January 1942

Odds, Ends, and Chintz Make Frocks for Old Chairs

I HAD such fun making something lovely out of this old maple chair, because everything I used except the chintz I just hunted for around the house as I needed it.

THE MAN NEXT DOOR

Our newlywed across the street thinks she'll serve squab pigeons instead of turkey for Christmas dinner, chiefly because her husband doesn't know how to carve; but partly because she's never cooked anything bigger than a pork chop.

THE DIARY OF A Plain Dirt Gardener REG. U. S. PAT. OFF

Jan. This New Year begins on a dismal note. David lies sick abed with scarlet fever. Maggie and Donald are quarantined indoors. I'm allowed to sally forth, providing I stay away from the sickroom.

January--DOORWAY TO THE FUTURE

RARELY, in all the history of mankind, have we been so in need as now of an opportunity to start anew. In a world filled to overflowing with opportunities for the betterment of man, we find ourselves surrounded on every hand by hatreds. Almost from pole to pole, and all about the world, bitterness burns deep in countless human hearts.

AN END TO BUILDING AND REMODELING NO!

WHEN Mr. John Q. Public gets scared, he does a thoro job of it. The particular public scare we have in mind is the one that took hold on October 9 last, immediately following issuance from Washington, D. C., of the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board (SPAB) ruling that beginning October 9 no priorities would be granted on critical materials to be used in the construction of new homes, except those built for defense workers.

Let's Go--DOWN WHERE THE FUN BEGINS

THE family skeleton in our River Forest, Illinois, home wasn't concealed in a closet. Friends suspected that we kept one in the basement, tho, so tightly was this subterranean region closed to visitors.

DOLLAR SAVERS

"May I Copy a Piece of Your Garden?"

JUST OUTSIDE BALTIMORE a snug white house presides contentedly over an unsophisticated brick court, shaded by ivy-festooned maples and outlined by ancient boxwood. Both garden and home, drowsing behind tall marginal screens of pine and spruce and fir, wear the placid look of well- preserved old settlers.

If Disaster Struck Your Home Tonight

Accidents do happen in the best of families-- but the best of families are ready for them. Smart families have scrutinized in advance every portrait in the rogues' gallery of home-destroyers.

EASIER 18 Ways to Make Yard Work

Our Place in ... the Sun

AN architect's hardest job is to design his own house. I know, for we've just put the finishing touches on our new home in Hollywood, Florida. And my wife and I still wince at the memory of the many plans we hopefully drew, enthusiastically decided on, and later regretfully junked. An architect, you see, has one difficulty in common with his home-building clients-- he can't make a bungalow budget build a dream castle!

This Little Home Went to Market

THIS little Bildcost went to market. Like the little pig in the nursery rhyme, it was groomed and polished for the market-- the Kansas City, Missouri, real-estate market. And those Kansas Citians gobbled it up the was finished!

All Collectors Aren't Women

NEXT time some amused male labels your collection of antiques "lady stuff," spike his guns with Leo G. Shatney, he-man bachelor of Brentwood Park, Los Angeles. Here's a chap so keen about antique collecting as a side line that he's built a pleasant little Cape Cod Cottage and moved right in with his hobby.

Team Up Your Little Pictures

OFTEN the loveliest pictures we own are diminutive or at best middle-sized. Hung singly on wide wall spaces or tucked apologetically into corners, they become hopelessly lost. But group them skillfully together and they take on an importance quite as great as that of the furnishings they help to dramatize.

Indoor GARDENING GUIDE Outdoor

THESE ARE THE DAYS when we seek an outlet for our liking for gardening. There are tools to sharpen and paint, flats to repair, pots to clean, bulbs to sort, and gadgets to make.

Set Your Home to Music:

WHEN Miss Lily Pons came to America in 1929 she was just a chic, lovely, animated little French girl with an accent. She had the sparkle and tang of champagne. She was the sort of "madamoiselle from here and there" that you hear about in songs but seldom find in the flesh.

"We Like Our Home More Every Day...

16 PLANS FOR Kitchen Eat-spots

GET SET FOR MIDWINTER HOSPITALITY

WE'RE at home on Sunday evenings-- to new friends, old pals, the folks around the corner, and hungry, hospitality-loving relatives. And the grand good times we have at these old-fashioned, unpretentious get- togethers!

Measure Your Child's Abilities

The oldest and best-known gauge of ability we have is the intelligence test. This is simply an interview in which the child is asked a series of questions and given different kinds of problems to work. His performance is compared with that of other children the same age, and upon this basis his mental age and I. Q. (Intelligence Quotient) are computed.

Yippy! Dried Fruit Pudding!

"YIPPY! Dried Fruit Pudding!" Draw that from a family and you've got something. It's Dish of the Month $5 first-prize winner in our Cooks' Contest for Dried Fruit Dishes and Waffles and Griddle Cakes, announced last June. Says Mrs. Emily Murdey, Los Angeles, California, proud sender, "We got so bored with stewed dried fruits I concocted this grand upside- downer with marmalade for extra yumminess.

What's the Good Word on Peaches and Mixed Pickles?

And off we go on another recipe roundup-- this time hungry for your best-ever dessert way with peaches, fresh or canned, and/or your dandiest pickle or relish mix-ups. Next August we'll announce the winners-- $5 for the top ranker plus Dish of the Month honors, $1 each for the 20 voted next most delicious. So what's your family's peachiest dessert?

UPHOLSTER Those Down-at-the-Heel Pieces

PUT those down-at-the-heel furniture pieces back on the job by a little home re-upholstery. It's neither difficult nor expensive and it's a craft well worth knowing.

Park Your Sports and Eat!

Make Your Own

IT'S NEWS TO ME!

1 To give light where the handy man needs it, yet to leave him finger-free, here's the Ristlite. It's a flashlight on an elastic band; 98c. Flashlight Co. of America, 11-65 State St., Jersey City, N. J.