Goodwill Goodies

Once or twice a month I like to stop in at our local Goodwill store and see what goodies are waiting to go  home with me. Usually I concentrate on the housewares section, but sometimes will run across a toy or something in the clothing will pop out at me. That’s what happened today. Here are my finds:

The coat looks to be in perfect shape, just the right size for Silas. It looks too big for him, but is a size 12-month. I’ll keep it here since I like having an extra set of clothes and jackets/coats for the boys.

The tote is full of colorful plastic balls that I thought the boys would enjoy. They came in a big plastic bag, but before I let the boys play with them, I cleaned each with a Clorox wipe. I’m sure it won’t take but a few minutes before those are all over the living room tomorrow!

Lastly, the two silver pieces – an ice bucket with lid, and a teapot. They need to be cleaned, and I’ll use the kitchen sink/hot water/salt/baking soda method to get the tarnish off. There were several more pieces at the store, but I’m not sure how much old silver I want to accumulate, so I’ll take inventory before deciding whether or not to go back and pick up more. That ice bucket is probably a one-time find, though, so it had to come home with me. It’ll be fun to use for the holidays, won’t it?

 

Edited 7 PM, 11/8/12:  Just wanted to show you - they LOVED the balls!

 

 

 

 

31 Days to Happily Ever After – Day 16 – Taking off the Tarnish

There are several old silver pieces we’ve collected to use on the table where the apple cider bar will be set up. We hunted Goodwill, a flea market in Lincoln, and a small consignment store in York. Etsy also yielded some nice old spoons to be used on the candy table.

Part of the charm, we think, is that these pieces show their age. The “rustic elegance” theme Jess chose includes “vintage” as well. So while we liked the age on the silver, it really had become quite tarnished over the summer. I perused Pinterest, as I’m wont to do for awhile before heading to bed, and came across a tip for shining up silver by dipping it in hot water with baking soda and salt. Greg was skeptical, but a little fascinated as I gave it a shot today.

I lined the kitchen sink with heavy duty aluminum foil, put the kettle full of water on the stove, since you’re supposed to use “steaming hot water”, added two tablespoons of salt and two tablespoons of baking soda. When the kettle whistled, the contents went in the sink, and I did run some hot tap water to increase the volume, but kept the water level about an inch below the line of the foil.

For the less tarnished pieces I left them in the sink for about a minute or two. You could see the silver brighten immediately. The darker pieces went for five minutes, and the worst one stayed in the sink for about half an hour. By then, the solution had started making little pinholes in the foil.

 
After rinsing, I used a soft towel to polish a bit, and the shine really came out, yet none of them look brand new. They’re perfect!

The Nester’s 31 Day Series