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HOW I IMPROVED OUR HOME. 
“ Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” says the old 
adage, and in nothing is this more clearly exemplified 
than by the ingenuity which will develop in a woman 
of refined tastes and limited means in the effort to sur¬ 
round herself with such things as shall add to her 
own comfort and happiness, and to the attractions of 
her home. Money is might in supplying the needs of 
a family, yet if money be not plentiful, resolution and 
ingenuity can cover many bare places. 
Spending money is one of the easiest things in the 
world, and any woman who is plentifully supplied with 
funds can surround herself with beautiful things. Yet, 
all honor to her, who, without money, by her own de¬ 
vices and handiwork, makes her home beautiful and 
comfortable. As I have had some experience in thus 
devising economical “ ways and means,” I propose to 
tell something of what I have accomplished. 
Several years ago John invested our savings in a 
comfortable house, containing six rooms, into which 
we moved at once. No more moving days! No more 
house rents! No more crusty, unaccommodating 
landlords! Truly, my “day of jubilee” had come, 
and I was fully prepared to enjoy it. John had the 
house repainted, after which I found myself in pos¬ 
session of some paints—white, two shades of brown, 
some light stone color, a few paint brushes, et cetera, 
with which I resolved to do much, as John declared 
he could do no more until business brightened up. 
I need hardly state that we live in a country town 
where there are few facilities for anything except gos¬ 
sip. Still, there are many among us who love the 
beautiful, and the Cabinet is a welcome visitor in our 
midst, and our appreciation of it ought to insure us 
the favor of its other loving readers ; but I am digress¬ 
ing. 
We could not afford then to cover the front hall 
floor, so I determined to paint il. Who a lend pencil, 
along ruler, and a string, I kid h off iuio medium 
sized diamonds; these I painted all ornately with the 
two shades of brown, and when dry, added a small' 
white figure, like a shamrock leaf, in the centre of each 
diamond. It was tedious, I confess, as I had to tna • k j 
the outline of each figure, hut it greatly improved the 
appearance of the hall and saved much scouring, so 1 
felt fully repaid for my trouble. Next I attacked the j 
side-lights to the front door. I had a quantity of 
beautiful pressed ferns, delicate as frost - work. I 
selected a quantity of uniform sizes, and after brush¬ 
ing them over with weak mucilage, I arranged a bor¬ 
der of small ferns around each glass, and a cluster of 
larger ones in each centre. 
Of course the glasses were nicely cleaned before I 
began, and as the mucilage dried rapidly, I was soon 
ready to paint. I did not remove the ferns, hut 
painted the glasses all over with white paint. They 
were beautiful, fur the ferns had retained their green 
tint, and the paint being dabbed on, looked like real 
ground glass. 
To those inclined to similar experiments, a word 
here about painting glass may not he amiss. Use 
nothing but pure lead and linseed oil. The paint will 
easily peel off if mixed with turpentine. The brush 
should he short, the hair—not the handle—new and 
small; take very little paint on the brush at a time, 1 
and have an extra piece of glass convenient upon 
which always to try the brush, else the paint will he 
thicker in some places than in others. Do not brush 
up and down the glass as every streak will show, but 
handle your brush lightly, with a “ dab, dab, dab,’’ 
which, if carefully done, will produce a good imitation 
of ground glass. 
I painted another set of side-lights once in this way: 
I had a quantity of beautiful leaves, ornamented with 
various designs, all cut from satin paper. These 
leaves, long years ago, were used by my mother to 
ornament silver candlesticks on party and ball supper- 
tables, before the days of kerosene and gas. These 
leaves I put on the glasses with thin mucilage, using 
four leaves to each pane of glass, the stems joining in 
the centre, and the tip of a leaf toward each corner. 
Then I put on the paint, but did not cover the leaves 
with it, only dabbing over the designs cut on them. 
Then when dry, I removed the paper leaves by moist¬ 
ening them with a wet sponge, and sometimes using 
my penknife to remove obstinate pieces. The designs 
were perfect in clear glass, which I washed carefully. 
Painted glass can be washed with water without soap. 
But I must return to my work on the aforementioned 
house. 
The front door and hall being completed, so far as 
my ability went, I repaired to the parlor, so-called. 
We had curtains and some furniture, which I arranged 
to the best advantage. A few choice chromos were 
hung and festooned with long gray moss and autumn 
leaves, all from our own home woods. On the table I 
placed a stand of worsted flowers, the work of a tasty 
sister. At each end of the mantel I suspended hanging 
baskets made of the bowls of broken goblets encased 
in crocheted covers and filled with worsted flowers, 
among which many dried butterflies nestled, some 
poised in the act of sipping (supposed) sweets, others 
on the wing, being held in that position by a tiny wire 
inserted through the body. Not resting on anything, 
they really looked as if actually flying toward the 
flowers. 
My vases of grasses also enticed a few butterflies to 
rest there. In fact, Bulwer’s heroine, who believed 
butterflies to be the wandering, unpunished, yet unre¬ 
deemed souls of unbaptised dead infants, would have 
thought me pitiless, for I murder the poor butterflies 
remorselessly. They are so natural and beautiful 
when dried and arranged in a room, that that same 
heroine’s room, filled with living butterflies, could 
hardly present a greater variety of sizes, colors and 
styles than nestle amid the flowers and ornaments of 
iny parlor. 
But to return to my work. A powder keg sawed 
in two, stuffed and covered with some old green 
empress cloth, made two nice ottomans, and after 
arranging a few mats aud other ornaments, I “ rested 
from my labors” for awhile. 
To render the sitting-room cosy, I had a sewing- 
machine, some chairs, a carpet, and a cradle for 
baby to nestle in while I sewed. The old window 
shades, which had done duty many years, were too 
shabby to use, but while ruefully contemplating them, 
1 noticed that they were painted cloth. At once my 
inaction ceased. I got a lambrequin pattern, without 
folds, and cut my shades into plain lambrequins, and 
painted them on both sides with the light stone color. 
When dry, I added a border of scallops made out of 
scraps of red flannel. The contemptuous shrug of a 
moneyed woman’s shoulders could not have ruffled 
my calm content at the result. The sunlight danced 
so brightly through my lambrequined south window, 
that I decided to put my plants there, but alas! no 
stand had I. With John’s permission, I ransacked 
his lumber-room at the store, where men throw aside 
many things which women afterward utilize. 
Here I enriched myself with an old dummy with 
disheveled dress, an old spool-cotton stand, which had 
resigned its position in the store to a handsomer arti¬ 
cle, and an old bracket lamp, with the lamp gone, and 
bracket entire. The bracket was put up on one side 
of the window, the glass reflector suspended beneath, 
to catch any drippings which might fall from the pot 
of flowers which I fitted into the bracket. Then I 
went to work to manufacture a plant stand out of the 
old dummy. I cast aside everything except the tri¬ 
angular cast-iron bottom, already on casters, and the 
upright centre piece, which was five inches in circum¬ 
ference. Then I had made (first expense) three pieces 
of plank three-fourths of an inch thick, twelve inches 
wide, thirty-six inches long, with the sharp ends 
rounded off, and a hole in each centre large enough to 
slip over this upright piece. These I. put on, one 
above the other, and on the top nailed a Small round 
shelf, large enough to hold a flower jar. The height 
of stand was only twenty-nine inches, which I in¬ 
creased by putting on top a plant of tall habit. This 
was duly painted and placed at the window by my 
bracket. 
Thus I had a portable, folding stand whose original 
structure attracted much attention. When the leaves 
were open, it formed a circle, and when not in use 
they could he placed parallel, and rolled aside. I 
must confess I was a little proud of my success. 
Then the spool-cotton stand was taken into custody 
to he transformed into a workstand. The superfluous 
divisions were taken out and put away for future con¬ 
structions into frames for my flowers. The glasses in 
front, marked with the name of the manufacturer, 
were taken out, soaked in lye, and when clean, re¬ 
placed over the plain pine, which really contrasted 
beautifully with the walnut case. Then 1 took a half 
barrel, which had held sugar, inverted it, and screwed 
the stand to it. Then I covered the half barrel with 
part of an old brown skirt, and stitched on pockets, the 
entire length, but narrow, which in due time became 
receptacles for patterns, empty spools, and innumer¬ 
able odds and ends which accumulate in every family. 
I hung a group of family photographs over the 
mantel, set out an Ivy to train over them, and then 
sat down to my long-neglected sewing, in the midst of 
my home-made comforts. Since then many nice 
pieces of furniture have been added to my sitting-room, 
hut none have ever afforded me more satisfaction than 
my dummy plant-stand, and spool-cotton workstand. 
Bertie Swepson. 
CURTAINS. 
In a late number of the Cabinet, a young house¬ 
keeper remarks that she has heard of pretty curtains 
being made of very common materials, even muslin 
Really charming bedroom curtains can be made of un¬ 
bleached muslin sheeting with a simple hem upon tin 
edge. All the trimming required is a strip of brighi 
chintz or cretonne, a foot in width, stitched horizon¬ 
tally across the top about two feet from the cornice. 
The light falling through the unbleached muslir 
gives the fine ecru tone so much in vogue at present, 
and it is impossible to detect the nature of the fabric 
without close examination. The effect is precisely 
that of the fine twilled India material so much ad¬ 
mired when combined with stripes of oriental embroi¬ 
dery. Really beautiful curtains for a parlor can be 
made of canton flannel in the same way, and the effecl 
produced is that of a rich cream-colored plush or vel¬ 
vet. It is impossible to judge of the beauty of these 
cheap and novel hangings without having seen them. 
Augusta Larned. 
