On December 18, 2012 I unwittingly began the lunch bag project. It was the last day of school before the holiday break and I decided to add a seasonal theme to my oldest daughter's boring brown lunch bag.

I thought it would be fun to do some more bags for her and about a month later began doing the same for my younger daughter. Now, many years and many bags later I am still at it.

Generally, I use Sharpie colored markers to draw but I have used lots of other materials including pencil, crayon, colored paper, duct tape, paint, green beans, string, pretzels, olive oil, candy canes and rocks. I even used spray paint once but had to wait two days for the smell to subside before I could use the bags! I try to keep the time to draw under five minutes per bag although some have taken much longer.

Most days the bags get thrown away after lunch. The only record of most of them is the photograph I take every morning before school. My daughters' have kept a few that they feel are special but usually once the bag leaves the house I will never see it again.

Bon apetit!