Let's talk cheap accessories over a glass of good red wine.

My intention with this cute, little, beginner blog of mine (I'm just learning the whole blog thingy - bear with me) is to share ways to pull your home together, decor wise, on the cheap - without actually looking cheap.  A well decorated room has a few key pieces: functional furniture, good lighting, and accessories.  Yes, ACCESSORIES!  Even in bare-boned, minimalist, clean-lined style, accessories are necessary to pull a room together.  Think jewelry for your home. Many people under value trinkets and treasures in decorating, because you instantly think they translate to clutter and mess.  But, accessories are necessary to creating a well styled room, to making it look balanced and to making it your own.  While I'm not talking about ceramic dogs and pig figurines, I am talking about accessorizing with things that tell your story, the things you love, the things that have meaning to you. 

Your home should be sprinkled with treasures from your travels, trinkets your child made in art class, and stuff that has a story behind it making your home a reflection of you and your family.  Many times the things you love might be free and ready to display in your home and with proper placement and purpose, it will also look GREAT...surrounding you with joy and comfort, and not reminding you of your tight budget!

Let's discuss this more over a glass of wine, shall we?  I love wine.  I've enjoyed tastings in Italy, France, California, among other places and I've enjoyed wine for years. To me wine itself embodies travel, good restaurants, good memories, and great friends. We have a small wine cellar that we can not seem to keep full. Tonight I am enjoying a yummy cab.  Opening a bottle and tossing the cork just doesn't make any sense - I'm also green and am an avid recycler.  See where I'm going here?  Let's take that idea and use it as a way to add personal flair to cheap decorating! 

Save the corks from great wines (no synthetic corks, and no screw caps - but if you drink a few bottles of bargain wine, I won't judge).  You already bought the wine, so this is free decorating and keeps the corks out of the landfill for the time being!  Collections and groupings are good - unless you are prone to hording - and you can really make a statement when you display your collection en mass.   I have an old mason jar that I drop corks into in the wine cellar, I also have a cool punch bowl (who actually uses punch bowls anyway?) to house corks.  When I have collected enough corks, I make wreaths using a form from the dollar store and (of course) hot glue.  Cool.  I also sell these wreaths on http://www.etsy.com/.  Search for my store Affordable Adornment!  I will make one for you with your favorite wines if you'd like!