Sewing for my little girl

I struggled making this one as the image's weren't too clear on how the dress looked on, but after googling Habitual dress, I found a good few images to help with it! I made a few changes here and there but here's the pattern I used:

http://habitual.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/habitual_simplesundress.pdf

Now this lovely top is from http://indietutes.blogspot.com/2007/07/peasant-blouse.html I spend AGESSSSS looking for a suitable little top for my daughter, she's not yet 2, and most patterns were for size 2T, this however has amazing help with the measurements. I didn't follow it properly (which is probably why the sleeves are a bit odd, but I also didn't put elastic in them like the pattern suggested) but I think it's come out lovely anyway!

Our washing machine has boken down, I'd like to say it's done well... But it's lasted less than 2 years.

Soooooooo... I've had to sew my little angel up some clothes so I can put off hand washing for a bit longer. The beautiful images above are the wonders I whipped up in the last 2 days (I also made her some PJ bottoms, which are too big, but whatever!) They've turned out well even though I'm a novice when it comes to sewing up clothes! I did make some changes here and there, but otherwise I think it all went well! So thanks for the lovelies that posted the patterns, took a while to find them, but more than pleased I did!

Chocolate & Beetroot Muffins

I've been trying to sneak a bit of an extra health boost into the whole family's diet. Since I have a love for baking muffins, and beetroot & chocolate cake I thought I best combine the two and so I searched for beetroot & chocolate muffins. I found this little gem:

http://www.coffeemuffins.com/beetroot-choc-chip-muffins/1706/

However, I can't afford chocolate chips, 79p a bag just doesn't seem worth it. And instead of roasted Beetroot, I instead used ready to eat Beetroot from Tesco, which has a lot of beetroot juice so I had to tweak the recipe to make it work. Here's how I did it

2 cups Self Raising Flour
1/2 cup Cocoa Powderead
1 cup Sugar
I used 1/3 of a cup2 Eggs, large
1 cup Milk
1 pack Tesco ready to eat beetroot (about a cup when blended)

1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Allspice

Preheat the oven to 180oC, I cooked mine at 150C because we have a microwave sized oven. Prepare a muffin tray with liners.
Blend the Beetroot and milk.
In a bowl add all the dry ingredients and mix well.
Make a well in the middle, add beetroot mix, oil and eggs.
Mix well, don't over mix or they will turn heavy.
Spoon into the cases and bake for 15-20 mins.
They are ready when they are firm to the touch.

Leave to cool, then enjoy!

My husband says they taste like dirt, but he thinks all beetroot tastes the same, it is earthy but lovely and very good for you! They're creamy, and have a lovely aftertaste but it might take a while to get used to it. My daughter loves them, and she's nearly two, and very picky, so they can't be bad!

First Ever Blog

Testing the waters, let's see if I manage to keep the blogging up!