It was
Friday, the final day of my much longed-for Spring Break, which also happened
to be the day after my birthday, and I awoke with grand visions of washing my
new Spode dinner plate, doing some research, and maybe even cooking something.
When I went to the kitchen to make myself breakfast, I was greeted with the
news that our sink was leaking. (There went the dish washing…), and when I
tried to begin the research I had been planning on finishing, the internet was
out. We tried and tried to fix it, but to no avail.
Now, at this point it must be acknowledged
that I believe in the purposefulness of God –He never wastes anything, and He
never allows anything that He will not use in some way for the furtherance of both
His glory and my good. That having been said, I must admit that I struggled,
knowing full well that this redirection of my day was not to be ignored or
whined over, but wondering what it was that I was supposed to do instead.
For whatever reason, the only thing
I could think of doing with my day which did not involve either the internet or
the kitchen sink was to go to a neighborhood of antique stores nearby. I asked
my mom to come along, and as we drove, I commented, rather Gideon-like, that if
we found some amazing find, I would know that I was supposed to go antiquing
that day. I was half joking, but was surprised when we found very little at the
first shop, which had a stack of Spode, but not exactly what I was looking for,
and for more than I would have paid. I did find one thing, but it didn’t strike
me as a great find.
We went to the next shop, and while
my mom was lingering over some books in the first room, I wandered through the
hall to the next, and was greeted with an amazing sight: there, in a glass
case, were six Spode spice jars of different patterns. I had been looking at spice jars
only that morning, and the individual jars I particularly wanted usually went for around
$40 each. There in front of me were six, including two of the patterns I had
been looking at, but for the unbelievable price of $8 each!!
I tried to walk very calmly back
through the hallway to where my mom was, and then back to the room to show her
my amazing find, but I’m sure I didn’t do a great job of concealing my
excitement. When I went to pay for the jars, I found out that they had been
brought in just that morning (while we were at home trying in vain to fix the
internet). The timing was just right, and I was so thankful that God had
redirected my day!
Now, I know this was a lengthy
introduction, and you might be wondering where the practical part begins, and
here it is: The spice jars each had an inordinately large price label on them,
right over the best bits of the pattern. When I got them home, I was greatly
disappointed (and annoyed) that they seemed to be paper labels stuck on with
paste or something else that held firmer than ordinary price tag adhesive. I
tried scraping at them with my fingernail (heretofore my most successful method
of removing such stickers), I tried soaking the label in hot water, but nothing
seemed to be working. I didn’t want to damage the jars, so I was in quite a
quandary about what to do next, until I remembered that I had pinned something
on Pinterest about removing adhesive from things.
As it turned out, plain old vinegar,
that household panacea, takes both adhesive and label off cleanly, and with
ease!
I will
say, the more vinegar you have on your rag, the faster and easier the sticker
comes off. If the vinegar isn’t squeezing out of the rag while you scrub, it
will take a great deal more elbow grease to remove the sticker and adhesive.
Since that day, I have used vinegar
to remove residue, scotch tape marks, and even whole price tags on items from Spode, Tuesday Morning, Home Goods,
and Goodwill, as well as several other stores. –Kudos to Value Village, by the
by, for using price tags that come easily off their items and only occasionally
leave a very minimal amount of residue!
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