Corn Chowder

I came across a corn chowder recipe last year that was so good we ended up making it pretty frequently.  At this point, I'm not even sure where the recipe went and we've modified this to make it our own.  It is so easy and takes minimal time!

Ingredients:
2 cans (14.75 oz) Cream Style Corn
1 can (4 oz) diced green chiles
8 oz chicken broth
2 cups milk (I think the original recipe called for heavy cream, but we haven't found that it makes much of a difference)
1 grilled chicken breast chopped (I've also used rotisserie chicken as well)
8 oz shredded monterey jack cheese
1 small onion chopped
2 tablespoons butter
dash of hot sauce (optional)
French's fried onions (optional garnish)

Saute the onions in a stock pot with butter.  Once onions are soft, add the first four ingredients to the stock pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium low, stir in cheese and chicken.  Let simmer for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Garnish with hot sauce and fried onions.

All ingredients in except cheese and chicken.

Everything in.

Yummy!  All dressed up with the fried onions on top!

Modified Windchime

My sister in law gave us a windchime as a house warming gift.  It was really pretty sounding and came with glass weights that you could change out depending on the season.  Well, that only lasted a short time as it would bang against our house when a big gust of wind came (which has been frequently recently) and the 'sun' glass weight that was on there broke in half.

I figured I'd attach something a little more durable.  I simply put double sided tape around a quarter.

Then I wrapped the whole thing in twine, with a loop created at the top.

I then put a layer of Outdoor Mod Podge all over it and let it dry.

Finally, I hung it where the glass sun was hanging.  (Hard to fully see it as the wind was of course blowing pretty hard).  

Problem Solved!

Cork Board "Run"over

I've had this basic corkboard for years.  It has served it's purpose of holding/displaying things however has always been an eyesore.

Today I finally did something about it!

Most recently it was being used to display a few pictures.  I knew I wanted a way to hang the medals my husband and I have received from running races, as well as a place to display the pictures from those races.  First, I painted the border white.  I also painted these decorative wooden dowels that I would later attach to the sides for the medals.

Then I stenciled "Run Baby Run" on the top of the board in Saffron Yellow.

While that was all drying, I cut a piece of a white Ikea curtain that we used in our wedding reception (we had nine curtains that I have nothing to do with yet).  I sized it by pinning it to the inside of the board and then cutting around the edges.

I took the piece of fabric back off, trimmed the edges a little more and ironed it.  I Modge Podge'd the corkboard and then put the fabric on.  I smoothed the whole surface down and tried to push the edges under the frame.

Once that was smoothed down, I hot glued twine along the edges. (I don't have a picture of that).

Next, I hot glued the dried wooden dowels to the sides of the corkboard.

I hot glued twine around the base of each wooden dowel.

Here is the way it looks after I finished with it:

And here it is hanging on the wall:

And finally serving it's new purpose:

Much better, I think!

Cork Ball Decoration

After my last cork project, PJ left a comment telling me what she did with her corks.  It was so cool that I had to try it, especially since we still had so many corks left!  To give credit where credit is due, check out PJ's original post here.

We purchased four styrofoam balls (two that were 4", one 8" and one 10").  We painted them a shade of brown so that the white was not seen in between the corks.  I hung them to dry overnight.

Next, I hot glued the corks on one by one... This took HOURS to do all four balls.  I would not recommend starting this project unless you don't mind delayed gratification!  I finished them within two days, thankfully a Jurassic Park marathon was on to help pass the time the second day!

I glued a line of corks around the center and then filled in one half.  Then I flipped it over and filled in the other half row by row.  Occasionally the bottom of a cork had to be trimmed down some to fit into a tighter space.

Here they are finished!

We put the largest one and one of the small ones up by the wine crates we had from out wedding.  We put the other two above the cabinets in the kitchen.

Thanks PJ for sharing this project!  Even though it was really time consuming, I think it was definitely worth it. These turned out really cool!