Suzanne Calling

One day, while walking from the parking garage to work, the strap on my handbag broke. At that time, in early 2007, I was carrying around various medical supplies along with my usual belongings and could not be without something for very long. Mind you, the stuff wasn't heavy, it was bulky. Instead of pressing on to my store, I detoured to the Crabtree and Evelyn in our shopping plaza to see if there was a Vera Bradley bag that I liked that would not break the bank. It was a rare departure for me, as I usually gravitated towards simple, solid color bags. Stranger still, when we lived in Maryland, most of my neighbors carried them and I thought they looked like someone took Grandma's quilts and turned them into purses and wallets. Well, on this particular day, my visit resulted in me finding a pattern I liked, in a color I liked and at a price I deemed acceptable for a handbag. I went home with a Betsy bag in Bermuda Blue. From top to bottom: Betsy, Hipster and Coin Wallet...

Because over the past couple of months, my friend Meghan kept seeing my Vera bags and slowly went from 'meh' to 'those are kind of cute.' I didn't help matters much when I told her about my collection (pictures to follow soon). I extolled their versatility, durability and washability for months. Then, Vera tortured me by releasing the Metropolitan bag and I spent easily a month trying to locate one in the pattern I wanted, because I needed to use something smaller than my backpack before I did permanent damage to my neck and shoulders. When I got it, she kept saying "Oooooh, preeeeeettttttttyyyyyy." Yep, she's been reeled in. So, yesterday, I hung out with her, showed her one of the shops locally that carries them, then spent some time perusing eBay and the Vera site to give her information about sizing and patterns. Today, she texted me this: Heck, I started with one Betsy bag-she jumped in all the way. I'm happy about this, because she...