and the lady in black...wore white

With the marriage of one of my friends (and ex-boyfriends) coming up, my thoughts have turned delightfully to all things romantic. (friends have noticed they get more hugs and kisses, and the birds have more pink glitter bits on their heads from my smooches - poor things).

I realised I hadn't ever posted anything about getting married. Here is a pick of my wedding shoes - After first painting these (once gold satin shoes from the oppshop that I usually wore with my racy nurse's uniform for dress up parties... ) blue, things went sideways pretty quickly. . White dress, blue shoes. I thought it would look cool. It didn't.

So... I decided the day before to paint them white. This didn't work out all that well. On the day they sort of... flaked off all over my carpet as I was getting ready. Fortunately Nick, my best man, turned up with some French Champagne, which gave me the blind confidence to try some McGyver style improvement. I painted the spots with White Out and tied big white bows on them to detract the eye, distract anyone from the flarge white flakes (no grass growing up here, folks...) (It was the shoe equivilent of wearing big earrings to distract people from the fact I haven't brushed my hair.) Anyway, here's a picture of my shoe, and a shot of my best man, Nick and my bridesmaid, Jo, having a drink and a relaxing chat before getting moving, pretending we weren't all watching my shoes flake through the white, then blue and expose some (surprise!) gold...) .

I am forever grateful to these two wonderful people for helping me through this amazing but slightly scary day. I snatched an anxiety attack about five days before the wedding and when the day arrived I was feeling kind of out there with worry and discomfort.

I knew I wanted to marry Stuart more than anything, I couldn't WAIT to go on our honeymoon (to New York to see the Christo exhibition in Central Park) but all the formalities and the sense of not doing anything right, made me feel anxious and a little unhappy some days. But on the day, I was happy indeed. Eventually things worked out beautifully (although my dad was unwell on the day and Jemima, our Border Collie, ate too many amazing snacks and was sick for weeks afterwards - I called every day from New York to check on her, I love that dog) and it was a great day.

Well, nothing will ever make me forget the feeling of almost blue/white joy I felt standing with Stuart (who I'd had a crush on for ages before we actually dated) and saying precious words to each other in front of a hundred of our dear friends and family (and dog) and getting married.

I think that I am the luckiest girl in the world, not just to have Stuart, but to have my birds, my friends, my family and such a hopeful, beautiful life. I live in a great city and I love the fact that if I need to have a nap, I can. Things are simple when you're me, I guess.

My friend Anna's gorgeous young son, Tom, asked me why I put pink streaks in my hair and I said it was for the same reason I sometimes have ice cream for breakfast and weetbix for dinner, Why not? Of course, that attitude has got me in to some big pots of trouble too but it's made for some great moments in my life. This all feeds into my writing which is another reason I know I'm lucky - I get to do my favourite thing for a living.

So today's blog is dedicated to love. Love of friends, family, work, life, animals, storm clouds, flowers, waves, music, everything. I'm very grateful to have it all.

The wonderful photos here were taken by the incredible photographer, Claudio Raschella (http://www.claudioraschella.com/) except the one in New York which was taken by Stu.