My Favorite Things #9

My wine rack. I wanted a wine rack for a long time. I had seen one somewhere like this or similar to this and it would match other things in my house SO perfectly. I looked and looked, including in pricey catalogs and online. One day I took a trip out to Nashville, Indiana. It's a little tourist town near the state park full of little shops and restaurants. When I first moved to Bloomington Nashville was super-cool. Truly an artists' colony with handmade jewelry, leather work, blown glass and amazing things. I once wrote an essay about a visit to "Mrs. Ferguson's House," where she claimed it was an antique shop, but she was so attached to all her items she wouldn't sell you anything! She also had a couple of corpses in coffins on display....NOW it seems like Nashville is just a tourist mall with shop after shop selling Thomas Kincaide and Nancy Noel Prints and Yankee candles, with VERY few exceptions of true artistry still in place. I think I may have gotten this when I took my "alone vacation" last year and stayed at the inn in the State Park, but I am not sure. For whatever reason, however, I was wandering Nashville alone and in one of "those" shops, meaning the commercialized, Yankee candle kind, I found this wine rack. It's NOT handmade, It's NOT one of a kind, it's NOT true artistry. What it IS, is the style I wanted and looks great in my living room. Funny thing is, even though I don't practice Mormonism anymore I don't even really LIKE wine. I don't know if you can really tell in this picture, but my wine rack has one empty wine bottle (bought because it had a smiley face on it) one empty vodka bottle (Michael found by the side of the road and picked up for me because it is blue glass), one bottle of olive oil, one bottle of vinegar, two containers of bubble stuff, one bottle of sparkling apple juice and one bottle of wine, bought because it has a pretty label! Sometimes I do offer wine if guests come over, but I rarely drink it - it just tastes so, so.... winey! But, boy, do I love my wine rack!