with a how-to on getting new dishes

we've been married close to 18 years. we are still using the same utensils we got as a wedding present, which is COMPLETELY ok, but we're missing a good number of spoons after those 18 years. kids do a good job at misplacing things like spoons, they make great diggers in the garden :)

so for a while i've had the itch to get some new utensils. about a month ago, ethan dropped a spoon in the garage in a place we'll never get to. that kind of sealed the deal. prior to said droppage, we'd noticed our dishwasher wasn't getting things totally cleaned. it's only a couple of years old, so being old and worn out wasn't an option i was interested in entertaining. it seemed clogged and we tried a number of things: jet dry, no heat dry, switching where we washed things, and my brilliant idea–running a load with vinegar and baking soda. um, don't do it.

soon after that fateful batch, i noticed the glasses had a film on them, no amount of washing could get rid of it. and then i noticed the utensils were the same way. some strange film. we changed the dishsoap we were using, went to the best brand out there. still nothing. the dishes were generally much cleaner, the clogging issue was gone, but now we had a film.

then it hit me. vinegar is an acid. it ETCHES if you use enough of it. yah. after discussion with my resident scientist, we agreed that that's probably what happened. there'd been a clogging issue, somehow we'd managed to fix that (he took the dishwasher apart just after my vinegar run, we cleaned out all the spouts and spurts we could find), but somehow i'd managed to etch our glasses and utensils. nice. i did use a tad much vinegar. i wanted to clean it WELL.

there's nothing technically wrong with the glasses. they just look bad. here, have a nice cold glass of water, really, it's clean. so i made a trip to peir one and found these:



and while i was there, i decided to buy these, they don't go together, but they are great for mixing and matching:


and since i had them, i figured why not get the utensils too?

so for easter brunch, we got to eat on new dishes, drink out of new glasses, and use new utensils. we made brunch while we watched conference, it was timed perfectly. conference ended, we ate. yummy blueberry sour cream cake (NOT HEALTHY), strawberries and pineapple, and scrambled eggs. and yes, they did taste better on the new plates :)
so if you want to get new dishes, run your old ones through the washer with a bunch of vinegar and baking soda. and let me know how it goes. :)

ON ANOTHER NOTE:


tonight is studio calico's sneak night for the may kit. i wasn't sure about this kit, but after saturday (see liz qualman's blog for a great recap of my saturday), i think i just might be ok with it. i'll share my sneaks in the next few days. love the layout i've got already.

and there's a great giveaway on the blog for tonight as well. check it out.