Setting The Stage

It's always fun to go all out on the holidays. By "go all out" I mean, raise the bar, wear something fancy, drink champagne out of your crystal flukes, heck, even use your sterling silverware. For most of us, that means we actually have to find our silverware first and then get ready for some heavy duty polishing.

Nowadays, I don't think many brides register for good sterling silverware. Most of us inherit it from our grandmothers and mothers who received theirs on their wedding day and kept it locked in the dining room drawer for the past 50 years. We all have our own story. Mine is we happen to stumble upon our sterling accidentally...well, I should say, my husband did the stumbling...I did the "ohh'ing" and "ahh'ing". On one of our tag sal-ing trips, Chris opened an old trunk to find two incomplete, very tarnished sets of sterling silverware wrapped in flannel flatware rolls.

As fate would have it, our monogram "M" was engraved at the top on one set. At that moment, I literally
heard angels singing "Hallelujah!"

This baby spoon is my favorite piece. If you look closely, the birthdate Aug 6, 07 is engraved at the top. At the other end of the spoon, there are still baby teeth indentations from a teething baby!

 

Since I only break out the silverware for holidays and special occasions, I store the silverware in the original casing, within a wooden storage chest with protective lining (if you use your silverware regularly, store it in a clean drawer, free from moisture).

Easy and Natural Ways to Wash and Polish Your Sterling:

• Cover the bottom of a dish with aluminum foil (shiny side up). Put the tarnished silver in the bottom of the dish and add 1 big tablespoon of baking soda, and then slowly pour boiling water over it until it covers the piece. The foil will collect the tarnish and clean the sterling. Remove your silver, rinse thouroghly and polish.
• Another method is to make a paste of baking soda and water and apply it to your flatware using a damp cloth. Rub good until the tarnish disappears.
• You can also use toothpaste to clean off tarnish (although I don't like to). Coat the silverware with toothpaste, then rub it under warm water, and work it into a foam. Use a toothbrush for difficult tarnish. Rinse and dry off.

Displaying my silverware is one of my joys in life. Special occasions (like Easter) call for a more formal table rather than the traditional place setting. Here are some examples of different ways to create a well-set table.

Before the first course:

Soup:

Fish:

Main Course:

Salad:

Dessert:

Hope you all have a wonderful Easter!



Ashley