Finding a Home For Leftover Wine Corks

  For whatever reason, Kolby and I can't seem to throw away wine corks. There's just something almost nostalgic about looking through them, remembering occasions when you opened this or that bottle. For a VERY long time our wine corks resided comfortably in a drawer in the kitchen...that is...until the drawer was basically consumed by cork. What were we to do with our little cork babies? Certainly not throw them away...
   I did some research online and found a TON of links to arts/crafts/DIY home decor ideas for wine corks. Apparently recycling wine corks is a huge industry. That being said, I remembered that one of our all time favorite restaurants, Maggiano's, decorates much of their restaurant with wine corks. Plus, you can even drop your old wine corks there to be recycled! One of my favorite decorations there are their wine cork candles, so that was the first project I tackled. All I needed was some Styrofoam (leftover from the food processor we recently purchased), a glass vase (for around $4 at Wal-Mart), a pillar candle (already had), and my wine cork babies. Here is what the final product looks like:

     I cut the Styrofoam into a circle shape to elevate the candle in the vase, and then just filled the rest of the vase with my corks! I love it-and we have gotten a lot of compliments on it. It gives a very "cozy" vibe and was super easy and classy to make!
      I still had quite a few corks left over (and not enough to make another candle) so I just filled a cute, decorative bowl with them and called it a night.

     Not too shabby. I am glad my little cork friends have found a pretty new home!