This little “Roshambo” mini-series from Free People reminds me of Mr B and me when we first met, and it has me feeling all nostalgic. Of course we were neither so good-looking nor glamorous nor well dressed as these two, but I know what it feels like to be living a Grand Adventure while your heart is elsewhere.

Mr B and I met in New York. I had just moved there, he was visiting on a conference. It was a beautiful, brief romance, and that scene at the end of the first Roshambo video where the guy hops into a taxi… oh so heartbreaking and familiar!

Two days after our own ‘taxi scene’, I had an email from Mr B saying he wasn’t going to let a little thing like thousands of kilometres get in the way of what could be something good. And so started a year-and-a-half of long-distance love.

I went to Peru, but I thought about him. He went to Dubai, but he thought about me. We met up for holidays together in Fiji, in London, in Australia, in New York.

And in between the travel and the longing we just had to get on with our own lives, his in Queensland and mine in New York. There comes a point, when you’re in a long distance relationship, when you just have to let go and let yourself be in the moment wherever you are. If you constantly pine for the other person, you never open your eyes to the world in front of you. That’s something in the second video that I really related to.

Anyway, this is a fun, romantic little mini-series if you’re in the mood for some light entertainment. Plus, I have to give props to Free People for such a creative way to showcase their latest collection. And it’s working, too. I want to wear ALL THE CLOTHES.

I am one. Are you? Amelie is my happy place.

The sweet gal behind the blog Happiness Is, Shannon Eileen, just got hitched. And while I’m not normally a fan of the “our love story” type movies or slide-shows that some couples like to play at their weddings, this one was cute and quirky and entertaining, and a tribute to one of my favourite movies of all time. Take a look:

Did you make a creative movie for your wedding? What was yours like? I’d love to see it! (Shannon has converted me).

This is the Airbus 2050 concept plane. When I first saw it today I thought “scary” and immediately after that I thought “sunburn.”

But before I thought either of those things I thought, “magic.”

What do you think?

Better late than never, in honour of Mr B’s and my first anniversary two weeks ago, this post is all about love, love, love. Because, dear friend, love comes in all shapes and sizes. Ain’t it grand?

1. Streethearts
Good street art just melts this heart of mine. I adore the creativity, vulnerability and generosity of street artists, and I know I’ve gone on about this on my blog many times before. So you can imagine how wide my smile was when I came across this collection of “dead hearts” by bicycle-loving, anti-asphalt Canadian artist Roadsworth.

2. Love notes
Danni of Oh, Hello Friend (one of my favourite blogs) made this book of notes, inspired by The Jolly Postman, a while back for her husband when he was having a tough week at work. She said there were about eight to nine notes in the book, with one even hidden in a tiny capsule. One day, I will do the same for someone I love. Isn’t it adorable?

3. Wooden tiebreakers
Whenever you disagree with your lover, just flip for the right to be right! This is genius. “Relationship management in a tin,” says distributor Greer Chicago. Found, as so many good things are, on Happiness Is.

4. Pop-up book proposal
When NYC student Chris decided to propose to his girlfriend Julia, he teamed up with paper artist Jackie Huang to make a pop-up book filled with moments from their relationship in which he would ‘pop’ the question. More from the book on Jackie’s blog here. I have always loved pop-up books. In fact I think I want to be a paper artist when I grow up.
(ps. Julia said yes.)

5. The glow
I can’t wait to experience this kind of love in just a few short months. This image is from The Glow, a site that calls itself “a glimpse into the world of inspiring and fashionable moms” and features gorgeous photography of mothers and their children. I don’t expect to be either inspiring or fashionable, but I’m really looking forward to becoming a mum.

One year ago on the Monday just past, I stood on the back step of my old home in Enmore, Sydney, in front of a freshly-painted blue door and before a vegetable-garden full of my nearest and dearest, and became a Mrs.

I have often pondered what that means, other than making me think Mr B’s mother is in the room whenever someone says “Mrs Bulger.” What is it supposed to mean? Why did I need it? Did I need it? Ok, why did I want it?

Mr B and I were in love and fully committed to one another long before we decided to turn our relationship into a marriage. We lived together, we owned houses together (read: we bent our backs under mortgages together). I left New York to be with him. I had been deliberately brought into the lives of Mr B’s children, and he jokingly told them to call me “Mama-Na” (still does). I believed then and still believe now that no ceremony, no piece of paper, could have made me love this family more or commit to it more fully than I already did. I was utterly entwined with them already.

And yet I did want this marriage, and I love having it. I guess I wanted to articulate promises I’d already made in private, in front of my beloved friends and family. I happily took on a new name, although that had less to do with romantic notions or patriarchy (Mr B couldn’t have cared less) and more to do with practicality, including thwarting an identity thief (yes! but that’s a story for another blog post, another time).

This has been a massive year for us, emotionally, professionally, financially and even geographically. I think both of us are still reeling from it and, despite the pending arrival of Baby B, it almost feels like the next year will be a holiday by comparison. Under all that stress and strain, we had our fair share of disagreements (oh, what a polite word that one is). More honestly, we both exhibited our fair share of childish tantrums. And yet it has been such a happy time. I feel like we have grown to know each other better, understand each other better, and become more patient and loving with one another this year. We are better at overlooking one another’s faults and each of us is better at building the other one up. I am more in love with Mr B now than I ever was.

Why is that? It can’t just be that piece of paper.

Whatever the reason, I am sure our love will continue to grow in the years to come. Certainly, we will put in the effort. But if it was to freeze at today’s levels, I still think I would be a damn lucky lady. Happy anniversary, my darling Mr B.

I met Mr B when I had been living in New York for just one week. He was there on a conference. He’d spent the past nine years based in Richmond, Virginia, but had moved permanently back to Australia a few months earlier.

What were the odds?

Two years later, when I moved back to Australia to live with him, I made him a little graphic novel of our crazy romance, for our first Valentine’s Day together. Here is the Reader’s Digest-esque condensed version.

(Sorry about the sometimes blurry text. I no longer own a scanner and these were snapped on my iPhone.)

Happy Valentine’s Day (week), all you lovers. And if you are searching for love right now, I hope you take heart from my story. You never know what (or who) awaits you in the strangest of places and circumstances!

Yesterday our daughter Emily invented a game in the garden for her little cousins. She hid bunches of flowers in vases all over our back garden, and the little ones had to search through and find them among the ‘real’ flowers. They had a ball. (This is Olivia and Mia returning with ‘found flowers’.)
Continuing the “awesome cuteness of family” theme, we had a quadruple birthday party at our house on Sunday and, not for the first time, the kids saved the day.

Aunty Alma, Aunty Bev and Baz, as well as little Mia, all turned a year older this week, so I organised a kick-arse Adriano Zumbo V8 Diesel chocolate cake for them. But after battling the Balmain traffic and lining outside in the pouring rain for over an hour, I discovered that the Zumbo folk had somehow “not received” my order, despite the giving and taking of credit card details online. I returned back to a house full of birthday-bbq-goers feeling deflated, sorry and soggy. And minus a cake.

Not to worry: Emily, Alexandra and Olivia (with a bit of secret input from Nanna) set to work and made an absolutely delicious chocolate cake that I think was better than anything Adriano could have concocted himself. This is Alexandra with the masterpiece. Did you ever see a cuter chef?
Oh and also, we got hitched. In our garden that my mother fixed up, in front of the Notting Hill blue door that my father painted, followed by 10 courses of deliciousness with a very small group of beloved family and friends at Bistro Ortolan in Leichhardt.
All in all it was a pretty darn good weekend!