Nightingale. I love purple and I have been waiting for a great purple print, so I was excited to see another purple that I liked. The color that really caught my eye was Suzani. It is the black background with a graphic floral print. I love the colors on it! I bought a small cosmetic in that color to use to store my new GPS in (didn’t need on in San Diego since I grew up there, but man DC and the surrounding area are hard to get around) and it works perfectly! I also picked up a Floral Nightingale small cosmetic for Amber.

Many thanks to the women at the store, they let me take lots of photos, talked to me about what bag might be best for commuting on the metro (going to stick with my pleated tote for now) and even gave me a couple of sugar cookies from the party they had the day before (YUM!). I am really excited to have a Vera Bradley store so close to me and I couldn’t be happier that the women there are so helpful and friendly!

If you live near a VB store give them a call to see if they have the preview items, I believe it goes on for another week. Rumor is that only 8 stores are doing a preview, so hopefully one of them is the store near you! Happy Shopping!

The fronts of the cosmetic bags.

The backs of the cosmetic bags - Amber has a bird on the back of hers!

The inside of Suzani - a little hard to see because the cosmetics are lined on the inside.

Inside of Floral Nightingale.

CLICK HERE to see my post with all 4 Winter 2011 Colors!