Monday, April 26, 2010

Garage Sale Challege Party!

Some people have that ability to find a hunk of junk and make it into something amazing.

I am not one of those people (just tryin to keep it real here, people). But I try.

A couple weeks ago, Kasey at Thrifty Little Blog challenged her readers to stop at a garage sale you wouldn't normally stop at to see if there was anything worth grabbing.

I accepted this challenge, and began with to work on my find. Props to Nina for thinking of a cake stand-- that is exactly what I had in mind! Ever since I saw this photo, I have wanted a beautiful silver cake stand for our wedding cake

Well, this little guy was not going down without a fight.

Let me refresh your memory with what I picked up for $1


It was a little rough, but with a little toothpaste and some a whole lot of elbow grease, I was able to get it to shine up a little


The sides look much better

The legs are still a litte rough looking..


..but the handles look much better!


I still need to put a little work into it, but it's coming along nicely...



I still have plans on taking a real silver polisher to my find (and not just a tube of Crest), and I am still trying to figure out how I want to create a top to my cake stand.

This bad boy isn't done yet. Stick around, I will finish it ;)

Always & Forever,
ME

5 comments:

Nina said...

That will make an amazing cake stand!! I can't wait to see the end result. Thanks for the shout out :-)

nina@themissadventuresofnina said...

Oh, cant wait to see the results. Is already looking much better. Funny, I though my Mom was the only one who used toothpaste to clean silver.

Kasey at Thrifty Little Blog said...

This is so smart! No one will guess that it's a $1 garage sale find... it already looks 100x as expensive!! I can't wait to see the end result :).

Mrs. Pomp said...

I just wanted to give you an idea of something to try to clean this piece. I used to work in a museum with antique silver and the hi-tech method we used was to line the sink with aluminum foil then fill it with a mixture of hot water and powdered laundry detergent. The key is to have the silver touching the foil...we then used wash clothes to clean...

Use coffee filters to dry it off - no fuzz. Perhaps this will work for you - sometimes its magical and sometimes not so mich!

Ingrid @ Morestylethancash said...

Nooooo..........! I hope you have not used the aluminum in the sink or that horrible stinky dip-and-clean silver cleaner and quit with the toothpaste. I was an antique dealer for 15 years and one of my passions is sterling silver and silver plate.

You have a lovely rimmer and after you finish using it as a cake plate you might be able to find a new pyrex glass insert for it.

In the future if you find some sliver plate clean it first with a product called Twinkle and then get a good polish like Town Talk or Goddards. When you use dips or the aluminum method it will look like a piece of shiny tin instead of the glow you would get from fine silver plate.

I have a collection of rimmers that I use regularly on the dinner table as I have found new inserts for them. I also use them for the bases of flower arrangements.

If you want more information I wrote an article http://www.morestylethancash.com/2009/10/buying-antique-and-vintage-silver-plate-for-the-table.html where I explain more about what silver plate is and how to care for it.

I do have a warning for you, once you start buying silver you might find it addictive. I looks stunning on the table.