Silver Magpies Archives - Got My Reservations

As I worked with my students this week during writers’ workshop, I told them about how important voice is in one’s writing. I used my own experience to inform my teaching — and I told them I don’t ask them to do anything I don’t do.

Image via http://www.826chi.org/programs/

It struck me that the words on the rubric probably apply to me, too. Most days I am just “informative and interesting” and some rare days I am “compelling and engaging.” Unlike my students, however, whose only audience is their parents, each other, and me, I put my work out there for the world to read — and comment on.

It’s probably a clear causal relationship between the number of comments I get and whether or not I have been compelling and engaging. Did I actually “force” you to engage with me?

Image via latestgadgets.co.uk

Since it’s National Delurking Day, I humbly ask you to engage. Leave a comment and let me know who you are. I know you stop by because I (feverishly) check my stats. And leave a comment at some of these wonderful writers’ blogs that I check daily via my Facebook feed. Once I created a Facebook page for Got My Reservations, it became very easy to skim down my Home page daily to check out what’s happening. If you are a blogger, I encourage you to create a Facebook page for your blog. It’s definitely increased my readership, if not my comments. 🙂

Classic Vintage Silver Eye Candy

Right You Are, Jeeves

Treasures from the Past: My Unicorn Collection

Who’s Jim Jebow?

Vanderbilt Wife

My Kitchen Scale

Witness (a guest post on Pioneer Woman about the movie)

Silver. In my opinion, there’s no place in your house that you can’t use it. I am officially the “silver garbage collector” among my friends. When we go to a garage sale, they know that I will pick up that black piece of silver and take it home. I will rescue it from its descent into tarnish hell and use it. It will be on my next buffet setup and it will be on the patio table.

If you’ve got a surface wide enough to hold a tray, you can corral your vanity items on it. I wanted to make it easier to quickly clean my vanity countertop since it’s white Corian and it really should be wiped down every day. I grabbed one of my silver trays — you can see that it’s just as beautiful without being perfectly polished — and put all the little items on it that I had to move around when I cleaned. All I do now is move it from one side to the other and if I use my hairdryer on it every couple of days, it’s dusted, too.

It is my goal in life to never buy something when I can reuse or remix something I already have. One day, I wanted to take off my rings while I cleaned, so I went to the bar closet and found the crystal shot glass. It’s perfect, and can be an interesting conversation-starter when people want to know why I have a shot glass in the bathroom. 🙂

I’ve been looking for someone who shares my love of silver and ran across Silver Magpies. Spend some time with her posts; she’s got wonderful ideas about using silver every day.

Image via silvermagpies.com

And get out your own silver and use some of it for Thanksgiving. If you start now, you’ll easily get it polished before the turkey arrives, and then you won’t have to polish it again for at least six months!

P.S. That’s a real orchid that we took home from a benefit dinner we went to. It’s lasted three weeks, but it’s starting to fade. I’m tempted to buy another one at the grocery store because it makes me feel special every time I walk into the room.