Chemistry in the Kitchen

Over in the US, the Farm Chicks have such an entertaining and useful blog. This week one of Teri's posts got me straight into the kitchen, with silver foil, cutlery and... baking powder?...It was a new way of cleaning silver, of course!
Perhaps you knew about this, but I'd certainly never tried it. You put a layer of tinfoil in the base of a baking tray, put your silver cutlery (and other small silver things) on it, shake baking powder (soda) all over, and then pour boiling water on top!
I had the first go on my own, to see if it worked.
The tureen in the top of the photo hasn't gone in yet, while the one below is in the process...
Everything came up better, and some of it came up really well! I got inspired and started re-arranging the mantelpiece, which had developed more of a 'troc' than a 'broc' look over the summer - lots of things dumped on it as the holidays have gone on!
I decided that if it was going to have summer holiday souvenirs on it, they might as well be properly arranged. Now the tureens have sea-urchin shells in them and the tiny armoire I used at Easter has come back with shells, small stones and sea glass inside.
It all went so well that I wanted to show the family how it worked. We remembered the silver napkin rings, which were looking pretty tarnished when I snapped them earlier in the week...
Thus, between courses at the evening meal, we all trouped off to the kitchen for what turned out to be the best silver-clean of the day!
The photos don't do the new, gleaming look justice! Look where mine came from, in 1924...
'Firenze' is the proper Italian name for Florence, of course, and Floss is usually short for Florence, so...
There we are, two mega-clean silver napkin rings with only a quick rub, no polishing involved. Thanks, Farm Chicks!

Blogging goodies, blogging fun!

I've been lucky enough to get to 'meet' Sharon the Crafty Trundler, whose blog is called Clover Cottage. I've now been doubly lucky because I was one of the first three people to sign up for her 'Pay it Forward' project. That means I get to join in, and you can do the same if you're one of the first three to comment here! Sharon says: 'This is how it works. The first three people to leave a comment on my post will receive a surprise handmade gift from me. All you have to do to take part is to carry on the gift giving to three people. As soon as the comment is made, do a 'Pay it Forward' post on your blog, and carry on the giving. Of course you will need to request the address details of the first three people replying, so you can forward on their gift!!'
Well, that sounds fun to me! Please leave a comment with me and I'll get in touch - I started making last night, with some of the goodies I brought back from my mum's collection...

If you're too late for this one, or have already done it, the Farm Chicks have another great giveaway here. They have two yards (oh, that sounds so nostalgic) of your choice of fabric from a designer called Pixie Dust, and it's very, very sweet stuff. If (and it's a big if) I won, I would choose the 'Column' and the 'Aqua Pagoda' fabrics, I think... or maybe one of the 'Lattice' patterns... It would be hard to decide, but we have to name our choices. You can see all the beautiful fabrics here.

Other people's blogs, and give-aways!

The Farm Chicks are two very charming and entertaining Americans who seem to have become popular just for doing the things they love - baking, making, generally enjoying vintage-type stuff. They are great fun and their blog is well worth a read - the link is there, just click on their name (above). At the moment they're doing a give-away, which is one of the very exciting things about blogging! I will be one of the hundreds who enter the give-away, so I will tell you if by any chance I win!