Bento Challenge

A few weeks ago The Boy and I were "ooooh" and "aaahh"-ing over the gazillions of seriously cute and impressive Japanese inspired Bento lunch boxes on Flickr.

 Woot!Team Awesome

Tokyo Bunnie

Our Entropy

Oneinchpunch

I soon became quite smitten with the idea of trying some out - however this idea was quickly dismissed due to the fact that I am rather completely incapable of getting out of bed any more than 30 minutes before I need to be out the door and on my way to work.  I do love my bed and the 5-10 minutes extra 'snooze' time is so delicious, right? But I am sometimes stressed out and rush around like a headless chook in those wee hours of the morning, resulting in breakfast getting eaten (and sometimes spilled) in the car.

I would like a reason to get up earlier in the morning - just to see what it feels like! So ... I have set myself a challenge, a Bento Challenge, much to The Boy's delight (you see it's unheard of that I make his lunch, I am a terrible housewife I know!), and will be blogging my daily creations.

Bento Challenge Rules (I love rules!)

1) Create a Bento lunch for The Boy and myself for 10 working days
2) Wake up at 6:30am (I normally arise at 7). This should give me ~30 minutes of prep/cooking time. I think it will be enough, depending on the difficulty of the lunch.
3) Each Bento lunch must have some cute factor, and no I will not be attempting to re-create Yoshi up there
4) Begin Mon 9th and end Fri 20th August

I'm giving myself a week to get prepared as I have a monster list of ingredients to collect, some special Bento making equipment to purchase, a book to buy from Borders tomorrow, pluuuus I sorta need to learn how to cook sticky Japanese short grain rice. crap.

I might add that the whole early morning thing might quash my present high hopes of this challenge working at all ... I will however try super hard to prevent a situation from occurring where The Boy ends up with a Vegemite sandwich wrapped in Glad Wrap with a smiley faced rabbit written on top with a Sharpie. 


I' will be posting my finds during the week :)


ps: If you have made Bento before I would love any suggestions or recipes.

haken = crochet in Dutch

It's the only craft I have been motivated to do in the past week. Nothing more....well.... besides watch endless episodes of the Gilmore Girls that is ;)

The Boy's blanket is coming along well... it's about two thirds finished.

Lucy cat is a tremendous assistant.

I have been baking up a storm - including creme brulee (sadly the custard didn't set, but I will have a second attempt), chicken soup, butterfly cakes and mini Pavlova meringues (which turned out spectacularly).

x Enjoy the weekend!

mail happiness

This week two lovely things have arrived in our letterbox. Why is it that snail mail is so much more fabulous compared w. email?!

A few weeks ago I pulled a bit of secret squirrel power from within and sent Cam and Liz some of my great-nana's lino. I was super happy that they adored the goodies I posted... but imagine my face as I opened a mini surprise package to find this owl brooch - made from the very lino I gave Liz! In particular I adore the glossy beak :)

Vintage sheets from Ange's sheet swap, in an array of pastally goodness has made me completely motivated to get a start on a new quilt. Thank you Ange - you deserve a high 5! You should pop over and see the plethora of vintage sheets on her floor ready to be swapped and posted - I still cannot comprehend how she managed not to return the same sheets to swappers? impressive. 

pattern

ello watercolours - I like you.... a lot.

I have been playing with patterns on thirsty watercolour paper during the chilly nights.

It's as though I have become completely entranced by patterns - spots, lines, circles, ovals, hounds-tooth, herringbone, raindrops, bricks, spirals... you name it I'm loving it.

I especially love these floaty triangles.

.

this afternoon's double rainbow + sunlight hitting golden jacaranda = stunning!

holiday capers cont.

Celebrating 28th yrs of life with a yummy mud cake made by the Boy - so special and scrumptious! Big hugs to family and friends for their love x

Folding and sorting blankets on the rails of our blanket stand, which has certainly been getting a work out this Winter. 

Being given my first bouquet of kale - awesome!

Inspired by the talented Dawn of handmadelove, Hanna and I spent hours painting all of the foods we have eaten over the past week. It was fun, although it proved an astounding numbers of cuppa's are being consumed daily. Is 5 to 7 cups a day ridiculous?  Perhaps decaf should be bought from now on....

Discovering how delightful Windsor & Newton blank indian ink is when used with a steel quill. Heaven.

School holidays are soon over and my head is flooded with maths lesson ideas, homework contracts, phonics and finally some knitting classes (something I have wanted to do with my Yr 5/6s all year). As it happens I can't knit well at all, most of the kids in my class can... so I guess they will be teaching me lol

My Creative Space

Loving yellow.

Stitching red birds on a navy skirt.

See more at over here

holiday capers

Spending time with good friends along the Murray River.

Falling in love with gorgeous handmade quilts at a friend's shack. Lauren's nana - your amazing!

Noticing things.

Being in awe of the sweetness and cleverness of kelpies at a friend's sheep and cattle farm.

Cuddling up to noisy (!) bossy lambs.

Spending nights and spare moments crocheting the Boy's 'man-sized' blanket. I'm trying out a crochet-together-as-you-go method which is going well but its getting tricky to turn all that heaviness.

Hoping your enjoying the Winter and keeping warm x

hooping it up

That sounds like some nasty coughing disaster... but I promise it's not. I have been meaning to share the way in which I store my brooches and earrings for about 6 months now. I can't recall exactly where online I saw someone using embroidery hoops for this purpose, sorry....

I was fed up with loosing my brooches to the black hole located behind the tall boy and rummaging through my jewelery box drawers to find matching earring soul-mates. These were stupidly easy to whip-up and I do use them daily - better yet you can use napkins or any fabric, and change them when you get bored!

Flea Market Finds

School holidays have arrived! Let's just say that no one loves an 11 week term.

Yesterday I placed my lineny purchases on the dining room table, and within 10 minutes Lucy had discovered them - she is one clever kitty.

I am picturing the lovely peachy-pink woolen blanket as the back of a vintage sheet quilt - instead of the typical quilt batting and backing sheet option. Have you ever made a quilt in this manner? Can it be done?

I also snaffled this pretty mustard colour linen - I am love with those three tiny crochet flowers.

... and hello $1 slice, biscuit, cake tray!

See more finds over at Sopie's :)