Home Stuff

Well, this has been a lazy weekend.  Other than shoveling out the driveway yesterday (1 inch of snow fell overnight Friday) and today (2 inches of snow fell overnight Saturday) I've done nothing but look at blogs and decorating magazines, read the newspaper, drink lots of wine, and contemplate various projects I want to do but sure won't get done today :)

However, I am right this moment experimenting to see if vinegar really does remove rust from brass.  Some of my brass cabinet handles are corroded -- not sure if it will work.  Some of them still look brand-spanking new, even though they're all 21 years old!  It makes sense that the ones nearest the stove show the most corrosion, no doubt due to moisture from cooking, even though I have always used my fan.  Which itself is corroded!  I have a new one sitting in the garage for the past 2 years.  I can't install the sucker myself.  I really do need to find a new handyman!  Why do the good ones always get full-time jobs???

I read at a nifty decorating blog (Shabby Loco) that tarnish/gunk/rust (? -- not sure about rust) can be removed from hardware by soaking it in hot sauce.  What, said I?  Well, I will try it.  I thought I had hot sauce in my cabinet.  I did my trek to the Pick 'n Save earlier today to get essentials like milk, bread, wine (of course, wine!), cheapo mac 'n cheese, and my favorite frozen entrees, in addition to photo paper and, you know, essentials!  I get home, unpack everything.  Go to the cabinet -- no damn hot sauce!  Turns out I used it all up this summer to keep the squirrels and chippies out of my planted geraniums on the front porch.  I didn't remember that, either.  That's worrisome - am I getting Alzheimers?  Am I getting like Mr. Don???  Gulp!  The man can't remember how to open a paper bag anymore...

So, I'm trying vinegar right now.  Just plain old vinegar in a glass bowl, and I've got two brass handles from the cabinets above the stove sitting in it, stewing.  Not sure how long they're supposed to stew.  I hope this cleaning method works.  But more than likely, I will succumb to the sirens' call of "why don't you paint them, Jan...." that all of those budget decorating blogs have been telling me I should do.  Mind you, I've no idea what kind of paint I'm supposed to use.  Most of them don't ever get into that kind of detail!  They just show before pictures of really crappy looking stuff and after pictures of really wonderful looking stuff and describe how it hardly took any work or effort at all!  One would think these women (they're ALL women) don't have full-time jobs.  Hmmmm, well, maybe most of them don't!

That's not to say, of course, that being a homemaker and/or a mom isn't a full-time job, because I know it is.  It's just that I grew up with a superwoman who worked full-time and raised six children and despite both mom and dad working we weren't much above poverty level.  Or maybe we were at or even below poverty level (wonder what that was back in the 1950's???) and we kids just didn't realize it.  Kids don't think about things like that.  We just want to know if we're going to be fed -- we always were.  And we always got new shoes once a year.  And hand-me-down coats from all of our older female cousins.  Economically, things didn't start getting better until I was a teenager and mom and dad were able to buy their very first house for $8,000 with a mortgage from the Veterans' Administration.  Well, I'd much rather be working outside the home than inside the home!  LOL!  But that's me.  Strange that after being in hiatus for so many years, the urge to once again be Suzy Homemaker has attacked me full force!  Now, when I'm 60 and don't have any frigging energy for tearing apart rooms and building furniture from scratch...  I thought all that died off when I was 47 and found the internet!  Geez!  Is this the revenge of Hera or something???

For instance, I found the most incredible little thing on Friday at TJMaxx, where the last week I've sort of been hanging out.  Very strange, me hanging out at TJMaxx.  Here is a photo of it:

It doesn't look like much, does it?  But let me tell you, I am loving this little thing.  It's an over-the-cabinet towel rack and I got it for $3.99 at TJMaxx.  The mat black finish on it is perfect for my decor and, best of all, no more dish clothes draped over the sink and countertop!  Never, ever again!  I'm like in homemaker heaven, darlings!  It looks elegant and neat.  I'm doing my little chair happy dance right now, just thinking about it! 

There were several at the downtown mall TJMaxx so tomorrow during lunch I'm going to run over and get another one.  The second one will hold the "junk" rag that heretofore has been draped over the edge of the countertop of the peninsula until it dries and then tucked into a drawer handle until I need to mop something up (I used rags, er, dish cloths [actually, they are wash clothes because dish clothes just don't hold up to the abuse I put them through] rather than paper towels for mopping up spills and scrubbing windows and stuff like that). 

The most amazing thing is that - I never knew these existed.  Ever ever - until I stumbled across a reference to "over the cabinet door rack" a few days ago at some blog or other and I thought to myself "Self, what the hell is that?  And can You use one?"  Well, I sure as hell could use one!  Two, actually...

On a sad note, on Thursday I saw this really uniquely-styled horsey at TJMaxx that I should have bought.  Damn it, I knew I should have bought it then and there.  But I hemmed and hawed.  When I went back on Friday, horsey was gone!  Damn damn damn.  Yeah, like I need another horsey in the house.  I've already got horse-head bookends out of black marble, a bronze horse sculpture and a wooden faux-Tang dynasty horse that is actually quite well done and soothes and entertains my eye whenever I see it.  I said to myself as I was looking at this really cool horse  sculpture "why do you want to buy that?  Save yourself $12, you stupid woman!"  Well, now I feel really stupid for not buying it.  Damn damn damn.  There was no other horsey like it available.  There were a couple of other horseys, but they were run-of-the-mill.  I knew I should have bought that special horsey. 

Now - get ready for this -

YES!  A photo of cardboard boxes!  One is opened, one is not yet breached!  Darlings, the top one holds my battery-operated LED wall sconces for either side of the bathroom mirror upstairs!  Can't wait to install them, that's why they've only been sitting tucked behind the sofa for two days and counting...

The other box is my oiled-bronze finish stand alone towel holder.  That I will definitely tackle today, just as soon as I finish blogging, which may be about midnight or so...

My new bedroom lamp, my new oiled-bronze finish shower curtain rod and my new LED-lit oiled-bronze finish magnifying make-up mirror are en route even as I type this!  I am tres excited!  Can't wait for that new make-up mirror.  I need the larger magnification, 3x just isn't cutting it anymore...  Sigh.  I think I need to step up to 150x Walgreens readers, too.

Okay, I just took a walk over to the kitchen side of the room to check on how the vinegar is dealing with those corroded cabinet handles.  Hmmmm, they didn't look much different.  So I added some salt.  I think I read somewhere that salt and vinegar do - well, not exactly sure what, but the bowl didn't explode in my face and that's always a good thing.  On the other hand, it probably means it's not working, either.  I need another glass of wine...