Monday, February 1, 2010

Flippin' Waffle Iron Winner and Homemaker Monday: An Accidental Discovery Regarding Copper Polishing

This flippin' waffle iron giveaway was so fun and I'm so grateful to all of you who participated! I especially loved seeing all the tweets out there every day. Thank you!

And the lucky winner is....

Tami @ A Godly Homemaker!

So happy for you, Tami! Just email me your mailing address and I will get that off for you today! (mom2my9 [at] gmail [dot] com)

And now, without further ado....

Welcome to the 78th weekly edition of...


Thank you for joining us! If you're new to this carnival and would like to enter your post, please check HERE for the rules and regs.

YOURS: Today's "YOURS" goes to Panamamama over at "Tales From a Panama Mama"! I loved her post because it goes perfectly with my post! Panamamama posted tips on how to clean our home in a more earth-friendly manner. She lists recipes for homemade cleaning products, how to use compost, and suggests that instead of using paper towels and napkins, that we use rags and cloth napkins, instead, which is something I've been doing for a long time now..


(Just a sample of some really cute cloth napkins. I keep wanting to call them nappies, but that means diapers in England, so I must refrain.)

So, if you'd like to venture on over to Panamamama's blog to check out all of her tips, just click HERE. Thank you so much, Panamamama, for linking up with us and sharing your homemaking tips! We'll look forward to seeing more from you in the future! (If you'd like, please feel free to take the "I Was Featured" button from my left sidebar!)

MINE: So John makes this drink. It is vile, but he loves it. Perhaps he makes it because he knows that none of the kids or the wife will drink half of it every time he makes one. He gets 4 or 5 limes, cuts them in half, squeezes them into a glass of ice, adds half a teaspoon of salt, then fills the glass with water, and chugs it down. Vile, right?

I bring this up because we have a copper sink in our island...


Over time, the elements have caused a copper patina to form, so it looks like this...


...which is fine with me, since my kitchen is in the rustic style. I love a good copper patina. However, when John placed the squeezed limes in this copper sink and left them there for a few hours, I noticed that THIS occurred...


I was awestruck knowing that just the acid from the limes would cause the copper to shine again like it was new. So I did an experiment to double check.

Here is the tile laid in the upper level of our island with the patina caused by the natural air circulation and constant wiping down with a wet cloth...


Here is me squeezing lime juice onto the tile...


...and leaving it to sit for a while...


Here is how the tile looked upon my returning to the kitchen after my siesta and wiping off the lime juice...


Is this not amazing? As you can see, there are a couple of little spots that were missed, so I did the lime thing again, and THIS was the result...


This is a photo of the tile with the afternoon sun shining in on it, but you get the idea. Just thought I'd share. You know me, just helping along whenever I can. Thanks for listening.

OURS: Okay, it's your turn! I can't wait to see what all of you awesome homemakers have for us today. If this is your first time, don't be nervous, just feel free to pick anything homemaking from your archives and enjoy getting to know your new blog visitors! Thanks for being here and I hope you have a Happy Homemaker Monday!

16 comments:

alessandra said...

It's amazing, that's how people discover great things, by chance!
Thanks for sharing.

Olga said...

I love all of your cleaning tips. I wish I had come copper something to try a lime on.

MBC Scrapbooking said...

That drink did make my stomach heave a little when I read the ingredients;) Fabulous tile cleaning though!! Wow!

Jessica Kramasz said...

Wow - the lime trick is amazing!

Cheryl B. said...

So I bet that the vileness of that drink (which I totally agree with you Jen in that being the best way to describe the stuff!)would even make kissing him immediatly after he drinks it, taste nasty .... ewwww

But it did do an amazing job of cleaning that copper ... Jen, just make sure you put something else kind of blackish (smeared chocolate perhaps) on the insides of your forearms after you do this method, as though you've been scrubbing away for a long time .... o;-p

p.s. - o/~ Happy Happy Bir-irth-day, Happy Happy Bir-irth-day, Happy Happy Bir-irth-day, H-A-P-P-Y, HAPPY, Bir-irth-day o/~ {a day early ;->}

Mom2my10 @ 11th Heaven said...

Haha, Cheryl, yes, good about idea about pretending to work hard! And thank you for the early birthday wishes! You are so sweet and I don't know how you remember all this stuff about me!

EcOnomical Mom said...

Lemon juice works well too. Another natural cleaning tip...microwave a lemon or lime (cut in half) for about a minute and a half. Then wipe down the inside. It makes cleaning a microwave easy, no scrubbing! It smells good too!

Panamamama said...

Thanks! I feel so honored! I love your sink. It is gorgeous (as are the tiles!!) That drink does sound pretty yukky. I tried lemon juice on brass, and it works, but if you don't get it all off you get little rusty spots so be careful! Copper is probably more forgiving? Have a great Monday.

Sherry Sikstrom said...

Hate to be the odd duck , but the drink sound quite refreshing.Cool that you found a use for the limes too though

NatureGirl said...

My mom used to have us clean the copper pots with salt and 1/2 a cut lemon...works every time. Cheap too!

Jenni said...

Not so sure about the drink - would have to try it at least once before judging - that's a rule in my house - you HAVE to try a sip/bite before you can judge.

Oh, and ketchup will do the same thing - that's what I use on my copper bottomed cookware!

Lisa said...

Just wanted to say Hi!! You have a great blog and a new follower:)

Anonymous said...

I love that idea about cleaning the copper. I have a bunch of copper pots on my walls for decoration, and I know now just how to clean them. And, apparently, it's your birthday! Happy Birthday, O Wise One!

Lori Yoder said...

I would love it if you would link this post up with my Tuesday's Tips. Thanks! http://couponomicstimuluspackage.blogspot.com/2010/02/tuesdays-tips-how-to-get-out-of-debt.html

Anonymous said...

wow!!!!!

i emailed you my addy cuz i won the flippin' waffle iron!!! yay for me!!! thank you :)

Lori Yoder said...

Thanks so much for linking up! I appreciate it!