The back story...

April 27, 2011

I started bento-ing, in the sense of a take-away boxed lunch, sometime after Christmas break for my first grade son. After christmas break is when I started sending a packed lunch- and at some point it morphed to bento. Sending lunch was a result of realizing the answer to the question "what did you have for lunch at school today?" was NOT the same as "what did you literally eat out of what they served at school for lunch today" . So the first half of first grade, (and what about kindergarten??) when I thought "what was for lunch today" was a list of what he ate, who knows how much he was eating. The pivotal conversation day? - he'd only eaten the peaches.

It had been a constant, seven year battle to get Mark to eat enough-literally, his whole life. I don't know where my head was that I was thinking he went to school and just started magically started eating all of what they were serving?? So, I had to bite the bullet and make it a priority to send a lunch *ev*er*y*morn*ing* . Bento was a natural attraction and it made it fun for me to pack and appealing for Mark to get more calories/better nutrition than the easier route of school lunch.

I had known of bento for some time, thanks to the wonderful world wide web :D, but more as a curiosity/interest and an art form (seriously, google bento and surf the images!) It wasn't in my realm of considering it as something I'd do on any kind of regular basis. But coinciding with beginning our packed lunch routine (surfing to find an alternative to sandwich idea, probably) I clicked on this blog: anotherlunch.com and it jelled with what I was doing for Mark, and started us on our bento journey.

I did not take any pics until the lunch of April 27, when I'd posted on Facebook that I'd made onigiri for the first time, pictured above. That lunch consisted of jerky bites in a silicon cup heart, cookie dough protein bar cut in half, strawberries with leaf picks, red grapes with panda picks, steamed carrot flowers and the onigiri with fruit leather features, all packed in a Lock & Lock brand square box. He would have had milk or yogurt packed alongside.

The rest of our bento story will be continued...

Ciao! ~Kristin

Is it September...or February?

A little of lunch love for M's bento lunch today...



In the box-, uh, pokeball... rice ball onigiri, beef sausage bites, strawberry... carrots, cheese-filled celery, grape tomatoes, red grapes... greek yogurt with sprinkles.

Grace, ~Kristin

Thank you, Sonoma Bento

Earlier in the summer I won this cool little set from Sonoma Bento's blogiversary... 'twas my first 'real' bento box :) . Above you see its debut.

Mark treats it like an unfolding treasure box- very fun to see. Took me this long to post since the pics were in my camera and not my phone. HA.

Note to self: Refrain from ever again saying 'I never win anything'. Yay!

Ciao! ~Kristin

present - living - be

Something my friend Terra said "Living = enthusiastic response in the positive" in explanation of using it as a one word affirmation has been running through my head ever since.

Scrapped with Rachel Young Designs:
Water Colored Craftiness
So You Think You Can Chevron Paper
Lovely elements
Lovely alphabet (recolored)
With You Elements (clouds, stitching)

extras - CD Muckosky Random Type, Lookie Here, & Painty Fancy Spot.

tfl :)

Grace,
~Kristin

Thinking

"When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me.'" -- Erma Bombeck

Lilypad Blog Hop

A lovely thing is happening this weekend. The Lilypad, digital scrapbooking store extraordinaire, is opening public forums. With chatting and hanging out. Challenges. Galleries. And did I mention chatting and hanging out? Woot!

And to celebrate, we are having a blog hop. You have arrived at the ninth blog stop, mine :)
I have this awesome quickpage to share with you, created by the fabulous and talented Rezika: Thank you Rez!

*Download here*

To continue on to the next blog, Go here: Valorie's!

If you need to start at the beginning (there are a total of 14 blogs, each with a little gift) or want to read about the prize for collecting and using all 14 gifts, visit this blog (Amy M's).

And don't forget to come visit the forums and join our little pad :)

~Peace, Kristin

TGIFriday...

Is there even possibly any other kind of Friday than a TGIFriday? :)
This morning as I was leaving for the office and our youngest son (5 years old) was concurrently waking up, I said to him,
"iiiit's Friday!"
And he replied with "What's that mean?"
"Well. It means, there's no school (for the older siblings) tomorrow. There's no going to the office tomorrow..."
And he says:
"I like the sound of that!"
Oh, so do I :)
Bring on the weekend, and the family time and the home time.

It's new release 'Froggy Friday' at the Lilypad:

Click to view larger and see supply credits.

Ciao! ~Kristin

it's a new week

I'm ready for the optimism that is Spring. image via designgeist.org

Cookbooks

I have collected cookbooks since I was a teenager and cooking in 4-H. (an aside: I had to laugh as I looked up that link, that when I was a teenager cooking, there was no internet to look up. How weird it is to say that. How weird it is to think about that!) Some five+ years ago, in reorganizing our home and life for child#3, I boxed up all but 3 and stored the box, reasoning that when I cooked, it was faster/easier/handier to look up the recipe I wanted on the previously-mentioned internet, even one I knew I had, and that is what I was doing. Exclusively. I hadn't even purchased a cookbook, probably since Rosie's Bakery All-Butter Fresh Cream Sugar-Packed No-Holds-Barred Baking Book. So, that was valuable space to be gained.
Now, fast-forward to the last year. I have rediscovered cooking for pleasure, not just sustenance. And related to that, I found a whole new world of food blogs. And related to that, I have come full circle: because of the internet, I find myself drawn to the cookbook aisle in the bookstores. Specifically, because of these blogs especially: Smitten Kitchen, and French Laundry At Home, and 101Cookbooks. I would have came home with French Laundry recently, when I came across it unexpectedly at Borders, but it was $55 and it was two days before Christmas. And I didn't want to cook with it, haha, just read it.
But now, it is after Christmas. ....And because of that, I don't have $55 dollars. HA. and Borders is 99 miles away and it snowed. But anyway... I just read this Smitten Kitchen blogpost. And amazing Amazon will deliver to me on January 7th for only 14.98 the hardcover version of said cookbook. Click. Log in. Confirm. And I have just bought my first cookbook in at least 8 years. I am so looking forward to many more :).

Contentment

Thinking on this today:

Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are.
When you realize there is nothing lacking,
the whole world belongs to you. ~ Lao Tzu

-

PrimaHybrid is back!

public service announcement :)

National Scrapbooking Day

It still strikes me funny that we scrappers have our own holiday, tee hee! But, I am not one to turn down celebrations. Of any kind :)

Over in PrimaHybrid land, we are partying, blog style. That means - I have an 8x8 template to share. The template is based on this hybrid page I made by printing out the photo cluster and digital papers, and assembling traditionally. I then embellished with grommets and rubber-stamped- or -handwritten title, date, and swirls.

Supplies: Digital papers and elements from
Kim Christensen, Amy Wolff.
Traditional stamps from Heidi Swapp,
Sharon Soneff , and Fancy Pants.

This template is a layered .psd file that you can grab here. If you prefer/need a version that is separate .png's, use this link.


You could also create a purely digi page with the template, like this:

Credits: Mad About You paper by Vera Lim,
L'alphabet Dry by Trish Jones,
Vintage Comfort date tabs by Weeds and Wildflowers.
All from PrimaHyrbid.com

Don't forget, you can recolor that circle stamped brush image to your liking to match your color scheme.

Catch more PrimaHybrid Flowergirls' blog party posts - check out Di's blog for links!
Happy scrapping, friends :)
~Peace, Kristin

PrimaHybrid Blog Party!

It's time for the Grand Opening celebration for PrimaHybrid woot!

Check out the fun. There is a sale in the shoppe, fun in the forum, and lots of beautiful art in the gallery. :)

Speaking of fun, you are probably here for my piece of the blog party, no?

Download Here

The download includes a layered .psd file, a layered .tif file and the separate .png files for those programs that don't use layered files. For directions on using a page template like these, Melinda's blog post linked to in the Blog Party Thread has an instructional PDF.

party on!
~Kristin

a fab finish to Friday

fridging on my bed
Frappuccino
FM Radio- feeling kind of retro, like I am back in highschool
and a new
food magazine.

Content

ciao ~Kristin

It's 2008

wow, wasn't it like 20 minutes ago that we were worried about y2K??

Random Things for me to remember about 2007:

• .The big kids both are in high school now, as of fall 2007. My mom continues to watch Mark during the days I work(I have Tuesdays at home still) which is a blessing to me and him of the most GINORMOUS amount.
• . I don't think i read a single book in 2007?? Is this possible? wow. I do my family thing, I work, I scrap. that's it.
• . My favorite music from this year. Definately Bon Jovi Lost Highway. It made many many nonstop rounds in the cd changer of car. I mean many, like 2 months worth. and I think similarly addicted my mom. how cool is that?
• . I let my hair grow out longer than it has been since Elizabeth was born, so... that's 15 years- the whole year, I had ONE haircut, in July before I went to Chicago.
• . I went to Chicago (on my first train trip) and got to spend 4 wonderful days with my friend Terra. We went to CHA show on a press pass from disctalkradio, walking the floor with Heather Ann Melzer, who is a hoot! Terra was just days from delivering Kaylen Hope too (Terra would make a fab pioneer woman). Kaylen was happy as a clam (is that the right expression?) in a sling.
• . Met a bunch of people that were previously just avatars- had a great lunch with like about 12 of them, and a really fabulous happy hour with deann McDaniels-disctalkradio, Nancie Rowe Janitz, Tracie Radke, Heather, Terra and myself. Somehow missed meeting alb52 though I did stand next to her roomie CD Muckosky in the foyer. and I stood in Elsie Flannigan's shadow. hahaha! AND later met Melanie, who came by Terra's house.
• . Realized if i posted on my blog more, I wouldn't need to make this list.

merry Christmas to all :)

Reflecting

:)


I used Catscrap digital designs on this, as I am fortunate to be guesting on their creative team Dec and Jan. Thank you Catrine and Birgit for the honor.


Peace and love,
~Kristin

* Happy Monday! *

I so enjoy the fresh, new feeling of a Monday morning, with the week stretching out in front of me. At least when there are no urgent deadlines or to-do's hanging over my head. This one is starting with me having a bit of slow, leisurely morning waiting for DH to bring my van back to me from getting the flat tire fixed - ah! the joys of living on a gravel road. I bet he comes back with a Orange Stick latte for me too :). He is good at little treats like that.

This weekend was sooo nice and relaxing, too. I drove over the mountains to watch BigSon play tennis: ah! the joys of Wyoming sports travel. It was 480 miles round trip. But my mom came along, and TheDaughter had a rare Saturday off from volleyball, so along with LittleSon, we had a very pleasant roadtrip. It was sunny and a gorgeous fall day. The tennis courts were in a park, so we picnic-ed and LittleSon got to play to his heart's content on a really neat gigantic play structure that was right there, and we watched BigSon ace almost all his serves! yay! We then (after the obligatory walmart weekend stockup trip) drove home via the southern route that takes us through the charming little burg of Greybull with its A&W drive up. Ah! the joys of carhops and root beer, haha!
Sunday was laundry and cleanout day. Maybe not so fun, but definitely rewarding - I threw out three grocery bags of stuff - mostly paper. How does it accumulate so deep so fast?? but, it sure is nice to do laundry in a sparkling clean space now :)
We finished off the weekend by BBQ-ing at my folks', with my brother's family. Good times and good food. Then, we came home and I scrapped a page for the Team GMD blog challenge for this week. It's a fun one - scrap your home, or part of it, with flowers and cardboard embellishments. I chose to do the entry to our house - it always makes me happy to see my red door and flowers :) (thanks to my mom and TheDaughter for the garden help).
So I have ended up with two versions of the page, and I can't decide which one I like better. I like them both, for different reasons! I ended up posting the darker one?

Click here for page credits

This is the one I went with. But I am still not sure which one to print!

Oh yes, one little thing before I get my morning in gear. A little out of the ordinary thing for me... I was 'interviewed' by deann of DiScTalkRadio for the show Inside the Scrapper's Playhouse! It was actually kind of fun - deann is a hoot! I think I sound kind of spacey though haha. I am such a slow thinker, I guess :)

Okay, time to get this party started! Later gaters!
~Kristin

Digi Dare

Here is my take on Digi Dare #52.
My version of trying to scrap in Elsiecake's free style ways :) For the second part, I used product new to me from the new mystery designer coming to the-lilypad on Friday. ( there is also stuff on there from Gina Miller, Amy Wolff, Natalie Braxton, Kate Hadfield, and Nancy Comelab).
I can at least say I had fun haha. !
Peace out, Kristin