AT HOME WITH THE LADY EDITOR.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XII, Issue XIII, 31 March 1894, Page 310

AT HOME WITH THE LADY EDITOR.

Under this heading I am very pleased to reply to all queries that are genuine and helpful to the querist and others. Kindly write on one side of the paper only, and address to the Lady Editor. ‘ Leila R.’—The prettiest arrangement for slightly obscuring a peep into your bedroom window is a box of flowers on the outside ledge. Get a carpenter to make you an elegant wooden stand with a tin lining, paint it to match the window frame, and have it rather deep. Fill with geraniums if you want continual foliage, or some pretty variegated plants from a nurseryman’s. If you do not like this, get some white and yellow muslin curtains fixed to brass rods running across the window. There are many very new and pretty patterns. • Molly Dear.’—All the letters at present seem connected with furnishing in some way. By no means allow your carpets to reach the walls. It is an old-fashioned and most unwholesome plan. In your warm climate you want something for the floor which will take up easily and frequently and allow the floor to be thoroughly washed. Of course, if you have staining round the wainscotting, you must have it wiped with a damp flannel or cloth and rubbed over with linseed oil occasionally. Squares of carpet or matting are most suitable. Have as few draperies as possible. A portiere for the door is quite admissible, and would look well. Have it of some pretty reversible material. Chestnut brown serge would suit you, and you could embroider a lovely design of autumn leaves for a border which would greatly add to the handsome appearance. Stone-coloured tapestry looks very well; take whichever best matches the wall-paper. ‘ Mrs M.S.’—Why don’t you have a nice linen cupboard built in the bath-room ? It is, as you say, horrid to keep one’s household napery ‘ tumbling about odd drawers.’ A few shelves even, well protected from dust by a board over the top, and pretty cretonne curtains in front running on a rod, would also answer your purpose. Surely one of your ‘ big boys ’ could put them up for you ? Line nicely with clean paper, and place each article carefully on top of its immediate relations. Take, say, the bottom shelf for table cloths and serviettes. Do not mix them up ; have a pile of neatly folded cloths on one side, serviettes together on the other, and cake and fruit cloths alongside. Teach the young folks to keep them in this tidy position, and allow no ‘ rummaging ’on any consideration. That is utterly fatal to neatness and order. I am sure you will find this a great improvement on the system (?) you so pathetically lament. I do not know how I should manage without my linen cupboard. Of course there was not one in the house, not a shelf of any kind. When women become architects here what delightful receptacles for household necessaries will be conveniently arranged in every house ! I know one lady who, searching for a rented bouse, took one in a bad situation, merely because, as she said, * it had two such delicious cupboards upstairs 1’ * * * * * *• ‘Elaine.’ —I am sorry you have to complain of ‘not possessing a nice skin.’ A very coarse one can never really be changed. You can, however, decrease the size of the pores, and rather dispose of those troublesome black heads by rubbing in daily a little of a lotion of ten grains of tannic acid in an ounce of eau de cologne. (The latter must be good.) Bathe every day, and well rub, but gently, the skm afterwards. A very good wash for the face is one teaspoonfull of borax, half a teaspoonful of ammonia, half-a-pint of water. Do not use soap, but try this with a soft sponge once a day. Plenty or exercise, plenty of fruit, and an open air life are the best things for the complexion.