great finds

there are quite a few places to get some good finds in this area.

these are my favorites:

* prune orchard in pullman, wa.

* krown sisters in pullman & lewiston

* open eye consignment in palouse, wa.

* 3 other antique stores on main street in palouse, wa

* the storm cellar here in moscow.

* salvation army anywhere i see one.

* good will is good but a bit overpriced.

* antique mall, moscow - their prices are even higher than g.w, but sometimes you'll find something worth while.

* craigslist, of corse

the pictures below are my latest finds.

frame from prune orchard

the mens necktie is from the storm cellar -

(it will be sewn into a toddler tie for william)

urn is from prune orchard

the "s" is from krown sisters

gum ball machine from krown sisters

comfort & collections

i have a good 2 hours total of spare time a day. a lot of days i'm not very productive with that time, but when i am, i love to make things or look through magazines and decor posts that inspire me. i've been gathering pictures here and there of things i love or like, just because. this,"i like it just because" category is a little difficult to explain, so with karl asking me lately, "why'd you buy this and what the heck is that?" i don't know what to say. this post may help.

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i love picture arrangements. especially ones that don't go together. grouped art in mismatched frames that have no exact theme other than the person hanging them likes it. these ones below are perfect to me.

i don't know how to describe it other than i feel at home and comfortable. is that weird? if so i don't care. i couldn't care if a famous designer came in my apartment and told me how outdated and tacky my arrangements were. they aren't going anywhere.

i'm curious to know what a post like this would say about you. maybe it's burning candles, soft rugs, art or lighting. if you don't mind sharing, i'm interested.

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what are you a collector of? maybe it's not a planned, well thought out collection, but it is a collection none-the-less. you may have 15 cool looking keys that don't open anything but you can't get rid of them, i call that collecting or hoarding.

this is what i collect.

letters and numbers

to do something like this with.

but especially this.

globes

i first started collecting them for william's room but now i can see them making it into other rooms in my home, like this.

what do you collect and/or why?

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pillow covers with zippers

the pillows in our living room needed new winter covers back in october; they were too summery. i finally did them this afternoon during william's nap. i bought two 18'' zippers and 1/3 yard of fabric in two designs.

i enjoyed making them because they were much easier than i expected. the second one took me about 25 minutes.

here is the zipper up close

i really like how they turned out.

thank you mom for the gift certificate to stitches & petals.

striped scarf

i made my first scarf for william october of last year, 2008. it was easy and yet i did not technically finish it until yesterday. i have left six short strings hanging from it for that long. william's been wearing it unfinished, i would try to just hide the strings when we were out in public. in fact he is pictured here in the scarf last december at the moscow parade of lights. kind of sad huh?

it took me all of 10 minutes to weave in the strings and now i love it.

william likes wearing it and that makes me more happy i finally finished it.

tree skirt

i bought 1 1/8 yard of fabric last week to recover my living room pillows. after deciding i bought a safe and somewhat boring fabric i thought i'd make it into a tree skirt. i have clear, white and silver ornaments on my tree so the creamy, white damask fabric i chose will be perfect.

first i taped the fabric right side down on my kitchen table. after marking the center i took a piece of string tied to a pen and drew a line all the way around.

here is it cut out with an opening to put it around the trunk.

i reused this home-made princess Leia dress, a white sheet, from halloween to give it a little more weight. worked perfect. here it is pinned all the way around.

finished skirt. a little small but it does the job.

merry christmas and thanks for looking.

love krystal

christmas

i'm inspired by so many things this time of year. i love the frost, ice and snow most, and i love a good snowman. until i finish my holiday decorating, here's a little inspiration and fun for you.

i'll have pictures soon.

you can make these christmas stockings here.

merry christmas!

warm, knit blanket part 2

one of my favorite knitting and sewing blogs is, the purl bee. i've found numerous adorable and easy projects there. i came across the following picture and thought i'd show you what this project will end up looking like.

 

the colors i chose are different and the border will be a bit thicker, but isn't this a cute and simple baby blanket? i have 2-3 skeins more to knit on mine so just a while longer.