How is it going? We are working here....cleaning, painting, etc. Nothing fun, just deferred maintenance. Our favorite task so far: polishing the silver. We have been using the chemical reaction method, and I've been telling the kids it is a science experiment.
It is wildly satisfying....it doesn't get your silver looking brand new, but in five minutes they are all pretty good. I use something similar to the recipe on Apartment Therapy, but I line the sink in aluminum foil and don't bother to measure the salt, baking soda or vinegar. Random aside--we were out of vinegars except balsamic on Round 2 of silver polishing, so I went with lime juice and it worked like a charm. (Anyone know why some recipes have salt and vinegar, and some just have baking soda?). This recipe/method is great when you wait to the last minute to polish silver: nothing like spreading your serving pieces with stinky carcinogens a hour before the guests arrive--yuck.
The other silver thing that is on my mind is tinsel. Yeah, yeah, Christmas is over. But Christmas stuff is still everywhere and I'm being haunted by vintage Christmas trees covered in tinsel on my Pinterest feed. I'm thinking this needs to come back. Thoughts?
If only I had the restraint to reduce the ornaments so that tinsel could be the real star. In the end, my tree looks pretty much the same every year and that is how I like it. But if I had extra trees to decorate, they would be like the more-is-more-tinsel tree below. Some of you have tinsel experience: Speak up old ladies! Will I be disappointed with modern tinsel? Is the magic lost along with the old silvered mylar and tin? Will I ever be as happy with my tree as Shirley Jones is above?
Omg! No one will ever be as happy as Shirley Jones was about anything; but my advice to you is: NO TINSEL!!!! (speaking as an old lady w/ experience)
ReplyDeleteI loved tinsel as a kid. I think the mylar makes a different impact. Sure helps the price. We actually saved tinsel from year to year as a child and I carried on until Carter asked how much it cost! At 33 cents I was clearly nuts. I didn't even see it at all this year.
ReplyDeleteMolly made me feel lazy! Way to go on the silver. I am trying your method. I wonder if people felt bad after holidays due to silver polish ingestion. Yikes.
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