Polishing antiques

For the last few days I've been polishing all the antiques in my home.

There's a right way and a wrong way to care for them.

Bad:

Oil

Good:

wax

There's hundreds if not thousands of websites that will tell you the reasons, but this link is the best one that I found.

It's a time consuming job, but one that will last about a year, with just a wipe down or a flick of the feather duster once a week.

My great grandmother's hutch is a great example of how it works.

This is what it looked like last month:

It was kind of dull and it had been about a year since I had waxed it.

First, I took everything off....

and here it is all nekked:

This is the wax I use:

Cautionary note:

It has turpentine in it, so if you smoke, don't light up a cigarette while using it or you'll catch yourself on fire, and if you use it on a wood mantel, wait a day or two before you light that puppy up or you might burn the house down.

Here is the hutch with the bottom waxed and polished, and the top untouched, so you can see the difference:

And here it is all finished with everything put back:

If you're wondering what that brown furry thing is underneath, Bubba likes to have a "bubba nest" next to the heating vent :)

Anyway, big difference, huh?

A few closeups while we're here...

See the tulips on the secret drawer?

The big plates were my mom's that she collected from Franklin Porcelain in 1979. 

Each one depicts a month in the year.

The bird casserole dish was my moms, the two tea service sets were my great grandmothers, the little plates were my grandmothers on my dad's side and the rest has been collected by me over the years.

Oh and hold on to your pants, because I actually have two springtime decorations!

One:

And two:

Exciting, right?!

I guess not, but I do have flowers all around the house right now, so that should make up for my lack of Spring decor ;)

Daffodils were $1.75 for a bunch at Safeway, this last week!

The daises were a splurge, but I love them :)

Now the rest of it needs to get polished.... sigh. 

But, in the end it'll be worth it :)

xo

rue

PS

I've decided to not answer back every single comment on my posts and just answer questions when they're asked, which I still have to do at this moment from at least 3 posts back. I regret having to do this, but it was really time consuming! Besides, I'm not sure you see them anyway, since I never check back on the blogs I comment on, so I figure that you don't either and some of you had mentioned that. 

Instead, I'll just visit those of you that have blogs, which I love doing anyway, and answer those that don't have blogs on my posts or email back if I can :)

I do want to say though....

Thank you so much for all the sweet words that you write every time I post. 

It truly warms my heart.

I really mean that :)