A Bento to Scream For and Fundraiser Winners

I dunno what it is about this month, but I’ve been cranking out a lot of charaben ideas that I wish I’d had last year because then I could have put a lot of these into Yum-Yum Bento. Oh well… hopefully the book will do well and Maki and I can work on a sequel! ^_-

Today is the day I announce the fundraiser winners, which I’ll reveal after the bento.

I scream, you scream, we all scream for an ice cream bento! Except for the people freezing their butts off on the mainland, anyway. Sorry if this makes you feel colder, but I was actually really excited about implementing this one and it couldn’t wait until summer, because I’d most certainly have forgotten to do it.

I found a packet of crab fried rice seasoning in my cabinet, so I took some leftover brown rice and cooked this last night. All you do is fry an egg, add the rice, then add the seasoning and stir fry. I’m a big fan of these, especially since I can use brown rice and it still tastes great, so I’ll have to go pick up more at Marukai.

Here’s a close-up of the cones, which I cut out of cheese. This was the first time I used a toothpick to cut out cheese, which is a tip I learned from Maki of Cute Obento. I just drew my own cones, cut out the paper, and traced with the toothpick. You’ll see this technique used in Yum-Yum Bento.

I cut the grooves into the cones using a toothpick as well, then froze everything until the bento was done and cooled. I used roasted sesame seeds for eyes, nori for the nose and mouth, and ketchup for cheeks.

To update people on my eye, I have something called a “pterygium” and it was basically swollen from irritation with my contact lens. The word kind of freaked me out at first. It’s the kind of thing that I’d expect to hear on House and have no idea how bad it is. Here is a potential scene:

House: “You see that? She’s got a pterygium on her eye. It means she’s been heavily exposed to the sun, which explains why we didn’t see any other symptoms. She’s got…”
*Chase’s eyes widen*
Chase: “Bentofreakulitus…”
Me: “So… what’s the treatment?”
House: “It’s an autowallet disease… there is no treatment. Your brain will compel you to buy bento boxes until you have them all. There’s… nothing we can do.”
Me: “Sweet!!!”

I should note though, I haven’t been heavily exposed to the sun or harsh winds. I have no idea what set this off except maybe my eye was just pissed I only slept for two hours. However, I’m fine now, so the doc just said to come back if it happens again. Now… on to the best part!

As many of you know, last week Thursday, Susan Yuen and I launched a Haiti Fundraiser/Bento Giveaway here on AiBento. The fundraiser closed on Wednesday and in just one week, we received a total of $615.45 in direct donations and $199.00 in pledges for a total of $814.45. This was way beyond what I’d thought we’d be able to raise, so I know I’m very happy with how generous everyone has been. I made the donation this morning to the Red Cross’ Haiti Relief Effort.

This is a screen capture of my screen after making the donation. Obviously, I cut it off when my personal information began, but you can see near the bottom the fundraiser’s gift amount from all of you. A total of 70 people donated/pledged in this fundraiser, with one donation coming from Susan’s thoughtful daughter Paige, who made a donation but was not entered into the giveaway.

Now, let’s pick us some winners!

Last night, I printed out all the names and this morning I cut them out and put them in one of my lacquer bento boxes. My Mr. Bento got really unruly and lunged at me, causing about a dozen bento boxes to surge in as well. I was pretty mad, since I was already late for my eye doctor and I’d just re-arranged those dang boxes. Mr. Bento refused to go back into the cabinet and I had to shove him back in with lots of stink eye.

Okay so, first up is our grand prize winner…

OMG!

Here it is!

Who is it!?

Is it you?

I totally made the focus of this picture on the carpet and not my hand on purpose, cause I didn’t want any of you cheating and reading the name through the paper! Hopefully you believe me!

Congratulations, Heather R.!! You’re our grand prize winner and will be receiving Susan’s bento prize basket worth over $45! Hopefully you’re stoked and come and post a shrieking comment with lots of excitement in your typing.

Don’t lose hope, we still have 10 bento grab bags to give away, so here we go!

Congrats Pamela D.! You’ve won the first of our 10 bento grab bags!

Congratulations, Amanda G.! You’ve won the second of our 10 bento grab bags!

Congratulations, gotfaeries! You’ve won the third of our 10 bento grab bags! Around this time, I started to realize that these photos are revealing my disgusting chewed off fingernails. Ignore them!

Congratulations, Tawana H.! You’re the winner of the fourth of our 10 bento grab bags!

Congratulations, Noelle H.! You’ve won the fifth of our 10 bento grab bags. I’m so sorry I forgot to hide my thumb in your photo!

Congratulations, Raso’s Garage Sale! You’ve won the sixth of our bento grab bags. Your prize better not end up in your garage sale!!

Congratulations, Sarah C.! You’ve won the seventh of our 10 bento grab bags!

Congratulations, Gaylynn! You’ve won the eighth of our 10 bento grab bags!

Hey look! Our first guy winner! Actually, I think he might have been our only guy entry. Go Henry! You’ve won the ninth of our 10 bento grab bags!

Alrighty, so there’s only one left. Who is the last lucky winner?

Haha, totally kidding! Here it is:

Congratulations, Samantha L.! You’re the winner of the last of our 10 bento grab bags!

Either Susan or myself will be contacting you to get your address information. Thanks everyone for making our fundraiser such a huge success and congratulations to all the winners!