Ten Years...

In late June, DH and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. Compared to many of our friends, who are these days celebrating 40+ wedding anniversaries, I guess we could be classed as newlyweds! Lol. But considering I never expected to remarry as I was quite happy with my life, it just shows 'that you never can tell!'. And I can say in all honesty that it has been a wonderful 10 years!
So this year the bridal party from that ceremony in 2004, went out to lunch; DH's younger brother had been his Best Man and, his cousin, and also my best friend for over 30 years, was my bridesmaid.
Then and now photo...

My BiL and SiL were on 'grandparent duty' that day, so young Ashleigh had to tag along...she was so beautifully behaved...in the photo below, my BiL had left to go an pick up Ashleigh's brother from school...

Interestingly, my marriage to DH linked 2 branches of the family back together...a split had occurred 2 generations ago but no one knows the reason. For example, DH's branch had stayed in contact with one great aunt but  Pamela's side of the family did not, so her generation did not know a significant part of the family...they do now though! And conversely DH's family did not know the branch of the family in the US...they do now... :-)

Sitting between cousins who 12 years ago didn't know the other existed...

I love the view out of the windows at Eatons Hill Hotel...

Now over 10 years ago my friend and I purchased some fabric featuring hydrangeas and her plan was that she was going to make DH and I a quilt for a wedding gift. Time was her enemy so plans changed and the quilt was to be a first anniversary present....you know where I'm going with this don't you? A week before this year's anniversary, my friend and I went shopping for some homespun to complement the 2 fabrics that we already had...my friend was now determined to make this quilt in a week! The original pattern that she had selected with lots of pieced blocks was discarded in favour of sewing a series of borders around a large central panel of hydrangea fabric.

Thanks to a wonderful quilter at Taigum, the pieced top, batting and backing were dropped off on the Sunday, when I also chose a design for the quilting. The wonderful Toni had it all quilted and ready for Pamela to collect on the Wednesday. My friend then sewed the binding on this huge quilt and had it ready and waiting when we met for lunch on the Thursday! Phew....

The quilt is huge and so warm...well worth the wait as it's so special! And I can still see why Pam and I fell in love with that fabric all those years ago.