Saturday 7 December 2013

"Natural Beauty" opening and "Fantastico" exhibition - Groningen Museum


Yesterday I attended the opening for the "Natural beauty" exhibition at the Groningen Museum, in The Netherlands. I received an invitation from my art teacher at school and was very excited when I was given it! The invitation said I was allowed to bring a plus one, so of course I brought my mum! It also allowed us to walk around another exhibition which is on at the moment, called Fantastico. 


The weather was traitorous yesterday, so I ran from the bus all the way to museum! When I got there I was very happy because it was warm and dry and I could not wait to see the exhibitions! My full outfit will be at the end of the blog post!

Throughout this blog post I am not posting any photos directly of the art because it is an exhibition you have to pay for. There are only photos of my mum and I and parts that are outside of the exhibition front door. 


We got there a little before the Natural Beauty exhibition opened, so my mum and I went to see the "Fantasica" exhibition, which I very much enjoyed! The art that was displayed was by an artist from Madrid called Jaime Hayon, who has been claimed to be one of the most acclaimed designer of his generation. I was so excited about the exhibition when I left it that I purchased the official "Fantastica" souvenir book to look at when I got home! 

The exhibition was a mix of canvas paintings, ceramics, life size sculptures and interior design. It gave me a elegant feeling because of the skilled craftsmanship of the work but also a feeling that I had entered a world flu of childlike like dreams. The art work was very quirky and fun, and reminded me of some of my work and ideas. It was full of pastel colours and each from had a different colour wall. Not just the art, but also how the work was displayed deserves a roux of applause. If you are in the area, or this exhibition comes to you, I highly advice it! 


The exhibition "Natural Beauty" is sponsored by Unicef, a global organisation that supports children's rights and helps protect them. Lots of children that were taking part in the Unicef section of the exhibition were there. Some children presented their support for Unicef and the exhibition which was interested to listen to. The museum offered places for the children to draw and had nibbles and refreshments. My mum and I had no idea what this exhibition was going to be like until we walked in. It was a mix of renaissance art and impressionism, something my mum and I enjoy which was a lovely sup prise! I was lucky enough to see work by Monet so I was very pleased! If you are in the area, this exhibition is a nice quick activity to do! 



What I wore
❯ Trousers from Topshop
❯ Black peplum top from Topshop
❯ Chelsea Boots from Topshop
❯ Necklace from Accessorize
❯ Black hand bag from River Island
❯ Jacket is second hand









Healthy Banana Bites - Recipe


When I came down for breakfast, I saw that our bananas had become overripe! I like eating bananas the most when they are between green and yellow so I was not to excited to eat them, however I really do not like wasting food. I had to think of something to do! 

I browsed through some cooking blogs and came across other people who had the same problem. I found a delicious recipe on "Alida's Kitchen" here's the link if you are interested: http://alidaskitchen.com/2013/02/17/healthy-banana-cookies/) however did not have all the ingredients and materials, and when I was making them I encountered problems with the method I was following so while I was baking I changed the method to suit me. When I had finished making them I also thought they looked more like little bite size snacks, so I have changed the name to "Healthy Banana Bites"! I hope you enjoy them! 


You Will need:
3 ripe bananas
2 cups of oats
1 cup of pitted dates
1/2 cup of coconut oil
1 tea spoon of cinnamon
1 tea spoon of honey


Step by step on what to do:

Step 1: First measure out all of the ingredients that you will need which is listed above. The coconut oil I use is hard but that does not mater because it will be heated up anyway.

Step 2: Preheat your oven to 180ºC. We have an electric oven so I preheated it to the temperate above 180ºC, which is 200ºC. 

Step 3: Cover a baking tray with baking paper and set it aside until later.

Step 4: Put all of your dates and the coconut oil (if it is hard like mine) into a blender, and blend until they are no longer big chunks. 

Step 5: Add the bananas, oats, cinnamon and honey (and coconut oil if it is runny) to the blender and mix until there are no big chunks.

NOTE: You may need to use a spoon to move around the mixture if it stops mixing. 



Step 6: Scoop out the mixture into a bowl and mix with a spoon so the ingredients are evening distributed.

Step 7: With a spoon, scoop out the mixture and form round bite size biscuits. They will not change shape in the oven so make sure they are quite tight together. This mixture was able to make 12 for me.



 Step 8: Put the tray into the oven and cook for 20 minutes in a normal oven and 22 minutes in a electric oven, until they are golden brown.

Step 9: When you think they look ready, take them out of the oven and leave them to cool down until they are cold enough to touch (this was ten minutes for me). Do not worry if some have a puddle or a caramel around them! These ones had a little more honey or coconut oil in them which oozed out and cooked. All you need to do is take it off the banana bite when cooled.

 Step 10: Take the banana bites and place them onto a cooling rack so they can completely cool down. 

Step 11: EAT! I had three when I had my midmorning cup of tea earlier today, but you can eat them whenever you like! I would not advice keeping for more than three days, so eat them quickly!


Let me know what you think of your finished result and post a picture on my Facebook page (here's the link to the page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-monicaaliceeShow-monicaaliceeBlog/213132752109503?ref=hl) so I can see how yours turned out! Bon appetite! xoxo