Congrats on the Pregnancy, Kate!

Readers, it has been awhile since you’ve heard from us. The truth is that sometimes real life gets in the way…but we are back and here to tell you that the Duchess of Cambridge is officially expecting her first child.

Yes, you read that right. The heir to the throne is currently nesting nicely! St. James’s Palace confirmed the news this morning to The Daily Mail, “Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting a baby. The Queen, The Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry and members of both families are delighted with the news.”

Their website added that the couple are obviously, “delighted with the news.” Apparently is was getting a bit more difficult to keep the news under wraps, as Kate was taken this morning to King Edward VII Hospital in London with morning sickness–specifically Hyperemesis Gravidarum–where she will rest for several days.

UKate is glad to be back with you…we are now on official Royal Heir Watch 2012-13…more deets to come.

Congrats to the Windsor clan!

Happy Friday lovely readers!  What a week it’s been for Kate sightings!  We first saw Kate looking lovely in white at the Thirty Club, then saw her dressed down while she and Lupo were volunteering for the Scouts and to top it off, the Duke and Duchess looked stunning at an Olympic Gala.  What a busy week for our favorite Royal couple!  In case you missed it, here’s a roundup of everything Kate related from the past week including all the appearances this week.

Kate does an updo and stunning teal dress at an Olympic event [ Daily Mail ]

The Duchess will attend her first Buckingham Palace garden party later this month [ Daily Mail ]

It’s official – the first born of Will and Kate will get the crown, regardless of gender [Daily Mail ]

Kate and Lupo go camping with the Scouts [ PopSugar ]

The Duke and Duchess dine at the exclusive Thirty Club [ PopSugar ]

Hello lovely readers!  Hope everyone enjoyed celebrating the one-year anniversary of our favorite Duke and Duchess last weekend!

Lots of buzz this week continuing about everything from Kate’s fashion to *gasp* a suggestion she should cut her hair!  Here’s your weekly Kate roundup:

Kate’s “faultless” first year [ Telegraph ]

From blushing bride to style icon [ The Mirror ]

Nude tights sales surge thanks to Kate [ Daily Mail ]

Is it time for Kate to chop her hair? [ Daily Mail ]

The next appearance set for May 11 [ stv ]

Kate’s goes grocery and outlet shopping [ US Weekly ]

Kate and Reese - future bffs?

We’ve alwasy been huge Reese Witherspoon fans here, she seems so down-to-earth and relateable.  And now it seems that we can relate to her even more – Reese is dying to be friends with the Duchess!  So are we!

On Ellen the lovely Oscar winner talked about meeting Kate at a fundraiser for Tusk Trust in LA over the summer and how exciting it was to meet her.  Reese told Ellen ’I would like to hang out. I’m not sure she wants to hang out with me. I could see that happening. Call me. Call me anytime.’  You can watch Reese’s interview with Ellen here.

Reese also spoke about what it was like getting to meet Kate, ’She was really nice. She was lovely. She’s so composed.  She seems like such a lady and I think it’s so nice nowadays to see someone with such nice composure and carries herself so beautifully.’

We couldn’t have said it better!

Kate arrives to head back to school for the day

It’s back to school for Kate!

Another big day for the Duchess as she heads back to school for yet another solo engagement.  She was warmly welcomed into the classroom with cheers, flowers and local children waving flags.

Kate wore a Birdie jacket-dress by designer Orla Kiely which according to a spokesperson for the label “sold out in minutes.”  We aren’t surprised, what outfit of Kate’s doesn’t sell out?!  She also wore a pair of Aquatalia boots that we saw about a year ago at her first official engagement when she commissioned a lifeboat in Angesley, North Wales. The boots are from last season, but you can find the updated boot here at Nordstrom.

Kate’s first stop of the day was to The Art Room at Rose Hill Primary School in Oxford where she wore a “Miss Catherine” name tag, how cute!  She spent two hours in the classroom helping children paint characters from Edward Lear’s poem The Owl and the Pussycat.

Her second stop was to Oxford Spires Academy, which also has an Art Room.  There she had a buffet lunch of sandwiches, crisps and cakes with the charity’s staff  and heard from a few people about how the Art Room had changed their lives and helped them get on the right track.

The purpose of the Art Room is to to increase self-esteem, self-confidence and independence of children through art.

We also learned the name of Will and Kate’s adorable new cocker spaniel puppy - Lupo!  The name means wolf in Italian and a royal aid confirmed the name had no special significance other than that the couple liked it.

William, Kate and Lupo – our happy Windsor family!

Natalie Morales plays Pippa for Halloween

Hope you all enjoyed last night’s NBC Special “Inside The Royal Marriage” as much as we did!  It was hosted by our favorite Pippa impersonator, Natalie Morales, and talked with a number of royal insiders.  Natalie reported from London and Anglesey, where the Duke and Duchess currently call home.  

The special also featured interviews with people who had met the royal couple and they had nothing but glowing things to say about the royal couple, including mentioning Catherine’s “inner calm” she displayed on the Canadian tour. 

In case you missed it (or maybe just want to watch it again), you can watch the full special here at NBC.com.

The Duchess chatting with members of the press

Earlier this week, the Queen welcomed about 350 journalists and photographers into Buckingham Palace to kick-start her diamond jubilee celebrations.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were also there for the event, as well as Prince Philip, Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall.

Kate looked lovely in a green Mulberry shirt dress (currently sold out) and Prince William looked refreshed after hopefully getting some much needed sleep following his rescue of Russian seamen whose vessel sank off the Irish Sea.

In an article published about the event the Mirror called this “her chicest dress to date (Sarah Burton wedding gowns not included).”

Well done Kate!  We’re already anticipating what she’ll wear for the diamond jubilee events in the year to come!

Here at UK we love that Kate is a down-to-Earth royal and the fact that she shops at places we do (such as Zara – in pictures seen this weekend on Popsugar), but apparently not everyone recognizes her in normal clothes.

Kate goes shopping over the weekend at a London Zara store

Over the weekend the Duchess made a surprise visit to an art therapy charity and as you can seen in this picture from the Daily Mail, dressed down for the occasion in jeans and a sweater. Apparently her outfit wasn’t the Cinderella-style the kids were expecting! One youngster said, “She doesn’t look like a Princess. Where’s her dress?”

The Duchess stops for a quick pose before hopping in her car

Dressed down or not, we think she looked as lovely as usual!

Readers – you asked for it – we obliged!

We are super-excited to announce that the UKate app is live and available on the Android Market; and, of course, it’s FREE!

Get all breaking UKate news delivered directly to your mobile as we ‘Keep Up with Kate Middleton’!

For all of our fans who are iPhone and Windows phone users, no worries – we’ll have our app up-and-running on those platforms very soon and will keep you posted when they go live! Cheers!

UKate is a whimsical commentary on the looks and lifestyle of HRH Catherine Middleton, The Duchess of Cambridge – Europe’s classiest Royal. We’re following her fashion exploits while we strive to weave a dash of her style into our own worlds – wanting for Windsorness as they may be. Stop by daily for a romantical round-up of the latest looks in fascinators and other anglophile flourishes and join us as we keep up on Kate.

Kate Middleton in a fabulous fascinator

Meet Kate

Catherine Elizabeth “Kate” Middleton was born on January 9, 1982 in Reading, Berkshire to Carole Elizabeth and Michael Francis Middleton; both former employees of British Airways. Kate is the oldest of three children. Her siblings are Philippa “Pippa” Charlotte and James William Middleton.

Kate was raised in Bucklebury, Berkshire. In 1987, the Middletons founded Party Pieces, a mail order party supply company from which they became self-made millionaires.

After attending Marlborough College, Kate went on to the University of St Andrews, where she met fellow student, Prince William in 2001. The two became friends while sharing housing with a group of other students, but sparks didn’t fly until the night of a 2002 charity fashion show in which Kate took to the catwalk in a sheer black dress. Wills, in VIP seats, finally took notice when he proclaimed to his friends, “Kate is Hot!” Friends claim the two spent the rest of the evening huddled in the corner together at the show’s after-party.

It’s hard to say when the two started dating exclusively as they kept their relationship very quiet at first, but it’s likely that the romance began in 2003. Kate’s nebulous status as the girlfriend of Prince William brought her widespread media coverage and she was often photographed on her daily outings – much to her frustration.

Kate graduated from St Andrews with a degree in Art History in 2005.

In 2007 rumors were afoot that the couple had split, but they continued to be friends, and later that year reunited.

Kate is admired for her fashion sense and has been featured in several best-dressed lists. She was selected by The Daily Telegraph as the “Most Promising Newcomer” in its 2006 list of style winners and losers. She came in at no. 8 on Tatler’s 2007 list of the top ten style icons and was also featured in People Magazine’s 2007 and 2010 best-dressed lists. Richard Blackwell included her in his list of ten “Fabulous Fashion Independents” of 2007. In June 2008 Style.com selected Kate as its monthly beauty icon and in July of that year she made Vanity Fair’s international best-dressed list. Kate’s style was watched closely over the course of 2008, during which time she accompanied William to several high-profile events.

The couple became engaged during a trip Kenya in October 2010. Their new status was officially announced on November 16, 2010

Kate officially became Catherine, The Duchess of Cambridge after her wedding to Prince William at Westminster Abbey on April 29, 2011. William is second in line to the British throne (behind his father, Prince Charles), making Kate the likely future queen of Great Britain.