This is the personal blog of Michelle Cali, creator of Wine Coutures and John8eight. Here she plans to get overly personal with you by giving details of her creative process along with rants and raves about her two favorite subjects- alcohol and weddings. She will write often, (not sure if that's a promise or a threat), so please visit as much as you can tolerate. Enjoy!

Thursday, April 30, 2009

In The Beginning....


So, how did this all start? No, I'm not talking about the start of mankind. I'm talking about Wine Coutures. Just how did all these wine charms come about?


Well, I'm glad you asked. Let me tell you...


It all started back in October of 2005. That is when me and my hubby got married. We had planned our honeymoon for Cancun, Mexico. Unfortunately, Hurricane Wilma had other plans that month. So, a day before we were suppose to leave we were able to change our entire honeymoon to the California wine country. We stayed in Santa Rosa and made trips to San Francisco and Napa Valley.


It was in Napa Valley that we became members of the V. Sattui wine of the month club. This was my first real introduction to wine and from the very first sip I knew it would become a life long passion of mine.


Forward the clock to September 2007, where are family is unpacking boxes after being stationed in California for my hubby's shore duty. Being that we were still wine club members and enjoyed wine tastings, we started making frequent trips not only to Napa Valley, but other wineries in the surrounding area. One day, as we are browsing through a winery gift shop, my hubby happens upon a package of wine glass charms.

"Honey, look at these. They are so cheap looking. I can't believe they are asking $20 for these things. See, you should make stuff like this. You can totally do a better job then whoever made these".

My hubby has a way of coming up with bright ideas. And history has shown that the ideas my man comes up with tend to prosper if followed. Whether it was too much wine in my system that day, or maybe the thrill of having an excuse not to do house work- I don't know. But that night I pulled out some old jewelry and my old pliers and in a couple of hours I had made several cool miniature necklaces that fit perfectly around our wine glasses. I was hooked. And the dishes still lay dirty in the sink.


From that moment it would take another year before Wine Coutures got its name and a life on the web. In the meantime, I just kept creating more wine glass charms.
The name came about during my time watching pictures from New York Fashion Week online. I realized that my charms didn't fit the mold and pattern of all the other wine charms currently being sold. I felt that mine were a bit above the norm. Taking a cue from the fashion world I used a word normally associated with high fashion- couture. (I added the 's' at the end because when I started my website, http://www.winecouture.com/ was already taken and I wasn't about to pay some crazy price to buy the domain name from some greedy nerd. So, being the cheap chick that I am, I just simply added an 's' at the end and it all worked out.)

So, that is how it all started. And now it continues to grow from a simple idea to a growing interest with a following of admirers eager to see what I create next.

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