going once, going twice

Way back in March, the Relief Society turned 168. To celebrate, our ward held a service auction. Everyone brought an item or service to auction, and then completed this form to earn points for bidding. (I compiled this questionnaire from my memory of a similar auction I attended when I lived in Iowa City, plus ideas from here and here. Plus my own madness. (Mostly the last one.) Feel free to use it if you'd like.)

It was a wild night.¹ Sweet Sister Carrero, in her eighties, with more points than anyone, won every item she bid on.

I won a basket full of free ironing. I haven't redeemed it yet, but you'd better believe I'm cramming that basket as full as I can get it. (You know, to make sure there are enough wrinkles to make it worth Fran's time to iron.)

This is what I took:

Two dolls with purses.

In a matching purse.

These dolls belong to Grace, and she would not have approved of me selling them off. So these were just examples; the item up for bid was a custom set, made-to-order.

My friend Sara won, and requested a set in pink for her two little girls.

(With no purses, "cause they'd just get eaten by the dogs.")

But I couldn't just send them off without any accessories at all, so I gave them each a stretchy pink necklace that their owners can also wear as bracelets. (Of course, the dogs might just eat those too. Didn't think of that. Sorry Sara.)

Anyway, back to the red set. I made the purse(s) to match Grace's dolls to save myself time coming up with a sample set, but Grace actually didn't care for the red purse very much. (She is fiercely loyal to her favorite colors: pink and purple.) And that was fine with me, because I kind of wanted it for myself. I'm a little bit in love with the rhinestone trim.

What rhinestone trim, you ask? Well, let me give you a better look:


It's very very sparkly, and would have been very very expensive, if I hadn't swindled it from little old ladies. (There was at least a yard of this stuff in a three-for-a-dollar pile. I KNOW!!!)

But then Sam's school asked for donations for a Chinese auction fundraiser, and I went and volunteered to make something. When it came down to it, though, I ran out of time and motivation. So I decided to donate the purse, because it was already made, and -- let's face it -- there was no way all my junk could fit in that little thing. I mean, where's the key fob?!

And it's time for me to start de-cluttering anyway.

So the purse had to find a new home. But I couldn't send her away alone, could I? So I made this matching head band.

More ruffles. More sparkly trim.

And because Coach wasn't home to stop me (or to try it on himself), I had to see how it would look on a baby. If only I had one nearby.

Oh look! There's one! He won't mind!


And another one. See how sparkly?

Despite Miles' clear attachment to the set, I donated it. It ended up with a 3rd-grade(ish) girl who really seemed excited about it. And I even got an appreciative (apologetic?) look from said girl's grandmother (who had previously snapped at me for asking if I could sit in an empty chair at her table) when the teacher running the auction pointed me out as the maker of the purse.

So that felt good. It also felt good to have the teachers gush and ask about special orders. When one asked what I'd charge for a bag, I foolishly said "fifteen dollars," instead of "two weeks of clean toilets." I'm such an idiot!

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1. At the risk of making my blog read like an undergraduate research paper, I've started adding footnotes to my entries. It's ridiculous, I know, but I just can't get it all in parenthetically. And I figure reader(s?) will indulge me as long as my photos of cute babies outnumber my footnotes.

Anyway, before this footnote needs a footnote of its own, I need to get to the point, which is that the service auction was a raging success, and I am so so so grateful to all the ladies who pitched in. Laney was fast-talking auctioneer; Lizzy tended a fussy (and occasionally stinky) Miles all night; Sara, Rachel, Margaret, Emily, Natalie and Kristie were lifesavers with setup and clean up; Amber handled registration; Kennon and Savannah watched kids; and dozens of other ladies brought treats to share and services to donate. I said thank you to everyone at the time --and really meant it!--but I still can't think of that activity without getting a little verklempt. It went well. And it was all their fault. And I'm so glad. Thank you everyone.