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43 
USEFUL ELEGANCIES. 
More, perhaps, has been written on the subject of 
home, how to render it attractive, &c., than almost any 
other. It would seem that the theme has been well 
nigh exhausted, so many ways and means have been 
described by which we can adorn our homes. But in¬ 
genious minds are constantly presenting us with some 
novelty, which keeps up a lively interest in the work, 
encouraging the practical mind to combine the useful 
with the elegant. We read of a home rendered so 
beautiful by artistic female hands, that Titani, herself 
might preside over it; also of the lowly cot, overrun 
with graceful vines, bearing a rustic grace as charming 
as Nature herself in her own untrained wilds. Yet I 
cannot forbear describing some of the beauties of one, 
belonging to some friends of my husband and myself. 
It was a modest one, yet so beautiful in exterior and 
interior, that it was universally alluded to as “ a per¬ 
fect little Eden,” “ a real home nest,” by the friends 
and acquaintances of the family. I will tell you of 
some of the lovely things I saw inside, leaving the 
outside to some visitor to transcribe for the floral de¬ 
partment of our Cabinet. 
The house, which was an unpretending one, with six 
rooms, was painted a soft French grey, the door and 
window facings of a darker shade. It was the delight 
of Mrs. A-- and her grown up daughter to provide 
it with many ornamental and useful articles, their own 
handiwork. The word “Welcome.” in large ever¬ 
green letters, met the eye upon being ushered into the 
hall. The cosy air of each room, the cordial greeting 
of the mother, the sparkling face of the daughter, at 
once convinced the visitor that this was a haven of 
hospitality. 
Over the windows in the parlor were cornices, which 
I first thought must he antique carving, hut found to 
he made of putty. The cornices were first sawed out 
in rough wood and covered with putty, prepared as fol¬ 
lows : take several pounds of putty, mix in linseed oil 
until soft, and easily moulded with the hands; if you 
wish the work to be the color of walnut, mix in lamp¬ 
black and Venitian red until the desired color; after it 
is thoroughly mixed cover the cornice smoothly all 
over, using a flat utensil, a case knife will do; make 
a head work all around the edges; then comes the 
moulding of buds, leaves and flowers, grapes, vines 
tendrils, acorns, or anything the fancy may suggest, 
and herein lies a field for the display of talent, inas¬ 
much as there is a good deal of art in the moulding. 
First take a large lump of putty, and roll out on a 
smooth hoard, until sufficiently thin to form the foliage 
(a bottle will do for the purpose); gather some leaves 
from the plant you wish to copy ; or, if you cannot 
procure the natural leaf, cut one out of paper, dip the 
pattern in water, and lay upon the putty, cut out with 
a knife, and trace the veins distinctly; arrange on the 
cornice, putting a small oblong piece of putty under 
each leaf, curving and turning it any way the taste 
may dictate ; make stems and tendrils by rolling the 
putty in the hands; roses, tulips and acorns can be 
made from nature. Let the work get perfectly hard 
and dry, then varnish ; frames, hanging baskets, what¬ 
nots and brackets can be made in putty almost any 
color. There was a frame in the wall enclosing hair 
flowers, made of putty, painted pure white, and while 
the varnish was wet, sprinkled with diamond dust. 
But the beautiful object that attracted my attention 
- was a basket of rosin fruit, on a small stand in a cor¬ 
ner, covered with a shade made of five pieces of glass, 
four of them 12x14, the top one 12x12. These were 
joined together by being set in rough wood, and made 
fast with putty; the wood work was covered with 
putty, colored ebony with lampblack, and formed into 
half-blown buds and leaves; this was placed upon a 
pedestal composed of three graduated steps, covered 
in the same way, around the shade. The basket was 
placed on a bed of moss, over which were strewn a 
few shells; on one side was a tiny lakelet, made of a 
piece of looking-glass, edged with moss. The fruit 
was arranged in pyramidal form, the luscious grapes, 
plums, &c., presenting a most tempting appearance ; 
the very bloom of the grape was ably countetfeited. 
This is how the fruit is made : Procure from a tinner 
a nursery lamp, and half a dozen tin cups, in which 
to melt the rosin (get the finest white virgin rosin); 
you must have half a pint of alcohol for your lamp, a 
gill of white demar varnish ; about ten cents’ worth of 
each of the following kinds of paint: drop-lake, car¬ 
mine No. 40, chrome green, Prussian blue, and lamp¬ 
black ; five cents’ worth of wiie; have your wire ready 
cut in five inch lengths; wind a bit of cotton around 
one end, and fasten; dip in the melted rosin; take out 
and turn the wire in your hand uhtil a good shape is 
obtained; drop into a goblet of water to cool; grind 
the paint in demar varnish, and put in a small quan¬ 
tity at a time ; follow nature in size and color; bloom 
with lily-white and a small portion of the dry paint 
suitable to the fruit you are making; rub on with a 
bit of cotton. 
In a deep rustic frame was a picture in moss work; 
it was made by drawing the outline of a landscape on 
bristol-board, and filled in with moss, gummed on, to 
represent trees and grass; an old mill was made of 
bits of bark and tiny boards, overgrown with lichens; 
the water and sky were made by the pencil, slightly 
tinted. In another deep frame, was a wreath of wax 
flowers, lovely enough to deck the brow of Spring; 
while in still another deep frame, on a background of 
purple velvet, was a waxen cross, with simply a vine 
of ivy leaves, climbing from the base, twining around 
it and over the arms; this was thickly strewn wit! i 
diamond dust. I thought I never saw anything so 
purely white and chaste. On the mantel, under a glass 
globe or shade, was a lyre, made of wax, with a wreath 
of tiny roses, buds and lilies of the valley, fuschias, in 
fact, almost every flower was copied in miniature; all 
pure white, the strings were also of wax : this was ad¬ 
mired by all, far and near. Silver dust and gold dust 
are also very pretty on wax work. Brackets of leather 
work, and brackets and photograph frames made with 
a fret saw and a jackknife, on every side, made by my 
fair young friend, evinced her taste and energy. I 
could fill much more than my allotted space, describ¬ 
ing the beautiful things in this room. I would like to 
tell you of the beautiful tidies on chairs and sofas, the 
lovely sea-foam mat under the parlor lamp, the exqui¬ 
site transparencies in the windows, the sofa cushions, 
footstools, and hassocks, all elegant, devoid of that 
homemade look which is so discouraging to beginners. 
The bedrooms of this house were furnished simply, hut 
so pretty and attractive, so faultlessly neat and without 
being stiff, was every piece and fold arranged, that it 
was impossible to take no note of details. The room 
I occupied during my visit was furnished in oak, with 
oak and blue carpet on the floor, pure white curtains 
hung at the windows, with cornices of the long Texas 
moss, and lambrequins of canton-flannel torn in nar¬ 
row strips, and each edge ravelled out until only four 
threads remain in the center. The manner of arrang¬ 
ing, I have once seen in these columns, so will not 
give it place here. On the beaureau lay a set of toilet 
mats in spatter work (this work has also been de¬ 
scribed in the Cabinet), on Swiss muslin, lined with 
rose-colored silk, edged with imitation valeneionnes 
lace; a toilet cushion was made of rose-colored velvet 
in applique; that is, the leaves and flowers were all cut 
out of stiff paper, and covered in velvet or silk ; the 
flowers are made and arranged in groups and fastened 
on, the stems are wire wound with green silk; this 
cushion was oblong, about 12x14 inches; it had a 
fi'inge of wax heads falling in heavy tassels at the cor¬ 
ners. On the bed, over the snowy counterpane, were 
pillow and sheet shams, made of fine Lonsdale cam¬ 
bric. The pillow shams had a plain center, scarcely 
half a yard square, surrounded by two row's of puffing 
and two row's of tucks, four in a group, edged with a 
ruffle; sheet sham edged the same way. 
Kittie. 
OUR SEWING BEES. 
We had passed an unusually pleasant summer with 
picnics under the shady old apple trees, w itli which 
grandpa’s lot was well supplied. 
But summer was over, and so w r ere tlie picnics, for 
a season at least. We were all sorry. 
“ I’ll tell you, girls,” suggested one—we would still 
he “ girls ” to each other until we were seventy, I sup¬ 
pose—“you know how we enjoyed the day that we 
met together and made short clothes for Carrie’s twins, 
and how much we accomplished too ; now instead of 
working away alone at our winter sewing, suppose 
w 7 e cut out a quantity of work, and meet at each 
other’s houses in turn. We could get it done just as 
well, and more sociably.” 
“Yes,” said another, “and the gentlemen, that is, 
the fathers, husbands and big brothers, could come at 
eight o’clock, and from that time until ten wo would 
have games.” 
The gentlemen approved of the plan, and waited 
with impatience for the time of our first meeting. 
We talked the matter over, and the result of our 
deliberation was, we would meet every two weeks, on 
Friday, that being the day we could best spare, as 
early in the afternoon as possible, and we were to 
accomplish as much as we could to do it well, working 
until eight in the evening. The afternoon dress we 
should wear if at home, was good enough for the 
“ Bee.” A plain supper, just what was convenient, 
and no cake; we w'oulil have that with apples after 
the gentlemen came. There were ten of us, and five 
places to meet; and we usually kept three sewing 
machines busy. 
Celia was our best tucker; Sallie splendid at button - 
holes; Emma, Carrie and Tillie, good, either at button¬ 
holes or machine sewing. Ettie could fit dresses and 
sew cotton goods without basting, thereby saving us 
much lime, whilst Mary and Jennie, Aunt Margaret 
and Aunt Sue, made themselves generally useful. 
We were some of us very fond of fancy work, and 
anything new or pretty, in thai line, that we heard of, 
or saw, we treasured up for the Bee. 
New recipes for puddings, that were specially appe¬ 
tizing, or economical, or both; labor-saving ideas of 
housework, all were freely discussed; and Mary some¬ 
times read us a choice article from one of our latest 
periodicals. 
We found it possible to pass the evenings pleasantly 
without the aid of cards, dancing, or theatricals. It 
was the winter that spelling-matches were so fashion¬ 
able, and one evening we had a spelling-school; some¬ 
times we played “Twenty-questions,” “Verbatim” 
3 
aud “ Rhyming-answers.” 
E. M. R. 
