Peanut Butter and Orange bird Feeders...

Oranges Bird Feeders

The orange tree in Mia Bella Passion's garden is bulging at the seams!
In fact, all the citrus trees are loaded with fruit this year.
And every season, we eat the fruit, bake with it, juice it, gift it, 
and share it with the birds.
Homemade bird feeders
And that's what this post is all about.
Nutty orange bird feeders!
They are pretty simple to make.
In a bowl, combine:
softened peanut butter, rolled oats, crushed cornflakes
or whatever you have on hand:
chopped nuts, sunflower seeds, wild bird seed.
The more dry ingredients you use, the more peanut butter you need.
 I added some of the diced pulp retained from the scooped-out oranges, and some of the juice, too.
Mainly because the waxeye birds I am making these for,
 LOVE oranges!
Homemade bird feeders
Then all you do is stuff the scooped-out orange skins with the mixture.
Homemade bird feeders
And there you have it.  
Homemade bird feeders
This would be a great activity for the kids.
Kids love mixing messy stuff!
Messy play was always a favourite of my children when they were little, so keep this one in mind as a perfect activity to break the boredom of the summer holidays.
Homemade bird feeders
Once you have created these bird delicious treats,
 pop them out on your feeding table.
Or you could attach a string to the orange skins before filling
with the mixture so you can hang in the branches of a tree.
Homemade bird feeders
Believe me, it will not be long and the neighbourhood birds 
will be converging on these with complete delight!
These wee cuties are called 'waxeyes'.
 For those of you who are interested in more information:
 The Silvereye or Waxeye (Zosterops lateralis) is a very small omnivorous passerine bird of the south-west Pacific.
It is found in Australia and New Zealand.
Homemade bird feeders
My little feathered friends just went crazy over these Nutty Orange feeders!
I get the feeling I'll be making another batch next week,
 and the next week, and the next week!
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New Laundry Picture....

I stumbled across these FREE printables the other day 
while looking for graphics for my laundry makeover.
The laundry decor is tired.
Time to change the beach cottage styling
and create a little touch of French Country!
The first step was a new piece of artwork.
And boy was I excited to come across a blog called
'Dorothy Sue and Millie B's too'
Free bee printable
The Queen Bee Printable was perfect!
Available with a white or blue background...
(I chose white)
Or reversible graphic.
Pop along to
and have a look.
All I needed to do was print it, trim to size, and frame it!
Free bee printable
And here it is.
Free bee printable
 And here it is again on the laundry wall.
Doesn't it look cute against the blue?

NZ Blogs
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Strawberry Buttercream Frosting....

Oh my goodness...
This frosting is divine!
There's no artificial food colouring in it at all.
Only pure delicious strawberries!

Strawberry Buttercream Frosting

With beaters - whip together 1 cup of soft butter 
3 and a half cups of icing (confectioners) sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla essence
and 3-4 tablespoons of strawberry syrup.
 I made my own strawberry syrup, which is simply 1 cup of frozen strawberries that is simmered over heat until soft,
 mashed with a bit of help from my potato masher, and strained through a sieve.
Blend the leftover pulp for a fab smoothie with a scoop or two of ice cream, a tablespoon of sugar and milk.  
YUM!

So all you do is beat the butter, sugar, vanilla and syrup...
It looks a bit greyish at first.
But just keep beating it.
Until it is thick, fluffy and the palest pink!

I baked a simple butter cake to test this frosting on, and it was perfect!
It would work well as a piped frosting if you wanted to do that.

Basic Butter Cake:

125 grams soft butter, 
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
3/4 cup superfine caster sugar
2 eggs
BEAT until creamy...
then add...
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour 
and 1/2 cup milk.
Place in a greased 19 cm cake pan. 
Bake at 180 Celsius for 20 minutes 
or until cake skewer comes out clean.
Cool, then frost.

(Note: this recipe makes a small cake 
so double the quantities if a large cake is desired.)
Deliciously pretty!
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