An Autumn Nickel Auction Party

To celebrate Fall (and clear out the closets and not spend any money on decor),
my girlfriends and I had a party.
A Nickel Auction.
In our basement cafe' and cinema room.

What is a "Nickel" Auction, you ask?

Well, basically, it is a group of women bidding on another woman's stuff
in increments of 5 cents, until one woman outbids all the other women
to win the one woman's stuff that she is auctioning.

Clear as mud.

It goes like this:

Everyone brings in $5 worth of nickels and 3 items to auction off.
Each person takes turns standing with their items, describing them, and their benefits
to the bidders, as the bidders raise their paddles, the price goes up in increments of a nickel.
When you have sold your own items to the other ladies, you have more $ to buy the other ladies' items.
So, the nicer the item you bring to auction off,
the better chance you have to make more money.
You can either keep your income or re-spend it on the other ladies' items.

We started the late morning party with a brunch I prepared.
(If you should host one of these, you could also ask the ladies to bring a dish to share.)

Fresh fruit.

Quiches.

Yogurt parfaits. Layer in wine glass:

Vanilla yogurt, granola, vanilla yogurt, granola, and top with fresh berries.

Triple berry scones and triple chocolate scones.

The teenagers played a game on the floor
(because they're young and can still get up off the floor easily)

while they waited on the adults to finish their food.

(I apologize for the pictures being so dark, our Cinema Room has no windows.)

Some items up for action:

pictures, a chair, trays, antique gessoed picture frames, eyebrow waxing, clocks,

planters, candlesticks, lamps, greenery, clothing, china, and holiday ware.

A terracotta fish being auctioned.

Bidding. Although we all had auction paddles, Karen liked using her finger instead.
(Rachael, her daughter is next to her, and I'm the one on the right.)

My Miss S (College girl) and her friend (my other daughter, Amber).

Gangstas.

Ann can't decide if she wants to bid or not.

She does, she does want to bid!

(There's that gangsta, again.)

Suzanne auctions off a genuine, authentic, antique reproduction 

of the Declaration of Independence.

Which fetched a fair penny, ahem, nickel.

The teenagers fought over it, believe it or not! 

This is Mary Ann, she is Miss S's roommate at Furman University
(and one of my other "adopted" daughters). 

She is a History Major. 

She is one of the teenagers who fought over the D of I.

My Miss A keeps track of the auction totals for each item in the ledger book.

Chelsey decides how high she'd like to bid on the D of I.

This is Amara. She sees something she likes.

It's this.

An apple pie.

I believe it went for $7.00.

That's a lot of nickels, folks!

Then the clothes came out!

I have a screen that I found at a flea market a few years ago, that we tried things on behind.

It's in the middle of the picture below.

See all the nickels on the table?

(There's a colander, baby formula can, ceramic POPCORN bowl, and a Rubbermaid container.)

Bidding on clothes. 

Sweaters, dresses, jeans, dress pants, shoes. All sold for between 5 cents and a dollar!

My Miss S was the model for some things. Here is a Tommy Hilfiger pale blue sparkly sweater.

Hi, Sandra (she is the artist of the Eiffel tower and table/chairs on my cafe' chalkboard wall)!! 

(I see you creepin', Mary Ann!)

Jenni and Catherine fight over a tray or a chair or something.

Catherine scoots in to get a better look.

HEY!! I'm dressin' here!

Just noticed the crown over my head.

We had loads of fun!

Everyone came with something and everyone left with something.

Here's what I won, for $6.50.

An antique gessoed frame, which is now in our Master Bedroom.

Other pictures from the Cafe' de Sous Sol (Basement Coffee House).

Why sew a banner if you can draw one?

I also drew some frames, and Miss S made the art inside them.

She also wrote a love letter to all of us.

Caffeination Station.

I made the auction paddles from card stock, on which I printed numbers,

traced around a plate and cut out, glittered the edges with copper glitter,

black glittered the numbers, and hot glued to Lowe's paint sitcks.

I pray you are having a glorious Fall, thus far!
Give thanks!