Happy Birthday to Me! (A Post-Birthday Giveaway)

It was my birthday last Friday, and to celebrate, I wanted my friends to send in something different, aside from the usual birthday greet. So on Facebook, I asked them to send me a fan sign photo. Or any creative photo made especially for me. To get them going, I offered them a prize (I realize now that I only have a handful of willing friends, LOL).

Out of 33 photo greets, the kids and I were supposed to choose just our top 3. But there were actually 5 photos that stood out, showing my friends' efforts to make me happy (haha, babaw lang ng kaligayahan ko).

The following are our top picks:

My good friend Ganns (www.gannsdeen.com) sent me this photo, plus a cover of Jason Mraz's song "Make It Mine" personalized just for me. He calls it a musical selfie! So sweet!

My sales associate, Jhon, drew this caricature of me for my birthday! He is so talented!

If you want one made, you may contact him via text at 0927.3766481 or at 0908.6262471

My BFF Jenny sent me this one of my godson Mateo with Worship Generation shirts, folded to look like it says "HAPPY BDAY KAYE".
Pretty clever, huh? You can purchase Worship Generation shirts at House of Praise stores, Worship Generation stores or online through www.worshipgen.com

My co-BentoMomma, Monet, sent me this sign made out of bento tools cleverly laid out on a chopping board.
She sure knows what would capture my attention. Her son, Nino, holds their unique and creative birthday greeting!

Special mention goes to my beautiful friend Shiela, who actually sent me a fan sign! Yay!
Thank you, too, Mr. Patrol ng Pilipino, Alvin Elchico! Mwahh! LOL!

So anyway, I've decided to do something similar here, on my blog. See, I have 3 sets of Hillsong United tickets to giveaway. And although I had a contest planned, I wanted to do something different as well.


HILLSONG SELFIE - Concert Tickets Giveaway!
Note: In order to join this contest, you must:

A) Be able to catch the JUNE 11, 2014 concert. Again, please join only if you can make it on June 11. That's next Wednesday. Tickets cannot be exchanged for another concert date. You must be able to claim your tickets from me on the concert day itself, between 4-6PM, at Araneta Coliseum. Failure to claim your tickets before 6PM (unless previously arranged) will forfeit your prize.

B) Like the following on Facebook and Twitter first:

| facebook.com/FirstWivesClubBlog
| facebook.com/beccamusicinc

| facebook.com/HouseofPraise

| twitter.com/nappyKAYE
| twitter.com/beccamusic
| twitter.com/myhouseofpraise

Okay, now that we got that out of the way (I shall check, so please don't skip!), here's what you need to do:

1) Take a selfie with as much Hillsong product merchandise as you can. Merchandise includes (but are not limited to) CDs, DVDs, posters, collectibles, songbooks, photos, shirts, concert souvenirs, fan art, etc. Photo MUST NOT be a collage because you MUST be in the photo with the merch. I encourage you to be as creative as you can, BUT PLEASE USE ORIGINAL CDs AND DVDs. Pirated products will automatically disqualify your entry.

2) Post the photo on my Facebook page wall (http://facebook.com/FirstWivesClubBlog), telling me why you want to watch the Hillsong United concert (as photo caption) and tag Becca Music Inc, House of Praise, along with the two friends you want to bring along to the concert. Share your entry on your timeline and invite your friends to like your photo.

3) On Twitter (optional, but appreciated), tweet me this message "Hey @nappyKAYE! I want to win those #HillsongUnited tickets! Check out my entry on your page! #HillsongSelfie #FWCweeklygiveaway"

4) And finally, on this post, leave a comment (Name, Email address, Link to your Facebook post, Link to your Tweet) so I can double-check that you left an entry. I don't want to accidentally miss out on your photo!

You have until 12noon of June 9 (Monday) to post your entry. Only one entry per person is allowed. If you submit more than one photo, only your first photo will be considered. Winning photos will be judged based on the following criteria:

Creativity/Originality - 40%
Effort - 20%
Optimal Use of Hillsong United Merchandise - 20%
Visual Appeal/Impact - 10%
Number of Likes - 10%

The person who poses with the most number of merchandise on his or her photo will not necessary win this contest. Likewise, the number of likes will play a part, but will not necessarily make you automatically win this contest if your photo gets the most likes. Please take note of the criteria above, and plan your entry. From the number of entries posted on my wall, my friends and I will pick out our Top 3. The best entries will win the following:

TOP PICK 

will win three (3) Hillsong United PATRON - SRO Tickets
(valid only for June 11, 2014 concert)

TWO (2) RUNNERS-UP 

will each win three (3) Hillsong United UPPER BOX B Tickets
(valid only for June 11, 2014 concert)

In addition to these winners, we will also award the following prizes to SPECIAL MENTIONS:

MOST HILLSONG UNITED MERCH (1 winner) 

MOST LIKED ENTRY (1 winner) 

will each win a Hillsong United gift pack from House of Praise 

Winners will be announced on this blog on Monday night. They will also be notified via email (so make sure you leave a comment with a valid and working email address).

Also, please note that if you decide to forfeit your ticket prize (in case you win, that is), I will not be able to take a selfie with your tickets in front of the venue as your souvenir (as requested by a previous winner). I will be working on our merch tables that day. I hope you understand. Hehe.

Anyway, that's it. Happy Birthday to me! Let's see those entries! Yay!

Edit (Monday, 9 June 2014/10:01am): Hi everyone! I am sick and out of the office. As such, I am moving the #HillsongSelfie contest deadline to 1159pm tonight. Photos will be judged tomorrow morning. Winners will be announced at 1pm Tuesday.

That gives you the rest of the day to submit your entries, fix your tags, share the photo and get more likes! If you haven't left a comment on the blog post, please do so!

Thank you for understanding. This blogger has the flu - after getting the flu shot last Friday. Sigh. 

Win a Trip to Legoland Malaysia Resort!

My kids are crazy over Lego. RL probably has more Lego sets than anyone in our family combined. I don't know how he caught the Lego bug, but it's been on his Christmas list for two years now, next to puzzles and Chuggington train sets.

Building a firetruck...

Halfway done with a house...

Working on a police jeep...

Making sure he follows instructions carefully...

All done!

Okay, okay... you get my point. So anyway, it wasn't a big surprise that he was all too excited with McDonald's newest Happy Meal offering!

Yes, we love the new Lego Movie Happy Meal at McDonald's! So much so that we are set to collect three sets of cups.

Collect all 8 Lego Movie Lenticular Cups! Get one with every McDonald's Happy Meal you buy!

Here's the exciting part! McDonald's is giving everyone a chance to win a trip for four (4) to Legoland Malaysia Resort!

All one has to do is purchase a Lego Happy Meal from McDonald's, use the Lego Movie Collectible Lenticular Cup in a creative photo, and upload your creative photo using The Lego Movie Challenge tab on McDonald's Facebook page. You may submit as many entries as you want. One winner* will be selected to win a trip for four (4) to Legoland Malaysia Resort, inclusive of the following: Airfare for four (4) from the Philippines to Malaysia, airport transfers, 3D/2N accomodation at Legoland Malaysia Resort Hotel plus! Free entry to Legoland Malaysia Resort theme park and water park for two (2) days for four (4) people.

For more information, visit the McDonald's Facebook page here.

*Should you win, you must present the collectible cup you used for the photo, as well as your receipts showing you purchased four (4) Happy Meals in the period of February 4 to 24, 2014. So save those receipts!

In case you don't win, the McDonald's Happy Meal box also includes a KIDS-GO-FREE voucher that allows kids to visit Legoland Malaysia Resort for FREE with every purchase of an adult pass.

Yes, we are driving thru for more tomorrow. Get your Lego Movie Collectible Lenticular Cups today!


| facebook.com/McDo.ph

Bento 101: Charaben

From Wikipedia: 
Kyaraben or charaben, a shortened form of character bento is a style of elaborately arranged bento (Japanese boxed lunch) which features food decorated to look like people, characters from popular media, animals, and plants. Japanese homemakers often spend time devising their families' meals, including their boxed lunches. 

Originally, a decorated bento was intended to interest children in their food and to encourage a wider range of eating habits. It has now evolved to the point where national contests are held.


With all these bento photos that I've been uploading both here on the blog and on Instagram, I've received many requests to do tutorials on how charabens or decobens are made. These are very popular in Japan, and I suppose it is the same way here, with bento-making on the uptrend.

Recently, I've had the chance to teach Michelle (Momma N' Manila) and Mia (my soaperstarmama friend and stalker) how to make owl charaben, and I think I've pretty much mastered (well, sort of) the art of molding onigiri without the mold. In fact, the girls were thinking it would be easier to mold with just their hands, but I guess this bento momma proved them otherwise (didn't I?), hehe.

So anyway, here's what we made that day.

From left to right: Mia's, Mine and Michelle's. Hoot! Hoot!

I shall save the retelling on what went on during our mini-workshop for another post. Today's all about making charabens, and I will teach you how to make a bear-y simple one. Haha, get it? Bear-y easy bear charaben. This will be a photo blog, as there are a lot of photos to help you with the step-by-step procedure on how to put this one together.

BEAR-Y EASY BEAR CHARABEN

Ingredients:
Rice
Main Dish
Vegetable Dish
Side Dish of Fruit or Vegetable
Cheese
Nori/ Dried Seaweed
Bread
A stick of Uncooked Spaghetti

We had pork adobo leftovers, and that basically influenced my choice of which charaben to make. I was thinking I could use the sauce to make brown-colored rice, and it would make a nice bear. Charabens need not be complicated. You can use leftovers! I always do.

Here's how I made my bear-y easy bear...

I took some sauce and mixed it with my rice.

You don't need adobo to make this. Use brown rice or seasoning mixed with white rice.

Scoop enough rice in a food-grade bag to mold the bear's head.
Make sure rice is packed such that it doesn't break when taken out of the bag.

Place directly in your box or in a large, round silicone cup.

For ears, scoop about a teaspoon of rice into the bag and mold.

You will need two. Break off about an inch of uncooked spaghetti noodles.
Dip ends in mayonnaise or sauce to make it stick to your rice balls.

Push your noodle halfway through the small balls to make ears.

Attach ears to head like so.

Using a bear cookie cutter, punch out some cheese.

Once you get the bear punched out, reverse the cutter and punch again.

You will then have an oval for the bear's face, and ears for the bear's... uh... ears. Hehe.

Attach to rice like so.

Take a piece of bread and flatten it with a rolling pin or glass jar.
You don't need the whole slice, just a tiny piece. But my kids love eating bread scraps. Hehe.

Using a small circle cookie cutter, punch out two circles for eyes.

Attach to the bear's head like so.

Punch out two nori circles using a single hole puncher.
Attach to the bread circles using mayo and tweezers.

Using the HapuMogu face nori puncher #9 (available at Saizen), punch out a couple of half moons.

If you don't have this puncher, just use scissors to cut out those shapes.
The nori puncher just helps with precise shapes.

Attach those half moons to the ears like so.

Using a smaller single hole puncher and a HapiMogu face nori puncher #8, punch out more nori circles.
Apply to face to add details to the bear's cheeks.

Using the nori I used to punch out the half moons, I took a pair of scissors and cut out the bear's mouth.
I followed the shape of the half moon to help me get the right curve.

I wanted to serve vegetables and a side of cherry tomatoes with the pork adobo,
so I used three mini oval silicone cups.

Voila! My bear-y easy bear charaben! Nothing to it, right?
Served my bear-y serious bear with pork adobo, fried zucchini slices and some cherry tomatoes.

I used the following bento tools to make this charaben.

These tools are available at Saizen!
Rolling Pin, Hapi Mogu Nori Punchers, Single Hole Punchers, Silicone Cups, Cookie Cutters, Picks and Tweezers.

Because I hardly get to make my not-so-little girl bentos anymore, she got this bear-y cute bento for lunch today.

Pleased with her bento, although I doubt it filled her tummy. This is RL's small bento box after all!

For more bento fun, follow me on instagram!

http://instagram.com/momma_makes_imbento

~~~ * ~~~

Have you submitted your photo entries for Saizen's Create Your Own Bento Photo Contest? You have three more days to make them and beat their September 30 deadline! Hurry! Make those bentos and send in your photo today. You can win upto P3,000 worth of Saizen Gift Certificates!

To those asking, the photo entry should contain three elements: 
1) Your finished bento, 
2) The Saizen tools you used to make your bento, and 
3) A photo of you making your bento.

Edit these photos together to make one photo like so...

Pretend A made this bento and that photo is of her making it.

For detailed mechanics, check out Saizen on social media:

| facebook.com/saizenph
| twitter.com/SaizenbyDaiso
| instagram.com/saizenph

Create Your Own Bento Photo Contest!

Thank you to my little brother KA for
tweaking my logo for me. ©

Have you been following me on Instagram? My account @Momma_Makes_ImBento now has over 370+ followers. That much in just a few weeks, I think. So much has been happening the past month - I got to meet some kindred spirits; the girls and I put together a BentoMommas support page; we've received print and TV requests for features and tutorials; I have a one-on-one workshop planned for next week; and... I recently finalized a tie-up with Saizen (!) - yes, all thanks to my bento addiction! With all this going on, I saw it fit to have my brother make me a logo. LOL. Yep, my very own Momma Makes ImBento logo! Pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, a tie-up! Imagine that, my love for all things bento has borne fruit! So without further ado, let me get to the point of this post: Saizen is having a bento photo contest!

CREATE YOUR OWN BENTO! PHOTO CONTEST

Brought to you by Saizen, in partnership with this BentoMomma - ME!

Now's your chance to show off your bento skills! Get a chance to win P3,000 worth of Saizen Gift Certificates!

Some guidelines to take note of! 

So get those cameras ready, take photos of your bento work and send them to Saizen! Make sure you read the mechanics thoroughly. 

This promotion is open to Philippine residents only.

Good luck!

For more details, visit Saizen on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

| facebook.com/saizenph

| twitter.com/SaizenByDaiso

| instagram.com/saizenph

Disclaimer: 
The 'Create Your Own Bento Photo Contest' is a promotion run solely by Saizen by Daiso Japan. This blogger's participation is limited to co-judging the photos in order to determine the contest winners. BentoMommas' participation in this promo is limited to just BentoMomma Kaye Sy-Catral of @Momma_Makes_ImBento, and does not involve the other featured BentoMommas in any way.