WOMEN’S NOTES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 313, 5 December 1936, Page 12

WOMEN’S NOTES.

BEAUTY. ( By Aliss Alary Tallis.) Neglected hands.—Even in those 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. Ail occasional half-hour treatment is good, but a daily five minutes is a hundred times better. Housewives often tell me that it is 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; but 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 silken-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 hack 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, if you rub the hands together for n second or two, it will sink right into the skin and leave it soft and supple without any trace of stickiness. A small tube will go a very long way and should have a permanent place beside your sink. COOKING. Cakes and Biscuits.—Alarzipan Biscuits : Cream 2oz butter and 2oz castor sugar and beat in the yolk of 1 egg. Sift in 4oz flour and 2oz 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 2oz butter, 2oz brown sugar, 2oz golden syrup and f teaspoonful of ginger in a pan until the butter is melted. Then sieve 2oz flour and add it to the mixture with f teaspoonful lemon juice. Grease a baking tin and put teaspoonful 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 them 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 lfoz butter into fib flour which lias been mixed with If teaspoonsful of baking powder, I and add J teaspoonful salt and loz I castor sugar. Beat up 1 egg and reserve 1 teaspoonful of it for glazing the scones. Add f 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, glade 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 he more pleasant to wash. Incidentally, hankies need never be ironed. Stretch 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 band through them to stretch them to the original shape. Do not iron. Miniature washing lines can be rigged up round the logs of the table—-from hooks on the window frame to hooks on the door frame —backwards and forwards through books on the ceiling. You can buy a travelling clothes lino, 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.—l 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 un-

dies 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 sur- , faces must be ironed on the right side, rough ones on the wrong. Wash gloves on the hand, in lukewarm, soapy water. Squeeze the tips well till all the dirt lias 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. HINTS. When washing lace or muslin curtains, before putting them in the water, fold them small and keep them folded until dry. This prevents them from tearing with the weight of water. If very badly soiled, soak them all night in cold water and soda, then wash in the usual way. When frying fat lias become slightly burnt, drop a piece of raw, peeled potato into the pan for a few minutes and then remove it. When dyeing curtains, run a few threads through the material before putting into the dye. They can be drawn out and saved for darning the curtain, and you have the exact shade of thread. Ordinary flat bootlaces are hollow, and make very neat coverings for the hooks of dress-hangers. Cut off the

metal tags, and slip the hooks through the laces. -T"""Jam which has been laid aside and become hard and sugary and unfit for use can he made as good as ever by putting it into the oven for a little while till the sugar melts. To clean coloured blinds, rub the faded parts over lightly with linseed oil. Coloured stockings should be washed carefully in white soap lather. Add a small piece of alum or a spoonful of vinegar. Rinse in warm water. Never let stockings lie in the water.