China Mail
HOME SUPPLEMENT
Introducing ...
THE MARCH
PARTY
IN
ex-
YOUR BIRTHDAY MARCH TOO? The nicest, .perhaps, of all birthday affairs is the tea party. So cosy in March, so cordial and withal šo little trouble. The table quisitely set, the gleaming fire, the china and glass perfectly arranged on delicate cloth, flowers to add their scent and charm-and. your very friends. The food may be simple; tiny muffins, some of them jam filled, sandwiches, small cakes, and bonbons with the fragant tea.
best
Or the birthday luncheon that may be so smart without entailing a great deal of expense and trouble. Let novelty and smart simplicity be the keynote of the table scheme. There are so many casual ways of arranging the table with lovely lines. Lemons, with their leaves, shaped in pyramids on silver bowls might give an original note of great character.
If the party be a bridge luncheon with a group of woman friends, a heart salad platter will be most attractive. Arrange three nests of lettuce leaves in heart shape on each plate; in one arrange a hearty salad chicken. lobster, tuna fish or ham; in the second nest a vegetable salad: and the third a fruit salad, which takes the place of dessert. and which should be topped with whipped cream dress- ing. Mayonnaise or boiled dress- ing is most appropriate for the other salads. Garnish the platter
PREVIEW
the first fashion
OF SUMMER
IS NOW HERE
HONG KONG, SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1935
with beet slices cut in hatchet_or heart shapes, using sliced maras- chino cherries on the fruit salad. Small buttered hot rolls and coffee accompany the salad platters.
· Such
9 refreshment is quite appropriate top for an evening party.
And if it is an `eyening party, and your guests are quick thinkers, here's a new game called "Book Reviews," a sort of “Consequences,” only much funnier.
You start off on your slips of paper by writing the name of the book reviewed, then fold it and pass it on to the next player who supplies the name of the author, while the next three give names of various reviewers and their com- ments. Such a result might occur:
"Jemima Puddle-duck," by Dean Inge.
written
This book should find a promin- ent place on every young girl's bookshelf," writes Herr Hitler.
“An invaluable handbook for the keen sportsman. there is never a dull moment," says Mickey Mouse.
MENU
THE MARCH PARTY -
Luncheon or Evening Bridge.
Heart Salad Platter -- Hot Cheese · Biscuits Coffee Individual Birthday Cake
Bonbons
AFTERNOON TEA
Sandwiches in Variety Smail Cakes Birthday Cake
Tea
Coffee
Punch
Make YOUR Owri HOME
DECORATING THE BEDROOM
BE
ers
•
(By A. S. KONYA)
EDROOMS have always been irresistible to paint- and print makeṛs, but I would not encourage, the habit which was a common practice in America a few years back. The American housewife, find- ing an old English engraving showing an elaborate Tudor ör Elizabethan bedroom, or 2 French print depicting a bed- room scene of the most magni- ficent type, would call in her in- terior decorator and exclaim: “I want a bedroom like this!" The interior decorator, being å good business man, did one big- ger and better; and that is how many of those pseudo-French- English and Spanish interiors originated, elaborately photo- graphed and described by 80- ciety periodicals.
Simplicity should always be the keynote of decoration, and one can- not emphasise enough that the - utilitarian consideration should come first of all. Light, air and spaciousness should be the first principle. Bedrooms should get the morning sun, because nothing is more pleasing than to start the day's work with a cheerful disposi-· tion. Walls.should be of pleasant and cheerful colours, and that Walls applies to curtains too. should be painted in oil colours, or washable wallpapers used. Furni- ture should be of light coloured woods to avoid sombreness, though a man's bedroom can be more sub- dued in tone..
The greatest mistake is the buy- ing of the old-fashioned standard. form of bedroom suite, with its hideous wardrobe blocking up the room, and the forbidding wash- stand. The fact is that what one needs is not a bedroom suite, but the single pieces which correspond to one's requirements.. Storing clothes is generally far more adequately and economically achieved by means of a well-thought-out accom- modation in the form of built-in cupboards. Such equipment is cer tainly cheaper to provide in the first place than loose furniture, and it does not require so such attention. Moreover, it is possible in built-in cupboards to get a greater depth for hanging space and shelves than is practicable with the ordinary wardrobe,
The principal loose furniture necessary in a bedroom is some form of a chest of drawers, and 'this can be as attractive in appear- ance as anything in the house. If. necessary, it may be made tú serve as a dressing-table, so that only a *bed, and chair are needed to com- plete the equipment of the room. The old conventional washstand has disappeared from an up-to-date bedroom, having given place to a simple and severely utilitarian fix- ture with a hot and cold water supply.
The bed of yesterday, usually the main and most decorative feature of the room, has undergone a tremendous change. It is no more considered necessary to place beds in any prominent position. ̈ As the elaborate head-and-foot-board has disappeared. the bed has become a strictly utilitarian piece of furni- ture. It may still.be elaborate only in small supplementary furniture such as the reading stand and breakfast table. In the latest type of bedroom, the bed becomes a sort of low couch without any foot or head-board, it's severe simplicity only broken with one or two casual- ly placed cushions.
*
A Bedroom in silver, green and black; designed by the author.
Brand new-never shown before: Scores of Styles:
Aurelia's
THE HOUSE OF PERFECT STYLE. 11 DES VEOUX Ro. Central, Hong KONG