Waste-paper baskets, work-baskets, or rush-baskets for shopping, make' a pretty and inexpensive present. Lace ribbon in and out through the rushes, put a bow on the front and fasten in a bunch of acorns, either natural or manufactured of silk and chenille. If the natural ones are used, take a piece of fine wire and fasten to the stem of the acorn, and you can easily arrange them in any way to suit your taste. They are very ornamental when bronzed, but may be used .246 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. when in a state of nature, just as they were picked up in the woods. -To bronze them get a few cents' worth of bronze powder at a drug store, mix it with varnish and apply with a soft cloth. The powder must be used very soon after mixing with the varnish, or it will harden so that it will be impossible to use it successfully. Easels are so general in drawing-rooms where engravings and water-colors accumulate, that it is the fashion to cover old ones with velvet, adding ornamental silk tassels to the top and to the lowest of the set of holes which support the ledge. The covering is not diffi- cult to manage. The velvet requires tacking first, and then sewing, where the stitches will be most invisible, with fine but strong black tliread. Where the holes are, cut the circle in four, saturate the in- side of the velvet with strong gum, and press the pieces well down with the wooden pin. A bouquet of cut flowers may be preserved fresh in vases by put- ting a handful of salt or a piece of charcoal in the water, to increase its coldness. If put under a glass shade, or vase, where it can be excluded from the air, it will keep a long time. For watch and jewelry cases, select some smooth, unbroken pine chips and cut them into heart-shaped leaves; have a circle of card- board to which you have fastened either a standing wire or stick, intended for the bouquet-handle; then glue your pine leaves upon the card-board like a rose, three or four ply; upon this place a piece of card-board cut in points, that you have first lined with silk or velvet and edged with beads. This is for the jewelry. Make a bouquet of chips; ornament with stitches of silk, or touch with water-colors; in the centre of the rose glue a second velvet-covered receptacle for the watch; tie the bouquet to the bouquet-handle. A chain of gilt beads connects the watch-case to the jewelry-case on each side. A coat of white varnish preserves and improves the chip-work. This must be applied with a hair-brush. When made it is beautiful. Those ,in possession of fine large shells can obtain beautiful jewelry-cases by having them mounted on carved pedestals, either of wood or metal. "Another way to mount these shells is to have them supported on HOUSEHOLD ORNAMENTATION. 247 each side by dragons or other mythological subjects, but this style is more costly.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Waste-paper baskets, work-baskets, or rush-baskets for shopping, make a pretty and inexpensive present. Lace ribbon in and out through the rushes, put a bow on the front and fasten in a bunch of acorns, either natural or manufactured of silk and chenille. If the natural ones are used, take a piece of fine wire and fasten to the stem of the acorn, and you can easily arrange them in any way to suit your taste. They are very ornamental when bronzed, but may be used .246 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. when in a state of nature, just as they were picked up in the woods. -To bronze them get a few cents' worth of bronze powder at a drug store, mix it with varnish and apply with a soft cloth. The powder must be used very soon after mixing with the varnish, or it will harden so that it will be impossible to use it successfully. Easels are so general in drawing-rooms where engravings and water-colors accumulate, that it is the fashion to cover old ones with velvet, adding ornamental silk tassels to the top and to the lowest of the set of holes which support the ledge. The covering is not difficult to manage. The velvet requires tacking first, and then sewing, where the stitches will be most invisible, with fine but strong black tliread. Where the holes are, cut the circle in four, saturate the inside of the velvet with strong gum, and press the pieces well down with the wooden pin. A bouquet of cut flowers may be preserved fresh in vases by putting a handful of salt or a piece of charcoal in the water, to increase its coldness. If put under a glass shade, or vase, where it can be excluded from the air, it will keep a long time. For watch and jewelry cases, select some smooth, unbroken pine chips and cut them into heart-shaped leaves; have a circle of cardboard to which you have fastened either a standing wire or stick, intended for the bouquet-handle; then glue your pine leaves upon the card-board like a rose, three or four ply; upon this place a piece of card-board cut in points, that you have first lined with silk or velvet and edged with beads. This is for the jewelry. Make a bouquet of chips; ornament with stitches of silk, or touch with water-colors; in the centre of the rose glue a second velvet-covered receptacle for the watch; tie the bouquet to the bouquet-handle. A chain of gilt beads connects the watch-case to the jewelry-case on each side. A coat of white varnish preserves and improves the chip-work. This must be applied with a hair-brush. When made it is beautiful. Those ,in possession of fine large shells can obtain beautiful jewelry-cases by having them mounted on carved pedestals, either of wood or metal. "Another way to mount these shells is to have them supported on each side by dragons or other mythological subjects, but this style is more costly.

The hearthstone; or, Life at home