Cheap Silver Cleaner using everyday household items

Recently being at the PNE and looking around the Marketplace, (which is a must on my PNE list of things to do and see each summer - I call it the "didn't know I needed it until I was told" building.)  In recent years I have purchased a $700 vitamix blender (which shockingly haven't regretted once), a $100 massager (that broke with in the first year), eyebrow make up set that was to change my non-existent brows into magnificence in 10 second a day (problem being you have to do it), Shea butter from Africa (an annual must..love it).
This year the jewellery cleaner caught my eye.. it is apparently fantastic on gold and silver.. and I almost bought it for something crazy like $20. And then I remembered.. that I clean my silver jewellery with table salt and aluminum foil.   I don't own a lot of gold so I have never tried it on gold.. I wouldn't recommend it. So here is my tip for the day that costs just cents:


For jewellery I use a pasta bowl or casserole dish, for silverware and tea sets I use the kitchen sink.


Line the bottom of the dish or sink with aluminum foil and add a generous amount of table salt (at least a couple tablespoons), fill with warm water (actually I have no idea if temperature matters but that's what I use) and set silver into bowl/sink.  Leave for a minimum of 2 -3  minutes and then rinse with water. Depending on amount of tarnish you can re-soak. I have left heavily tarnished items overnight. 

The science behind it:
When salt, aluminum foil and water are combined they create a chemical reaction known as ion exchange. During this process, the tarnish on the silver is transferred to the foil. In fact, if your silver is tarnished enough, you'll actually see brown tarnish on the aluminum foil.

Have a great day!


Aly

BabyVibe.. Are you vibing?

I am so excited my first ad with Babyvibe came out this morning!

What is Babyvibe?....
Babyvibe is your trusted voice for new and expecting parents in Canada, delivering pint-sized news, product reviews, tips and family friend event listing. 

I signed up to get the newsletter a few months back and have loved the great product reviews, what to do and parenting tips.  I have found many local businesses like mine that are a Mom Run and worth supporting. 


I am proud that I am now a babyvibing advertiser and hope that the ad brings in some revenue so I can continue to advertise with them!


To check out my ad click here: Babyvibe


Scroll down to the bottom and a surprise discount you will find for Aly Dahl Designs.... 

Check it out and sign up for the e-newsletter and take advantages of the great discounts to cool shops and products just because you subscribe!


Have a great Monday!


Aly

Common Sense and Reading came in Handy yet again!

Last October I met a young man who was a "website genius".. I met with him at Lougheed mall in Burnaby for coffee,  I knew the questions to ask according to what I learned at my business classes at college, but really I knew nothing about building a website.


He reminded me of my younger brother Luke (who I have a  soft spot for) and I hired him instantly. He didn't want payment up front he said when we got working on things more seriously I could pay half up front and half when it was done.   I spent MONTHS and months getting stuff together for him, making items to photograph, photographing.. searching the web for sites I liked.   


When I first decided to sell on line I was searching names and bought website names I thought were good.  The first one I bought was www.silverfingerprints.ca it was through a dotcom company who does back end servers and had templates and things. One of the things I did do was put up a site I made as a "holding site".  So I started to build my site while my "Web Genius" was building my "real" site. 

Along the way I named my business Aly Dahl Designs and bought www.alydahl.com and www.alydahl.ca,  I called my web guy a few times and he said he could help me.. but then he started to not return my emails or my calls.  So I figured out how to forward those addresses to the silverfingerprints one.  Getting smarter. 
I started to tweak my site and started getting compliments on it.. smarter again..  Figured out how to re-size photo's, make tab's, meta tags...Wow, starting to get cocky..


For the past 4 months since firing my "Web Genius" as he was too busy to remember I was alive.. and he did nothing in 6 months... I had been looking for someone to do a shopping cart on my site.  Life being like it is I haven't found anyone.


So today I decided.. how hard could it be? I am proud to say I am now pretty flippin smart.. Although it has taken 12 hours, two of my collections now have "Add to Cart" buttons so people can buy stuff directly from my site!!! No more email!!! (Although I had linked it up to each piece and I thought I was pretty smart)...


So you can now officially actually Shop "Shop Fingerprint Impressions" and my iCANDY line!!!! Check it out!!!


Well that's my big accomplishment for today, It was a biggy!  Hopefully next week all my lines will have "Add to Cart" button and I will get back to making and posting new pieces!!! 


Have a great weekend,


Aly
AKA.. an Almost  "Web Genius"