I made it myself - Retro print skirt.

I have been considering for a while about making Mimi some clothes.  I always have great ideas and intentions but my confidence always gets the better of me and my planned projects slowly slip towards the back of the cupboard.    Last week whilst shopping at Bluewater I came across a range of patterns at John Lewis called burda.

They had a great selection of patterns and I finally settled on a skirt and a dress.  This week I finally plucked up the courage.  I got my new sewing machine out and made Mimi a skirt.  

I am really pleased with the outcome.  It was a really easy pattern to follow which was well set out.  I made a few mistakes (not that you would know) but it was a great project to boost my confidence on the sewing machine.  All the effort was worth while.  When I was walking into Town with Mimi a lady walked past and commented on what a beautiful skirt she was wearing.  Now I just need to pick a new material to make the next one.  I have become very inspired by retro mummy and I may even try making one as a gift for my friends little girl.  For anyone who has not checked out retro mummy it is well worth the visit.  I am not sure how Corrie manages to complete as much as she does with four children in tow and another one on the way.  It puts me to shame.  I struggle and I only have Mimi!!! Now that I have started I just need to keep the momentum up.

    

Finding the perfect meringue recipe.

Last weekend my Mum served up Mini Pavlova's as a great dessert.  What's better than crisp but sticky meringue's with cream and fruit.  My Mum picked up some great meringue nests from Marks and Spencer but it got me thinking could I make my own which taste just as good?

After some research on the internet I finally settled on a recipe I found on the Guardian Website.  In the past when I have made meringues I have used normal caster sugar straight from the bag.  This recipe requires spreading the sugar onto a tray and baking it in the oven before adding it to the egg whites.  They were remarkably easy to make.  I left them in the oven overnight on the lowest setting. 

I would have liked them to have puffed up a bit more.

 

These were definitely the best meringues I have ever made.  You can get the recipe here The Guardian: How to make the perfect meringue.  I was a bit disappointed that they didn't rise a bit more.  I think I will have another go but for the time being I am still looking for the perfect meringue recipe.

Too much Chocolate!

The Easter bunny and his Chocolate Easter Eggs have a lot to answer for.........  My beautiful perfect baby okay so maybe I am being a bit delusional has grown horns and turned into the Devil before my eyes.  I have lost count the number of times she has been on the naughty mat for not sharing, snatching things from her cousin and hitting my parents dog.  We have also been subjected to serious toddler melt downs with screaming which alternated between a youdle and a wail.  She has been quite horrid.

All that said we have had a good weekend catching up with friends and family and this year I got my act together and we made our own Easter presents.  I picked up some egg moulds a couple of weeks back in poundland.

My Weight Watchers Diet has gone out of the window this weekend!!!  I am not looking forward to my weigh in on Saturday!!!

Chocolate Fudge Cake.

Last night we had a few of our friends round for dinner and I really fancied the idea of making a Chocolate Fudge Cake.  I have tried making them before but I can never get them as moist as the ones you buy in the shops.  For a while I have been following The Crazy Kitchen.  It is a great source of ideas and inspiration for cooking with toddlers.  Yesterday I on The Crazy Kitchen I found the most amazing looking chocolate fudge cake.  It looked so delicious I just had to try it.  I was also intrigued as the cake mixture used Greek yoghurt (one of my favourite foods) and bicarb of soda.

We got lovely and messy.  Mimi wasn't interested in baking yesterday until she heard the mixer going and saw all the chocolate!  She said it tasted fizzy, it must have been the combination of the yoghurt and the bicarb.

Recipe: The Crazy Kitchen

Here is our end result.  I was a bit worried when I added my frosting as it seemed really greasy (I am not sure if it was supposed to be like that) but once it started to set it disappeared and left you with a super scrummy topping.  Not only that but it was super easy to make.  Some recipes are so complex and confusing that you feel like a failure before you have even begun.
With the idea of it being served up at dinner I decided to decorate it with mini eggs for Easter.  Then I had a random idea that I could turn the eggs gold by painting them with some gold food colouring I had left over from Christmas.  I was a bit disappointed as they weren't gold gold, but I liked the colour all the same.

Yum Chocolate Fudge Cake and Whipped Cream!

The review on The Crazy Kitchen said 

 "This cake has got to be the best and one of the easiest chocolate cakes I have ever made." 

  

I totally agree, this really was the easiest chocolate fudge cakes I have made and what's more it was deliciously moist.  I will certainly make this again.

Shopping trip to Bluewater

Yesterday Mimi and I took a shopping trip to Bluewater with my friend K.  I don't know what it is about shopping but I came home feeling totally spaced out.  I am not a huge fan of shopping malls however I think if you have small children in tow somewhere like Bluewater is much easier.  There are plenty of toilets with baby changing facilities (which are spotlessly clean), lots of coffee shops and eateries which are all child friendly and you don't have to worry about putting coats on and off.  The main reason for our trip is that Bluewater has our nearest John Lewis and Space NK so I were able to stock up on a of my favourite essentials.

Eve Lom: Space NK or John Lewis online | Nars Bronzer: Space NK

For a while I have been thinking about making Mimi some clothes, I have the cutest fabric but I have been struggling to find a decent pattern that is until now.  John Lewis stock a range of burda Kids so I picked up a couple of patterns for a skirt and some dresses.  All I need to do now is pluck the courage up and get the sewing machine out!!

Burda Sewing Patterns: John Lewis (instore) | Retro apple print fabric: The Sewing Shop

We mustn't forget the dinosaur that I brought Mimi.  She makes me laugh. There she is all girly in her skirts and dresses clutching her dinosaur.  Schleich produce a wide range of great animals which you can pick up from a number of retailers including the Early Learning Centre.

Schleich Dinosaur: John Lewis

Each time I take Mimi I think to myself it will be the last time!!  Yesterday she wasn't too bad apart from a complete toddler melt down in Waterstones where she dramatically threw herself on the floor and started screaming I don't like you, wheres my Daddy, I want my Daddy.  When I tried to pick her up she went all limp and then the crocodile tears came.  I felt like a mother out of control!!!  I did eventually manage to get her into the buggy but by the end of it I too was almost in tears!!!  From previous experiences I have learnt that it is much easier if I take the bugaboo instead of the Maclaren as she drags her feet along the floor with the Maclaren and if I try to put her in it it quite often tips over backwards and is a general nightmare.  However the advantages of the Maclaren are that it doesn't take up much space and can be left in the car for emergences.

Sock Monkey

On Sunday we went to see my friends D & H who had been given a sock monkey.  I think it was love at first sight and Mimi was quite obsessed by it.  Having listened to Mimi going on and on and on about this sock monkey I decided to try and make her one.

I was quite pleased with my results.  I found a good tutorial on the internet at all crafts.  I have concluded that practice makes perfect but not bad for a first attempt and Mimi was over the moon with him!

ABC Series E

  

Buttons the Easter Bunny : Hotel Chocolate £6.50

With E week falling in the run up to Easter we have had plenty of things to keep us busy.

I carefully blew a load of raw eggs (someone has been eating lots of scrambled eggs).
Using a needle I made a small hole at one end of the egg, I then turned them upside down and made a slightly larger hole making sure that I pushed the needle in wiggling it around to break up the yolk.
Then covering the larger hole with a straw I blew the egg out of its shell.  After blowing all of the eggs I carefully washed and dried them.

Then the messy part; we covered them with bits of crepe paper and tissue and added some paint.  I was expecting to loose a few of them by over excited fingers but actually they were stronger than I thought.  Once dry we then carefully glued some ribbon on to them and hung them from some twigs we got from the garden.    I found quite a few good tutorials on the internet with Martha Stewart and Aunt Peaches for a whole host of the best tutorials out there check out babble.  However I got my original idea for our Easter Tree from this book:

Amazon: £25.00

Then with all the paint out we decided to make some Easter Cards.  Look at all that glitter!!  These were really simple but effective to make you will need:

Coloured card

Glitter

Glue

Petit four cake cases

Scissors

Paint Brush.

I made a template for the flowers which we drew around to make the flowers.  We then glued them down and used the petit four cases for the centre.

Even with all of this Easter mess Mimi had the most fun playing in a couple of cardboard boxes I got whilst I was out shopping. 

We made one into a house for Mr Doggy 

And the other one became a car.