Gifts Galore

What to do when you need to give to everyone.

With four kids in school this year we are going to need a lot of gifts. Each kid has at least two teachers, a few specialist teachers, then there’s one intern teacher, and the bus driver (who lives down the road). And if I’m feeling optimistic the secretary, nurse, and principal. And let’s not forget our favorite custodian (she lives on our street too), the librarian, and our mailman. That’s all before we get into the kids’ friends and their birthdays.

At the end of summer a cat showed up and decided to adopt us. He’s grey and white, quite friendly, and knows when to run away from the toddlers. The kids were disappointed when I said he was not coming into the house. So we found this cute pattern and everyone got a stuffed cat for consolation. It worked out great and everyone was happy. Then I stumbled upon a bag of potpourri at the church yard sale. It was just meant to be.

For all of the kids’ friends I’m making small toys and key chains with the 3D printer, but I usually put a little more effort into the teachers gifts. I don’t know if anyone uses sachets anymore, but they do smell nice. This was supposed to be a sweet peach scent, but it just has more of a generic craft store smell. I love it.

I made these cats a little bigger than the patterns, and I think that works well. Today’s sewing buddy loves to help, his favorite things to do are push the reverse button on my sewing machine and to take the spool of thread off—both while I’m sewing. I kept him busy by telling him the finished cats needed hugs before they went into the gift box. He took his job very seriously.

I got five cats done in one afternoon, and I have enough potpourri left for two more, I think. We’re planning on making and giving those two to the grandmothers.