married

Our nephew, Ben, married the lovely Jamie this last weekend. She was stunning and they both looked so happy. Weddings are great. They make me want to be better in every way.

They had a beautiful garden reception at my in-laws. Wish I would have taken more photos, but I either get lots of pictures, or I watch the 2 year olds. Not both.

Go here for some beautiful bridals shots of Ben and Jamie.

stripes

My nephew, Ben, is getting married to a lovely girl - Jamie, who we all love. I attended a fun bridal shower for her at one of my favorite restaurants, Tia Rosa's. And I gifted her this quilt.

I pumped it out in 4 days. I always forget how much work it is to quilt something bigger than a baby quilt. It gives my arms a good workout.

I got the idea from a quilt I love on etsy.

The back is gray flannel with green and aqua cottons.

Now that I've made this one, I want to make more. I'm loving these colors.

who needs 2000 wedding guests and millions of adoring fans?

There's a lot of royal wedding talk lately.  I'll admit, I've been sucked in. Mark is less than interested.

But another wedding took place this week, 7 years ago. A much more important one, and one that Mark IS interested in.  Yep, we celebrated {I use that term loosely} our anniversary this week. Sick kids and all, with our own stomachs teetering on the queasy side, due to odiferous offenses o' plenty.

But enough about our children's vomit...

A few tidbits about the top photo:

- Our wedding photos were taken on Monday and we got married the next Saturday, So I got my hair and makeup done twice.  And Mark saw the dress before we actually got married. I'm not big on that tradition.

- My friend, Nancy (who is also my sister's sister-in-law) made my jewelry. We traded for some quilting and I'm afraid I got the better deal. I owe you Nancy.

- I did not wear earrings and I don't remember why.  

- I had never worn acrylic nails until that week.  And never since.

- Mark's tuxedo vest was a size XXL.  It was way too big, but actually looks pretty good in this photo.

About the bottom photo:

- This was the first full day of our honeymoon in Paris.

- We stayed at the only hotel (at least at the time) on the Champs-Elysees.  It was perfectly located and really beautiful, especially the view at night.

- My [junior high / high school / college] French was helpful, especially when ordering food and when we needed to translate a sign.  But it was almost no use in a conversation.  

- We ate crepes everyday for breakfast and lunch and I could've eaten more, but I did not want to out-eat Mark. Looking back though, he ordered his with ham and cheese.  I ordered sugar everytime. No wonder I was still hungry.

wedding candids

count the cameras

beck (groom's nephew)

bride's aunt

mother of the groom . ashley's sister, leisel (also my fabulous hair dresser) . sterling . bridesmaids

mark

leone, beck, alice, me

leisel and reachel

the wedding party

stephanie, christian, josh (all groom's family)

madison and savannah (bride's nieces)

home depot guy, luna lovegood and david hasselhoff in jeopardy skit.
so funny!

i realize we took a TON of pictures.  this is not all of them, but this will be the last wedding post.  with no kids, we certainly had our hands free to take all the pictures we wanted.  we missed the kids though.

the reception

marcus and ashley's garden reception was lovely. ashley wore a second dress:  it was fresh and summery and un-stuffy and i loved everything about it.  she looked beautiful.

marcus also changed: perfect gingham and bowtie.

liz put final touches on the cakes.

the tables were gorgeous.

and personalized.  believe me when i say i photographed many place settings because not only were the dishes beautiful, but i loved reading everyone's name history.

the cake was cut.

sisters and sisters in law posed.

bride + groom

marcus and ashley got married on saturday!

it was a perfectly-overcast, windy day at the san diego temple.  i think it is still pretty with all that scaffolding.

there were lots of cute shoes.

and cameras.

and couples.

and babies.

and smiles.

a shower and a quilt

my brother-in-law, marcus is getting married this weekend.  to the lovely ashley.  we are so excited for them!  ashley's shower was on saturday at becky's home.  becky is ashley's brother's wife, and also my brother-in-law, steve's sister.  you got that?

ashley and her ladies in waiting (sisters and mom).

lovely nielson sisters.

becky the lovely hostess.

the quilt i made for ashley.

what were we discussing?

i wanted to keep this one.

For this throw-size quilt, I cut 10" squares out of white and gray and yellow fabrics, then followed my usual chevron routine*. found at park city girl's tutorial.
WHAT TO CUT:
This quilt is 6 half-square-triangle blocks across x 8 hst blocks down. Which means I cut 48 10" squares total: 24 white, 18 gray, 6 yellow.
After consulting with my sister abby and my mom and mark, we decided this would not be too "Charlie Brown" so i went ahead with my idea.  And even if it was, Charlie Brown wouldn't be so bad.  My sister-in-law thought it looked kind of nautical.  I'm good with that too.

The colors are coal gray and corn yellow.

*2.7.13 Update. I used to have a sidebar link to Park City Girl's tutorial, but it is no longer active. So here is another tutorial and a free pattern from Riley Blake Designs, also using half square triangles. I love this method for chevrons, and many other quilting layouts. See other quilts I've made with h.s.t. here and here.