A Science Experiment

This summer I inherited my Great-Grandmother's silver tea service. Unfortunately, it was badly tarnished. I tried everything to make it look presentable - TarnX, silver cream, and about 3 other silver cleaners. Nothing seemed to do the trick and my hands were too tired to keep trying! I contemplated having a professional try to clean the pieces or possibly getting it replated. Before I sought professional help I did some goggling. Don't you love Goggle? And I can across this link. You need aluminum foil, salt, baking soda, hot water, clean towel and some silver polishing cream. The combination of the salt, aluminum foil and water creates a chemical reaction known as ion exchange. The ion exchange causes the tarnish on the silver to be transferred to the foil!

Here's a before picture of one of the silver pieces:

Basically I followed these steps.

1. Layered my sink with aluminum foil and filled it with hot water.

2. Added two tablespoons of salt and 2 tablespoons of baking soda.

3. Placed one silver piece at a time in the water.

4. The instructions called for 5 minutes per piece - it took mine at least 1-2 hours per piece.

5. Removed silver from the water and wiped down with a clean towel and then used silver cream polish.

6. Tarnish GONE!!!

* I did have to repeat this entire process for each piece, I think the foil starts to collect too much tarnish so you have to start over.

* for the silver trays I used a bathtub!

Here's the after photo:

Not completely perfect but such an improvement! I'm so happy to have this wonderful set from my Great-Grandmother. I am displaying it in our dining room on an antique tea cart I bought in Canton for $40.

YEA for ion exchange! Haha :) If you know of any other tips let me know, I'm currently working on cleaning up a pair of brass buffet lamps with crystals and I'm having a hard time getting the brass clean. I'll post pictures when I get them all cleaned up!

A Great Holiday

We spent the holidays traveling around visiting family. We had a great time in Humble with my family celebrating from December 23-26. My extended family on my Dad's side gets together on December 23rd every year to celebrate Christmas at my Aunt Janet's house. Jason and I drove in after work and made it there just in time to enjoy some homemade chili, tamales, dips, and of course my Aunt's amazing pecan pie. We also have a great time enjoying some adult beverages and a bit of gambling! Just a dice game we play every year. This year I won the cash! Here's a picture of all the cousins playing 4 to the Left, 5 to the Right....that's what I think it's called anyway.

We had a great time on Christmas day with my family. It was so wonderful to see Rett open all his gifts. He got a train set and the large table it sits on. Unfortunately that was his first gift so he wasn't too interested after that but we had a great time watching him play with Thomas the Train!


On December 26th Jason and I flew to Virginia to be with his family until January 3rd. With so many days in town we were able to see Kelly and Brendan's new home, visit old friends in Loudoun County, visit friends in Staunton and of course see all of the Rollers and extended family. We celebrated with his extended family on the 27th and spent a wonderful New Year's Eve at Matt & Elizabeth's house. We really enjoyed seeing everyone and we still had a White Christmas. Here's some of the fun from New Year's Eve...Matt had his Ipod going so there's a good chance the guys are singing to REK.

I'm grateful

On the way home from work the other day I was thinking about how truly blessed I am. This has been a year of highs and lows for us but overall I could not ask for anything more. So here goes, this year I'm grateful for...

My husband - he is the most wonderful person I know and he always makes me laugh, I'm so lucky to spend everyday of my life with him.

My parents and sisters - they have been so supportive in more ways than I can count. Together they have been there whenever we needed them and individually they have given us so much of their love and time.

The Rollers - we've had visits from all of Jason's immediate family and it's been so wonderful. We truly appreciate all the time they've spent visiting us in our new home and all the love they share.

My nephew Rett - I didn't know I could love someone (other than Jason!) so much. When he says my name I just melt. He's the most adorable, smart and loving little boy. I'm so lucky to be his Aunt!

Our health - We are both so lucky to be healthy! I had a bit of a health related issue this year and some sadness that came with it but in the end I was just so thankful to have my health.

Our church group - We joined a couples group through our church and it's been an amazing experience for me. It's brought Jason and I closer together and brought us both closer to the Lord.

Our new home - We are so very blessed to be in our own place that we can call home. I am a homebody so I enjoy just being in our house.

Our jobs - Jason and I both are lucky to work for such wonderful employers. It makes such a difference when you wake up in the morning and you feel good about going to work.

Wonderful friends - We have some amazing friends! We've met wonderful people in San Antonio and we also have great friends spread out across the country. My hope is in the new year we can visit more of our friends.

Our adorable Sadie - she's the best dog and gives us unconditional love. She's getting up there in age (she'll be 9 in March) but she's still the sweetest. She enjoys nothing more than cuddling up with us on the couch with her special blanket and watching a movie.

My hope for the new year is that I will take time to think of the things I'm grateful for more often and give thanks. Wishing everyone a wonderfully blessed 2010!

Mascara...yes, I'm blogging about mascara

I thought my next blog post would be about my recent trip to Canton, TX. I spent a great weekend there with my girlfriends and found some amazing deals...but I have not taken pictures of my purchases yet to post! So that will be the next post. Jason is probably not going to be too thrilled with my post on mascara but oh well!

Two weeks ago I ran out of my tried and true mascara - Kevyn Aucoin Volume Mascara. Since I can only purchase this at Neiman's or now Sephora, I just quickly ran to the grocery store and purchased some Loreal. Yikes! I will never go without my Kevyn Aucoin again!

Let me explain my obsession with mascara. I have worn mascara since 7th grade and wear it even when I don't have on any other makeup. I love it! In addition, I love my Kevyn Aucoin eyelash curler - there is no way I can do my lashes without it. The first mascara I wore was Maybelline's Dial-A-Lash because that was what my Mom wore. I remember being about 8 and my Mom putting Dial-A-Lash on me for my dance recital. I wore that mascara until they stopped making it when I was in college. Then I started a search for a new mascara. I've tried it all - Loreal, Maybelline, MAC, Lancome, Mary Kay, Mally, Cover Girl, Laura Mercier. The only other mascara I wear on occasion is Loreal Lash Out Waterproof and I only get that for summertime trips to the lake/beach because you always need to wear mascara, even in the water!

If you haven't tried this mascara before I strongly encourage you to give it a shot. But be sure to use an eyelash curler - it amazes me how many people don't use one. It's such a helpful tool! I will warn you that it's a bit pricey for mascara but in my opinion well worth it. It comes off in tubes, so no black stuff around your eyes and never any flaking! Several of my friends wear it as well as my sisters and we all swear by it.

The first time I tried this mascara was at Henri Bendel in New York (which is makeup heaven in my opinion). I'm so happy that you can now by it at most Sephora's and at sephora online.

So thank you for letting me discuss something so frivolous! And just so Jason doesn't feel left out, let me share a photo of his brand new truck! He's pretty excited as am I - bye bye CRV :)

Channeling Ina Garten

I'm a big fan of the Food Network, cooking and searching for great recipes or just creating my own. Luckily, I married someone that enjoys my cooking and all my "experiments". Some of the shows I enjoy watching are of course Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten), Paula Deen, Bobby Flay and Tyler Florence.

But back to Ina...one of the first Barefoot Contessa shows I watched totally had me mesmerized! She was preparing a dish and she needed to pull an appliance from her pantry and she walks into this huge amazing room that had tons of shelving for all her appliances/pantry items/etc. I remember thinking WOW that's awesome and also thinking someday I want a pantry/storage room like that!

One of the things that sold me on our house when we were shopping around was the pantry. Yes, the pantry! I remember walking into the pantry and thinking this is kind of like Ina's! I had dreamed of a pantry similar to this for so long. A place where we could put all of our appliances on shelves and actually see what we have versus digging for them a cabinet. Here's a picture of part of our pantry.

It's not just her kitchen storage that I love about Ina - it's her wonderful recipes and her simple but elegant approach. Her cookbooks are wonderful! I guess I should mention that I also collect cookbooks. When we travel I usually try to get a cookbook from the area. Last year when we visited Charleston, SC for our anniversary I drug Jason around town tracking down the Charleston Receipts cookbook - it's the oldest Junior League cookbook still in print in the country. Yes, we found it!

Back to Ina again...early in our relationship Jason mentioned to me that one of his favorite desserts was one he had in his elementary cafeteria - chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. I searched all over for a good peanut butter icing recipe, even trying to create my own with no success. In the first Ina cookbook I purchased, Barefoot Contessa at Home, I found the perfect peanut butter icing recipe! Thanks Ina! Below is the recipe for her wonderful peanut butter icing.

Peanut Butter Icing


1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 cup creamy peanut butter (she uses Skippy)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup heavy cream

Place the confectioners sugar, peanut butter, butter, vanilla, and salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on medium-low speed until creamy, scraping down the bowl with a rubber spatula as you work. Add the cream and beat on high speed until the mixture is light and smooth.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (OK, not outside but in our house!)

I LOVE Christmas time! I am so excited this year because it's our first Christmas in our new house. I am constantly looking/shopping for Christmas decorations that will fit well in our new home. This year I was finally able to put all my Christmas china out on display. Did I mention I love china? Yeah, it's an addiction...especially Spode. I mentioned in the previous post how I am starting to collect Spode Woodland china....well I already have tons of Spode Christmas Tree china and it's beautiful! This year I set some of the place settings out on our dining room table. Here's a picture of one of the place settings.

Can you tell I like red and gold? Here's another photo of our dining room table. I'm still working on this...I think maybe I need a couple more things down the center of the table.

When we bought our house our dining room was set up to be used as a dining room and sitting room so the light was at the front of the room instead of centered in the room. Given my love of china I knew we needed to use the room just as a dining room so I could fit a china cabinet (or two or three), buffet, extra chairs, etc. But this meant getting the light moved to the center of the room so while we were at it I thought we would replace the original light fixture with a chandelier. I was on a mission to find one! Luckily at Canton (will do a whole post on the awesomeness of Canton later) I found this chandelier for an amazing deal! My wonderful husband was really understanding of all this and hired an electrician to move the light and hang the chandelier.

I have been on a search for Christmas garland too but was not about to pay $250 for the garland I saw at the Nutcracker Market in Houston with my mom a couple weeks ago. It was AMAZING but really, $250? So I bought some $15 garland with gold glittered pine cones from Garden Ridge Pottery and then bought some glittered poinsettias for $1.50 and added them into the garland to wrap around our banister. It's not nearly as pretty as what I saw at the Nutrcracker market but it looks pretty in our house with just the light from the dining room chandelier. I might add some glittery red/gold bows. Here's a photo.

Although we might not get snow in San Antonio it's definitely going to look like Christmas inside the Roller house! Next project...the Christmas tree!

Hunting in South Texas

I grew up hunting, in fact I was hunting before I was even born. My grandparents hunted, my parents hunted thus my mom was hunting even while pregnant. It's something our whole family has enjoyed and been quite successful with. My grandparents were avid hunters traveling to Africa, Canada, Alaska and Argentina to hunt. My dad is an excellent hunter, the best I know. He is the most accurate shot. The deer he shot in Canada scored a 171 Boone & Crockett. Jason was quickly introduced to hunting when we started dating. I was so glad he enjoyed hunting and he has definitely gotten very good at it! Recently while bird hunting he killed two doves with one shot (he's pretty proud of that)!

We hunt on a ranch in Pearsall, TX. It's a beautiful place that has tons of bird hunting - doves, quail, turkeys, ducks. My favorite are quail. What a beautiful bird! I have become completely obsessed with quail - I have started to collect Spode Woodland china with quail on the center of the plate and I love anything that has quail feathers! We get to hunt pretty frequently now that we live about an hour from Pearsall. I thought I would post some pictures I took with my iPhone (forgot the camera) when we were hunting recently. I think it's beautiful but some probably don't think cactus and mesquite trees are too lovely - it's all in your perspective I guess.