Spinach, Cheese & Corn muffins

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In the weeks after my recent op, I had many friends drop around with meals and goodies with I was extreeeeeeeemely grateful for!  The biggest surprise winner for my kids were some muffins made by my friend Anna.  I mean, they had green stuff in them and hers had three times more and in much larger pieces than mine in the pic above!  They chose them over her delicious handmade sausage rolls and had a couple each!

SPINACH CHEESE & CORN MUFFINS

2 cups SR flour
1 can of corn kernels
1/2 cup grated cheese
1/4 cup of chopped chives
2 cups of roughly chopped spinach
1 cup milk
1 egg
80g melted butter
2 tbs polenta

1.  Turn oven on to 200 degrees celcius.
2. Grease 12 cup capacity muffin tin.  Or just use muffin cases.
3. Combine flour, corn, cheese, flour & spinach in a mixing bowl and make a well in the middle.  
4. Combine milk, eggs & butter in a jug and pour into the well.  Using a wooden spoon, mix together until just combined. Try not to overmix (difficult with kids involved!)
5. Spoon the mixture into the muffin tins and sprinkle with polenta.  (The kids love this bit).
6.  Pop in the oven for 20-25 mins.  

They are particularly delicious fresh out of the oven with lots of butter!

Just like these, these & these lunchtime winners, they freeze well and are great to bring out and reheat when needing a yummy lunch or snack.



We have made them a few times since and they are still a hit.  

I always have lots of eager & adorable helpers in the kitchen.  


Can’t seem to get away with cooking on my own.  Is it the same at your house? 



For more easy peasy recipes, head over here.

A Fireman Party

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A few weeks ago, my adorable nephew turned 4 years old and celebrated with the best fireman party ever!
Popcorn cones
 
Water bottles

Red velvet & chocolate cupcakes made by the highly talented Cathie, who was also responsible for the amazing cupcakes at Ebony’s farm party.  

I love how she did the strawberries!

Firetruck cake meticulously decorated, once again, by the birthday boy’s father.
Pin the hat on the fireman
Fireman tattoos

 but the absolute highlight of the party was a real fire engine that came and took the kids for a ride around the local streets. 

Very well set up and the kids LOVED it!
Purely set up for parties – even a photo booth in the back!

These gorgeous vintage firetruck printables used throughout the party, along with the invitations, were purchased from here.
A very happy little fireman!
For more kids party ideas, you might like a squiz at these.

SNOWDROPS & STUFF

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As has become a tradition at our house we’ve been experimenting with a few early spring Snowdrops.  Popping them in food dye and waiting for the colour to travel up the stem to the petals.  Never gets old.  It also works on celery and apparently with carnations.

If you are after some more fun outdoor winter crafts you can find two more Frog, Goose & Bear tutorials on Kidspot for Fairy Garden Terrariums & Fizzy Chalkpaint.

There is now a Frog, Goose & Bear facebook page if you’d like to keep up to date with all things Frog, Goose & Bear.
Olympic Opening Ceremony tomorrow!!  Might even have to get into the spirit and get the kids hyped by printing up some these adorable Olympic Printables from Tinyme.

Enjoy your weekend!

MANDARINES

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What should I do with my hundreds & thousands of sweet & ripe mini mandarines that are growing on the two trees in our front yard?  


Do you have any recipes to share?  I can’t think of a single one, so we’ve been eating them by the bucket load and giving away bags full every day.  Hundreds remain.

Do you say mandarines (man-dah-reen) or mandarin (man-dah-rin)?  Is it an Aussie thing or a state thing?  Or am I in the minority having called them mandarines for my whole life?

After typing it in the latter way, it seems there are quite a few out there after all that might be worth a try!


*That last pic is of the most recent fairy garden.  

MY upcycled tshirt CREATIVE SPACE

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I’ve been doing quite a lot of creative stuff over the last couple of months, just haven’t managed to blog about it.  This is one of my favourites.  A scarf made by recycling a t-shirt.

I have spotted them on quite a few places over blogland & pinterest and was keen to give them a try.  My first couple of attempts were not so great, but after some tips from a super stylish friend, I’m very happy with the current design and have started giving them away as gifts.  We made them at MOPS last term also and they were quite the hit.

It’s a super quick & inexpensive gift and doesn’t involve any sewing at all!


I didn’t have any old t-shirts, but I purchased some XXXXL t-shirts (the larger the better) from Kmart for less than $5.  
I have been meaning to write up a tutorial & take detailed pics and I’ll let you know when I do, but, basically it is made by cutting an old t-shirt horizontally into one inch strips, stretching each strip slightly till it starts to curl and then tying each strip into a knot to form a loop.  I used fabric from one of the sleeves, cut in a long rectangular shape, & wrapped it around the joins and just tucked it in.*
Joining in again today with Creative Spaces over at Village Voices.  

Have you tried making one of these scarves or recycled a piece of clothing and made it into something else?
UPDATE: I have now written up a full tutorial of how I made this tshirt scarf.  You can find it over here.



P.S.  I’ve started a Frog, Goose & Bear facebook page if any of you are interested in getting updates on my blog, craft tutorials, kids parties, markets, recipes, etc. via facebook.

* If you follow these instructions or these or these you should be fine.  Mine is roughly based on these.

MINI FAIRY GARDEN TERRARIUMS

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Yes, it’s been a while…

Just a whole lot going on over here at FGB headquarters.  Not the least of which a rather major hernia op and it’s recovery that has taken me a little by surprise and landed me on my backside along with a yearning for a much slower pace of life.  I am so grateful for the kind support of family & friends in the form of delicious dinners and most of all to my Mum & husband who have taken on quite an extra load.  Thank goodness for the school holidays and the slower days they bring.  We are cherishing them.  

This is what we got up to over the weekend…


What to do when the dampness of winter is creeping into your pavers?  Make mini fairy gardens of course!  I distinctly remember from my own childhood that fairies have quite a fondness for moss.

There are tutorials a-plenty on pinterest, but we found this one particularly simple and easy to follow and we happened to have everything we needed!

First we found some pebbles from our driveway & popped them in the bottom of our jars.

Then a layer of activated charcoal.*

Then a layer of soil.

And finally a layer of moss.

So that’s four layers – pebbles, charcoal, soil & moss.  All for drainage, etc so the moss will (hopefully) survive.  We gave it a little spray of water when we were done.
Then it was time to add a touch of ‘fairy’.

We had a small amount of clay left over so we put our hand to making toadstools.  We pushed a small toothpick into the clay to join the top to the stem and left the pointy end out to help it stand in the mossy garden bed.

We painted them red with white dots, of course.

Then added them to the fairy gardens, along with some pebbles, handmade clay signage
and miniature toys.

The kids were thrilled with their masterpieces!


 Some nasturtium umbrellas in case it rains.


We did add lids to ours later to save on watering and they are now being kept out of direct sunlight.

Have you made terrariums before?  Or fairy gardens?  How did they go?

For more kids craft ideas to occupy your kids these school holidays you might like to have a squiz at the FGB kids craft page.

* yes, we actually had that laying around!  Leftover from the filter of the abandoned fish tank of the long since deceased Fishy & Bishy.

The Winner is….

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And the winner of the Frog Goose & Bear Handmade Giveaway is….


Catherine from A Time to Create!


I am pretty stoked that Catherine won as she has been a reader of FGB from the early days and I have always enjoyed reading her blog.  It is a lovely place in blogland that is well worth a visit.

Thank you so much for all of the lovely & encouraging comments about Frog Goose & Bear and the suggestions & support for an online shop.  Truly appreciate! 

Icecream in a Bag & Pasta Jewellery!

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Pretty chuffed to see my tutorial for making ice-cream in a bag featured on the home page  over at Kidspot today!  Head on over here for the deets on making your own.



You’ll also find there another FGB tutorial, featuring the fabulous Frog, on how to make your own coloured pasta jewellery!


Or for more ways to amuse the kids this weekend, you might like to hang out at the FGB kids craft page. 

Another Sock Monkey…

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Meet my latest sock monkey.  

Aptly, and rather embarrassingly, named “Mummy loves you” because quite frankly it took so long to make, Mummy certainly must love you to make one of these!  

As you may have realised, with all of the quick and simple crafts on this blog, I am a big fan of a craft that can be completed in under an hour!  That way you have something to show for your efforts, you’ve had your craft fix, accomplished something and can move on to the more exciting tasks of folding the washing, but I just couldn’t resist these little cuties. 

To be honest, it doesn’t really take that long.  You probably could do it in a few hours, or in my case more than a few nights in front of the telly, it really just took me a while to get around to it!  You might remember the one that I made last year for a friend….. it’s been promised since then!  I have since made three and the other two are now all bally and loved to pieces, reminding me of one of my all time favourite story books.  


The feeling of accomplishment having completed a slightly bigger than normal craft is definitely worth it!   If you’d like to give one a go – it’s made from a pair of socks, 2 buttons and some thread (seriously!) – check out this very well written tutorial.
Linking in today with the new home of our creative spaces over here.
Back to that pile of washing… or should I say mountain… I’d much prefer to be making monkeys from my socks rather than folding them…. problem is you need a matching pair and they are few and far between in this house!
What creative pursuits have you been up to lately? 
Do you prefer the quick and easy craft or the slow and satisfying?

Last Minute Mothers Day Printables

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As has become the tradition on this blog, here are some last minute mothers day printables to brighten up that package or that table this Sunday…

You might like these babushka candy wrappers from funkytime, these Adorable free printable cards from tinyme or these gorgeous printable pics from colour me there.
Or alternatively, you might like to check out the last two years, much larger & still valid, mothers day printable collations here.

What are you up to this Mothers Day?

I’m very intrigued to see what comes home from the mothers day stall this year and am very much looking forward to all of the beautiful creations that have been made over the last weeks.

P.S.  I’m having a giveaway…. head over here to enter!

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