Bento Tutorial

Don’t know where to start? Let’s make a simple bento together!

Let’s put together a cute little sea-themed bento for the little ones in your life (or even for the bigger ones who love the sea:). You don’t need any special equipment for this, you can cut everything with a knife but I show you a nice trick with a cookie cutter, too. So check the video and enjoy the rest of the summer!

Bento

What is bento, you might ask? Well, simply put, that is a nicely decorated meal that you take to school or work (and you get a tutorial on how to make one tomorrow;). It usually consists of all main categories of food: carbohydrates (originally rice but now it can be anything from bread to potato, pasta, whatever), protein (originally usually fish, nowadays also meat, milk products like cheese and yogurt, nuts…), lots of vegetables and fruits.

This mermaid-themed lunch covers all the categories: protein – fish (for the tail), rice (body) and noodles (pasta), veggies – lettuce and cherry tomatoes, fruits (strawberry), and dessert (a piece of chocolate). This was a lunch for a small child;).

Dessert is optional but needless to say, I often included it (we all have a sweet tooth and homemade dessert is usually not that unhealthy;) although I sometimes include something else as well (like a piece of chocolate).

This could pass as a dessert but it’s very healthy – berries and cottage cheese with lemon juice.

This approach worked well for me because I wanted my kids to have a balanced meal – but that is more important while kids are little. The funny thing is – now they do it themselves:).

The stuffed tomatoes that kids made:).

Bento was traditionally just a layer of rice with some meats or fish and veggies aesthetically placed on top that Japanese wives made for their husbands when they went to work.

One of my first bento boxes – a classic with rice balls and nori algae:)

But in recent years it became very popular among moms who make sometimes very elaborate lunches for their kids for school lunches.

Our first bento box that the kiddo designed and I put together and it actually won a competition.

It is not known in our country because kids have lunch at school (and many workplaces have kitchens or restaurants nearby) but I still made it for my kids since they weren’t fond of school lunch and the homemade version was healthier.

Steamed bread shaped in cute shapes can be a nice addition to a bento box.

It was also a way to get my kiddo through a period of adapting to school – she was looking forward to her bento – I made a bento with foods that started on one letter that they were learning that week each week (she usually went home early and only ate lunch at school when she had extracurricular activities afterward). But more on that on Sunday when you’ll get some ideas about different bentos and what to take into account;).

Tutorial – DIY postcards

Let’s make a postcard together!

As promised – a tutorial on how to make this postcard. It’s very easy, beginner friendly, and can be quite cute:) Of course, you can make it in any theme you’d like: seashells, ships, sea, and fish would be nice for a vacation card but I chose a flower for our gardening granny;). You can make these with kids because they are so easy to make and only use non-toxic materials:). Nothing fancy but so much fun! Enoy in sprinkling joy over the world;).

Handmade giftwrap

I’ve been absent this last week but for a good reason – we had family vaccination and celebrated 2 birthdays! We usually celebrate their birthdays at the seaside where a single grocery store carries no paper whatsoever, no notebooks, not even copy paper, let alone wrapping paper. You can only dream of a craft store here – it’s remote so you can buy about 10 basic cooking ingredients here (and they are priced 10x :D) but that’s it :D. So my DIY watercolour collage paper came to the rescue.

Eco-friendly gift wrap made from recycled brown paper and natural materials.

I always wrap their presents at home beforehand – this has the added benefit that the recipients can’t accidentally see what’s inside the gift while I pack and unpack;). I usually use simple brown paper because it takes traveling the best and is the most versatile to decorate later on (and I can draw on it or use it in collage afterward ;). It’s also recycled, recyclable and inexpensive (as well as biodegradable) which is also nice:).

You can add just a small little bird from black paper with some white ornaments and the gift becomes so much more precious – my kiddo always keeps these ornaments.

I wrap the gifts but I don’t decorate them at home. If I was to add anything on top before the travel the little decorations would get smushed and peeled off or the gifts would take up much more space – none of that is acceptable when we travel with 3 kids;). So I wrap the gifts in brown paper, put them in a suitcase and that’s it.

The big bird is painted on some plain paper and decorated with the simplest black pen and the legs are the strings that hold the paper. You don’t need much to make a gift feel special.

But plain brown paper wouldn’t cut it for the gift wrap, right? We have to decorate it a bit – especially for the kiddo;) She loves birds so I decided to go with the bird theme.

Collage is so much fun but it can be intimidating at first. So start slow – with one simple bird on a gift wrap – it is sure to bring a smile to someone’s face:).

If you’ve seen my last video on watercolour exercises I made quite a few collage papers I could use to play around. So I did. I cut out primitive birds from this painted copy paper, from an old book no one needs and added some natural material found on the floor (literally:D), some doodles with a black and white pen, and a string from a big bag of flour that we carried with us and that was it.

This bird was cut from a bookpage and the rest are seaside gatherings. The string was unraveled from the top of a flour bag – look around for the little treasures in your surrounding – there are so many!

The reason I’m writing this is to encourage you to see things differently – little things on the floor can be beautiful ornaments, a plain brown paper can be the best background to play with, and gift wrapping can be fun and very inexpensive – tailored to the recipient and made from solely recycled and natural materials – and it will still look good! You don’t need to sacrifice the beauty and joy of kids’ unwrapping gifts if you don’t want to buy fancy and often unrecyclable papers;) – gift wrap is often plastic coated.

Love is in the hair… quite literally, hihi;). Not my original idea but I really like it and so did she:). You could also make a postcard like this or a teacher’s gift.

The last gift was a scrunchie and I found this gift wrap idea on Pinterest (where else;) – so I just painted a girl on a piece of card from pasta (yes, we eat A LOT of pasta, I always have cards from boxes of pasta – Barilla has nice white or recycled brown inside – very useful bytheway:). And she was so happy! This was all literally made from scraps – we don’t need that much to be happy – not even teenagers;). Everyone says teens just want money but my teens said they would be so disappointed if they got money from me. They are strange creatures and prefer old pasta boxes and scraps of fabric I guess :D. Maybe you have some strange creatures in your life – who knows – try it with a brown paper bag and some natural materials;).

Little Good Deeds

I got a lovely comment on my last video with a wonderful idea that I just had to share! A kind follower said she’ll leave fairy gardens for the next campers to find:).

Fairy garden that sparked imagination of a lovely follower:).

Wouldn’t it be fun to find something like this the next time you go out? Let’s bring some happy to this world – it’s so easy:). You can even make something together with your kids, neighbours or whoever loves crafting with you.

Leave little gifts, gnome houses and fairy gardens in the woods – as long as they are made from solely natural materials, they will either get taken to a new home or become part of the forest:).

I have tried that a few times and it always brings me joy – whenever you make a little piece of art just from natural materials, leave it somewhere for someone to find – I’ve left drawings on bark in the forest and painted stones on beaches and they always disappear the next day:). I should leave some in someone’s garden…

You can leave a little fairy or gnome in someone’s garden. There are not many gardeners who plant flowers and wouldn’t like a flower fairy;).

If you do that just make sure the things are made from natural materials or somewhere that they can’t get overlooked and broken and become trash. The safest is to stick to the natural materials, though – there’s so much we can do from them!
*Although, I admit, polymer clay has its advantages – more on that tomorrow:).

When you leave things in nature, use natural materials in case it would get lost somewhere.

Fairy Garden Accessories

Learn how to make fairy gardens from natural materials.

The well and ladder are quick and easy accessories to make for your fairy garden.

Fairy gardens

What are fairy gardens you might ask? Initially, they were mini gardens with mini plants that were planted in very pleasing compositions and flowers were chosen for their delicate blooms that will attract fairies. Later on, that definition expanded to any mini diorama that involves tiny things that could be used by small magical creatures.

Fairy gardens can be set up in miniature suitcases, trays, glass or plastic hangers…

These on the pictures are not mine (mine are coming to the blog tomorrow – they are not that fancy or elegant but they are inexpensive) but I wanted to show you some other examples of fairy gardens – those were made by a lady in our craft shop and use plastic plants and mostly manmade materials (metal chairs, wooden bridge) but the compositions are really nice and this can be a good way to start if you don’t know how to go about it

Fairy garden from our craft store – it looks great on the picture but plastic flowers are not my jam.

Fairy gardens can be made in a clay pot, a wheelbarrow, a saucer, a teacup wherever. If they will accommodate live plants think of the size because you will have to find a sunny place for it;). If you will use plastic you don’t have to worry about that (I don’t like plastic flowers but you do you).

My youngest builds a fairy house out of clay and recycled materials (for support).

Than you build a diorama with either natural materials like stones, pine needles, soil etc… or fake moss. Into that you can add fairy houses, bridges, fountains, wells, campfires, ladders,… whatever your heart desires. You can add small little details that fairies like to use (like a tiny watering can) and of course, you can add fairy sculptures – or just wait for the real fairies to come;). Tomorrow you’ll see how to make a nice well, fence and ladder for your fairy garden so stay tuned:).

Birthday Coupons

Just a quick idea for anybody celebrating birthday soon. We always like to give coupons for different things in our family – something that the recipient would enjoy. It could be anything from playtime with older sister to different chores (either something that a recipient usually does or something extra because kids know I’d like to have our apartment a bit cleaner :D). For my birthday a little while ago I also got the coupon for making ginger and lemon tea (from scratch) and some coupons for a massage but the best one was for “un-quarrelling”. Kids gave me a coupon that I can use when the quarrel and I don’t have the time or energy to moderate and they will resolve it themselves;). What a cool gift, wouldn’t you say?

Have you ever given or received a personalized coupon as a gift?

What kind of a coupon would you like to get? I really like these kind of gifts (we give each other other stuff, too but these are cute and we actually use them:).

Labour Day

In our country, labour day has a long tradition and we all celebrate it still to this day. We have 2 days off and there are many ways in which people do that – from celebrations and speeches to more primal festivals that have their roots in antient pagan traditions – like maypoles and bonfires.

Bonfire on the eve of Labour day is our tradition since forever…

My favourite is bonfire (of course, I love fire) and we have one in every city. This year our kids were big enough that we could go to the traditional bonfire on the hill in our capital. It’s a nice walk – less than an hour from our home since we live just at the foot of said hill. We did not know when the bonfire starts so we waited for quite a while (more than an hour) but it was so worth it! Even the little one extatically claimed “It was worth the wait!” when they burned it (he hates waiting and it was late – the bonfire started at 10 pm – so that says a lot!)

Fire just evokes something so primal in us that we are unable to resist its enchantment…

But it’s something so primal in staring at the fire, looking at the flames and I could see myself drifting into another world and had to make an effort to stay here… I can easily imagine how some drums and dance would make this really ecstatic experience – even without any psychedelic drugs – I guess some of us don’t need those to fall into trans :D. It’s hard to explain but it really has this special power that was engrained in us for thousands of years – fire kept us safe and gave us warmth and easily digestible food – we can’t erase that – we’ll always keep a special place in our hearts for fire… I’m glad we still have those traditions – the music changed and the dancing happens bellow the stage – not around the fire but the essence is left…
How do you celebrate May day in your country?

Egg with Green Hair

I know this one is a classic but it’s such a nice little activity that anyone can do – ok, maybe not vegans – but other than that almost anyone;). I love the easy little nature crafts that let kids have some hand-on connection to nature and this one even has a wow factor:) Honestly, I think I’ll do it even when my kids will move out – they are in their teens now and we all still enjoy it so… I guess some people just don’t grow up – unlike the hair on this project;).

Sow some tiny seeds into egg shells for some green haired egg-people:)

What you’ll need:
– eggs
– cotton wool or cotton pads or a peace of kitchen sponge
– seeds for sprouts
– water

Instructions – video here:).
When you make something from eggs, save the shells for this little project. You can try to make one part of the shell a bit bigger but that’s not necessary. You can wash the shells if you want but that’s not necessary either (it will give more nutrients to your seeds in fact if you leave those few drops of egg white in). Put the shells in little egg pots or egg carton so they won’t tip over and will be easy to move around.
Than, stuff the egg shells lightly with cotton wool.
Pour some water on it and sprinkle with tiny sprouting seeds like cress, mustard, radish… The best suited seeds are the ones that are selected especially to make sprouts to eat. Of course, you can make this project with any seed that fits the shell but it’s nice if they are tiny so there can be more of the little sprouts -> more hair on your egg:).
Then water the seeds a bit more (you can also use a spray bottle if there’s enough water already. Repeat that in the following days since the seeds should be wet at all times during the first few days. The first day or two you can keep them in the dark and later put them to the light.
*Bonus tip: If you want them to grow fast it helps if the temperature is higher. You can achieve that by making an improvised “hotbed” for your seedlings – I just covered mine with a lid for microwave – we rarely use microwave so it’s not a problem:).
Happy EASTER!