THIS...

...is what makes Mr. Pocket the best.

It was waiting for me on our bulletin board facing the door when I got home today.  +50 Good Mood.

Main Squeeze

As you've seen recently, I cannot do anything in the kitchen without making a huge mess.  Like tonight, when I pretty much spattered olive oil all over the stove frying sausage for dinner.  Well, Saturday morning, I had just cleaned the kitchen when Mr. Pocket and I proceeded to make a colossal mess.  You see, we had some lemons  and some limes, all of which we needed to use before they go bad.  And we have new citrus juicers.  So... when life gives you juicers, you make lemonade, right?

Yum.

That picture was taken after we'd each poured ourselves a glass.  It was a pretty tasty first batch of lemonade.  Next time, I'm gonna try and make lavender lemonade.

Now, Sunday, the post-party letdown was finally starting to creep up on me.  So Mr. Pocket packed me off to Mom's to do some crafting so I'd feel better.  I did feel better by the time I came home for his German relatives' birthday party.  His uncle and his other uncle's girlfriend have birthdays very close together, and since they're still here from the wedding, we were all celebrating both of them at his parents' house.  So I made a card for each of them:

His uncle's was very mechanical, because he used to make tools.  I had a lot of fun making it grungy and almost oily looking.

His uncle's girlfriend is very bright and cheerful and fun, so I knew I had to do something vibrant.  When I asked what her favorite color is, she answered yellow.  Oh no!  The one color of ink I don't have!  So I went with related colors, and did manage to find a paper with a little bit of yellow in it.

It was nice to be playing with papers and inks again.  Now I just need to get back to yarn, too.

I Do

Mr. Pocket and I are happy to announce that as of Saturday, 7 May 2011, we are officially married.  Looking forward to many many years this way :)

So, it's been pretty busy around here in the Pocket, what with getting married and all.  And that's without having done much DIY.  You would think, being the crafty soul that I am, I would've DIYed a ton of stuff for my wedding.  But no, cooler heads prevailed and I avoided that stress.  All I did myself was, as you saw in the last post, the guest book.  I did it with lots of help from my friends in the conservation lab at work, at lunchtime and after hours.  Couldn't have done it without them.  And now I have finished pics to show you, and time in which to post them...

I got the text block from A.Fain Books on Etsy.  Such a godsend, as I do not have a board cutter or a large paper cutter.  Though I did end up cutting new boards at work, on the recommendation of my friends in the lab.  The decorative papers for the covers and end papers, as well as the book cloth for the spine, came from Paper Source.

I love this green lokta paper.

The end bands were an ordeal.  I guess I should say that figuring out the end bands was an ordeal.  I couldn't remember how to do them from last year when I bound my first book (and until now, my only book).  So between asking my friend Vicki for her notes and scouring the internet, it took me a while to find the way I had done single-color end bands before.  Once I had it figured out, though, it was a breeze.  Used silk thread from Mom, sewn over the same tape that the text block is sewn onto.

Overall, I learned one very important lesson from making the guestbook for our wedding.  I love it and I need to do more bookbinding.