O'Bento for Nina / Box lunch Japanese style

I decided to make box lunch for Nina this school year. Instead of letting her to have school lunch.  Educating children what and how they should eat to develop their body and mind healthy has been very important for parents in Japan. Schools are very serious about what school lunch they serve for children, and teach them about nutrition, Japanese food culture and the background of ingredients etc. This education is called "Shoku-Iku" in Japanese. "Shoku" stands for "Eat", and "Iku" means "Education". I would like to treasure this idea even I am outside of my country.

O-Bento is the word for box lunch in Japanese.  If you are a quilter, you might have heard the word "Bento box quilt pattern" which is my favorite. Right now, making O-Bento very cute and fun by decorating with some elaborate technique is very popular among many Japanese Moms. This was my first try to make those "Kawaii (Cute)" O-Bento for Nina.

Rice balls and sausages look like faces decorated with Nori (Seaweed sheet).

That's not so bad for the first time, isn't that?

Sorry for the poor lighted picture. Its still dark when I wake up to fix O-Bento at 5:30am. This one has a cheese bunny on rice, sausage flowers, and potato balls with Edamame in it.

Waking up early is not very pleasant. But it is kinda fun for me to think how I can make every O-Bento fun and surprising. Though I only make these Kawaii kinds every other day so far. I make sandwiches and just simple rice balls sometimes. But never forget about nutrition. I hope I will make some very good O-Bento for sharing with you guys soon again. Happy O-Bento making!

Drawing

I finished drawing  a design for the next project. Ready to be embroidered. It's gonna be a lot of work.

Nina's Passion (for now)

I bought a bunch of felt sheets in pretty colors for Nina before we left for Japan. After we came back, Nina found those felts and immediately started her project. And now she is absorbed in it pretty much. I gave her a couple of darning needles and some Sashiko threads. A small darning needle works just enough to sew through thin felt and it is safe for kids to use since it doesn't have a sharp point.

This pink staffed bear (head) was the first thing she made all by herself. She makes most of her stuff free-hand. She doesn't use any patterns. Just directly attack to her materials!! And the sweetest thing is that she made this for me ♥.

Then her stitching skill improved quickly. She finished this pouch with a pretty flower embroidery right away. She needed my help to sew a zipper on the pouch, but otherwise, she made this without my help. This item is absolutely useful! What a great creation for a seven years old girl!

She just keeps going.  The next item she made was........

The stuffed frog (head)! What do you think of these stitches? Pretty good, huh? I know, I am one of  those doting Moms :p This froggy went across the street. It was a gift for the boy across the street.

Do your kids sew? Happy kids sewing!

I'm back.

Hello my friends. We got back from Japan last Thursday. We had a greatest trip this year. Our trip was filled with lots of fun and surprises. We've been spending time adjusting 13 hours time differences and recovering from distress due to a long distance travel since we were back. After five days of struggle with our jet lag, Nina seems ready to go back to school now. (The school will start on this Wednesday.) I still could not sleep well last night. I got to finish watching three episodes of Japanese TV drama I have taped when we were gone. But I think we are pretty much ready to go back to our daily life. I missed blogging about my trip and my creations since the last post. Finally, I post some photos from our trip here to start. I will write more about it later.

 

I miss my country so much. But also It is very nice to be back home.

Sorry for my long absence. Thank you so much for coming back to read again. I have a lot to tell. I have a lot to make.