HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 4031, 16 June 1931, Page 60

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

Light bamboo and basketwork tables and chairs, when used out of doors, soon get soiled, but they clean easily if scrubbed with a small brush dipped'first in warm water and then in kitchen salt. Wipe with clean damp cloths and dry in the sun.

That elderly mackintosh, too shabby even for dark days of storm, what use can be made of it?

It will make a handy rubber apron-bib, apron and all, 'with tapes sown at the sides to tie round the waist. Slip it on when floors needs must be scrubbed. It is most adequate.

When cooking blackberries and apples together, always put the apples uppermost. The juice from the berries tends to harden the apples and makes them difficult to cook.

If your feet ache, plunge them into hot water in which a lump of soda has been dissolved, and rest the feet in this for five minutes. Then put them in cold water, well rub and dry them, dusting with boracic powder afterwards. This affords wonderful relief.

When velvet has been crushed in packing, and there are marks on the pile, it can be restored in the following manner:—Fill a basin with steaming hot water, and hold the part to be treated over the bowl, with the underside downwards. After a short interval the pile

rises, and the material resumes its original freshness.

* V- V A\ ine stains will disappear from linen if the stained part is held in /boiling milk.

To (dean varnish, apply a weak solution of vinegar and water with a washleather.

Io clean a zinc bath, scrub it thorough with coarse salt moistened with pa raflln.

Clothes which are too dry should be sprinkled with warm, not cold, water. They are then easier to iron.

Puddings intended for children and invalids should be steamed instead of boiled. .Steaming makes them more digestible.

If a cauliflower lie boiled in as little water as possible, and no soda used, the liquid can be used as the foundation of a soup.

The colour of a beetroot can be retained if, after it has been rinsed, it is placed in boiling water with a goodsized lump of salt to boil steadily.

If you stain your dress with paint, rub it immediately with spirits of turpentine. A second application may be necessary after the first has dried.*

Net curtains can be dried easiest by hanging them on their rods while they are still wet. They will hang very gracefully if dried in this way.

When you store dry goods, such as herbs, rice, etc., in glass jars, put the label inside the jar instead of outside. It will remain clean and cannot be rubbed off

Suet puddings are lighter and more digestible if made of half flour and half breadcrumbs. It is a good way of using up stale bread, and it is also economical.

If yon were to dress your bed in sheets and pillow-cases of Chinese shell pink, to blend with blankets of softest mauve and rose, and then drape your bed with a bedspread made of five-inch bands of linen, shading from delicate wild rose pink to deepest mulberry, hemstitched in shaded rose silk, and bordered with a narrow band of grass green linen, appliqued with great red roses and their red-brown foliage, you would have happy results indeed. You may not have rosecoloured spectacles to see through, but you would certainly have in your bedroom a rose-coloured frame in which to live and sleep, and if you are inclined to be sad or depressed, I can assure you, unless you be naturally antagonistic to rose colours, to open your eyes in such a colour environment will assist you mentally and physically to tune up happily for the day's activities; and, on the sheer practical side of the question,'“all the fabrics are washable and unfadable. —Josephine Hawkes, in the Woman’s Journal.

To stimulate circulation in the skin tissues locally, use a good lotion or tonic regularly in the winter. Slap it on smartly, and whip the blood into motion through the skin and muscle cells of the face and neck. But remember that while most astringents are stimulating, they are also drying. Unless the skin is excessively oily, follow every lotion treatment by an application of cream in winter.

If the skin looks dry and shiny after exposure to the wind and cold, and if it burns upon coming indoors and feels harsh and cracky when powder is applied, it needs a very generous oiling. In no circumstances use water when the skin is in this condition. The cold has checked the action of the oil glands, and water at such a time will make the skin grow harsh and painfully chapped. Cleanse and soothe the skin with a soft, oily cream after exposure to the cold, and postpone the use of water for an hour at least.

Remember if you sleep with your window open—as you should do—that the face is exposed to the cold for several hours, just as though you were out of doors. For this reason it is important to leave a rather generous coating of grease cream on the skin, after the regular bed-time treatment.

Particularly for winter use, choose a cold cream that is very fluffy and oily, in preference to one that is waxy. And smooth and mould it well into the skin at least once every day. This lubrication of the skin will keep it supple and well supplied with oils, so that it will not chap or flake nor grow rough even in the bleakest weather.

Always protect the skin before going out in cold weather. After washing the face dry with the greatest pains, so that not the least moisture remains to cause chapping.

-—Six machine guns can be carried by a new single-seater fighting plane recently tested successfully by the R.A.F. It can travel at 200 miles an hour.