My Favorite Silver Polish

Christmas is approaching so we have been busy around our house getting ready for the big day.  My Hubby is in charge of the outside and I head up what goes on inside.  This not only includes decorating but also cleaning to get ready for family and friends.

One thing that needed done was some silver polishing.  Here is a before pic.

As you can see, it was long overdue for a polish.


Here is what I love to use.

It so easy to use and there is no smell.  Just dampen the sponge that is included, add some silver cream and start rubbing (no elbow grease required)!  Then rinse with water and dry.  That's it!

Here are the results.

In addition to cleaning and polishing your silver, it also works on stainless steel, flatware, chrome, porcelain, fiberglass and pewter.  The web site says it's great for shining motorcycle and automobile chrome and it even claims to remove surface scratches from CDs and DVDs!

Here in Oklahoma you can find it at Ace Hardware, True Value and Wal-Mart.

It's a must have for getting ready for company!

Antler Love!

Awhile back I saw some antlers on Miss Mustard Seed's blog.

I got so excited!  Let me explain why.  I'm a gal who grew up in the country with a dad who hunted.  I wasn't too into the mounted heads but I really did love the antlers!  It seemed a little "hick", though.  So I put that love behind me until I saw MMS's blog.  Who knew antlers could be so sophisticated?!

So I'm back in love!

Now, where to get some antlers?  Enter the men of my life!

(Sorry about the quality of this pic.  It was taken with a Blackberry.)

Saturday morning my boys (and man) headed to western Oklahoma to go hunting for White Tail Deer.  No luck that morning but they stuck around and gave another shot that evening and...

Well, I'll spare you the "could be construed as gory" picture of my manly hubby and my boys with a rifle and formerly breathing buck but suffice it to say, I've got my antlers!

Here are some great ideas on decorating with antlers.

Photo Source:  Savvy Southern Style

Photo Source:  Country Living

Photo Source:  Unknown

Photo Source:  Casasugar

Photo Source:  Pottery Barn

Wishing everyone a blessed Thanksgiving!

A Thrift-ful Week

Does anyone else out there crave a good thrift store shopping trip the way I do?  It's like an addiction for me.  I used to go multiple times a week but hubby said "no more."  Now I only go every couple of weeks or so.  I do pretty good for a few weeks then it turns into a compulsion!  And when I go and don't find anything good, I have to keep going to more stores until I do find something.  Then if it's a good find, I feel like I'm on a roll and need to find more stuff which leads to me searching out more stores!  Now if that doesn't sound like an addiction...

Well, this week in pursuit of getting my "fix" I found some new thrift stores.  I'm too embarrassed to say how many miles I traveled just to hit some new stores.  Probably far enough to spend in gas what I saved by shopping thrift stores!

Anyway, I found what I think is some good stuff so I thought I would share.

Here's what I found at my local Goodwill.

I'm thinking I'll frame it and layer it on my mantel for Christmas.  It was a whopping $.50.  I wish this was what my house and barn looked like.  Oh, well.  I also picked up a couple pair of flannel pajama pants for a a buck a piece.  I love a pair of comfy pjs!

After grocery shopping in OKC Friday, I had just enough time to swing by another Goodwill.  I picked up this piece for $4.99.   (Sorry, this isn't the greatest picture)

It's in pretty good shape but I plan on taking it apart and using the hooks and the numbers on some different projects.  The number plaques and the ends of the hooks are white porcelain.

Friday afternoon I headed over to the Habitat for Humanity Renovation Station for some old hardback books.

They have the cheapest prices on books I have found so far.  Each book was only $.50.  I'm going to take the covers off, tie them up with twine and use them for decor.  

At one of the new stores I found I picked up these pieces.

 I paid $7.48 for this little urn.  It's cast iron!  I couldn't believe how heavy it was when I picked it up!

And this tray from an old tool box was $3.49.

I have a lot of red in my house and thought this would be cute with some candles or plants or knicky-knacky type stuff on the mantle or coffee table.  I love old, rusty, beat up stuff!

Then at the Goodwill "mother ship" I found this wooden candle stick.  It was $1.99.  It was strange walking into this huge store and only coming out with this one, small item.  But I've been on the hunt for something like this specifically.

I plan on using it to make another cloche on a pedestal.

After leaving the GW I was headed home when I drove past another thrift store.  There was a bunch of stuff out front and I just couldn't help but turn around and go back.  Once I stepped inside it was almost like an episode of Hoarders!  It wasn't a dirty place but it was packed with stuff!   I kid you not, they could have had a store twice the size and still been stocked full.  It took a while to get through the store because of all the stuff but they had great prices and I found these things.

I was very excited to find this silver ice bucket.  A few months ago I spied one like it at another thrift store for $25.  I didn't buy it thinking I didn't want to spend that much but ever since I've been wishing I would have gone ahead and gotten it.  This one I snagged for $9.99!  Yea for waiting!  It should polish up nicely.

And this rusty old milk crate was only $5.  I'm thinking of using it in the living room.

Well, that's what my thrifting this week looked like.  I felt like a junkie sneaking around town hitting every thrift store I passed.  Fortunately, my habit isn't very expensive!

Cheese Cloche Redo

Okay, I really wanted to title this "Nacho Cheese Cloche".  Get it?  Not yo cheese cloche? Anyway, it was funny in my head.

I found this great blog, Maiden D'Shade.  She shared how she turned a cheese cloche and a candlestick into a wonderful pedestal cloche.  Well, it just so happened that I had a chunky candlestick I had picked up at Goodwill and a cheese cloche I snagged at a garage sale a few weeks before.

So I busted out my saw (note the line around the fat part of the candlestick) and cut down the candlestick to the fattest part.  The proportion seemed to make more sense when the cloche was setting on it.  Next, I sanded it down and glued the two together with my trusty E6000.  This stuff holds everything together!

Once that was done, I spray painted it gloss black, my go to color.  By the way, if you haven't tried Ace Hardware Premium Enamel spray paint, you haven't lived!  This stuff is my new favorite spray paint!  Not to mention I love shopping at my local store.  The are so helpful and friendly.  Ha!  I just had their commercial pop into my head..."Ace is the place with the helpful hardware man."  It's so true!

Anyway, a coat of black paint and this is what my cheese cloche and candlestick turned into!  A cheese cloche on a candlestick!

I still think Nacho Cheese Cloche is funny.

Thanks Kim from Maiden D'Shade!

The Big 4-0 Bucket List

Dear sweet readers, I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while.  Work, school, kids, blah, blah, blah, right?  I'm still trying to figure out how those other bloggers do it all!

Anyway, let me explain today's header.  I have a birthday coming up in December.  This will be number 39 for me.  Now, I'm not the kind of gal that is afraid of getting older.  The way I see it, my life as a 30-something was soooo much better than my life as a 20-something.  And since I seem to be trending up, I say bring on the 40s!

Everyone gets older.  It's a fact of life.  Embrace it.  It's coming regardless (God willing!).

I have gray hair.  And I seem to be getting more everyday!  But you know what?  Everyone gets gray hair.  That's what happens when you get older.  I don't try and cover it up with hair color.  It is what it is and I'm not ashamed.  Why would I spend money trying to cover up what most women of my age have?  I'd rather spend my money going out to eat dinner (I do love a nice dinner)!  I'm rocking this gray, baby!

And guess what else?  I've got stretch marks, too.  But that's kinda like getting gray hair.  If you've had babies, chances are you've got stretch marks.  They're my battle scars and I love them.  I've earned those bad boys!

Okay, I'm stepping off my soap box now and getting back on the subject.

So this bucket list of things to do by the time I turn 40 isn't one of those "dreadful" things but more of a "marking a milestone" kind of things.  When I decided to do this, I had a hard time coming up with stuff.  I guess means I'm doing everything I want to do already!

I still have about a month before my birthday, but here's what I've come up with so far:

1. Knit my husband a cable knit sweater. (He's been asking for one of these ever since I learned how to knit a couple years ago.  This is the year!)
2. Sew myself one article of clothing I will actually wear out of the house! (I took one semester of sewing in Home Ec in high school and made a jumper that was awful.  I haven't really sewn much since so this may take the entire year!)
3. Be completely self employed.  (I currently only work part time but would love to make my blog and my etsy shop my full time job, which means replacing my salary with etsy sales!

Not much yet.  I'm trying to keep it on the "cheap".  No big, fancy trips or skydiving here.  Just some things that I feel will enrich my life or give me a sense of accomplishment.  Anybody else done this before?  What did you do?