sachi bento - a little bit of everything

i wanted to call this entry "mixed plate" but then i realized i already an entry with that title so here we go with the bento!

lately, i've been busy doing lots of different things (hence the title "bento.")  for those of you who don't know what a bento is, it's a japanese packed meal that has a little bit of a bunch of different foods in it...rice, veggies, meat, sides, etc.

so my (sachi) bento includes: school stuff, sweet stuff, and photography stuff :)

school stuff:
school has been crazy-busy lately.  the whole first quarter has flown by which means it's time for report cards and parent-teacher conferences.  though things are hectic, i'm enjoying what i'm doing.  i've got a fun bunch of kiddos and this year, i'm trying new things.  one thing i'm working on is a class blog.  here it is:
http://kidsteachingothers.blogspot.com

sweet stuff:
one of my coworker friends got married last weekend so our grade level threw her a mini-bridal shower luncheon.  she was on a no-carb diet so we decided on salad for lunch.  being me, i reeaally wanted to make dessert but a no-carb diet makes that quite challenging.  i couldn't make cupcakes or cake pops so i decided on layered-sugar-free jello in heart molds.  this prompted my first experience with gelatin, i know...pretty crazy.  so i used 3 packets to one box of jello.  in my opinion, i used a little too much, so maybe next time i'll try 2 packets :)

more sweet stuff:
this weekend i was craving cupcakes...quite the shocker ;)  so i decided to try the Sprinkles cupcake mix that my cousin got me for my birthday (you can get it from wiliams-sonomoa.)  it super easy to make, i just needed to add butter, eggs, and milk + frosting.  my favorite part was the signature Sprinkles-dots.  the cupcake ended up tasting good and was moist but it was quite dense (like all the other cupcakes i've made from scratch.)  any ideas for fixing this?

photography stuff:
in my last post i shared some photos i took of faces i came across in china town.  i've been practicing more and i've been loving every moment of it.  there's something about looking through the lens of a camera and capturing moments in time that is just so exciting to me.  i guess you can say it's my way of telling stories.  here are some pictures i took in seattle/portland.