MGS04 Arts Festival

I have always been involved in the creative arts, since I was a little girl. For years, we would go off to the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, South Africa and I would become completely engrossed in all things creative and artistic for the entirety of the festival. My passion was always the performing arts.

In fact, I did my audition for a BA in Theatre and Performance (at the University of Cape Town) at the arts festival. It is a very special place for me; and something that I miss every June.

So you can imagine my excitement, when I saw that there would be an Epsom and Ewell arts festival in 2016. Coincidentally, it is also happening in June; and will be the first year (of many, I am sure) that Epsom and Ewell will host such a festival.

On Saturday, I met with the committee, for a volunteer meeting - to hear all about the exciting events and performances that will be taking place. It will be filled with visual arts, literature, musical performances and theatre. Their "vision is to restore the arts to their position as a driving force in our community; showcasing talent, building sustainable businesses and inspiring the next generation".  Further information is available on the MSG04 website or on their Facebook page.

Epsom and Ewell is such a culturally rich and abundantly beautiful borough, filled with endless opportunity and inspiration; and I am looking forward to seeing how the arts festival encapsulates all that Epsom and Ewell have to offer.

The MGS04 Festival will be taking place from Friday, 24th June until Sunday, 26th of June at various venues around Epsom and Ewell. 

Activity Review: Arty Crafty Toddler

Today, my little man and I joined the lovely Becky at an Arty Crafty Toddler class at All Things Nice in Ewell Village. After grabbing a fab cup of tea in the cafe, we were called in to start the class.

Becky, a mum of two and registered child-minder, set up the classes as she knows just how difficult and stressful messy-play can be. Her and I were chatting today, and she said: "Often it takes hours to set up a messy-play area at home, and your children are interested in it for 5 minutes. And then you still have everything to clean up."

At Arty Crafty Toddler, Becky takes the hard work out of it; and children (and parents or carers) are just left with the fun part. Children are encouraged to play and experiment, while learning. As Becky says: "it's about the process not the end product".

Every week she prepares a different theme - this week it was a beach/ sea theme, and we were so lucky to have sunny weather for it too.

Activities included sand play, flip-flop printing, fish painting, making starfish and a "real-life" rock pool with fish and sea animals. There were also books, relating to the theme, around the room; and occasionally Becky would read to the children while they were playing. Some would stop and get involved in the story, while others just enjoyed listening.

The whole session was quite therapeutic and rather relaxing, considering there are so many toddlers in one room. :)

Becky has a foundation degree in Early Years, NVQ, training in Montessori and Hospital Play, and is first aid trained. So you are in VERY good hands!!!

We loved the class and will definitely be returning.

Further information:

Contact: Rebecca Browne
Telephone number: 07956469340
Website: Arty Crafty Toddler
Facebook page: Arty Crafty Toddler
Venue: All Things Nice in Ewell Village (90 The High Street, KT17 1RE)
[You can find All Things Nice on Facebook HERE]
Parking: There are parking spaces on the High Street, and two paid car parks just off the High Street. Parking in the car parks start at just 30p for the first hour.
Classes cost £6 and run from 10am - 11am

Vegetarian Quiche Recipe

I took out some shortcrust pastry on the weekend, to make a breakfast quiche, and then promptly forgot about it. So this morning, my littlest helper and I whipped up a delicious vegetarian quiche for lunch.

His favourite part was mixing the eggs, and he kept fetching clean forks when his got a little mucky. For some reason, although my children are hardly ever spotlessly clean (I do try to keep them relatively neat and tidy), they have a thing about dirty hands; and I guess the dirty fork, wrapped in his little chubby hand, was just not doing it for him.

So, back to the quiche. It was delicious, and super easy to make...

Here's the recipe:

• Package of shortcrust pastry - I used shop bought, because I had it out.
• 4/5 eggs
• Milk
• Herbs
• Salt and Pepper
• Cheese - I used Leicester (cheddar would work too)
• Any ingredients that you love in your quiche. We usually love a cheese and bacon quiche, but I didn't have bacon. So we had broccoli, red pepper, mushroom and spinach in ours. Super YUMMY!!!

Method:

• Pre-heat the oven to 200°C
• Roll our your pastry and place it into an oven-proof dish. Make sure that the pastry isn't too thick - I made that mistake. It tasted good, but wasn't as 'crunchy' as quiche bases usually are. 
• Cut up and place your ingredients onto the base.
• Mix the eggs into a measuring cup (try with 4 first), add milk up to the 280ml mark. Add herbs and salt and pepper and pour on top. If the egg mix doesn't fill the dish up, mix another egg with a splash of milk and pour it in too.
• Sprinkle with grated cheese and cook for about 30 minutes. 

Serve with a side salad, or just on it's own. 

Kalli x