Tarnished Sterling Silver???

Got tarnished sterling silver jewelry? I certainly have some, but do not want to use a chemical solution since it may damage the beads: semi-precious, precious gemstones and freshwater pearls. A cotton cloth works, however does not get rid of the tarnish from the intricate details of small jewelry items. So here is something you can naturally clean your jewelry with without damaging the gemstones.


Ingredients:
a small bake pan (I used a 9" round)
1 sheet of foil to cover the pan (foil shiny side up)
1 tablespoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
warm water (microwave 1 cup for 2 min)
Sorry I forgot to add the salt in the photo! Put the baking soda and salt scattered in the pan, then put your jewelries in. Pour the warm water slowly in pan, see photo below. Wait until the water cools, then rinse the jewelry with warm water and dry with a paper towel.
Here are the before and after photos:



Now my jewelry looks as good as new! Hope this helps you out!

If you are reading this from Facebook, here is the link to the original blog post with photos.

http://jewelrydelicacies.blogspot.com/2009/07/tarnished-sterling-silver.html

July 2009 Featured Etsy Blogger

I'm happy to annouce July 2009 Featured Etsy Blogger:
Miesmama. Her shop is full of unique felt creations such as bags, bowls, goodies for your hair, your home, and more! Please visit her here

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5122298

One of my favorite items from her shop is this purple coneflower sweater tote

This bag is so cute! I love the colors...

July 7 2009 Giveaway Winner!

Thank you to all who participated in my July 7, 2009 giveway. It was a success! I received a lot more than the usually traffic to my website and your comments tell me there is a wide range of interests in different styles of jewelry. My goal is to provide customers a wide range of unique stlye jewelry. Handcrafted jewelry is a very competitive market, creating unique one of a kind pieces through creativity and inspiration. Etsy has tons of talented jewelry artists and artists in other areas besides jewelry. I encourage you to browse the shops and refer anyone to shop at Etsy. Please send me referrals too!

The winner is...

Edi Royer at http://memoriesforlifescrapbooks.blogspot.com/

Her prize choice is the pink floatian filigree earrings!

These beautiful filigree earrings was crafted with pink Swarovski bicones. These earrings are one of my experimental pieces I made just to try something new. They are ~ 2.5 inches in length from top of ear wire. The filigree is sterling silver plated, everything else is sterling silver. I also used this photo as my Etsy shop avatar!

Congratulations Edi!

Thanks again all...

June 2009 Featured Etsy Blogger

I just totally missed out on this last month, so I would like to share with you my favorite items from our June 2009 Featured Etsy Blogger: LazyTCrochet

The photo above is an item from her shop: Wispy Clouds Crochet Fringe Scarf, you can visit here: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=20970461 This is something I definitely would wear. It is very unique and the colors are just beautiful.

My next favorite item is the Hand Knit Lichen Light Green Textured Hat. I love the fringe on the top.

Please visit her shop to check out other her other beautiful shop items http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5057519

Carnival Blog July 3 Favorite Summer Recipe

I am a fan of recipes at http://www.foodnetwork.com/. Here I'm going to share two of my favorites. Enjoy


The first one is Salsa by Alton Brown. This one is a winner ever time!


Salsa

Recipe courtesy Alton Brown
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/salsa-recipe/index.html

6 Roma tomatoes, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 seeded and minced jalapenos, plus 2 roasted, skinned and chopped jalapenos
1 red bell pepper, fine dice
1/2 red onion, fine chopped
2 dry ancho chiles, seeded, cut into short strips and snipped into pieces
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 lime, juiced
Chili powder, salt, and pepper, to taste
Fresh scallions, cilantro or parsley, to taste
Directions
In a bowl, combine all ingredients. Place in refrigerator for up to 12 hours for flavor infusion.
Serve with tortilla chips.


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For those who love sweets, this is a "must" try zucchini bread recipe. It is heavenly delicious.

Zucchini Bread

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/zucchini-bread-recipe/index.html

Ingredients
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.