Twelve Questions For The Housewife
Are you a good housewife? Test yourself to see if you are by answer- ing the following twelve questions, then add up your scores this way:
Give yourself 5 marks for ever question to which you can honestly say "Yes." You get no marks for those with an "X". If your total marks are:
60-you're a good housewife, 40-you're average
20 and under you need prove.
THE CHINA MAIL, FEBRUARY 16, 1988.
She's Always Well
Dressed!
Looking neat and chic every
day of the week is a difficult job, but it can be done, and you needn't spend a lot of money. All you have to do is think ahead and do your shopping so that everything will go with something else. To show im- you what is meant, on this page you will find the perfect outfit for the business girl, and if you follow the advice in this article, people. will say of you: “She's always well dressed!"
In any event, each question will give you a hint that will make your housekeeping even more successful than it is.
1.
•
*
*
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of it.
The great thing about an office frock is that it must be something Do you lay your table proper-that you can wear every day of the ly with everything needed-week without you or the boss or sufficient cutlery, well-filled salt- the boy friend getting sick to death cellars and sugar-basin (5) or do you dump these on the table half- The kind of frock not to have is filled and find you have to jump up one in a definite bright colour or in the middle of a meal and get re-with striking trimming, because it fills or more spoons and knives (x). fixes itself in a man's memory as "your blue" or "the one with red things on it," and besides you'll tire colour scheme very of a definite
24. utensils quickly
Do you use correct measuring
(5) or haphazardly guess at а "spoonful" or "cupful” (x).
PLAIN AND DARK
The kind of frock you should Do you wash your dried fruits choose is one that's plain and dark
3. and dry them thoroughly lit and beautifully cut, but not too
fore mixing with other cake ingre- dients (5) or do you rinse them under the tap when you're making your cake and drop them into the mixture half dry and half wet, then wonder why your cake has the fruit all at the bottom (x).
set your
4. ly by the regulat oven correct by the alarm clock (5) or do you
just guess when the food is done (x).
5
*
DO you peel potatoes thinly and remove the eyes (5) or waste a lot of their goodness by peeling them thickly, and leave in the eyes (x).
6
**
**
Do you wash your greens thoroughly in
many waters until absolutely sure they are free from dirt and grit (5) or do you
finite in character, so that you can make it look utterly different with different accessories.
And then whenever you appear in a different collar or coat, you'll get the credit or the scolding-for buying a new outfit.
Here you see sketched the per- fect office frock The original is in soft angora, and it has all the new
points. The high
The bag is a fat portmanteau in
suede.
That's the basis outfit, and changes a clever
office round neck, the
made with pleats up each side of with it.
new fussy tucked effect at bodice-
the flat centre panel-and the new slim tight skirt punctuated with
two important pockets which are make them jut out. stitched, stiffened and pleated to
ACCESSORIES
The hat to wear with it is a most attractive little affair. It's a bit like a sailor's hat (this is one of the very new lines) with a brim that flares out crisply. You wear it on the back of your head.
give them one rinse under the tap-The shoes are in suede and kid
DO you sift your flour to make sure it is not lumpy (5), or do you drop it into the basin straight out of the bag (x).
*
for your perfect
these are
the girl can wring
ON MONDAY—
She's got a date with Tommy, who likes to think all girls are sweet feminine creatures, so she wears a little white collar that's nothing more than a froth of net and lace (actually net with narrow lace in- edgings every- sertions and lace where).
ÓN WEDNESDAY—
It looks a little cloudy, so she slips on a short bolero made of cure-
with that new high front which
ly astrakhan fabric. This-is-made- makes your ankles look so slim.
very short, reaching only just be And the gloves are
low the bust with long-sleeves-and- beautifully black all round the fingers, soft chamois leather, stitched with straight fronts. And with this she keeps her neckline perfectly plain, with that new
tiny V cuff just simply wearing the two clips. reaching the wrist bone.
8. it comes from the butchers, somet
and
Do you hang your meat when quently find you've "run out" of necessary commodity when
and wash and dry it before cooking the shops, are shut (x).
it (5), or do you stick it on a plate and put it straight into the oven or pan to cook (x).
9.
Do you wash and dry all fruit to be eaten raw (5), or do you eat it straight from the barrow or greengrocers' shop after it's been handled (x).
10.
DO you go through your store cupboard before or dering or buying fresh supplies (5), or do you buy just what you hap- pen to think of at the time and fre-
11
DO you
cover your up- holtered furniture before sweeping the carpet or mats with a stiff brush (5), or do you sweep and allow the dust to settle into the upholstery (x);
Do you watch your house-
12. hold linen as well as clothes and mend thin places or tiny holes as soon as they appear (5), or do you ignore them until the holes are big or too bad to mend (x),
ON THURSDAY--
She wants to look businesslike, and adds this trim collar of stiff starched pique. And instead of the
JUST A THOUGHT
KEEPSAKE
A lovable word to be tenderly spoken à delicate sound for a delicate token. Something to keep for somebody's sake, something to conjure a memory awake,
A keepsake. Perhaps it was purchased with tears, and lives in the heart with the fading of years. Or perhaps it brings back a revival of joy, so profound that the finger of Time can't destroy.
Maybe a spray from a wedding bouquet, a programme or menu of one precious day. A newspa- per cutting quite trivial and yet bearing a thought that one can- not forget. Or the dear recollec-- tion of a dear place--the touch of a hand or expression of face. All keepsakes that "never grow threadbare and old because they are wrapped 'into memory's fold.
chamois gloves, a pair of string gloves like ordinary riding ones— only in emerald or scarlet.
They're a new craze from Paris.
ON FRIDAY—
She's feeling feminine again (perhaps
date it means another with Tommy), so she wears a collar made entirely of flat pique flowers. These are stitched to a circular band and put round the neck of the frock, so that they meet the seams of the front panel but don't cross over them.
ON SATURDAY—
At one o'clock she's off for the week-end, so she wears a gay little plaid jacket to give her outfit a slightly country look. The plaid is is one of those big ones in a light- ish wool, with facings to the revers, and little bogus pockets all in the same fabric as the frock.
This jacket is sketched in a double-breasted style with a slant of buttons down each side and very short high revers. But you can have a plain fitted hip-length style if a square you prefer it, or even boxy shape. Both should have those funny little revers, though.
And for a cravat she's got a strip of velveteen in the brightest colour of the plaid, which she wears in the latest way clossed over flat in front.
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