HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 4028, 26 May 1931, Page 61

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Keep your walls clean if you wish to be free from coughs and colds and other ailments. Dust is laden with infection, and illness of all kinds linger in dusty corners and cling to neglected walls. Rub down walls with a long broom over which a clean cloth, frequently shaken out of the window, is tied. Then in the case of distempered walls, wash over with a cloth dry-wrung out of warm water and soap suds. Wallpaper is best cleaned down with a ball of flour-and-water dough. ¥ ¥ ¥ Never use hot water for washing rubber hot-water botles, as this is very harmful to them. The temperature of the water should not be any hotter than you can bear the tips of your fingers in without discomfort. A few drops of ammonia added to the water will keep the rubber soft and also prevent it cracking. When a stone hot-water bottle becomes cracked fill with sand and heat in a slow oven. The bottle will then keep at a comfortable temperature for eight hours. When filling a hot-water bottle care should be taken that the water is not too hot. Allow some of the steam to escape before screwing on the stopper. A rubber hot-water bottle should never be put away with the sides resting against each other. Blow a little air into the bottle and screw the stopper on quickly. When using a hot-water bottle to air or warm a bed place it upright between the sheets. This allows the heat to spread. It is a mistake to fill a hot-water bottle right up to the neck. ❖ ❖ * In damp weather many housewives find difficulty in preventing salt from becoming damp and lumpy. As soon as salt is received it should be removed from its packet, then spread out thinly on a warm surface and allowed to remain there until perfectly dry. Pour into glass containers—glass jam jars suit the purpose admirably—and cover securely. A metal container should never be used for storing salt. Only a small quantity should be kept in the salt-cellar, especially if it is open. Salt quickly absorbs any moisture that may be in the atmosphere. A few grains of rice in the cellar will help to prevent the salt from becoming lumpy. ¥ ¥ ¥ Conscientious parents who endeavour to answer every childish question may be themselves to blame. It must be remembered that a little child’s vocabulary is limited, and thousands of words I in everyday use by grown-ups convey no I meaning to a baby intelligence. Answer i all your children’s questions in the simplest possible words, even though it makes an explanation take longer.

It is far better for mother to make sure she is understood than to put off baby with answers that “ shut him up ” merely because he is puzzled. An intelligent child has a real craving for informa, tion.

On the other hand, there are children who ask questions for the sake of asking. They need to be shown that the most lasting knowledge is gained by experiment and experience. If you give baby some old newspapers to tear up “ to make mummy’s fire-lighters,” he will learn more of the destructible character of paper than he could from dozens of warnings to “ leave daddy’s books alone! ”

It is a good plan to include in baby’s playthings little articles of daily use, such as empty cotton reels,, tiny boxes, and some wooden spoons. “ Learn while you play ” is only true when there is plenty of room for a child’s imagination to revolve round the practical objects of every day.

The modern home needs careful touches of colour and pictorial incident if it would avoid dullness and monotony, for nothing gives greater evidence of a tasteful personality than the skilful choice of artistic details. And no better example of this could be found than in your china. Why not, for example, select your tea service to harmonise with the colour scheme of the living room, or even start with the tea service and work out the scheme from that! Imagine how delight, ful would be a tea service in rose, delphinium blue, and white, with perhaps bandings of black and touches of gold, and how admirably this would harmonise with weathered oak furniture. Your window curtains could be in rosecoloured artificial silk shot with gold, and delphinium blue could be used for the upholstered furniture or loose cretonne covers. With walls in a warm tone of cream relieved by touches of gilt in the mouldings, and a carpet in a neutral tone of grey or fawn, your scheme would be perfect, and you would have a room which would always seem light and joyous and refreshing.—Baseden Butt, in the Woman’s Magazine.

We all love to receive letters, yet few of us actually enjoy replying to them. Mainly because we must leave the garden and go and stifle indoors at a writing table.

Why not make a board, equipped for use, which will rest either on your knees or on the arms of your comfy chair. You will need a piece of two-ply wood about 27in long and Kin deep. Any art shop will let you have such a piece for about a shilling. Cover this with casement cloth, and add two good deep pockets, either of casement to match, or of some pretty contrasting cretonne. These pockets will hold writing paper, writing pad, envelopes, and letters to be answered. Place a good large sheet of blotting paper right over the middle surface, tucking the ends well into the pockets. At the top glue on a small metal ashtray. This will hold your inkpot, if you need one.

On the top of the left-hand pocket attach two or three ribbons or elastic loops for pens and pencils. This writing board would prove a boon to bed-ridden invalids, for there is nothing on the market to help them in what must be a very arduous task. Remember this when you are wanting something to make. The outlay need be quite small.