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(Natural Patchwork giveaway winner is...

VIOLET MUNDAY!

email me and I will ship it off to you!)

Dear Melissa,

I always, always struggle to come up with meaningful teacher presents for my kids' teachers. They work so darn hard and get paid so darn little that I feel like I really want to do something spectacular for them when their birthday or the holidays or the end of the year roll around. I don't know if this is that spectacular thing or not, but it's one of my efforts that has now become somewhat of a tradition for me: the book of portraits.

I always do it on the day I teach our little portrait lesson (the main thing we do is to diagram a face on the board so we can talk about human proportion. It is amazing how helpful it is for children to show them how eyes are actually in the middle of that face oval - and that ears are similarly half way down one's head.)

Then I make the teacher be our model. Can you tell that my daughter's teacher loves the Oakland A's? And wears TONS of eye make-up? (kidding about the last thing. this picture is my favorite of the bunch)

They always turn out great, I think. Isn't this one above so Modigliani? Very graceful. While the kids are drawing I creep around the room and ask them on the sly what they think is the most beautiful thing about the teacher. Then I write that thing under their drawing. It is so sweet, what they say. Second graders love, love, love their teachers.

Love,

Lynne