Firstborn Fridays

My workplace was closed on Fridays from mid-May through today, as an attempt to save some money on utilities during the hottest time of the year. When the free Fridays started, I had all sorts of ideas of how I would spend the time--maybe I'd do volunteer work! Maybe I'd really get the house in order for once and for all!

After the first Friday off, it became clear that I probably wasn't going to get as much done on these days off as I expected. The days tended to just fly by and I'd be scrambling to get things done before picking Emmett up from daycare.

The two things that I wanted to do with my free time were to spend quality time with the dog and work on some artistic stuff. When we first started this "summer Fridays off" thing at my workplace (two years ago), I started using the time to practice the art of bento and I decided that I'd try to do a bento for Lucy most Fridays this year. I had to take a couple of weeks off while we were traveling, but it was fun to have more than enough time to think of an idea and bring it to fruition.

Several of these bentos for Lucy were inspired by children's TV or literature, including this one of Red Fraggle (from Fraggle Rock):Or this one of The Lorax from Dr. Seuss.Other inspiration came from animals. One week I did a bento of a liger (part lion, part tiger):
This week, I made one of an owl. By the way, when I did the animals, I often used pictures from Emmett's clothes for inspiration.
I think that my favorite one is from last week, where I used some pictures from some Northwest Coast First Nations art to make this moon bento:

We are starting to give Emmett some food (mostly fruit pieces or crackers or mini-pancakes) in bento boxes, and in Vancouver I picked up some fun new bento supplies. It's hard to do artistic bentos while tending to a kid of his age, though.

I've been glad to be able to spend extra time with Lucy. Her mellow companionship is lovely at the end of the workweek.