Speaking of traditions, I wanted to share another one of the traditions that Jon and I have. I've always been the type to save little mementos of my romantic relationships. I have a shoebox full of ticket stubs, cards, post-it note messages, etc... that I have accumulated over the four years that Jon and I have been together. The box doesn't take up that much room in my closet and sometimes it's nice to go back and read the sweet messages from the beginning of our relationship to the ticket stubs of all of the wonderful places we've been together. Now that I think of it, it's sort of like a blog, only my shoebox of memories is something physical that I can hold and admire.
Along with all of those other mementos, I also save the corks from every bottle of wine or champagne that we drink together. I would estimate that I have about 95% of the corks from every bottle we've shared since we started dating in September of 2004. You all know we love to drink wine so you can imagine how many corks I have. Originally, I intended to make something out of them like a picture frame or a cork board but honestly, we don't have any empty space on our walls to hang another picture and I wasn't too sold on the idea anyway. Regardless, I kept saving them, figuring that I would eventually find a use for them.
A few months ago, Jon and I popped into Pottery Barn to look around and I finally found the inspiration for what to do with all of our corks. They had taken large, glass cylinder vases and filled them to the brim with old wine corks. They were even selling bags of old corks for about $30 for a bag of 20 or so corks. Who needs to buy a bag of corks when you have a whole shoebox full of them sitting at home? I didn't even need to purchase the cylinder vases because I have a whole box of leftovers ones that were used to hold my bridesmaid's bouquets at our wedding reception.
These wine cork-filled vases make a beautiful accent piece in our home, and even better, they hold a special meaning to us because they are literally filled with our memories. It's a great way to display all of our cherished wine corks!
Here's a photo of two of our vases:
