Some things never change

Jamie and I are taking a parent-child class at the local Waldorf school. Lots of other parents I know spoke pretty highly of the teacher, and the general vibe of the classes is appealing - mellow, quiet, windows open, pollen blowing into the classroom.*

I digress. Jamie likes the table of little wooden animals, seems to get along fine with the other kids, and was absolutely blown away when the teacher handed him a broom! And asked him to sweep! As his grandmother said when she visited over Mother's Day weekend, "Jamie likes putting things away! I can't imagine where he got that from."

And then I tried to kill her with a teaspoon.**

One of the things that happens in class is, the kids get to play and the parents get to make crafts. I'm not kidding! It's so great! Our first project was sewing felt pouches for the Acorn Shop at the annual MayFair. *** The teacher handed out pre-cut pieces of felt, and all we had to do was decorate them with flowers and business and then stitch them together. We got bits of taken-apart silk flowers, and a big bag of embroidery floss and a bag of felt scraps to rummage through. So I did a couple like everyone else, and then I started remembering some of the embroidery stitches I thought I had forgotten about, and put a few daisies on one piece of felt, and then found another piece I could applique, and then ... you know how it is when you really get into something and you're just sitting there in your own little world with a big pile of new-to-you craft stuff, and you get cranking along ... and then someone notices what you're doing and makes a big fuss, and you get all sheepish and sort of wish you weren't there?

Yeah.

I seem to be the class embroidery prodigy. Which is funny, because there is not a lot of embroidery going on in my life.

At the end of the class, the teacher said to me, "Would you like to take some materials home to work on during the week?" and I thought, "Uh, no, because I have lots of other handwork projects I would prefer to work on," but I do try to be a good team player, so I took stuff home for two pouches. In the privacy of my own home, I raided my small stash of embroidery floss and buttons and made these.

And I don't care that they don't look like anyone else's.

* Something about this spring has been driving me crazy, pollen-wise, and I don't really get hay fever. I hate to imagine what it's been like for people who do get seasonal allergies. I was standing in the classroom the other day, the wind shifted, and suddenly, I was sneezing like crazy, my eyes all itchy and watering. Astounding.

** It was one of those things people say that can get taken either way. At first, I thought, oh, ha ha, very funny, and then about two days later, I thought, wait a minute! I spent every spare minute of my time for four days cleaning the stupid house before she visited ... and next thing you know, the Fool is talking me down from a pretty big tree.

*** It's really not worth explaining. Just take the whole sentence at face value.