Tea Time!

I was at an auction last week and spotted this great silver tea set.  Neither of us are really the "silver tea set" type, but I love the simple lines on it, and the fact that all of the pieces were engraved with the letter "M".  Although there wasn't much else at the auction that I was interested in, I hung around to see if I could get it at a reasonable price.  About an hour and $30 later, I was on my way home with thoughts of silver polish on my mind.

Because we don't have any other silver pieces, we also didn't have any silver polish in the house.  Instead, I found a great and easy three step method online at Tater Tots and Jello.

1) Line the kitchen sink with tin foil
2) Add in about 1 cup of baking soda and fill with very hot water
3) Place pieces to be polished in the sink so they are touch the tin foil

You can literally watch the tarnish fade away.  It actually came off our new tea pot in chunks.

 It took us about 30 minutes to do all 5 pieces, and Jeremy had to change the tin foil and water a few times as we found it wasn't working as well after a bit.  It was definitely much easier than trying to polish the thick layer of tarnish off though.

Before

After

It may not be fit for a queen, but I think it looks pretty awesome on our sideboard.  I don't know how much use we'll actually get out of it, but I like the sparkle that it adds to the dining room.