mama urchin

Okay folks. I’m going to go the way of Sarah and just put it out there. We were really hoping the doll bed/quilt would go for more than $45 in the One In Ten auction. We’re not being greedy here — remember the money is going to a good cause — it’s just we put a lot of work and nice materials into it and were hoping someone would see the value in that. So go bid on it, and bid on Sarah’s beautiful socks while you’re at it.

UPDATE: If it is the shipping cost that concerns you please know that the $35 is the maximum shipping cost. If you are interested in bidding you can email (mamaurchin AT gmail DOT com) me to find out the actual shipping cost.

Do you know when you make something and there is that awkward moment when you upload the photo and you wait to see if everyone likes it? I mean, you really like it yourself but that just makes you want everyone else to like it all the more. Well, this is one of those moments. This is the Mama and Papa Urchin contribution to Eireann‘s One in Ten auction.

Papa made the bed and I made the quilt — and a mattress you can’t see. Did you guys know Papa was a woodworker? I forget if I told you that before. He made our kitchen table. What he really likes to do is woodturning. The bed is made from mahogany and fiddle-back maple. Here’s a detail shot:

The quilt was made using fabrics from moda’s tiddley winks line, quilting cottons, corduroy, and a few of my favorites — trees, but in cream, and houses — from superbuzzy. Amy‘s scrap x quilt inspired the quilt top. The back is a coordinating turquoise chenille.

A more detailed description and information about the auction can be found at the One in Ten site. The auctions begin on August 19.

EDITED TO ADD: I’ve posted a photo of the doll bed with two softies for scale.

In preparation for our marriage Stefan and I spent some time with the pastor of our church in pre-marital counseling sessions. We talked about things like money, and having children, and communication — all things I think our pastor wanted to make sure we had talked about before we committed our lives to each-other. During one of these sessions we discussed an article by Gary Chapman about how people express and receive expressions of love. Despite my loathing of the self-help genre I purchased the book, The Five Love Languages and read it. The idea is that people prefer to express and receive expressions of love in one, or a combination of, five ways — quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, act of service, and physical touch. Stefan and I laugh because we could not be more different. But I think the beauty of the idea is that if you recognize how your partner operates you are more likely to understand each-other’s loving gestures.

So, last week I wrote that post with a few questions, including what your thoughts were on a serger. My motivation in that question was twofold – first, I was hoping you’d all say You should get one now, you’ll love it, you deserve it and you did not fail; second, I know Papa Urchin reads my blog and if he saw all those comments maybe he could be convinced of the need.

Now let me say I have been searching on craigslist for months for a serger with no luck and I fully intended to find a used or possibly refurbished machine. Then, on Thursday night I was expected at a friend’s house at 7:00 and at 6:45 Stefan was still not home from work. He’s been working late a lot recently and it totally stinks for him but it pretty much stinks for me too. It’s really important to me that we eat dinner together (quality time anyone?) — except Tristan whose stomach is not big enough (despite evidence to the contrary) to wait — so we end up waiting to eat until he’s home. Undoubtedly this leads to a harried evening and late bedtimes for the urchins and urchin parents alike.

Anyway, when he did arrive home he was bearing a heavy box. To be honest, I wasn’t sure at first if it was a serger or a new sewing machine — it turns out it was the former. He was feeling guilty about the late nights — and the complaining to me about the late nights — and so in our house Papa guilt = Mama present. It’s like clockwork. And the super nice thing is I didn’t have to do any of the legwork to figure out what kind to buy. Plus, in typical Papa fashion, Stefan upsold himself into a fancy brand and a semi-fancy model. Turns out the retailer he went to was out of stock of any semi-fancy models so he ended up with a super-fancy model that is currently cooking our dinner as I type. Seriously, I don’t know if I’ll ever figure the whole thing out.

So the point is, Papa probably could have saved a whole lot of money and just been home for dinner on time and folded some laundry (acts of service) but since he wasn’t and he didn’t I can now show you my kids’ clothes inside out without shame and recognize that finished seams are his way of saying I love you.