fab find: vera bradley shopper tote

The spring catalogs are stuffing my mailbox. In them, they bring promises of sunny days, warmer temperatures and sandals.

Warmer Weather = Farmer's Markets. One of our favorite weekend family excursions.

Yes!

Don't you just love this folkloric shopper tote from Vera Bradley? It debuts February 17th in Vera Bradley stores nationwide, and online. Strong. Durable. Looks a heckuva lot more fashionable than the grocery store branded variety.

I know. I really shouldn't care what my reusable bags look like.

And yet I do...

Stylish, convenient for the mom-on-the-go, and good for the environment? I'm all about it.

Here are a few facts about why you should consider nabbing a few reusable shopping bags, courtesy of Reuseit.com:

• 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year, worldwide.
• About 1 million plastic bags are used every minute.
• A single plastic bag can take up to 1,000 years to degrade.
• More than 3.5 million tons of plastic bags, sacks and wraps were discarded in 2008.
• Only 1 in 200 plastic bags in the UK are recycled (BBC).
• The U.S. goes through 100 billion single-use plastic bags. This costs retailers about $4 billion a year.
• Plastic bags are the second-most common type of ocean refuse, after cigarette butts (2008)
• Plastic bags remain toxic even after they break down.
• Every square mile of ocean has about 46,000 pieces of plastic floating in it.

What are some of your favorite reusable bags?