Now that we're 92% settled in our new home with Adam, I'm ready to start working on the many blog post ideas that have been swirling around in my mind. From herbal adventures to visits from vintage blogging friends to the amazing collaborative (--->) photo shoots I've been doing lately to creating said home & garden, there's a lot to share. First and foremost though, I want to share some pictures of our beloved Suuzi here in her final couple weeks of pregnancy. She is due on June 25th and is ripe and juicy with that beautiful Mama glow.

After a handful of scheduling snafus and communications mix-ups we finally executed a long-planned photo shoot of her around her farm a few evenings ago. The images came out so beautifully that I'm inclined to believe that the earlier mishaps were some sort of divine intervention. Here she is wearing a gorgeously embroidered rainbow vintage dress from yours truly that is just perfect for pregnancy.

Suuzi embodies the spirit of the Bountiful Earth Mama more than any pregnant woman I have ever seen. It's an honor to watch her blossom into motherhood.

This gorgeous dress she scored at the newly opened NEVA CO. Artisan Boutique in downtown Nevada City. My vintage pieces will soon be featured there, and are already hanging on the racks at the also newly opened Kitkitdizzi! Downtown NC is getting a fresh infusion of new shops and cafes lately, and it's exciting and inspiring to see. New energy, growth, and life are everywhere these days.

Crimson & clover.

From planting the seed to assessing the growth, Spencer has been working like a, well, soon-to-be-father and preparing a whole new home on the farm for his budding family.

And now onto the baby shower, which happened the day before the photo shoot:

Suuzi's mother-in-law hosted in her beautiful backyard garden oasis. The ladies were all aglow with the warmth of the summer afternoon and the joy of each other's company.

Two other pregnant beauties were in attendance as well. Samantha, in the middle there, will be having her fourth baby in August, and Christy is due with her second in late October. I love all of these woman and was thrilled to be able to gather them all up for this photo!

Here's Amanda (in the cutest outfit ever) reenacting a hilarious birth scene from the classic natural childbirth video Birth Into Being. Well, the birth itself is awesome, but there are some very funny elements to the whole scene as well. In Russia in the 1980s a 4th time mama is laboring in a glass birthing tub with a sweatband around her head while her kids walk around waving sticks of incense, and she gives birth so easily and seemingly painlessly that you wouldn't know it had happened if you didn't just see through the see-through walls of the tub that a baby just came out of her vagina. Birth Into Being was updated and expanded upon in the early 2000s and is now called Birth As We Know It. You can see the scene I'm talking about (which many of the baby shower guests seemed to be familiar with) on either video. Here is the trailer to Birth As We Know It:

(BTW Nevada County peeps, Elena Tonetti, the film's maker, will be hosting a screening in Grass Valley at Summerthyme's on July 12th.)

The one game we played was a Natural Childbirth Trivia game that Suuzi wrote herself. It's so like her to make sure that not only are we having fun, but we're also learning!

Here a guest looks at the adorable gift basket that Nikiya (unable to attend) sent along with me. Let me state for the record that Grandfather Twilight is one of my all time favorite children's books, and that Barbara Helen Berger is one of my all time favorite children's authors and illustrators. (Thanks to Jen for taking some of these photos!).

I had to snap a quick shot of my gifts. First of all, can you tell I think it's a boy? Secondly, this is the neatest little book with an amazing story behind its inspiration. And thirdly, HOW RAD IS THIS LITTLE PILLOW handmade by my friend Kiya of Kiya's Naturals? Oh and fourthly- total color scheme happening! Oh okay and then fifthly, the pillow says The Winter Aconite Fairy at the bottom, and Suuzi told me about how this herb saved her life many years ago; perhaps she can leave a comment explaining more about how :-)

Next time you see a photo of Suuzi on this blog, that little baby in there will be out here!

Earth Mama Suuzi