Ladies’ Columns

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4952, 6 February 1937, Page 3

Ladies’ Columns

EXERCISE. It is sadly true that the large majority of women spend many hours with their.bodies "parked” on chairs, while their brains only are exercised. The trouble with long hours of sitting is that the body gets "set” in more or less one position. The hips are apt to spread and the “tummy” muscles get thoroughly slack, and you discover that you do not like the look of your figure at all. These unfortunate results can be avoided, or corrected. First of all what about your posture when sitting? I am ready to guess you probably sit with a curvey back, you let your shoulders droop so that your chest is narrow, your head hangs forward and your "tummy” is depressed. This means that your breathing is shallow, your spine is held in a “fatigue” position, and the depression around your waist interferes with the normal functioning of your internal organs. If this is how you sit for hours at a stretch, you are bound to feel fagged at the end of the day. The difference on your health and figure between a prolonged good sitting posture and a bad one is tremendous. Get your sitting posture corrected, and this is how you do it: Straighten your spine, without necessarily holding yourself stiff as a poker, and get the lower part against the back of the chair. If you want to lean forward, move from the hip joints and not by curving your spine. With the straightening out of the spine everything else goes right; that is, the chest and head lift and the “tummy” is flattened out, instead of being in folds. HINTS. To ease insect bites, take a piece of soap, dip in cold water, then rub the wet surface lightly on the bite. To rid a room of flies, heat a poker and place it on a piece of camphor. This will give off fumes which are disagreeable to all insects. To whiten sinks which have been neglected and from which the stains cannot be removed in the ordinary way, use a solution of salts of lemon. First, wash the sink well, then brush in the solution with an old nail-brush, remove all trace of the acid by thorough rinsing. Salts of lemon is a poison and should be kept under lock and key. If a bowl of lime is placed in the cupboard on the shelf where jams, jellies and preserves are kept, no mould will ever gather on the fruit. To remove all traces of tvr from either skin or clothing, rub with pure dripping before washing with soap and water. 11. is will soften the far and it will com: away with th? wash. The most economical way to remove stains from saucepans, both inside and out, is to rub them with damp ashes. Tan shoes that are badly soiled and spotted should be put on shoetress and washed with flannel squeezed out of strong soap suds. Absorb as much moisture as possible by pressing with soft rag. Leave to dry. While still damp, rub in a little castor oil and, when thoroughly dry polish as usual. To slice hai'd-boiled eggs for salad, us-, a knife that. has been dioper. in boiling water and then wiped dry. Repeat each time the blade grows cold, and there will be no crumbling and waste of the egg.

A little pipeclay dissolved in the water when washing linen cleans it thoroughly, no matter how soiled. This also improves the colour of the clothes and saves both labour and soap. To clean a copper, rub the inside witlj a rag dipped in tartaric acid, rinse and wipe dry. Do this just before using it. Wire mattresses are easily cleaned by using a bicycle pump. Also run a lighted candle along the rolled wire edges and it will quickly burn the fluff which collects. Loose covers get soiled where the arm rests. Make a square just to fit the soiled part, fix it with press studs, take off when soiled, wash and replace. This saves washing the whole cover. Scrub wicker furniture with salt and water (no soap), and it will look as fresh as when new. HEALTH. NEGLECTED HANDS. Even in these beauty conscious days hands are curiously neglected by women and girls whose appearance is otherwise immaculate. Curiously, not only because hands are just as visible as faces, but because they are much more improvable! Regular attention is one of the most important ways of turning workaday hands into pretty ones. An occasional half hour treatment is good, but a daily five minutes is a hundred times better. Housewives often tell me that it s impossible to keep hands nice. Well,

I won’t argue that hands which are immersed in water all the morning can look fairy-like over fine embroidery the same evening; hut I will ask, quite seriously, whether they are bound to be in water quite so much. There are washing up mops! The quality of the water, too, makes a tremendous . difference. Strong soda water ruins any skin, but there is a substitute for soda in household borax, which is very little more expensive, and yet softens the water amazingly. And, if you do much washing at home, please try hard to collect rain water for it! Only those women who have tried it know how different is the feel of rain water and how soft it leaves the skin. Whatever else you neglect, do make time to dry your hands thoroughly. You can spare a thought for your fingernails at the same time, for while the cuticles are soft they can be easily persuaded back to their proper place, which is just low enough to show the pretty white half moons. Almost as important as the drying is the use of a good hand jelly after taking your hands out of the water. Get a good one, smooth a little in, and rub the hands together for a second or two, it will sink right into the skin and leave it soft and supple without any trace of stickiness. A sixpenny tube will go a very long way, and should have a permanent place beside your sink.

THE HOME. LEATHER COATS AND SHOES. If you are launching a leather campaign in your home, you may like to tackle your leather coat, besides smaller fry, such as cushions, belts, shoes and handbags. The coat is not a difficult matter, but it needs enthusiasm and time to go at the work slowly. Put a bar of pure white soap and a cup of water into a bowl and leave to dissolve. Then stir in one cup of alcohol and two cups of any light oil. Apply this mixture to your ‘patient’ with a soft cloth and afterwards rub off the solution with a clean dry cloth, instead of using water. Let the coat dry thoroughly (away from the fire, please), and then beautify it with a little oiling. Use a soft cotton rag and linseed oil, and rub this over small areas of the coat at a time. Polish afterwards with a piece of clean silk. If your coat does not call for such a drastic cleaning, but merely needs freshening, it will say “Thank you” for this treatment: Mix a generous handful of sawdust to a paste with petrol, and apply with a flannel. Tlease remember safety first, and do the job outside. How do you treat your shoes? Stout brown shoes with no nonsense about them will be all the better for a real scrub down with cool soap and water to which you have added a tablespoonful of turpentine. Stains on light kid shoes can be banished by applying a paste made of fuller’s earth and water. Leave the paste to dry and then wipe off. This method will not affect the colour of the leather at all. Does your wardrobe sport a pair of suede shoes? Use a rubber brush to freshen up the nap; and when the shoes get past this stage scrub them with petrol and wipe dry. A special liquid dye sold for the purpose will stain them excellently, and the usual wire brush will revive the nap after wards.

Leather gloves which are spotted and stained —can you cope with these? First try rubbing with toasted bread, but if this fails, drop a meat bone in the fire and leave it there until it turns white. Then lift it out with the tongs, crush it well, and rub the grease spots with the powder. They will lose heart and vanish. Try all or any of these hints on your ailing leather, and it will look as different as rain after its tonic. > COOKING. i CAKES AND BISCUITS. Marzipan Biscuits: Cream 2 ozs butter and 2 ozs castor sugar and beat in the yolk of one egg. Stir in 4 ozs Pour and 2 ozs ground almonds; mix to a paste and roll out. Cut the mixture into round biscuits and bake in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes. Then mix the white of egg with a little icing sugar, spread this on the biscuits, and sprinkle some chopped burnt almonds on top, . Brandy• Snaps: Warm 2 ozs butter, 2 ozs brown sugar, 2 ozs golden syrup and 4 teaspoon of ginger in a pan until the.butter is melted. Then sieve 2 ozs flour and add it to the mixture with \ teaspoon lemon juice. Grease a baking tin and put teaspoons of the mixture on to it, allowing a good distance in between each spoonful, so as to allow for spreading during the cooking. Bake for about 10 to 15 minutes in a moderate oven. Then lift off the tin and roll them round

the greased handle of a wooden spoon. Should the brandy snaps set before you have time to roll them up, just put them back into the oven for a few minutes and then roll them.

Finter Scones: Rub li ozs butter into 2 lb flour which has been mixed with 1J teaspoons of baking powder, and add % teaspoon salt and 1 oz castor sugar. Beat up 1 egg and reserve 1 teaspoon of it for glazing the scones. Add i gill milk to the rest of the egg and mix everything to a soft dough. Roll out the mixture, cut into fingers, put them in a greased baking tin, glaze them with the egg, and bake in a quick oven. LAUNDRY. THE BACHELOR GIRL’S WASHING Remember, it pays to invest in an enamel basin. White or cotton things left in it overnight, in soapy water, shed most of their dirt by themselves, saving your precious minutes. If you have a cold, throw a handful of kitchen salt into a basin of cold water, and let your handkerchiefs soak for a day or two. They will then be more pleasant to wash. Incidentally, hankies need never be ironed. Strech and spread them carefully when wet, on to a marble slab or glass window. They’ll dry quickly and smoothly.

Woollies will keep soft and supple if a teaspoonful of olive oil is added to the washing water. Stockings should be washed through every day. This prolongs their life. Hang them up to dry by the toes, having first run your hand through them to stretch them to the original shape. Do not iron. Miniature washing lines can be rigged up round the legs of the table, from hooks on the window frame to hooks on the door frame, backwards and forwards through hooks on the ceiling. You can buy a travelling clothes line, with pegs attached, which folds up into a little case, and even a clothes hanger with pegs beneath to take -gloves, stockings and such trifles.

Recipe for a snowy wash: 1 packet of soap flakes, borax if the water is hard, starch, blue, common salt, olive oil, an enamel basin, clothes’ line and a good iron. Treat your undies gently, squeezing them in tepid suds. Rinse in clear water, squeeze without twisting, and roll up in towel to dry. If your jumper is likely to lose its figure in the wash, tack it on to a towel before washing, keeping the exact shape. Towel and jumper are washed and dried together. Press over gently with warm iron before undoing tacking threads. Remember, glossy surfaces must be ironed on the right side, rough ones on the wrong. Wash gloves on the hand, in luke warm, soapy water. Squeeze the tips well till all the dirt has disappeared. Rinse in slightly soapy warm water. Starch is so useful in giving and preserving the immaculate touch. Collars and cuffs of linen and pique and all the cotton family, can quite easily be starched.