Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I Love My Blog Peeps But Think I Need A Break....

I've been a terrible blogger as of late, but I have a great excuse. Truth be told, I have a horrendous sinus infection and it's keeping me from doing just about everything. It's an absolute chore to even be on the computer. Perhaps it's best that I stick to simple tasks, since I'm not thinking properly. My head feels like I've got Elmer's glue rolling around where my brain used to be. It's also making me walk like a drunkard and I ran into door frames at least a dozen times yesterday. I cannot help but wonder if this is what it feels like to be on crack. I'm totally dinged out and it appears that it won't get any better until this thing has run its course.

I just want everyone to know that I'm not ignoring you. I just can't seem to pull my thoughts together enough to say anything witty or funny until the glue dries up, so to speak. These blinding headaches are killing me too. It's only taken me 24 hours to get this post done.

Earlier today, I really thought I heard a mouse squeaking. When I turned off all the electronic room noise, I realized it was my nasal passages making the noises. Isn't that just lovely? Even the cat heard it and looked at me as if to say "Do yoooou have a mouse up your nose? I want it now. Give it to me or I might have to scratch your nose off". So, I basically feel like crap and have no brain cells to think with. I'm thinking a sledgehammer to my head might make me feel better. I'm thinking a lobotomy might also make me feel better. Maybe both? Today I could honestly care less.

So, here is my boggle for the week. There's a lot to be said about keeping sterling silver, but even more to be said about silver-plated items and it's not all nice. Most of the time, you can polish up a sterling piece with just a piece of pacific cloth, and it's seldom difficult. On the other hand, there is an extreme amount of work involved in cleaning silver plated pieces, and most of it is plain old elbow grease. My elbows just aren't that greased any more. I'm surprised they don't squeak or creak like my knees do.


Why am I boring you with all of this, you ask. Yesterday I sold a fairly expensive antique Victorian Era Sheffield Silver Plated Revolving Buffet Tureen for a friend of mine, in my online shop. As happy as I am for having sold it, I'm now dreading the cleaning of said piece(s). And I'm only getting 20% of the sale price, which is hardly worth my valuable time. You know I'd rather be blogging. Right? Gah! Now I'm going to waste the next two days polishing the frigging pieces to the tureen.

This lovely antique tureen hasn't been polished since I listed it in my shop three years ago because it's a royal pain in the ass to polish. I'm just now taking a break from trying to polish an interior part that I've so far worked on for an hour. I'm still not finished with the one piece,
which means I have 4 pieces left to polish. Did I mention the one I'm working on is the smallest and probably the easiest of all the pieces to clean? Yes. I hate polishing silver. I detest it, really.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could clean this easier? I have the polishing gloves, surgeon's gloves, silver brush, silver aerosol spray, silver pump spray and silver cream. None of these things appears to be helping me at all and it stinks to high heaven. Argh! Perhaps you know the phone number of a really cheap Genie?

A Google search yielded the same old methods that are time consuming and messy. Not what I was hoping for.

27 comments:

Staci said...

Argh, that looks like too much work, and I have no hints about how to clean silver. Hope you get to feeling better!

Flea said...

Get a plastic bucket, put a piece of aluminum foil in the bottom, sprinkle it with baking soda and a pinch of salt, but the silver on the foil, then pour boiling water over the whole thing. The tarnish lifts off instantly. Just be careful of pieces with rubber joints. I love this method.

Treasia Stepp said...

Ok, Flea said exactly what I was going to say. Yeah Flea, great minds think alike.

Snooty I sincerely hope you get better quickly. I will miss your blogging till you do come back. BTW, you are a much better friend than I. Your friend (if me) would be polishing her own silver if I was barely making anything off of it. Aren't I a nice friend? LOL.

Snooty Primadona said...

staci: Thank you!

Flea: Get Out! Are you serious? If so, I'm going to try it. Thank you ahead of time, lol.

Treasia: I would make her do it if I thought she'd do a good job, but I have my standards to uphold & I just can't let anything leave here dirty or tarnished. It's just how I roll. But, thanks so much.

brneyedgal967 said...

Hey - I know how it is when you're not feeling quite yourself and your well has runneth dry... or the moat has completely clogged up in your case.

Silver - argh. I had bought a beautiful silver necklace from a native american lady on summer vacation and now it's tarnished and I haven't brought myself to shining it yet. But I want to wear it, so I'll have to.

Still chuckling at the mouse up the nose bit... classic Snooty moment. LOL

I Am Woody said...

Hope you feel better soon!!

My advice for cleaning silver? Let someone else do it!!

J'Ollie Primitives said...

Hope you feel better soon! Wish I had some fabulous cure for theres-a-mouse-up-my-nose syndrome...

Snooty Primadona said...

I just want this fog in my head to go away!!!!

Unknown said...

We use L&R Silver Cleaner Dip and it comes in gallon containers.

Cleans both Silver and silver plated pieces in under 10 seconds.

Please feel better.

Daryl said...

Feel better soon, Liz!

Rob said...

I'll be really interested to hear how Flea's foil/soda/salt works.

Years ago, either at Home Depot or Westlake (Ace) Hardware, I got some Nevr Dull which is a ever-so-slightly abrasive wool-like batting that's saturated with some magic solution. It literally dissolves into thin air as you're using it, doesn't leave a nasty residue or mule-kick of an odor, but works very quickly and with a minimum of elbow grease.

Snooty Primadona said...

Well, I'm sorry to say the baking soda/salt/aluminum foil trick did not work very well. Then, I found several articles on the internet that warn against plate loss with the method. Yikes!

So, I'm back to the least abrasive pump spray. I'm supposed to pack this up for shipping tomorrow, but it doesn't look as if that's going to happen. I so wish that I had just pulled some of my own pieces out of the butler's pantry & stored this piece in there instead. Grrrrr...

Why is hindsight so 20/20? Dammit!

Anonymous said...

I don't have any advice on polishing silver, but I hope you feel better soon!

Shawn said...

No advice here either but I'll anxiously try the methods you find on an old silver plated tea set that I have. It's been at least 10 years since I've polished the darn thing.

Sorry you feel like crapola. I woke up with my eyelids glued shut if that makes you feel any better.

Anonymous said...

Sorry you are so sick! Get better.

Silver...I've never polished a piece but I know it's a horrible pain as I've watched many people do it.

Heather Kerrigan said...

Feel better that's the most important thing! It was always my job to the clean the silver for holiday meals. Hated the job ever since. Sorry mom!

Mental P Mama said...

Elbow grease is the best way to clean silver. That's a direct quote from my dear mother. She was a silver polishing fiend. I do hope you feel better. My daughter was sick for three weeks with a sinus infection. Two weeks of antibiotics and Mucinex DM finally worked....

Snooty Primadona said...

I woke up this morning with my eyes glued shut & a sore throat. It feels like strep throat, but I'm going to the doctor's here in about an hour. I haven't had strep in 20 years!

Roan said...

I do hope you start feeling better soon. I'm glad you're going to see the doc...he'll surely have the cure. If not, try a Neti Pot! I swear by mine. I haven't had to take an allergy tablet or sinus meds since I started using it last year, after my daughter saw it on Oprah.

Pleasing Procrasinator said...

Just exactly what you want to do when you have a mouse camping out up your nose, huh? Does not sound or look even remotely fun.

Hope you get to feeling better, your normal witty self, soon.

Unknown said...

Doesn't Billy Mays sell somethng for silver?

I hope you feel better soon : )

Sjn said...

I hope the Doc can help you with some good meds!
I have to tell you, except for the flatware, I don't do silver b/c I don't want to clean it, so no help here, sorry.
Lastly... I have nominated you for a "blogger award" and I hope you'll accept! Go to my site www.countryclublivin.blogspot.com and if you accept this award, copy and paste it to your site! Post about it and award it to your own fave!
feel better :-) -Golf Gal

imbeingheldhostage said...

We're all singing the "I am finding it hard to blog" song, so no one's pointing fingers. That's what following is for, we'll know when you pop your head back out again.

I do the Flea method as well, but only for some pieces. I actually find it relaxing to polish silver. I guess I wouldn't if it were for someone else to enjoy though.

Feel better soon!

Sjn said...

okay, I finally posted your AWARD. Sorry, I left the house to run errands and my 53 year old brain had forgotten to actually click publish.

abb said...

Hope you feel better FAST!

Alpacamountain said...

I don't have anything as grand as yours...but they need polished too. Can I send them?
I had that sinus infection last year too and it is a butt kicking, send you to the doctor infection. They gave me something to help break it up and told me to do the sinus rinses...those helped the most.
Feel better soon!

Anonymous said...

I thought polishing the silver was the BUTLER's job!! Isn't it??

I hope you're feeling bettah!

 

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