Plumb in your Mouth

I haven't blogged about making Blondie Boy's food, but we kept it up with making our own food while we were on vacation. Since I last blogged he's tried peaches, pears and peas (eh on the peaches and pears, liked the peas) and now we've moved on to plums.




Plums were on sale for £1 a punnet at my grocery, so it seemed like a good deal. There were a lot of different ways to cook the plums, but I opted to go with what seemed like the easiest: boiling.

I washed the plums and threw them into a pot of boiling water for around 10 minutes. The water will turn from clear to a bright purpley-red.



When cooked I dunked the plums in cold water to get the skins off, but honestly they were peeling off already. A lot of the flesh came off with the skin, so I think I might try an alternative method in the future.




The plums will come apart in your hands, so take out the pits and throw into a food processor and blend until smooth. As always I put in in an ice-cube tray to freeze and store for later. I brought back trays from the US which are about 2x bigger than UK ones and a better portion size. As you can see a punnet of plums only makes 6 cubes--not a great output.





I tasted the puree and it was really tart. I decided to mix some with rice to cut the tartness, but umm you judge for yourself what Blondie Boy thought. We'll give them a try for another 4 days, but I don't foresee a success.

Smiley Happy People

For those who don't know my sister Alison is a fabulous wedding planner, event coordinator and stylist; if you are getting married or having an event check out Aviva Events--she's the best!

Well in her profession she knows some of the best photographers in the Tri-State area (OH/IN/KY) and for my 30th birthday she gifted me a photo shoot by Kortnee Kate for Blondie Boy! She also got the amazing Nancy from Brideface to make me beautiful before hand; Nancy did my makeup for my wedding and other events and it is one of my favorite treats!

I'm so pleased with the gorgeous shots that Kortnee got of Blondie Boy and of us as a family. It was a really hot day and Blondie Boy was struggling in the heat (and an unfortunate face-plant that won't be mentioned), but she got some amazing shots.

Blondie, Blondie Boy & Auntie Alie

Chillaxing (or as my Mom calls it: Someone left their baby on those steps)


Blondie, Blondie Boy & NotBlondeHusband

We call this one Nature Baby

How does he look cute even when he's crying? LOVE his Bare Knees kilt :)

Happy Family

I love how crisp and clean the shots are and the vibrant, bright colors. There are more pictures up on Kortnee's blog and I can't wait to get these up on our walls and hopefully next time we are in Cincinnati we can get more shots of the boy done. Or if Kortnee fancies a trip to Scotland (come on we're prettier than Ireland!) she's more than welcome in Glasgow!

Thank you Kortnee and thank you Auntie Alie!

Flukeing Fantastic!

Before we left on our transatlantic trip Blondie Boy was lucky enough to be chosen to test out some gorgeous Fluke clothes and products. Fluke are an online children's clothing retailer with classic, but funky clothes made from beautiful fabrics with great attention to detail and subtle styling features.

Blondie Boy was sent the Bill & Ben Baby Blanket, Whirligig Striped Short Sleeve Tee Shirt and Rintintin Long Johns. I was in love before we even opened the package as they were wrapped in adorable cartooned wrapping paper--it felt like I was getting a present from a friend!

I threw them all in the wash (they came out the same as the went in; no fraying, shrinking or discolouration) and then straight into Blondie Boy's carry-on bag for our flight to California.

We used the blanket to line the bassinet on the flight and it was big enough to also fold over on top of Blondie Boy. Now I can't prove it was the cuteness and comfiness of the Bill & Ben blanket than caused Blondie Boy to sleep 8 1/2 hours out of the 11 hour flight, but I know it sure didn't hurt!

We also used the blanket at my Mom's house and normally we wake up to find Blondie Boy with his covers kicked off, but I couldn't help but smile when I walked in to see him like this.

I think he liked cuddling the blanket in part to the different texture of the stitching on the reverse of the blanket.

The clothes were super soft and Blondie Boy looked so cute in them! I'm really picky about what I'll let him wear; I think a lot of baby clothes seem to be cluttered with unnecessary designs or scattered with branded characters. Fluke clothing is simple, but stylish and I'm very proud that Blondie Boy is a Fluke kid!

Right now everything is 50% off! If that's not a good deal, I don't know what is!

Transatlantic Blonde received this product to review.

Hup Hup!

Two times out of three Blondie Boy and his Octopus chose The Netherlands...

World Cup Prediction 1:

The Netherlands

World Cup Prediction 2:

The Netherlands

World Cup Prediction 3:

Netherlands lead and Spain win at the last minute.

My chicken's pretty funky

I've started a bunch a post this week but not finished any of them. I could have written about CyberMummy, a belated post on the birth of my faux-nephew, dieting, Blondie Boy turning 6 months or even an easy one a survey post.

Red over at Resourceful Redhead awarded me with the sunshine award, but honestly lately I've been feeling anything but sunny. It's certainly not a lack of ideas that's fueling my writer's block, but I'm pretty sure I know what it is.


I'm homesick. It normally happens at some point after we get back from the States, but this time since we were home so long it has hit me really hard. I can't get back on the same timezone and I'm just sorta in a blah mood in general and it is affecting just about everything I do.

CyberMummy: I totally appreciate the fabulous people at Emma's Diary sponsoring me to attend and I had a great day listening and learning from speakers, liaising with PR folk and meeting other bloggers. However, I didn't come away with that warm fuzzy feeling of sisterhood everyone else has been blogging about. I felt like an outsider looking in; everyone seemed to know everyone else or had just made a new best friend. Between all the back and forth on twitter and blogs popping up on lists just makes me feel like I've failed at Blogger Popularity 101.

Faux-Nephew: My best friend had her baby boy 3 weeks early and I was in the same country as her, but couldn't go and see her. Logistically there was no way I could get to DC from Cincinnati and back with a 5 1/2 month old with all the stuff we had scheduled while I was home, but I still felt ridiculously guilty that my best friend in the entire world was so close, but so far away. Even just writing this right now I feel guilty and teary that I didn't find a way to make that 10 hour drive and meet her new son. I hate that I don't know when our boys will get to meet and I know that's because I live abroad.

6 months: Blondie Boy is half a year old, W-T-F. He's following the same growth curve and now weighs 16lbs, 8oz. We had his customary photo shoot, but I just can't be bothered photoshopping in the number 6 and pulling it all together. Otherwise I love the boy to bits and he constantly makes me smile and there absolutely nothing blah about him. Trust me even his poos are blah, they are more blech to be precise.

Dieting: Ugh. We all know I've done South Beach before and it really works, but I also know that South Beach and fresh food in general is really expensive. Being on extended maternity leave means being on a budget, so South Beach isn't going to be an option. I'm going to try the Special K Diet (2 bowls a day + one healthy meal), so if anyone knows anyone at Kellogg's please hook a girl up. In general I'm not happy with my post-pregnancy body, but let's not go there.

Sunshine Award: I'm supposed to tell you ten things about me and let you know ten other bloggers I like. Honestly I think I've been honest enough in this post and I'd suggest you try any of the people in my blog roll to the right.

This isn't my typical post and I know that; hell there's only one picture and it's not even of Blondie Boy. I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer, but I am trying to keep it real. Wasn't blogging about stuff whether people like it or not one of the things CyberMummy taught us? So for those of you who hate this post, I'm sorry. I promise to post some fabulous pictures of Blondie Boy, taken by the AMAZING Kortnee Kate, tomorrow for you. See yet another easy thing I could have blogged about, but haven't.

Thank you for bearing with me and if you've ever been in a funk, especially a homesick funk, what do you do to shake it?

Happy 4th of July!

To celebrate Blondie Boy's first Fourth of July, we had an All-American BBQ complete with burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob and all the fixings. Unfortunately we had some very Scottish weather, so we all ate inside.

I was very excited to use my new USA shaped cookie cutter and even made the red and blue colored sugar all by myself :)

We had brought back some plates and decorations with us and a good time was had by all!

Home and Away

We're back in Scotland after a wonderful month in the States with my family and friends. I know I've been seriously slacking blog-wise, but hopefully things will be back to normal soon.

I've barely been back 24 hours and I'm off to London to attend CyberMummy thanks to the fabulous people at Emma's Diary. I'm looking forward to meeting lots of other bloggers and hopefully learning some new tricks to make my blog more interesting for all my readers!

This will be the first time I've ever left Blondie Boy overnight before, so wish me luck! I know I'm going to miss him, but I know he is going to have lots of fun with his Daddy watching episodes of Dr. Who on Sky+ and the World Cup.

Also, you can now find us at TransatlanticBlonde.com! No need to change your feeds or anything if you follow me through Google Reader or elsewhere, though :)