Hi everyone! How are you all? I am still not quite into bento making yet because my kids are still on their school holiday. They will get back to school on July, 12. A lot of things have happened in my life during my 'silent mode' from blogging. Some of the good news that I want to share were that both of my kids got excellent marks for their final report, Audrey will go to Grade 5 and Andrew will go to Grade 2. Gosh ... time flies so quickly, I don't even realize that 2 more years my daughter will be in Junior High. I'm feeling old LOL :D And finally, we moved in to our new house 2 weeks ago and now are settling down really well. Audrey and Andrew are now having their own bedroom. My husband was worried that Andrew would refuse to sleep in his own room when we moved in. He was so attach to Audrey all these years. But thanks God, he took the transition very well - no problem at all of him sleeping on his room; although he still moved to our room in the early morning for couple of times and I was too sleepy to say no. When I asked him why he moved to our room, he would say that he was sleepwalking for an excuse hahahaha ... Oh yeah sure!! The bad news was that my dad had been hospitalized 3 weeks ago but now he is getting better and has been discharged from hospital. Pray that both of my parents will stay healthy. I have been busy to unpack our things and arranged them at the new place. Bento stuffs were one thing that gave me a headache to arrange. Now, I have them in the cupboard in kitchen, in the play room, and in the dining room ... hahaha so basically I still can't put them in one big cupboard. The Pooh Bento was made for Sunday School. Inside the box : Indonesian yellow rice shaped in Pooh, strawberry, fried chicken wings, cucumbers, edamame & tomatoes. I don't usually make a bento for Sunday School but I have been off way too long for bento posting. So this week, I tried to make one since I had a new bento tool that I bought last month from J-Mama & Baby, an online shop from Singapore. I just can't resist to buy a whole set of Winnie The Pooh, Piglet, Chip & Dales, Doraemon, Stitch, Marie The Cat, and Mickey & Minnie Mouse. Love them! They can be use for molding bread, molding rice, cookies cutter with a face stamp and nori puncher for quick and easy to decorate. Cool ... :)

My daughter picked the winner for the Yum-Yum Bento Box this morning and the lucky winner for the Yum-Yum Bento Box book is :

LYNDSEY - lychapin@comcast.net
Congratulations!!
Hope the book can be helpful and give inspirations in your bento making.

And I wanna say thanks to those who joined this event, really appreciate all of your comments and your participation.

Finally, I received the new bento book copy of Yum-Yum Bento Box by Crystal Watanabe (Pikko) and Maki Ogawa (Luckysundae) yesterday. I have been waiting for this book and made the pre-order since it was available at the Amazon online store.

In the bento world, the big name of Pikko and Maki are very well known because of their amazing works, ideas, arts in bento making. They have become an inspirators for so many bento makers through their blogs.

Yum-Yum Bento Box is their first bento book written in English. I find it very helpful because it is easy to read and understand in English. As soon as I open the first page, I already felt in love with this book. Inside this book you can find so many ideas, recipes, tips, and information that will be a great help to create a cute and beautiful bentos. The other thing that makes this book worthy to have is the beautiful photography by Maki and the colorful design in this book. Those facts make this book very interesting and fun to read in every single page. At the back of this book you also can find additional recipes for mini snacks and save-it-for-later lunches, shopping guide, glossary, and metric conversion chart.

I highly recommended this book to all of you that love bento, whether you just started your bento making or are already advanced level. If you would like to buy this book, you can find the list of stores at the official website for Yum-Yum Bento Box.

Since I have 1 extra copy, I will giving away this 1 extra copy of Yum-Yum Bento Box book !!
All you need to do is just leave your name and e-mail address and the reason why you like bento in the comment box. You can leave your comment until 27 June, 2010. My daughter will choose the winner randomly. So don't miss you chance to win this great bento book!

- Useful Links -
> YUM-YUM BENTO BOX <
(Official Website)

> ADVENTURES in BENTOMAKING <
(Crystal Watanabe's Blog)

> CUTE OBENTO <
(Maki Ogawa's Blog)