Finally...the Vera Bradley donation basket

After weeks of waiting, the time finally came last Wednesday to gather items for my Vera Bradley donation basket for the annual golf outing benefiting breast cancer research.

I had a dollar amount in mind, and knew that I wanted to put a little bit of everything in the basket, including some logo printed merchandise.

After scouring for just the perfect basket, I decided on this unique chest. It had a faux crocodile finish on the outside, with buckled leather straps and a sturdy brass lock closure. I liked that this one had the cloth straps inside that attached the lid to the base, which enabled me to design this without worrying about where to put the lid or if the lid would fall down onto the other items.

The basket included 2 caramel apples, lots of marshmallows and twenty four 4" pretzels, in addition to two 8" pretzels, a half pound of S'more Pretzel bark, a t-shirt, mug and hat with the logo.

Specially created pink chocolate marshmallows and dark chocolate marshmallows with pink chocolate ribbons drizzled on them were my favorite part. I tied them with pink ribbon too, which really stood out amongst all the browns.

I lined the basket with a rich espresso and maroon diamond pattern fabric instead of any paper filler. I was surprised at how well the colors all went together.

You can click on the photos for a closer look, but it was hard to capture the entire basket in one shot. Hopefully you get the basic feel.

I'm curious to know what it went for at the auction. Just because I put my heart and soul into it, doesn't mean someone felt the same way about it. Either way, it was for charity, and it was worth every penny and every second for me.