Hope Garden Pattern on Ebay Already- breaking news

Well it has been an exciting week for Vera Bradley fans.  They had an award winning float in the Tournament of Roses Parade, in which Hope Garden was debuted for all to see, and the release date for the new Spring patterns for 2009 is very close.  In fact, January 12th is the official date of release of these new patterns, but guess what happened?

Ebay has struck again!    I have discovered a Hope Garden bag available on ebay right now, but this auction will end in a day, so if you are reading this post 2 days after it came out, then you missed it.

How did this person get the purse so early?  Well, according to the seller she won it on a radio station, but the story still sounds fishy to me.. Might just be a jittery Vera Bradley retailer trying to make a quick buck before the official release of the patterns, but either way, it seems the be the real deal, has Vera tags and everything so check it out.

Vera Bradley Purple Punch Has Won the Popular Vote

Find Cheap Purple Punch Purses and Accessories Here:

Last week I wrote a post which had a poll in it for people to vote on their favorite new Vera Bradley pattern for Spring 2009 (which comes out in January).

As of today here are the results:

Cupcakes Pink:  7 votes

Cupcakes Green: 8 votes

Hope Garden: 139 votes

Purple Punch: 231

So it looks like the folks over at Vera Bradley did not exactly hit a homerun with their cupcake line.  But at least the name of the pattern is equally as bad.  I think we as Vera Bradley fans have just come to expect more from the company than those cupcake patterns.  In fact, I would actually rather eat a cupcake right now than have something in those designs.... but I digress.

Both Hope Garden and Purple Punch will be very popular when they come out, as the poll shows.  For a while Hope Garden was neck and neck with Purple Punch, until Purple Punch gave Hope Garden the knockout punch in the 3rd round.

Women will love this winning pattern because it is simple, not overdone, and has an element of elegance that has been lacking in the last few designs.  You will see both sophisticated people and little girls wearing this pattern with pride in 2009.

Although I do like the spring cheeryness of Hope Garden, I kind of figured that Purple Punch would win out in the end.  But hey, just because a pattern is popular does not mean you have to go along with the crowd.  I always suggest finding a pattern that suits you, that fits your personality and then run with it.  There are a few patterns I can think of, that whenever I see those patterns I think of the girls that love to wear them, so after time you can be closely associated with the patterns you wear.

I will often go back to some of the old retired patterns.  Most of the new Vera Bradley fans do not even recognize some of the retired patterns and they will think they are just knock-offs, but I know they are Vera Bradley and I know that some of those discontinued patterns are very rare and not many other women will be wearing them.

You can check out some retired Vera Bradley pattern here.

As always you will updated here as soon as the new patterns are available for purchase.  So far I have just heard that they are expected to come out in January, so any day now.

If you are just too impatient to wait that long you can at least appease your anxiety by checking out our Vera Bradley store here.  As an affiliate of eBay we offer a huge selection of Vera Bradley purses in our store section.  You are buying through a 3rd party in this case but often you can get amazing deals and save a fortune compared to buying Vera Bradley from the mall or other retail shops.

So anyway, Purple Punch is the clear winner and I'm sure it will rack up even more votes as the days go by.  If you have not had a chance to vote yet, check out the post on Vera Bradley Spring 2009 patterns.

Vera Bradley’s Hope Garden Featured in Major Parade

Vera Bradley is going to have a giant 30 foot float in the Tournament of Roses Parade.  The Parade will be held on New Years Day and be held in Pasadena, California.  So if you planned on sleeping in and you are a big Vera Bradley fan than sorry to say you will be missing out.

The name of the float is "Hope Grows" which clearly is to refer to their newest pattern for Spring of 2009 Hope Garden.  If you have not already, check out the new Spring 2009 patterns.  The float should be a beautiful display that will include a garden filled with butterflies, and of course it will have many of the new patterns, especially Hope Garden featured all around the garden.  This 30 foot float should be a very pretty site.

The Hope Garden design is another one of Vera's patterns that benefits breast cancer research.  The company is very committed to using a lot of it's resources to finding a cure and everytime purchases are made from patterns like Pinwheel Pink, some of the money goes towards research.

I think it's rather fitting for Vera Bradley to be in a Tournament of Roses parade, and it's a great oppoturnity to show off a very appropriate new design as well.

I have a poll on the Spring 2009 patterns page and Hope Garden is still a close second to Purple Punch at the time of the writing of this post, so I think it will be a very popular pattern this coming year.