Fire Bundles

Every year I try to make a small handmade something for the many secretaries

we have at our school who help me in countless ways.

They,

 in turn,

 usually get together and make all the teachers baked goods

which I really look forward to since I don't bake.

But it's coming up fast and I still hadn't figured out what I was doing. 

While visiting my grandson on Sunday,

we were trimming his mother's too leggy lavender plants,

and she was going to throw away all the trimmings,

so I asked for them.

The smell is so delicious.

On the drive home I googled how to make Lavender Sachets,

but it turns out the lavender flowers need to be dried out first,

so that's a no go before my deadline.

But then I saw something about Lavender Fire Bundles from fresh lavender, 

so here's hoping they all have fireplaces. 

My students at school 

also enjoyed the smell as I was bundling them up during break time.

They walked in wanting to know what that smell was.

Hee hee

A really nice aside.

My students love the smell of my classroom.

They tell me it's one of the best smelling classrooms on campus.

That makes my heart really happy.

For some it's the earthy clay smell,

for others the steaming pots of eucalyptus when we are eco-dyeing,

for others the smell of fresh paint. 

I have one student, 

senior Marjorie Balaoro,

who upon walking in my door everyday,

heads straight into the kiln room and takes a deep breath

to smell the charcoal remains of the sawdust firings we do in an oil drum I store in there.

Seeing her head into that kiln room puts a smile on my face everyday.

Smells are such powerful memory triggers as Liz from Texas shares with us in her comment below.

One of my favorites that reminds me so much of my mother cooking at the Holidays,

is the aroma when you walk into an Italian Deli.

Sends me right back into my mama's kitchen.