The Polishing Project

Several years ago while perusing Pinterest, I found this image of silver trays and bowls being displayed. I immediately fell in love and started my search for silver trays (silver plated really) so could do my own wall display. Needless to say I don’t have nearly enough trays but I have a start to my own wall display. I even have a tray kind of like the one in the middle of the picture that I picked up at a thrift store for a $1.00, what a bargain.

Image Courtesy of Dishfunctional Designs 

The down side to silver or silver plated anything is the black patina that it seems to accumulate, now I love a good patina I just don’t like the black stuff I feel like it is dirty.
So with the help of a few other vintage shop owners I was pointed towards using a chrome cleaner as it will not scratch the silver yet is effective in polishing the silver. After a quick trip to Napa Auto Store, I was pointed in the direction of Nevr-Dull. I started off polishing some silverware that was in desperate need of a good polishing to see how well it worked and if the money was well spent. Obviously it was. A can of Nevr-Dull was approximately $8.00 for the can.

The spoon on the right didn’t look to bad before I started polishing it, I thought it was literally a golden color. Imagine my surprise when I behold the beauty of the polished piece. Don’t get me wrong I still liked the patina on the spoon on the right but as I am going to attempt to list them this week they needed to be polished.

So lets get back to trays. This circle tray was pretty grody and has some serious gunk on it that I still need to get off but I was amazed at the difference halfway through polishing it.

The difference was noticeable immediately.

This oval tray is just beautiful and one I can’t wait to display some day. This tray I tried to do a few different pictures as I cleaned it but sometimes polishing got distracting so they aren’t the best quality photographs.

Before Picture

Before Picture

Just the edge

. Just the edge is polished in this picture, it looks brighter already.

The rim 

The whole rim of the platter is polished, you can still see the gunky along the sides.

Finished Product

The finished product turned out beautiful. Like I said before I probably need to do another session of polishing to get a few of the harder to remove spots off. Overall I’m very pleased with how this platter turned out and I’m planning on serving my Thanksgiving turkey on it.

Until Next Time,
~Kristen

Christmas Guest Post by Mama C: Christmas Memories Are Made Of This

The pine trees, the Christmas carols, the snow and cold. Yep, it’s that time of the year. Christmas! Or the holiday
season if you started on November 1st (or October in some cases…). I am a holiday person. I love preparing
food and candies for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s. Since getting married, it’s been a joyous ride for
Big C and I to create our own traditions, and now incorporating Little C into them.
Some of my favorite memories are those of spending time with family and friends. Hosting or participating in
candy making parties. Ugly Sweater Contests, Stingy Santa, Office parites, wrapping gifts, baking cookies, and
decorating the tree. I love all of it, and love creating those memories with the family I have made.

Starting on Black Friday Big C and I break out the Christmas tree to put up and decorate. Then comes my favorite part….
CANDY MAKING!!!
Over the next six weeks, I will make enough candy to build a bridge to the Mississippi River. But, I love it! I
love coming up with new recipes, putting my own twists on old favorites, and honoring the legacy that my great-grandmother passed onto us.
My list this year includes:
Truffles
Fudge
Cookies
Pie
Hard Candy/Tack
Potato Candy
After all the baking and cooking, I still want to incorporate Little C. This is where crafts come in. As much as
we are able to do with a semi-cooperating 13 month old. I am a crafty type person, and enjoy giving, and
receiving handmade gifts. I feel that it shows you care about the reciever. Our goal is year involves paint, and A
LOT of it. Little C still doesn’t like to cooperate, so we do the best that can in that situation. I want my son to
look back as he’s growing up and see that the ornaments on the Christmas tree are the ones that him and his
siblings made.
As Christmas gets closer, so do other activities.My favorite is the reading of The Birth of Christ. It reaffirms
that Christmas isn’t about who got the biggest gift, or had the prettiest paper, or best decorations. It’s about
loving and caring so much that you can give anything, and Christmas represents the best gift anyone can ever
receive.
How do you and yours celebrate the holidays?
XO
–Mama C
*thank you to Kristen at Kris’s Vintage Clothing for allowing me to guest blog!

Berry Good Day

Black Raspberries grow wild in abundance in Ohio and I make use of that fact by picking as many berries as I can so I can freeze them to eat over the winter.

 

I even found a few friends along the way.

The family dog Honey was my ever faithful companion today, she looks as hot as I felt.

By the time I was done picking berries, I had 2 quarts of berries to put away that is if my kids don’t get to them first.

 

 

 

 

Cool Summer Treat – Strawberry Smoothies

I adore smoothies and finding a good one is so hard these days because many people confuse smoothie with a slushy, which is good in its’ own way but not the same.

My kids love strawberries and my Mother in law will bring us several pints of them at a time when she comes back from trips to Florida, so I will freeze a majority of them before they go bad and use them for our smoothies.

I love a good smoothie after eating tex-mex or really any day of the week.

To make a yummy treat you must have these items (you can use any type of fruit you prefer just as long as it is frozen)

4 oz Yogurt – fruit of your choice. I used strawberry and vanilla in mine
1 tsp vanilla – I didn’t use this when I put the vanilla yogurt in
2 cup milk
2 cups of frozen fruit – your choice
Sugar to taste – this must be added it at the beginning, if you add more after you blended it all together it will be weird.

Now this recipe will make 4 decent size servings.

Ad you can see there are no ice cubes used in this recipe because the frozen fruit is there instead.

My blender isn’t very strong so I will have to stop it and move the strawberries around until they are completely blended.

And enjoy!

Scalloped Potatoes

 

In an effort to eat healthier and make more of our food from scratch rather than a box, I tried my hand at scalloped potatoes. Which was much easier than I thought it would be. I again used the Dining on a Dime Cookbook, you can find it on Amazon here.

 

 

Of course I had to use my food processor again to slice these potatoes.

 

 

This may not seem like a lot of potatoes but for my family of 5 it was more than enough with leftovers.

 

I let it cook in my crockpot for 4 hours or so, I did stir them a few times throughout the day. I started them at 1:30 pm and I served them at 6 pm. I cooked on high for the first couple of hours then turned down to low.

Scalloped Potatoes are a great potluck food or addition to any dinner.

Enjoy.