Whilst out with a friend yesterday in the sizzling 103˚F heat, we both commented with excitement about the projected 30˚F drop in temperature that was forecast for today. I’ve looked forward to this ever since I saw it on weather.com ten days ago and OH MY GOODNESS IT FEELS GOOD. Grey skies, clouds and no need for air conditioning. Nicole even needed a jacket for her early evening walk. As I type this, I’m sitting in a woolly jumper (that’s British for ‘sweater’, by the way) having just eaten a mini apple pie and I couldn’t be happier, squee! Time for Autumn crafts. Time to break out the knitting, I think.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Hello Autumn

So let’s see… Baby, baby, baby, blah, breastfeed, baby, blah, baby, baby, blah, blah, baby. It’s all that I seem to talk about these days. There *is* actually more to my life than that. We have a wedding this weekend, for example. WineChris (not to be confused with FilmChris) is marrying his lady love and DrMrNin is going to be best man, so there has been a flurry of clothes-related activity going on in our house to make sure we’ve all got suitable attire. Except the flurrying is mainly to do with me as I have *nothing*, I repeat *NOTHING* to wear. Well, nothing that a) fits and/or b) is wedding-appropriate and/or c) is breastfeedable in. DANGIT, there I go again, just when I was going on about something else I turn it all round back to babies again. Sorry. But seriously, it’s not that I’m short of clothes, I have a WHOLE ENTIRE CLOSET full of them, a whole closet that I paid good money to import the contents of across the Atlantic but it’s all for narrower hips, slimmer thighs and a less than ample bosom. I repeat, *NOTHING* fits. Hopefully by Christmas it’ll be a different story but by that stage I’ll have rather missed the wedding, somewhat.

So anyway after more time than I wanted to spend trying to find something to wear this morning, I get all ready to pop Baby Peach into the car to head to the local library for Baby Storytime and Songs. It’s nice and cosy with a few other local mums and Oliver seems to like it in his own little not-really-knowing-what-it’s-all-about sort of way. So there’s me, shower: check; clothed, check; MAKEUP (woohoo): check; then there’s the baby bath: check; early morning feed: check; MASSIVE FULL-ON THERMONUCLEAR MELTDOWN OF FIRSTBORN* SON…..CHECK. Let’s just say we didn’t make it to the library this week. Ah-ha! I thought (I’m good like that), I shan’t waste the day now that I’m up, dressed and WEARING MAKEUP. So I decided to go to the shops to see if I could find a couple of cheap tops to see me through my booby phase for the coming few months and to also ger DrMr a belt for the wedding on Saturday. Lunch for me, lunch for him and an equally unenjoyable baby screaming fit later and we finally make it into the car and drive out to the store. And you probably guesssed it, the moment we stepped foot across he magic eye that triggers the automatic door, the bawling re-started. Followed by the howling. Which was promptly followed by the SCREEEEEAAAAAAMMMIIING. Chernobyl exploded all over again and then DEFCON ran out of alert statuses. Not nice.  So I grabbed what I could, bought it quickly and then ran back to the car with Grumpy McGrumpster still hollering LOUDLY all the way.

And then to top it all, when I got home I found Maddie with a whincing toothache and had to take her to the emergency dentist for a filling.

Not a fun day at all. But at least I had managed to put on some  makeup.

*actually thirdborn if you include Chester Kitten and Toby Kitten.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Thursday

“Mommmm” squeaked a tiny, little voice.
“Yes Paige?”
“Eliza says you’ve got a baby growing in your tummy and that’s why you’ve turned into such a fatso. But we all know she’s lying.”
“Why?”
“Because we all know that new sisters come through the mail in boxes.”
“But Paige, you’re having a new brother.”
“WHAT? A BROTHER? So you really HAVE got a baby growing in you?”
“Yes.”
“How is he going to get out?”
“Through my bottom.”
“WHOA. Will he still come in a box?”
“No.”
“When will he get here?”
“Any time after about three weeks.”
“THREE WEEKS?”
“Yes.”
“ARE YOU SERIOUS?”
“Yes.”
“Mom? Aren’t you supposed to get stuff for babies?”
“Umm…”
“OhMyGosh you SERIOUSLY need to start doing some shopping…“

In three weeks time I will be 37 weeks, by which stage the baby will be classed as full term and aside from some gifts from friends and family we still have yet to get anything ready. Do we have a carseat? No. Nursery furniture? No. What, not even a bassinet? No. Diapers? No. Clothes? A couple, but like I said, we’ve had gifts from friends and family. A pram? YES!!! My parents got us one at Christmas. Lotions and creams? No. Are you joking? No. So really, aside from a couple of clothes and a pram, we have EVERYTHING still to buy. It’s really about time that the shopping should begin…

And yes readers, Baby Peach has plums! We’ve known for quite a while, but wanted to make sure everyone in the family knew before I posted it here.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as The clarification

What better distraction is there than to do something completely different, so this past weekend we decided to forget all about anything house/home/appliance/sick kitten-related and headed up to Wine Country for one of the annual barrel tasting events- this time it was the turn of the Russian River Wine Road. As I mentioned previously, ventures up to Napa and Sonoma are always some of my favourite daytrips. As if the winetasting itself isn’t enjoyable enough, it’s all within spectacular scenery too.

Plus we got to have a fun day out with our old roommate, WineChris (not to be confused with FilmChris), but then a trip to Wine Country isn’t a trip to Wine Country if he doesn’t come along too- he’s a walking wine encyclopaedia

(Note DrMr’s hair in this pic- post about that coming soon, I cut it the next day).

Joyce decided that she wanted to come with us too. Joyce likes to throw parties and entertain, so she was keen to find out what she could look forward to serving her guests in the seasons to come. It was a rather blue-skied day, so she was very careful to protect her fair skin from the sun.

Barrel tasting is when you get to sample the wine straight from the barrel, before it has even been bottled, and if something particularly takes your fancy you can buy ‘futures’ which are exactly as they sound- you can pre-order wines that are yet to be bottled and released. DON’T WORRY, I USED THE SPITOON. And DrMrNin, WineChris and Joyce were all delighted that they didn’t have to draw straws to be the designated driver on this occasion. Pfft, pregnancy.

It’s always very interesting to compare wines by the same winemaker that are the same vintage and the same grape varietal, but were grown in different vineyards. Most winemakers definitely have their signature stamp on the flavours to distinguish themselves from their neighbour wineries, but the terroir (the environment in which the grape was grown) can make an incredible difference and it is this which usually gives a particular wine its special quirks. What’s even more interesting is to also do a ‘vertical’ whereby you compare the exact same wines from the same winemaker, but taste the same wines of consecutive vintages- annual variations in climate can make an incredible difference too. Barrel tastings are an excellent chance to do this as most places invariably have their current reserves on offer for taste sale too- after all, what more of a captive market is there than one with carefree inhibitions?!

We didn’t buy any futures on this occasion, but did stock up on some of our other favourites as they usually have good discounts at these events too (plus extra discounts and free entry to the event if you know people at the wineries, hee hee!). We got a particularly good deal on some of my favourite 2001s that are ready to drink right now, woohoo.

So yes, I’m pregnant and went winetasting, but like I said, I DID NOT SWALLOW (ugh, *groan*). But although I didn’t get to fully appreciate each sip, at the same time my hormone-driven-super-heightened sense of smell and taste certainly made up for it and I had a lot of fun picking out the different flavours, often noticing them WELL before the people I was tasting with. I shall probably actually miss that part of the whole baby-growing process when it’s all over, but one thing I am very much NOT going to miss is not recognising myself when I look in the mirror. Here I am at six months….

I recognise my clothes, face and hair, BUT THAT IS ABOUT IT. Just look at my boobs, they’re ENORMOUS! I also can’t wait to eat blue cheese, and wear skinny jeans, and be able to sleep through the night without having to get up 20 times to pee.

But I digress….. all in all it was a lovely day, thoroughly enjoyed by each of us. And in just a few short months I’ll at last be able to enjoy some of the wines that we bought, hooray! (Yes, I’m planning to pump so that I may partake of the odd glass of adult beverage from time to time, but that’s probably more information than anyone really needs to know…)

Yay for Sonoma trips! I already can’t wait for the next one

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as A trip to Wine Country

Now onto the other things that I’ve been up to over the past couple of weeks when I haven’t been busy or tending to the kittens… Firstly there was FilmChris’ and VanderKitten’s Supercool Superbowl party the other weekend- my second American Superbowl experience (woot!) and I understood as little about the game this time as I did the last I did enjoy the 3-D commercials though, very clever.

Then there was a trip up to Wine Country, always one of my favourite outings.

A group of college girls gawped and me and spoke in VERY LOUD WHISPERS condemning the fact that I dared even set foot into an establishment serving alcohol in my pregnant state, but hey, a girl is allowed to swirl the glass and sniff it even if she doesn’t swallow!

They were probably all experts in raising children too, I will have to hunt them down next time my child is scareeeeeeeeming and I can’t get it to stop.

Speaking of children, or should I say plastic ones, Nicole came along for the ride too. She likes the scenery up there.

She wasn’t allowed to taste though, so ended up getting a bit bored having to wait around for us (what is it with Moofs and their short attention spans?!).

And as for the other main reason why I’ve been busy of late (well, besides nursing the kittles……), WE’VE BEEN HOUSEHUNTING! But so far without success.

Now back to my kitties… Please keep your fingers crossed for us tomorrow! I would give anything right now to be told that Toby has herpes and not this horrible FIP

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as In the meantime…

Yay! Christmas is almost here! This weekend was a flurry of festive activity, the decorations went up, Christmas parties were attended, and some christmas shopping was got underway too. Paige, Meredith and I attended our very first Blythe Meet in San Francisco and had a completely super time meeting lots of other Blythe folk and their girls. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay until the end, but it was probably just as well as Paige was slightly overwhelmed by the whole affair, turned a shade of pale that I hadn’t seen on her before, and became VERY shy. I’m sure she’ll be better next time.

Meredith on the other hand was as bubbly as ever…. yes, yes, I have yet to formally introduce her by way of updating my meet the girls page, but we have yet to venture out for a little photoshoot. I must introduce Lily Blue at some point too, and do a page for the Moofs. I will have to sort through some photos when I’m back at Christmas. But in the meantime, that’s Meredith on the right. She’s quite a mischievous girl, and is always bursting into fits of giggles, as she is in the photo above. That’s her to a ‘t’- mid laugh.

So anyway, from the Blythe Christmas Party, we caught the train back down south to the 5th Annual Holiday Party of Vanderkitten and Film Chris who are not only our friends but for the last couple of months have been our neighbours. Fun and merriment was had by all and it was a great way to get into the holiday mood. Too bad DrMrNin couldn’t make it as he had to get some samples processed at work, but he came back with a happy look on his face- the look of a satisfied scientist who has just got some good data is very easily recognisable- so it wasn’t all that bad in the end.

Yay for the holidays! I love this time of year

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Oh Christmas Tree… (day 214)

… a very Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here with the rest of her ‘father’s’ family in Michigan.

Enjoy the turkey feast

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Cecily wishes you

November is quite a little speed freak. She’s also excited to be seeing Auntie Erin in a couple of hours.

Patience little one, we’re almost there!

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Faster Daddy, go FASTER!

After five happy days in the French Capital we were due to return to England on Friday but obviously that didn’t happen and we ended up having to extend our trip. Damn shame, eh? I mean of all the places to be stuck

Anyway, we’re safely back now and actually managed to return on the first Eurostar out of Gare du Nord this morning. All praise to Eurostar at the French end- the whole operation was super efficient, we were extremely well informed throughout and we even got a free breakfast before we boarded. And we had absolutely no trouble getting refunds on the emergency train tickets to Calais and the Sea France ferry to Dover that we’d booked the day before (and making those alternative arrangements was super easy too). Even getting the new Eurostar tickets was a cinch- we turned up at the station this morning and within minutes had new boarding cards in our hands for a train that was due to depart 20 minutes after that. That’s even faster than a regular day!

The journey back took a little longer than scheduled- there was a 30 minute wait on the tracks to enter the tunnel at Calais and the train went through it at half speed through- and there was a smell of burning and chemicals when we entered the tunnel, but that was kind of to be expected and made the journey all the more interesting. Apart from that it was business as usual.

So what did we do with ourselves on our extra day? Well, we got to see the Pope which doesn’t happen every day. Like I said, there were a lot worse things that could have happened….

And Amélie Chocolat got to see him too

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as There are worse things that could happen…

(Click to enlarge)

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as After WEEKS of deliberation…

And biscuits.

Little does she know that her whole world is going to change a month from now. I have still yet to break to the news to my girls

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Clemency is settling in very nicely

Squee! A DOLLY

We then jumped in the car and drove to Highclere Castle in Hampshire. Of course I had to take the new girl with me please meet Avril LaBean.

It was a wet day for the most part, but I think that added to the atmosphere of the place. I think this is the best weather that Summer can muster this year. Here’s how Highclere looked for most of the afternoon. Grey skied, but rather nice in an imposing sort of way.

It might remind you of the Houses of Parliament in London (where Big Ben is), but that’s because it was designed by the same person. Highclere is the ancestral country home of the Earls of Carnarvon, the 5th Earl being the same Earl of Carnarvon who purloined unearthed the contents of Tutankamun’s tomb, and various other ancient Egyptian artefacts (that’s the british spelling, btw).

There’s actually a small museum in the basement ‘proudly’ displaying various relics from other shrines and lesser tombs including a sarcophagus that was discovered by the man, having been undisturbed for thousands of years complete with wreaths of cornflowers surrounding it in situ in the tomb in Egypt. Not only does the specially built tomb now lie empty, with the cornflower wreaths no longer there either, but the coffin was opened, and the poor mummy inside was unwrapped completely and the bands of cloth that carefully wrapped her up for all that time are now draped next to the coffin. As for the poor girl herself, there was a photograph of her next to  the sarcophagus and she’s now probably in a drawer somewhere. So much for a ritual burial.

Outside the weather cleared for a bit and we were able to enjoy the pretty gardens. The lavendar was out. I love lavendar, it’s one of my favourites, I’m going to plant it all around the garden when DrMr and I have a place of our own. I like how when you brush past it it manages to fill the air.

All the pretty summer flowers were out too….dripping in the rain, alas, but again it added to the charm.

But then the rain came down and we had to run under a tree for shelter. It was a good opportunity to all squeeze together for a family portrait though. This is definitely one for the memory album.

All in all, a lovely day out. And my birthday girl enjoyed herself too. We actually timed our journey home well, as the rain got heavier as we drove back. By the end of the trip it was POURING outside.

And my poor little bean *really* didn’t want to get out of the car.

But I managed to talk her around in the end. Besides, she wanted to meet the contents of the other birthday parcels.

More dollies   Meet Clemency and Winona.

And then we had cake. Following the ‘events‘ of my girly pink cake with fluffy pink buttercream frosting, I decided to avoid doing a sandwich, so I played it safe and made a traybake instead, a yummy wholemeal cake with fluffy yellow vanilla buttercream frosting and white chocolate buttons on the top.

Why wholemeal? Well it’s healthy of course, and when something is healthy, it means that you can eat LOTS of it without feeling guilty

I’m actually rather partial to wholemeal cake in general, as it has a lot more substance and bite to it, and isn’t so sweet. It really is delicious. It’s possibly one of my favourite cakes. Wholemeal flour is great for coffee cake too. A real savoury treat.

All in all a very lovely and delicious birthday celebration:D

(Hopefully tomorrow night there will be another cause for celebration too – it’s already too late, so I’ll catch up with my 365 then too…)

*******

PS A lot of people come to Peachy Hollow looking for a buttercream frosting recipe, so here is how I make it, it is actually very simple to make, with very simple ingredients:

Take 6 oz soft butter and 12 oz icing sugar (that’s about enough for a single layer 8-9″ round cake, so adjust accordingly in those proportions), and beat together with a hand mixer until very light and fluffy. The longer you whip it, the fluffier it becomes, and the fluffier it gets, the less sickly sweet it tastes. You can also add a splash of vanilla essence or lemon juice to zazzle it up a bit too if you like.

See? Easy! Enjoy, and happy baking!!
xo

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as A special day

My day began with presents…

Two presents!

TWINS! SQUEEEEE!!! 

A Blythe Prima Dolly 2 Aubrey (on the left), and a Blythe Prima Dolly 2 Aubrey encore (on the right).

And then I got some flowers…

A dozen red roses, more squeee!

Later in the day I went out and bought myself some special treats…after all it was my wedding anniversary  

Vegetable curry and mushroom pilau rice (microwavable which was naughty, but it saved washing up), a mini bottle of champagne, pretty little cupcakes, the new Hello! magazine featuring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie with their twins (woot!! and they look exhausted in the pics, btw), and a cheesy chick flick DVD.

Then I put my flowers on the table in the garden, and had my curry dinner…

All alone…

All by myself on my one year wedding anniversary..

But of course I had my new twins to keep me company. Please meet Felicity and Penny Gigi

(encore on the left, original on the right)

It’s hard to think that 365 days have passed, but they have. 

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as One year

Once again this past weekend it was my favourite part of the month, charity sale saturday! This time I picked up a prim and proper teadress and a flouncy petticoat, all for the princely sum of practically nothing. Marvellous. I love this sale. Because it’s now summer, they’ve opened up the gardening stall which is always one of the best bits as it has to be one of the prettiest market stalls there ever was, in a tumbled down old brick potting shed, all overgrown with climbing plants and as rustically perfect as can be. It even smells how I want it to. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t that pretty, but it didn’t deter the shoppers.

But the weather *IS* deterring my girls…

They don’t really like the rain. Poor Cecily spent most of the weekend peering out of the window at the outside world. She especially isn’t allowed to go out in the damp, not with her weak chest, I dread to think…. So far this summer she seems to have been ok- I’ve kept her in a thermal vest throughout and it’s done a stirling job.

They were also a bit bored as what with all my business of late, I haven’t spent an awful lot of time entertaining them. I’m awful. But THE OFFICIAL PACKING HAS BEGUN!! This weekend I purchased two giant vacuum trunks (rather clever things, I must remember to tell you more about them) into which many of my soft, compressible worldly possessions are being compacted. This includes my precious yarn stash, and my precious fabric store (EEEPS!) but I’m making sure to leave out a couple of projects that will see me through to the end of the year when the ship will finally sail into port and I can get it all back. I even got special packing supplies for all the girls’ clothes and I suppose I could have kept them busy by getting them to pack their things too, but I’m waiting for all our visas to come through before I break the big news (to be on the safe side).

On the subject of girls… my poor orange haired Duna Moof still has no name and it’s been weeks now. Some girls are far more difficult than others, and she’s one of them. I shall have to think of one soon though, especially as I have to get her passport sorted out. Any ideas?

I’ve thought of a couple of names for her, but none of them seem to stick. My poor sweet girl, she has to have a name soon… Natalie or Phoebe, perhaps? What do you think?

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Busy as a busy bee

On Saturday the weather was really rather damp and hot and as tempting as it was to be lethargic, we went out to a garden centre for a change of scene. I’m really not into going to the shops these days, I have far more fun playing around outside. Joyce came with me because she wanted to look at the bedding plants.

Joyce is very into gardening and knows all the different Latin names of all the different plants. She is going to be an extremely useful person to have around when we buy a house of our own in California. I may even leave the whole of the garden planning to her. Now that’s a jolly good idea actually!

I also discovered Breezehouses.

Should I ever I get rich or win the lottery or something, I am SOOO getting one of these for the garden. This photo doesn’t do it justice at all. Their website is much better. Unfortunately they’re about the same price as a small car …hence the prerequisite of me being rich before I get one.

Sunday was a day of play and I drove out to a lovely country pub and met some good friends for lunch.

It was very exciting because I found out that my friends are expecting a boy, squee! This means that I get to go out and buy some nice blue Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and start work on some booties before the arrival at the end of November, even more squeee!

The pub was lovely, I’m going to miss this sort of thing when I’m away but I’ll be able to come back and visit. We even had a famous person on the table next to ours…. Carol Decker from 80′s pop band T’Pau. She was drinking tea at one point, so it was hard to avoid round after round of rather bad “China in your hand” jokes. Thankfully I don’t think she heard us, hehehe.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as A rather nice weekend