And the Artist was Happy...

And so was my friend Maura -- She was the winner of the purse and bought it for $275! Maura was also the one who invited me to participate -- she's been on my blog before -- incredible Iron-Man-athlete-mother-of-five, humanitarian, and very very good friend...


And here is me talking with Pearl. Pearl fell in love with the purse, with all of its details and the little cards --


And the beautiful lady to the right is my swimming friend Natalie (she's been on the blog too since we swam Alcatraz together) -- she has that funny look on her face because Maura (who wanted the purse) is taking the picture...and Natalie was there to watch the table and drum up the price...and to protect Maura's interest. So Natalie is keeping tabs on Pearl's bid so she can report back to Maura... And my sister came too to support the event but I didn't get a picture of her *frown.

Anyway, imagine our delight when the bidding closed and Maura had won!

But the only problem with one person winning is that somebody has to lose. So, unbeknownst to me, while I was celebrating with Maura and Natalie, Pearl was very sad.

Pearl had bid $250 and lost.

So, Pearl and I agreed that if she were to donate $250 to the Women's Giving Circle, I would make her another Giving Purse...


And then Pearl was happy. And Pearl wanted to make sure that The Giving Purse II would still have the little cards included...

And I said, "Of course. It wouldn't be The Giving Purse without them." And now I'm off to find out more about Pearl and how I might make her purse unique.

And to all of you, I hope you'll take this card, print it out and fold it and pass it on.


As a sign of my thanks to you for all of your enthusiastic comments. I enjoyed each and every one. And for those asking how you could bid, I did check into that but they did not have an online auction option this year.

I didn't take many pictures but I thought I'd show you a few of the other purses...This one is made by a wonderful woman named Karen Geary. It's a bra...a big bra...and you're staring at one cup of the bra.


The two women who bought this had gotten it for their friend who was recently diagnosed with breast cancer.

And this bag was knitted with wire by glass artist, Bonnie Granek.


And this one was a ceramic purse (actually there were two in different colorways) made by artist Rebecca Bafford...


The whole idea of the Power of the Purse was great and I loved meeting the other artists and the women who attended the event.

So, I'll leave you with this last contribution by artist Trudy Babchak...


The donated artwork raised close to $2,500 for the Women's Giving Circle of Howard County. It's amazing what women can do when they get together.