I signed up recently to be a part Craft For China, a fundraiser for the group Love Without Boundaries. Love Without Boundaries is nonprofit organization that helps Chinese orphans get medical care, nutritional care, foster care, educational help and so much more. The money raised goes towards sponsoring children or their orphanage. The crafts we donate are sold on ebay, and the money goes to LWB.
I found a great free pattern for fabric balls at Grand Revival Designs, and with her permission, I began sewing three fabric balls for the fundraiser using a vintage tablecloth and much more recent fabrics as well. Through this process I realized I need to really practice my hand sewing a lot more, but without further ado, here are the results:
Bill and I went to Books-a-Million for Bob Harper’s book signing of Are You Ready?. Bob Harper is a trainer for the hit show The Biggest Loser and they had just finished up season 5. One of the final contestants, Roger Shultz was also there, introducing Bob and talking to the crowd. He had lost 160lbs. I had both sign my copy. Bob was very informative and answered many questions. And both Bob and Roger couldn’t have been nicer. I was very motivated. I want to be the biggest loser!
When Bill and I got married, we registered for these beautiful Crate and Barrel dishes. Each dish looked handmade, a little asymmetrical, all white, all character. However, we learned the hard way that earthenware dishes don’t like the high heats of microwaves and dishwashers, and after a year and half later we decided we were in the market for new dishes. Fiestaware was actually one of the brands of dishes I wanted for the registry. It was readily available, pretty affordable, and was supposed to be amazingly durable and last forever. And who could resist those happy colored dishes? So we used some money we had gotten from rewards points on one of our cards, and ordered them on JCPenney online. We actually got our Fiestaware a week later in the mail. Each place setting in a different box, and I immediately went to opening and inspecting. Well two of the ten boxes were in perfect condition. The rest were shattered, cracked or scratched. We wrangled up the eight boxes and brought them to a Penney’s, but there only solution (since they only sell the dishes through catalog or online) was to re-order them and have them shipped back to our house again. We cancelled the order, and decided from now on we were getting our dishes in person. I tell you we went everywhere, to Macy’s, Dillards, Belk, everywhere you could think of and finally got our set. I couldn’t find any Shamrocks til I went to a Belk in West Cobb - but got a great deal with two gusto bowls. It was quite an adventure collecting them on the way down to Macon and back and all over Atlanta, but we’ve gotten a pretty good collection so far. It’s funny how gingerly we handled them the first week, but we love them so, and they do make our table and cabinets look oh so happy.
Dallas and I were talking about putting together bentos this week and sharing what we came up with. Honestly, mine won’t always be traditional bentos. I’m liking the idea of portion control and using 3/4 for vegetables. I do want to experiment with rice balls and using the recipes from my bento book, and check out the Super H Mart which is supposed to be amazing, but in the mean time, I’m just easing into it. Here was todays bento lunch:
Ofcourse some of it isn’t in the bento - like the hard boiled egg. But the large portion is a salad of mixed greens, mushrooms, cucumber, and edamame. One small container has strawberries and Light Laughing Cow Original cheese, then I have left over Pho - a soup with noodles, shrimp, lime and basil…with a bottle of Fuze Green Tea (I like the white tea better). Tuesday will be exactly the same, though I’m going to have my edamame separately as a snack later in the day.
I have to say that I’m really feeling a bit better environmentally by this whole bento concept. I’m reading Laptop Lunch right now - which is mostly catered to parents making their children’s lunch, and as an educator, I’m amazed at how much garbage we throw away each day - and with student lunches alone, it’s amazing. According to the book, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation estimates that one student taking a disposable lunch to school every day will create 45 - 90 pounds of garbage per year. But with these reusable containers, there is no prepackaging (other than my cheese wrapper) and that makes me feel great! Go green! Tomorrow is Earth Day so we’ll be doing a lot with the kids in that regards, and I’m taking the recycled art I made with Yelp and Sketchy’s Art Pad to the classroom and I’m going to have my kids create art. Pictures at the end of the week of my students’ masterpieces.
I’m a member of Yelp, a review site, and they held an event last night at Sketchy’s Art Pad for people to meet, have some food and alcohol, and create. I had a great time getting out of the house, and having a little craft night at an actual studio. We were given all kinds of recyclable materials - from shoe inserts to plastic bottles, followed by a wire clothes hanger to act as a base for our flowers that we would make. With a bit of wine in me, inspiration struck:
Thank you Lorraine for the wonderful fabrics from our scrap swap. I do love them very much and was so excited to receive them in the mail. The trims and embellishments will be so much fun to use, and I will definitely be going green with my new bag. Thank you for all the other treats as well. Yay swap! Is it time to sign up for another yet?
Not too long ago bento boxes were part of a Japanese curriculum I was teaching to second graders. Standards and curriculum changed though, and I found it funny when Dallas asked if I knew anything about them. It seems bento has become pretty popular lately, and after thinking it over, I decided bento boxes were a fabulous idea. I bought a box I considered comparable to a bento box and filled it with mixed greens, cucumbers, tomato and ginger dressing…I also put in a 100 calorie Twix bar, a light Babel cheese, and some leftover bourbon chicken and fried rice. It’s by no means a true bento meal, but I thought it was a good start. There are some places in Atlanta I want to check out to further my new found interest in bento. It’s traditionally a Japanese lunch with rice, meat, and pickled or cooked vegetables. I recently purchased The Laptop Lunch User’s Guide and Bento Boxes: Japanese Meals on the Go. Presentation is also supposed to be very important - where they can make food look like different things. You know, like flower radishes, etc. I need to be eating lighter, and this definitely helps with portion control.
I seem to be collecting old cameras. The last few I got while visiting with my dad in South Carolina. He’s got a great eye for finding old cameras, and he found one last week and sent it to me to add to my collection. There’s such a great joy that comes when receiving a package. Last Friday, this is the package I received:
It took me a while to figure out how to get it open, but it hasn’t been closed since. I moved all my cameras down to the mantel now for display. I love it. Thanks Dad!
