General Cooking Questions

So, I've pretty much stopped buying salad dressing at the stores. However, I'm REALLY lukewarm on some of the things that I've been doing. I make this one killer balsamic vinaigrette. I've also had some (what I think) are great ideas, and I am just either poorly executing them or missing something. The two that I was particularly disappointed with (I had high hopes) were my cherry red wine vinaigrette and raspberry vinaigrette. I put a little bit of shallot in them, red wine vinegar, safflower oil (since it's neutral), and honey to sweeten it.