Hello Forum! My name is Trish and I live along the Front Range in Colorado. I am originally from Alberta, Canada, moved to the States almost 20 years ago. I make bentos for my daughter, who is elementary school, and am looking to start making them for myself as well as I am looking as losing some weight. I really was first introduced to the idea of bento through watching Anime. It really started kicking into gear the past couple of years when my daughter complained about her school food frequently. She liked some of it, and some of it she hated. And given the price of school lunches, I thought I should start making them for her myself. Not only does she get food I trust now, and it's healthier for her, she gets food she likes. Even more so recently she has had to go through a diet change, no dairy, sugars, or fried foods. That isn't always a guarantee with school food. I know that she is getting what she needs now. It also helps she has had a lot of positive interest from classmates, and even teachers. The other students are curious as to what some of the different foods she has are, and they like some of the cuter things. The teachers compliment on how healthy her lunch is. She definitely enjoys the positive attention. My favorite time to make bentos is for holidays. I like coming up with fun things to do with them, like adding a little food coloring to the rice, or noodles, using cutely shaped cups, and making simple scenes. I am not into making charaben really, just cuter style bentos (nest with chicks, that sort of thing). It has been a lot of fun! So glad to be here and looking forward to going through all of the posts! ~Trish