Whenever I visit a thrift store I head first to the furniture section in the faint hope of finding something fabulous that needs a little TLC. I don't seem to have the best of luck thrifting for furniture, but every so often I spot something small that I know could be really pretty with a little elbow grease. A few weeks ago I spotted such an item.Behold my $5 thrift store vase - it's nothing much to look at is it?

I used some Silvo silver cleaner (purchased a while back when I had some crazy plan to actually clean my jewelry) to tidy it up, but I ran into a little problem. The directions on the can say to apply the cleaner, let it dry, and then rub it off with a soft cloth. This method worked a little (just enough to give me hope that my $5 was well spent), but it was quite frustrating as I had to use quite a bit of pressure to get any of the tarnish off, and then there was still plenty left on the vase after all the effort. Out of frustration I dabbed a little cleaner on the soft cloth and just started rubbing the vase - hallelujah! the tarnish came off easily. I'm going to have to remember not to follow directions more often.