Things to Do in Franklin

Cheekwood's assemblage of botanical gardens stretches across more than 55 acres of verdant land, inviting members to explore its natural nexus of wooded streams, gentle pools, and stone grottoes. Visitors can appreciate Mother Nature's leafy hairline by weaving through Japanese, wildflower, and perennial gardens and cruising down avenues of crepe myrtles in lilac-powered lowriders. Green-thumbed guests can also admire each display's unique gardening style and exchange salutations with bursting seasonal flora. Guests can venture inside the 30,000-square-foot Georgian mansion to find Cheekwood's collection of decorative arts and Visions of the American West, a Wild West exhibition on display until May 4. The video-installation galleries explore Buffalo Bill's life and his legacy as Wild West icon and fearsome ventriloquist.

The always-active atmosphere at Cabana in Hillsboro Village/West End creates the perfect backdrop for a swanky sampling. For $12, today's side deal gets you two hours of private wine tasting and hors d’œuvres, a $25 value. Between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on January 12, you'll have the opportunity to fulfill your new year's resolution of trying new things.

Crafting your way into someone's cupboard is the craftiest way into his or her heart. For $15, today's deal gets you $30 worth of studio time and pottery to paint at Brushfire Pottery Studio in Green Hills. Brushfire is a roomy, comfortable studio where friends and family can paint, stencil, and sponge pottery that's wildly innovative, beautiful, or beautifully tells the tale of a cat and its adventures with its best friend, an old car.

Third Coast Clay Ceramic Studio pairs aspiring aesthetes with an unfinished clay form, allowing them to add pigment and pizzazz. Once a piece-to-be-masterpieced has been selected—be it a plate, vase, coffee mug, or bust of Elvis—decorators can begin applying base coats to their evolving ceramic canvas. Those who suffer from painter's block can consult Third Coast's bountiful idea books, stencils, and stamps or resolve it the old-fashioned way by pacing the studio floor with a corncob pipe. All the finished pieces are then set aside to be glazed and fired later by the studio staff. Your objet d'art will be ready for pickup in a week. Each brushwielder will be assessed a $6 studio fee along with the price of whichever starting piece he or she selects ($6–$40 depending on size).

Founded with the goal of transforming downtown Nashville into a compelling, culturally rich urban center, Nashville Downtown Partnership fosters a sense of community via fun-filled initiatives that showcase the city’s finest offerings, such as the tenth annual Downtown Home Tour. Participants on the tour get a chance to see a variety of chic private spaces, ogling unique floor plans with an emphasis on ultramodern design that whisk guests into the future without the disheveled hairdos inherent with leaps through the time-space continuum. The Partnership creates such interactive experiences to help introduce locals to the benefits of living in the center of Music City, such as having easy access to its hundreds of restaurants as well as sports and entertainment venues.

While bringing your own paint to one of Art by the Glass's classes is as pointless and unnecessary as male nipples, bringing your own wine or beer to an Art by the Glass class is as liberating as it is legal. Pair your storebought chardonnay with an evening of brush-stroking contemporary paisley trees on Friday, May 14, or get painted away again in margaritaville during the beach-inspired class on Thursday, June 10.