WINE NOT!

Fifteen years ago I fell in love. Fresh out of college and as broke as a one legged hooker, I landed my first job in Hollywood making less in one year than my boss spent on makeup. One payday, in fact, she looked at me while writing my stipend, shook her head and whined, "how, oh how, do you survive on this?" In those post college days (when I hoped my salary would at least be higher than one years tuition) I'd look forward to going home after a long day at work to my love...Charles Shaw. Better known as "two buck chuck," if you have champagne taste and a beer income, Trader Joe is most likely your other best friend. For $1.99 a bottle it's easy to sit back, relax and enjoy the taste without watching your savings go to waste. Moving to the east coast with Joe meant trading up the vine because, unfortunately, eastern Trader Joe's don't sell wine! Since prohibition ended more than 75 years ago it has been illegal to sell wine in New York anywhere but licensed liquor stores. After driving 40 miles round trip for a bottle of chardonnay, I appreciate the taste much more today. I used to think Chuck was the only one for me until I walked into a wine superstore and discovered there were many more grapes in the sea. The designer in me is fascinated by the range of label and bottle designs of wines from around the globe. The recycler in me (and, I assume, the designer again) loves coming up with unique ways of re-purposing the more interesting bottles. After soaking the bottles in hot water to remove the labels (even faster, fill bottle with hot water AND soak it in hot water). Fill the clean bottle with olive oil or homemade salad dressing, or dip them in chalkboard paint, let dry and create your own label for less expensive wines. Better yet, I recently discovered a great use for them; fill several with water at a dinner party and use as hip, fun pitchers. It might be easy to whine, but it's even easier to create something cool with an old bottle of wine!

TIME TO COMPLETE TASK: however long it takes you to drink a bottle of vino!

COST: $0

STRESS LEVEL: create something cool for a whine-o: LOW