Cleaning Silver

So I never did get around to buying a silver polish, that I mentioned before, considering all the silver things I have been picking up at the thrift store lately.  I did however look into buying some, but I just didn't find anything that I thought looked right for my project.  So I looked online and found a recipe to make homemade silver polish and well, it was so great I thought I would pass it on to you.

But before we get to that I have to show you what I found!!!  I was in the thrift store once again, and I had wandered through the store, had a few things in my cart, and was headed back to the housewares section when I saw a lady who works there, with a cart full of stuff she was about to shelf.  I browsed her cart from a distance when I found this silver thing screaming at me to take it off her cart before she puts it on the shelf and someone else walks away with this beauty.  So I did, I snatched it off her cart and felt wonderful for having it in MY cart.

I didn't know what I would do with it yet, it was just too pretty to pass up.  But moments later it hit me.  My daughter's birthday is coming up!  perfect!!!

Would you have snatched this beauty?

Here is the recipe I followed to clean this set up. (Don't you love google?)

Home made Silver Polish Cleaner

A big pot for all your pieces

Bring water to a boil

Put a piece of aluminum foil in the bottom of the pot

Dump in 1 tsp of baking soda for every 2 inches of water

2 tsp of salt

Let boil

Place silver piece in boiling water and let sit for a few minutes

Remove and place another piece in the water

Dip silver in a sink of warm soapy (not too soapy) water quickly and remove

Dry and rub with a clean dry cloth

Voila!

It worked great!  I love homemade recipes!

Here is the end result:

Now, you may be thinking I am nuts to give this to my daughter who is a toddler, or you may be thinking it's great!  But can I just say that my girls LOVE playing tea party...

and when I bought my older daughter (P) a tea set for Christmas that was SO cute, it ended up like this...

Am I crazy for buying ceramic!!!  Poor tea set.

This ceramic tea set was $8.99, and the silver one was only $9.99!

I figure at least a silver one will last, and it is extremely cute as well!

Her birthday isn't for a few weeks, otherwise I would have caught a few photos of her using them.  I'll have to post some later, after the party.  I can't wait.  She may just love to play it it now, but I think this will be something she will love to keep later!  And if she doesn't, I will!!

Happy Monday!

I am linking to the parties on my sidebar.

Meal Planner Menu Board

So a fun weekend at a triple bridal shower for my three cousins that are getting married, all within 3 months.  Here are the gifts I've made:

Now that wrapping is all I had, and I am NOT a good wrapper (maybe if I had more time), but I had some ribbon left from when I bought some throw pillows for my couch, and there was a lot, so that is what I used up to wrap the gifts.

The gift I am showing you now is the one in the pink wrapping.  To see the blue gift click here.  To see the yellow gift click here.  That was fun, didn't it feel like a pick your own adventure book?

I was in the thrift store... (sound familiar!) and I saw this cork board for $1.49.  Inspiration just flew to my mind of a project I could make with it.

I used some craft paint that I already had on hand, and painted the boarder of the cork board.

Then I used some of the scrapbook paper that I had also used for this project.  It was $1.69 per sheet at Michael's, and I used a sheet and a half.   I started by using mod podge to stick the paper to the board, but it was curling, so before I got too far I just used my "no nails glue", because I still can't find my glue gun.

I bought these clips at the dollar store, but wanted them red, so I painted them.  Yes, I painted them... they have to match!!

 

They became:

Using scrapbook paper that I had bought to co-ordinate with my background paper ($0.98 at Michael's 2 sheets)  I cut small squares and used a red marker to write the letter for each day of the week on them.  If only I had a printer they may have looked better.  Oh well, a printer was not on my shopping list for this project. Stamps would have been nice too.

I added two pockets on the board.  One to hold the recipes that you would use for that weeks meal plan, and the other to hold all the meal ideas that you can rotate through.

I found red push pins at Walmart for $1.98 and used those to hold the pockets.  Also to hold the ribbon up on the sides.

I found the back things I was talking about before and they are actually called "leveling hangers".  But I bet you if you were to ask someone for leveling hangers you would still have to describe what they actually are!

Final product:

An organized area to create a weekly meal plan, and have the recipes close by!

Very fun to make!  And if my cousin is a smart girl (which she is), she will use it now to organize meals to get into the habit before life gets too crazy to think about such things as preparing ahead!!  Really I do try my best, maybe I should make one of these boards for myself!

What do you think?  Would you use this?

Total cost:

Cork Board: $1.49

Scrapbook Paper: $3.69

Ribbon: $1.00

Push Pins: $1.98

Recipe Cards: $1.00

Clips: $1.00

Total: $10.16

I am linking to the parties on my sidebar.