I'm devoting this entire post to a deli meat. What has become of my life? I'm scared. Here's a photo of it in my daughter's bento (left), and the amazing octodog (ain't she pretty?) on the right. Some say making hot dogs this way is less of a choking hazard. These are made with Trader Joe's nitrate free hot dogs. Ariel's Grotto at Disneyland California Adventure serves these octodogs on top of macaroni & cheese, sprinkled with goldfish crackers. You could get them there for about $412 (including admission) or you can make them yourself for cheeeap.. You can download the simple how to instructions here: Download octodog_how_to.pdf
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more personalized goodies
Here's a personalized onesie & burp cloth gift set I made for my friend. The baby's name is "Sadie" so I made 3 designs using the "S" theme. "S is for Sadie" is one design, and I included elements like a snail, star, sock...all words that start with S. Isn't that SSSSIlly? Darn. I should've used the word "silly". I'll SStop.
art directing chicken nuggets
The other day, while having a deepish thought (rare these days)...I realized why I love bentos. It's designing with food! I love browsing through the japanese bento cookbooks at kinokuniya. But when it comes down to it, I'm not a morning person, so I can't be scultping rice and ham into disney movie scenes. This is a bento I made for my daughter today...chicken nuggets, brown rice onigiri, and veggies. If you ever get into making bentos, I learned one of the keys is packing it tight enough so food doesn't move around and get all mixed up. I use those silicone cupcake cups in almost every bento I pack--great for keeping foods separate from eachother. They are just the right size and reusable, bendable, and dishwasher safe. I also try to use a variety of colors of foods, which not only looks nice, and turns out to be a healthy thing too. (as long as you aren't representing the color green with sour patch kids)
rainbow bread
Isn't this cool? This bread is swirled with bright colors and tastes just like white bread. Makes a really pretty sandwich. My daughter loves it. Rainbow bread is made by King's Hawaiian Bakery, and is sold at their flagship Torrance bakery.
my star of the week and a free download
My daughter was star of the week this week at her preschool. To thank her classmates and teachers, we gave out these star shaped japanese crackers i got from Mitsuwa. I stapled on a custom tag, and handed them out to her class. I thought I'd share the tag with you. They are business card sized. You could probably do some cute things with these...like add ribbon or string, but I was too rushed.
To make these yourself, click here to download--> Download star_of_the_week_tags.pdf
, print on paper of choice, cut out, and attatch to your goodie. Since I make so many labels and business cards, I use the Cardmate Business Card Cutter. Just crank your paper through, a couple times, and it slices and dices it to size. No more exacto knives... 
hand stamped sterling silver charms
I'm loving this and I want to learn how to make these!
The top image is from beaducation "say it on your wrist kit" , bottom left is from etsy store kirsten's custom creations and bottom right is from vintage pearl.
The cool thing about beaducation is that they have online jewelry making classes. Check them out.
