My First Needlepoint, plus a small rant

I'd been having a bit of a stitching slump, and a needlepoint store near me was having a sale on their painted canvases, so I decided to try something new. I ended up enjoying it a lot. :) Here is March North Wind by Pat Thode.



I'm now working on a Pooh stocking in needlepoint. Hard part of that is finding the right colors for pooh.

Today's rant is brought to you by my DD's room mother at school. I got an email last night asking all the parents to chip in $20-25 for a crystal vase as a holiday gift for the teacher. Maybe I'm just behind the times, but I find that a bit excessive. I can afford the $20, but I'm betting at least a few parents in the class really can't afford that much. Especially if you have more than one child needing to buy teacher gifts. My son has four different teachers, 8 if you count specials and gifted teacher. Am I going to be asked to spend that much on each of them? Adds up fast.

I think though, what peeves me the most is being told that this is what's happening, pony up the money, rather than being able to choose a gift myself, or choose not to send a gift. I guess I just don't like other people telling me what to do, LOL.