Cleaning Handles and Practically Free Nail Polish

I didn't work much on the red cabinet/table this weekend, so no finished pics yet.  They're coming soon, though, promise.  Instead I had some lovely family time, bought some $1 flip flops at Old Navy, and babysat for some friends to earn a little cash.  But I did get around to putting on another (final?) coat of paint last night and decided to spend a couple of minutes shining up the handles.

Don't you love it when you think a project will just take a couple of minutes and it quickly becomes a giant time suck?

That's how the handles went.  I read online about using household supplies to clean brass naturally.

First you make sure you have real brass by trying to stick a magnet to it - brass is not magnetic.  Then you mix 1/2 cup each of salt, vinegar, and flour.  Make a paste.  Spread it on the brass and let it sit for 30 minutes.  Then buff off.

This must work, because I found it a million places online.  But it didn't work for me.  Total fail.  In fact, I think the brass might have actually looked dirtier when I was done.

So then I went for the chemicals.  I can't give you any information about this stuff because it seems to have magically appeared in our house.  I never bought it; the boyfriend never heard of it...  Mystery.  But it works great.  Just make sure not to disregard the whole "well-ventilated area" instruction.  I may have decided that the middle of my house was well ventilated enough and accidentally gotten a little high by the fourth handle.  At least that's how I explained it to the boyfriend, who was wondering why I was getting ecstatically excited over cleaning.


Top have been buffed - bottom before.

It was pretty exciting before the fumes hit, though.  So nice and shiny! 

Oh, and I wanted to share a good CVS score (courtesy of HiptoSave.com).  This week they have a deal on Revlon nail polish that you get $4 ECB (Extra Care Bucks) when you buy one.  A lot of people have $1 off coupons, so that makes for practically free nail polish.

I didn't have the coupon, though.  So I bought one of the "scented" nail polishes (Coconut Crush) - it rang up for $3.99.  Check it at the scanner, though - not all of the scented polishes are $3.99.  So I paid out of pocket for the nail polish, then turned around and got a free milk and 2 liter of coke with the $4 ECB.  I plan on going back later and doing a rolling purchase because there is a limit of 6 on the nail polishes.  If you just want to buy nail polish, that means you can score 6 nail polishes for $4 and still get $4 back at the end to spend on something else (has to be separate purchases).