Potato & Ham Chowder

I said I was going to start posting again, and looky here! That's just what I'm doing!  It's been almost a week since our Christmas Eve feast, and my fridge is still loaded with leftovers.  And like every year, there's a large Tupperware container of leftover ham.  What do YOU do with all that leftover ham?  Well I turn a large part of mine into an amazing chowder.  If you have potatoes, celery, onion, carrots, butter, and ham, you probably have everything you need stocked in your kitchen!

Potato & Ham Chowder

9-10 cups potatoes cut into 1 inch cubes (I peel half of them and leave half the peels on)
1 cup chopped celery, including leaves
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped carrots
2 cups cubed ham
9 cups water
8 chicken broth cubes
1/2 or 1 tsp salt, depending on taste
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 stick butter
3/4 cup flour
4 cups milk

Boil together everything EXCEPT flour and milk, then let simmer for about an hour.

Take a potato masher and mash up everything in the soup until the potatoes are in partial pieces and the liquid looks really murky. (make sure you wear an oven mit!)

In a blender, blend together the flour and milk until the lumps are gone.

While the soup is simmering and very hot, slowly pour the milk mixture into it while stirring the entire time.  Continue to simmer and let it thicken.

Serve with a little bit of grated cheese and green onion on top.  Can't beat it on a 20 degree day!

Hey There, Old Friend!

Remember me?  Yup, I used to post here.  And then life with five kids got insanely busy and it just went to pot.  So maybe now that life is a little less chaotic (HA!!) I will start documenting my projects again.  I got some new tools for Christmas and I have a garage full of lumber and supplies and it's just BEGGING me to come and play. 

Two New Creations

I have to apologize to my whopping eleven readers for being absent for three months now. I have been extremely busy working on something. His name is Garrett. Can you believe I made this adorable guy? He became a finished product on April 3rd. Wow, five kids has been a real trip. But it's been a fun trip.

And I finally finished the picnic table I've been wanting to build the kids for months now. Life seemed to prevent it (understandably so) but I finally found the time to do it. And I'm happy to say that my dining room floor has stayed remarkably clean as of late because my kids have insisted on eating all of their meals out on their new table. I need to take a picture of them all sitting around it. One of these days. It fits six children perfectly, from my seven year old down to my twenty month old. I love how it turned out! It is sanded and ready for a finish of some sort. I'm debating between an apple red enamel or a natural looking wood stain. Either one will be weather resistant of course. Decisions decisions! My good friend pointed out that it looks just like something she saw in a Pottery Barn catalog once. And I know the exact one she is thinking of. It too was candy apple red and it cost $350. Yikes!

I've had people ask me about this little table and if they can get one. Of course! I will make one for you at a price of $100. It will only be for local pick up (Salt Lake City area) so if you are interested, let me know. I will also do any finish you want for an extra $25, or you can get it sanded and naked and finish ready at no additional cost. I can also cut a hole in the center of the middle plank for an umbrella. The dimensions are 48" long and 38" wide. Contact me vnandrew555@yahoo.com

Homemade Wall Shelf

We have an awkward sized wall in our dining area, and for the five and half years we have lived here, I have not been crazy about what's been on it. I've tried out a few different things, but it always seems to look too cluttered or too bare. I've wanted a simple shelf along that wall, hanging high enough so heads don't hit it, but low enough to be able to display things. But as my problem always is, our studs don't ever line up to anything I like, AND everything I find is either too expensive or just not the right size.

So what did I do? I decided to make something of course. All I did was get a 1x8 pine board and two pre-holed brackets in a style that I liked. The best part? The board was only $8 and the brackets were $1.98 a piece. I picked them up at Home Depot and you can find them in the lumber dept. But after looking at it, it looked a little too plain. So picked up a long piece of trim that I liked. I like this leaf pattern because it goes along with a lot of stuff in our house (and it cost about $5 for the whole piece).

I cut the board to the length I wanted, and it's somewhere around 4 feet long. Can't quite remember. I sanded it down very well, and the glued on the trim (making certain it was all cut to size to fit the three sides) and then used finishing nails to nail it in place. Then I spray painted the trimmed and molded board and the brackets in Rustoleum colonial red. Then I added just a hint of glaze to make the detail on the trim pop out.

I was lucky enough to find studs in the wall that were "almost" centered to hang my brackets on. This part was a little tricky, as is getting anything centered and LEVELED on a wall. If it's not level, it looks horrible. So first I hung the brackets, then I put some wood glue on top, placed the board exactly where it needed to be, let it dry, took the whole thing off the wall (being extremely careful because it wasn't quite sturdy and I didn't want the newly dried brackets to snap off). Then I nailed the brackets securely into the board while the whole thing was on the floor. I didn't want to be nailing the pieces together while it was delicately hanging on the wall.

Now that it's all glued and nailed together, it's very sturdy. It is just the right size for that wall and for what I wanted to display on it. Do you like the "LUCKY" blocks? I made those a few years ago and they were super simple. It's just pieces of 2x4s, green paint, and white lettering. I am pleased with how the ensemble turned out!

Basement Plans

We have lived in our house for 5 1/2 years. We had this house built which was a first for us, and like everything you do for the first time, you learn from your mistakes. One big mistake we made was not having the builder finish the basement for us. We tried to save money and figured "Oh, we can do it for much cheaper than the builder will charge!" Ha. Big mistake. Because we have lived with only a 2/3 finished house now for half a decade and it's been a challenge.

With a new baby on our heels, we have felt intense pressure to get this project underway. I am thrilled to say that we now have a CAD drawing (thanks to my incredibly talented engineer father) so we know exactly what we are looking at. We have spent hundreds of hours down in that basement, dreaming and scheming over the years, of what we would like it to become one day. "Oh, wouldn't it be nice if one day we..." Now that day is here!

We have framing scheduled for about ten days from now and I couldn't be more excited. Who would have thought the idea of having hundreds of pounds of lumber delivered into our driveway would thrill me so? Friday after next can not get here fast enough. After the framing, we are having all of the electrical done. Then the city comes out to inspect it, then we will possibly have it re-insulated. Then the first thing to be fully finished is Ethan's bedroom. Our sleeping situation in our current three bedrooms is interesting, and poor Ethan has been dying for his own room for months now. Or mabye even years now. I have so many fun decorating ideas for his bedroom and I can't wait until we are to that point!

After Ethan's bedroom is completely finished we will do the family room, which will also be fun. We are making a cove in the wall which will house our television with built in shelves below it. But my favorite part about this room will be the large walk-in storage closet and neighboring work station. The work station will consist of a large built in desk with cabinets below, and shelves all the way to the ceiling. It will be a great place for the family computer and for kids to work on projects. Then on the other side of the bathroom door will be a floor to ceiling built in bookcase. We will also be replacing the current sliding exterior doors (upstairs as well) with nice French doors.

The bathroom and the laundry room will be the last things finished, probably within a few months of finishing everything else. Since it is still very livable being unfinsihed, we don't feel the same urgency to get them done. Ethan can hoof it upstairs to use the bathroom and shower when he needs to.

Stay tuned for fun things we are doing to our basement! It's going to be quite the adventure!

Valentine Shelf Sitters

I know Valentine's Day was a week ago, but I am just now getting a chance to document a couple little things I made for the holiday. I always have 2x4s or scraps of 2x4s sitting in my garage, and I love to find uses for them. I made a couple of shelf sitters and I only used what I had on hand. Scrapbook paper, a little paint, distressing tools, Mod Podge, and ribbon. Notice I did NOT mention vinyl. Do I have a vinyl cutting machine? I wish. It's on my long list of things I'd like to have. Maybe for my birthday I will splurge a little and buy something like that for myself!

Doing faux vinyl on something like this is super easy, and when it's all done, you can't tell the difference. I simply fed my paper into my laser printer and printed off the words. If you have ample ink in your cartridges, it seriously looks just like vinyl letters. When you go to Mod Podge the paper onto the wood, brush all around the lettering and then at the very end give a quick swipe over the entire word surface, just to make sure it has the same sheen as the rest of it. If it gets too wet or you brush it too much, the ink can streak just a tad. But still, it takes quite a bit of glue application to even make it streak in the slightest.
I made a set of these "LOVE" blocks for each sister I visit teach from church. I love that this project didn't cost me anything! Go out and buy yourself a couple of 2x4s because they are very cheap (about $3 for 8 feet) and they are great to have on hand for when you get the crafting bug!

Tea Party Chairs- Complete!

Another project completed! Still a ton to do before the end of March when I officially need to be off my feet in preparation for this baby's debut. These chairs were extremely easy to do. I made the first one from start to finish before I even began the second one. When building something I have never done before, I always like to make one "prototype" in case I make a mistake or don't like a part of the plans. But there wasn't anything I would change about these plans. You can check them out here.

They are said to be "$4 chairs", but builder beware. I did only spend about $3.85 on lumber. But then I added in three cans of spray paint at about $4 a piece and about $8 in screws. Plus there is the wood glue, but I already had that on hand. For paint I used Rustoleum Sweet Pea satin (about 1 1/2 cans) and Rustoleum French Lilac satin (about half a can for the seat slats). I also used all 1 1/2 inch #6 Philps head screws, about 40 for each chair.

I built the entire chair base and painted it before adding in the seat slats. Since I wanted them in different colors, I painted them seperately. And it worked out great since the slats are the very last thing to go on. I distressed the slats and had every intention of distressing the pink on the chairs, but I am tired and worn out and SICK of sanding. Maybe one of these days I will distress them further, but for now I am happy with them.
The girls were very excited to see them completed last night! Today they wanted to have a Valentine's tea party lunch with their "new" table and chairs. I am very pleased with how the set turned out!