December 1936

TWICE IN YOUR LIFETIME

BELIEVE it or not, only once or twice in your lifetime is there the opportunity that is yours now to buy or build, to modernize or remodel, or otherwise improve your home profitably.

THE Diary OF A PLAIN DIRT GARDENER

Still cold outside, ground snow-covered, so after the boys were home from school and playtime came, we donned overalls and went to work at household engineering. First thing, there was that light in the lavatory that wouldn't turn on. I took it apart, then with parts from one of the contraptions I had bought last week for the household repair kit, I made a new one.

IT'S news TO ME!

PLANNING your Christmas fun? We're making gay place-card holders for a club party. Fae Huttenlocher suggests them.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOUR FIRESIDE

THIS Christmas we're buying gifts for our fireside. The spotted clay pig has been ruthlessly robbed, theluster teapot despoiled of its dimes and nickels, and our little store of "Christmas money" proudly drawn from the bank. For, in solemn family conclave, we've come to three momentous conclusions:

HOW TO DECORATE FOR CHRISTMAS

IN THE holiday rush, these simple Christmas arrangements are easily contrived. Each brightens some home spot inexpensively, with distinctiveness.

"So Much More FUNNER"

CHILDREN like to do things, make gifts and feel in the midst of the Christmas preparations just as much, or more so, than any grown-up. They'd rather not have some present handed to them with the instruction, "You may give this to Aunt Polly, dear."

LAMPS FOR THE LIVING-ROOM

AT HOME ANYWHERE

YOU feel at once when you see this house that it has caught and retained an element of charm. The structure is of an unpretentious type, one contented if placed almost anywhere on our countryside. Also, it exhales a welcoming "at-home." Altho it's so very difficult to put one's finger on the exact features which spell charm in a home, we might guess that the entrance doorway, with its extended shutters, recalling embracing arms, might be somehow responsible, as also might be the pointed dormers and their shutters, the informality produced by the soft texture of shingled walls, and the arch-headed doors at the garage end.

THEY ALL STOP TO LOOK

WHEN last December was running thru her wintry paces to be sure she hadn't forgotten how to make life damp, cold, and thoroly miserable, I got my first glimpse of the Bobis house. Architect Walter Bradnee Kirby was taking me in his car. As we swung around a corner he pointed toward the left, "That's it."

Good-by, GLOOMY HOUSE!

THIS clever but simple alteration, entered by Mr. and Mrs. Ralph B. Smith, of Van Nuys, California, won second prize in Class 1 (Home Improvements Costing Less Than $500) in the Remodeling Division of Better Homes & Gardens' 1935 $5,000 National Better Homes Contest

From Ashes to ASTERS

FROM an unsightly back yard with its cement ashpit, more or less weedy vegetable garden with chickenhouse and pens in the rear, to a veritable haven of rest and beauty, is the transformation we've attained in 3 years at our home in Fort Collins, Colorado, as the pictures on this page will adequately testify.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

By way of the bridge-club broadcasting station it develops that the richest man in town, who owns a dozen pairs of silk pajamas, sleeps in nightgowns winter and summer, except when he's away on trips. Just a proletarian at heart.

COME UP MY Flower Steps

NO AUSTERE, concrete steps would lead to our home, we decided when we built our Southern Colonial style home over five years ago. "Instead," we said, "let's use stepping-stones bordered on either side with a rock-garden effect."

Westinghouse MAZDA LAMPS

Lee McK. Streamlines His Insurance

"WELL, Nan," announced Lee McK. to his wife, "I've streamlined our life insurance. It's like modernizing an old- fashioned house-- only remodeling the old policies didn't cost a cent."

THEY'RE NO LONGER SHY

THOSE sweet little things, the African Violets (or Saintpaulias), have joined the parade of progress. They're not hiding beneath their leaves any longer, nor relying on sentiment to charm us. Instead of acting coy and elusive, they're growing longer stems so they can stand up and meet the world. Even their names express their dashing new personalities-- Sailor Boy, Viking, Admiral, Neptune, Norseman.

MERRY MIXERS

SHE had a lovely voice-- clear, sweet, and deep. But with eight sons and daughters to catechize and comfort, it soared only to the symphony of the whir of sewing machine or the muffle-and-clop of wooden spoon against crockery bowl.

Christmas Better Homes & Gardens Style

SANTA CLAUS, that grand old fellow with young ideas, has been studying child psychology. You can't go thru the toy departments these thrilling days without knowing it.

For Your Own Hansel and Gretel

THE cooky house which appeased the hunger of Hansel and Gretel in the old folk tale is in many countries as much a part of Christmas preparation as hanging holly, trimming the tree, and steaming the plum pudding. Indeed, cookies of various shapes and kinds are gradually taking a place among our holiday customs, but the cooky house hasn't as yet become an American institution.

Dolls FROM MANY LANDS

CHARACTER DOLLS equally at home in the child's play world or for the adult's hobby bring with vividness the personality of race, country, or period. Men, women, children are intrigued by their picturesque appeal.

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Prices of Furnishings

ALONG THE GARDEN PATH

DEAR Santa Claus: I know you're rushed to death right now, even tho you've had a whole year in which to prepare for your annual shindig. I'm aware that you're concentrating on ways and means of making children happy. At the same time, to me it doesn't seem proper that you should devote yourself exclusively to the immature. You shouldn't overlook that desirable class of grownups whose partnership with Nature keeps their hearts forever young.