Gifts for the teachers

I once read a brilliant quote that went something like,
“Imagine a society where the salaries of celebrities and teachers were reversed.”
Imagine.

I finished the cherry blossom heart today. It is for Little Flower’s key worker teacher at pre-school, who also happens to be a dear friend of mine. She is from Japan, and I know she misses the annual the Cherry Blossom Festival, when hundreds of cherry trees burst into flower and petals fall to the ground like pink snow.

So I embroidered a tiny tree to remind her of home, in a heart shape so she knows she is loved here, too!

Because I was working without a pattern, I felt almost like a painter as I stitched various shades of thread onto the linen. It was free-flowing creativity on a very small scale. The best, and most liberating, aspect was that any mistake could be simply snipped out!

I drew the trunk on the fabric, then stitched over the line with a single thread, one light brown, one dark. Then I started dotting blossoms here, there and everywhere in three shades of pink.

 

I started with dark fuchsia thread on the left branches, a few large blooms, a few small stitches. I layered the colours, building onto the branches with rosy hues. The lightest pinks came last, highlighting the uppermost part of the tree, with a few miniscule stitches falling here and there as little petals. Oh, it was so fun to make. I am really getting into this...

But what’s that lovely smell wafting from the oven? Tomorrow is the last day of term here, and my kitchen is buzzing!

When faced with the endless array of candles, mugs and lotions on the “Teacher Gifts” shelves of local shops, I decided I’d bake something for Bunny’s teachers when she was in pre-school. She is finishing Year 5 tomorrow and nothing has changed. Mrs Isaac, a chocolate lover, will have a lovely batch of my favourite chocolate cookies tomorrow (sans sugary cream filling), tucked away in this lovely teacher pocket made by my friend Jooles

Pre-school ended last week for Little Flower, so along with my friend’s cherry blossom heart, we gave the rest of the teaching staff cookie bags

Some with cranberry & white chocolate-chunk shortbread

Some with raspberry & dark chocolate-chunk cookies

(They all seem happy that Little Flower has one more year of pre-school left...)

These recipes are from this book, full of very special cookies ideal for gift-giving

I can’t believe another year has passed...my girls are getting older...oh dear, the timer’s gone off – must dash to get those cookies out of the oven!

Thank you teachers, each and every one of you, all around the world. xoxoxo

Chrissie x