We were together. I forget the rest.

Hey there, my favourite ladies! Have you seen the movie Six Days Seven Nights yet? It's one of my favourite feel-good films: a tropical location... a sparky, comical, bickering romance... pirate chases... and Harrison Ford at his gruff, heroic best!

There is one scene that has always struck me very deeply: at night time, falling asleep by their bonfire, Anne Heche snuggles into Harrison Ford's chest and he wraps his arm around her. And she sleepily murmurs:

"This feels good... And safe - this feels good and safe."

That was something I always wanted - to feel that way in someone's arms.

Things have been tougher lately, and sometimes I don't understand. But if there is one thing in all the world I know, it is that I feel good and safe in your arms. More than anywhere else I can ever imagine. I love you, and it will be alright.

"My broken arms heal themselves around you."

-Galway Kinnell

Love, coconuts and kisses xxx

And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies...

...I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer."

-F Scott Fitzgerald

Can you believe it, amigo?

This Friday, I don a fur-lined gown and graduate from the University of Cambridge, with a First in Theology. And Sparkles & Crumbs - and all of you, my darlings - have seen me through it, every step of the way!

How have I been celebrating in my online absence, you ask? Well, by drinking plenty of champagne...

Frolicking with friends and having our fortunes told...

Playing Piggy In The Middle in the outdoor swimming pool...

...Having strawberries and Pimm's from 9 in the morning at the infamous Trinity Hall garden parties, with the visiting Camerado and my beloved Boy!...

[Don't you just love his Boat Club Captain blazer! Very Great Gatsby, non?]

...And, of course, The May Balls! Events that utterly epitomise the ethos of Sparkles & Crumbs... fabulous dresses, face painting, fireworks, fairground rides, great friends, chocolate fountains, magic shows, Truly Medley Deeply, champagne on tap and a touch of Narnian royalty [read on for an explanation]... shameless decadence and escapism!

The camerado joined us for her first ever May Ball at Emma... what do you think of our dresses?

[Finally getting to don my Manoush dress and golden tiara! I was going for 'Fairy Queen...']

The Camerado plays magician's assistant!

WE SPOTTED KING EDMUND!!! Well, Skandar Keynes, who played him in the movies... can you see his [rather terrified] eye?!

The amazing Alice-in-Wonderland-esque shisa tent... I got in trouble for clambering around in the trees!

...And then for a slightly more low-key evening at the Trinity Hall June Event... sort of!

[What do you think of my purple draped Catherine Malandrino dress? I snagged it for £25 - retailing at about £400!! A Sparkles & Crumbs steal, I say!!]

...And to top it off, The Boy took me to see Kings of Leon in Hyde Park! What a week!

And the best cause for fireworks of all? I get to come back to Cambridge for another year, and an MPhil on the Jewish legends of Lilith and the intricacies of Augustine! Joy!

It's a rainy day and I have plenty of posts coming up for you, my peppermint candy canes! And to every one of you: thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for seeing me through my degree.

All my love, beach balls and Thai take-outs xxx

But don't be shy, be brave, little champion

Whenever I feel thrown off course or unsure of myself - whether the cause is a faltering friendship, a bump in the road of one's romantic relationship, or simply a lack of direction - I find that the best way to restore my sense of who I am is to look through old photographs of myself when I was very small. For my 21st birthday, mia madre put together a beautiful scrapbook of her memories of me growing up, and now I turn to it whenever I feel a little shaky...

"Looking through the photos you find in my drawer,
Laughing so hard you're rolling around on the floor...






...At all the bad haircuts, the smoking cigarettes,
The restless romantic, trying hard to impress...

...Well, that's just me before we met,

That's just me before we met...

[With my papa, my baby brother and my bear-I love this picture!]

...Putting down the photos you look up at me,
Enjoying the thought of the person I used to be,
The things I was proud of, the things I regret,
Some things I remember, some things I forget...

...Well, that's just me before we met,
That's just me before we met...

...Well, I've always had a wild imagination,
And you see through the heart,
Which I know can be a wild combination,
Like a flame formed from a spark,
But don't be shy, be brave, little champion,
It's better to live than to hide,

Well, that's just me before we met,

That's just me before we met."

-I find this song so incredibly poignant. In part because it reminds me how different everything was before The Boy arrived, and how he changed it all, but mostly because it reminds me of four-year-old me. The little girl who woke up every day demanding which friends she was going to visit today, and who looked forward to a life of fancy dress, of having tea in the treehouse with her grandma, of waltzing around the living room to the 'Beauty and the Beast' song balancing on her mama's feet. The little girl who wore a Superman costume to nursery every day, to make her brave.

Sometimes, it helps to get back in touch with that little girl for whom everything was possible - whose mind was so full of new games to play and which ice cream to choose, whose heart was too full of daydreams and belief in faeries, that there was no space for even a moment of doubt that life would not work out for her, that she would not be happy.

I hope I never forget that, however deep down, I am still that little girl - a brave little champion.

"My favorite outfit I’ve ever seen was on a six-year-old boy. One morning I was walking to get a coffee and I saw this little boy and he had on beige corduroy pants, little work boots, this cool knit cap and this perfect little red down vest but his shirt was a Spider-Man costume. And I thought, ‘Damn, that is the best.” Like today he felt like, ‘You know what? I’m going to be Spider-Man today.’ He’d obviously put himself together with the things he loved and couldn’t have been prouder or happier. He totally summed up how we all should feel when we leave our apartment in the morning."
-Michael Bastian

Love, raspberries and Rilke xxx