meaningful artwork in our home

In February, Theo's teacher shared the picture below with the caption "Working on the class project" in the school's private Facebook group's newsfeed.  I'm always pleasantly surprised to see Theo's little face pop up in my newsfeed, but this picture is especially cute to me because I love what he is doing. 

His class began working on this in January. Each day when I pick Theo up, he leads me through his Montessori classroom, past the class project ("the globe in sequins"), to show me something he worked on that day. I've been admiring the progression of this neat project for over three months.  Each individual sequin glued on, one by one.  Theo and his classmates collectively have spent countless hours working on this beautiful art project.

Last week, it was announced that this piece of artwork would be up for bid in a silent auction at the school's International Fair.  I immediately looked up that picture of Theo working on the globes.  I forwarded the picture of Theo as well as a photo of the completed, framed piece to my husband, mom, and sister asking "how much is too much?" and "am I crazy for wanting this so bad?"

I have never bid on anything that I cared so much about. I didn't realize that "silent auction" means you write your name and a price on a piece of paper and everyone can see your offer. I thought we just wrote down a price privately and whoever had the highest offer would win. WRONG! It was a little intense and I felt a nervous adrenaline as the end of the auction drew near.  Me and two other people were bidding for the piece.  Part of me felt terribly guilty as I could only assume these other bidders wanted it just as badly as I did.

We bid with just a minute or two remaining and no one else snuck in with another bid. We won. I tried to act cool as a cucumber but inside I was saying Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I felt immense relief and guilt at the same time. More than anything, I'm glad to now have this meaningful, beautiful piece of artwork (that my son helped create) to enjoy in our home for years to come!

I'm in love with it. Just disregard the mess.

One of a kind masterpiece.  :) 

Theo asked to hang it in his room but I had to say, "Sorry, Charlie...this belongs to the whole family." I told Ryan I'm all set for Mother's Day this year. No need to shop.

Have you ever had an intense bidding war in person? What did you win? So nerve-wracking!

xo,
~C~