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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Wingham Advance-Times, 1983-02-09, Page 22Page 2—Crossroads—Feb. 9, 1983 eel DOMINANT NOTE—A floral print of hunter green with designs of peach and Tight green dominates this room on upholstered furniture, 'draperies and wall panel insets. Adding to the drama of the room is a Decor Score By BARBARA HARTUNG Fabric magic to revive dull room Q. I have always had dull -looking rooms in my house because I have not had the courage to do unu- sual things. Now I really want to try something new and create an interesting house. I am buying new carpet- ing and plan to have my divan and chairs recovered or replaced. Please suggest some ideas for updating 1950s -style beige and tur- quoise decorating. My house can be repaint- ed and papered or what- ever and I have some very handy adult children who can help me with various do-it-yourself projects. A. Updating a home with fabric can produce mar- velously exciting results. Select an attractive flo- ral print with lots of rich colors to recover your couch and chairs. Take a light, pale color from the fabric and paint your walls that color. For really great walls, apply a molding about 26 inches up from the floor to create a chair rail. Also add mold- iilg to the upper portions of the walls creating panels into which you can inset matching fabric. For added drama cover a small por- tion of wall with beveled squares of mirror to reflect your pretty room. Use the same fabric or a plain fabric taken from the wall color for draperies. For the carpeting, consider a slightly deeper tone from the wall color. Accessorize with up-to- date lighting fixtures. Find la copy of a small paperback book called "Decorating with Fabric — An Idea Book" by Judy Lindahl (try fabric dis- count shops) for directions on how to apply fabric to walls, and put those handy adult children to work! Q. I've heard it is possi- ble to create a faux flag- stone floor using brown wrapping paper. I'd like to try this on an old bathroom floor which is badly stained wood. How do you do this? -- R.P. A. Start with an abso- lutely smooth floor. Sand and scrape first, then get up all the debris. Tear large sheets of heavy brown wrapping paper into irregular shapes approximating flagstone. Do not use scissors. That would give you too clean an edge, detracting from the desired effect. Mix white glue and water in equal parts, brushing on the paper. Position the paper pieces on the floor. Use a wallpa- per roller or rolling pin to smooth out wrinkles. When dry apply a coat of polyu- rethane varnish and allow it to dry. Repeat the coats five or six times. Q. What kind of window treatment should be used in a bedroom to create a romantic ambience? — R.C.W. A. Particularly appro- priate for creating the kind of room you want would be Priscilla curtains with tie backs (use a ruffle trimmed window shade un- derneath) for a country look, Austrian shades with great poufs of polished cot- ton of taffeta, or yards of lace panels topped with contrasting fabric swags. Add fringes and tassels for those finishings touches. portion of a wall covered in beveled mirrors. Room was'designed by Shirley Regendahl. Furniture is by Chromcraft and Stratford. 'Here's How By GENE GARY Cure for squeaky floors Q. The floors in our house creak very loudly as we walk across them. These are hardwood floors, covered with rugs and lino- leum. Is there any way the floor can be treated or re- paired to stop or reduce the noise? We surely would appreciate flailingsome way to deaden 'the ionise, which is very disturbing at night. — Leroy C.A., Clovis, N.M. A. To cure squeaky floors permanently, there are a few different tech- niques. If the floor is open un- derneath, as with an unfin- ished basement ceiling, then it is easier and more effective to work from below. A common cause of the squeaks is loose subfloor- ing that has dried out or warped and has pulled away from the joist. If this is the problem, have a helper walk on the floor above, while you stay below and try to detect the location of the squeak. Look for any movement in the subflooring. The loose subflooring board will most likely be near or di- rectly over joist. To fill the gap between the subfloor and the joist, drive a thin wooden wedge into the space. A wooden shingle is useful for this purpose, but make sure the wedge is just thick enough to fill the space. The wedge will stop the movement of the subfloor and therefore, the squeak. If a board from the fin- ished floor has become loose, this can also be fixed from below. The board can be tightened back into the subflooring by driving one and one-half inch wood screws up through the sub - crossroads Published every Wednesday by Wenger Bros. Limited as the lifestyle and entertainment section in The Listowel Banner. The Wingham Advance - Times. The Mount Forest Confederate and The Milverton Sun. Members of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association, Ontario Community Newspaper Association. and the Ontario Press Council. Controlled distri- bution in Elmira, Palmerston. Harriston, Brussels, Millbank, Newton, Atwood. Clifford. Drayton. Wallenstein, Moorefield and Arthur. Display and Classified advertising deadline — 5:00 pgri. Thursday week prior to publication date Advertising and Production The Listowel Banner 188 Wallace Ave. N., P.O. Box 97, Listowel, Ont. N4W 3H2 Accounting and Billing The Wingham Advance -Times Josephine St.. P.O. Box 390. Wingham. Ont NOG 2W0 The Listowel Banner 291-1660. The Wingham Advance -Times 357-2320. The Mount Forest Confederate 323-1550 The Milverton Sun 595-8921. Elmira and District News: Kim Dadson 669-2690 floor and into the board. Have your helper stand on the loose board so it is held down tightly while the screw is going in. Be care- ful that the screw does not go all the way through the finished floor but just gets a good grip on it. If the ceiling below the floor is finished, then re - .pairs have to be done through the surface of the floors above. A loose floor board can be nailed back into the sub - flooring with 10d finishing nails. Again have your helper walk around the floor, while you watch for the loose board and listen for the squeak. Hammer two nails in at an angle crossing each other so that they form a V shape. The nails should be spaced an inch or two apart. This technique is called "toenailing," and it gives the nails a much bet- ter grip. Hammer the nails most of the way in and then use a nail set to coun- tersink the nailheads. A loose subfloor can be tightened by using the same technique, but in this case the nails or screws must be driven into a joist. _ A simple way to locate the joist is to use a block of wood and a hammer, and tap this along the surface of the floor. The sound will -be dull and hollow, but when it sounds more solid, you are over a joist. After locating the joist nearest to the loose sub - floor, drive in the nails or screws, toenailing them into the joist as described above. Countersink the deadwood and fill the holes with plastic wood in a color to match. Now listen for the quiet. MICROWAVE MAGIC Everything's corning up flour By DESIREE VIVEA In these biting -weather, stay-at-home days, it warms one's spirit to be presented with a basket of steamy hot rolls or to watch your fresh baked bread loaf steam up the kitchen windows as it cools. Flour is the essential ingredient in breads and rolls and 11 the ground grains were omittede;we'd be left with a sticky lump of goo. Hard to slice. There are more varieties of flour than one might im- agine. Even among unexot- ic white flours there are differences. All-purpose is a general baking flour that does well in everything except deli- cate cakes such as angel food cake. Instant flour is granular, dissolves readily in water, needs no sifting and is more costly than all- purpose. Self -rising flour includes a leavening agent and salt. Cake flour, the most ex- pensive of them all, is used in baking delicate cakes. Such as angel food. Semolina is produced from durum, the hard wheat used in pasta pro- duction. It is excellent as a soup thickener, good in milk puddings and savory dishes with grated cheese. Matzo meal is a cracker meal made from ground flour and water crackers. Farina, the Portuguese word for "meal," includes all flours made from star- chy tubers, vegetables, or grains. Corn flour, ground white or yellow corn involving the entire kernel, is a handy wheat flour substi- tute for those on a gluten- free diet. If your cupboard is bare of the flour called for in your recipe, substitutions may work just as well. If you lack flour altogether, 11/2 teaspoons of ground ar- rowroot flour equal 1 tablespoon of flour. To sub- stitute for,.t gup,of all-pur- pose flour, use 11cups cake flour, tin cup potato flour, 11/4 cup rye or coarsely ground whole grain flour, or 1 cup corn- meal. For cake flour, and as a less expensive alterna- tive, for 1 cup use 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons all- purpose flour. As self -ris- ing flour, 1 cup all-purpose flour plus 11/4 teaspoons baking powder plus 1/4 tea- spoon salt will suffice for 1 cup of the self -rising varie- ty. EVERREADY MUFFINS 4 cups all -bran cere- al 2 cups 100 percent bran cereal 2 cups boiling water 1 quart buttermilk 3 cups sugar 4en eggs be 5 cups all-purpose flour 5 tsps. baking soda 'h tsp. salt Pour boiling water over cereals. Stir in buttermilk, sugar, eggs, oil, flour, soda and salt in that order. Stir until just blended. Refri- gerate. Remove from re- frigerator. Without stirring batter, fill paper baking cups half hill. Arrange 6 cups in circle. Bake in mi- crowave 2/ minutes. Re- move muffins immediately from cups to cooling rack. It's Cominp, .. NEXT WEEK watch for it and a m USE IT! Makes 6 dozen muffins. (Mixture can be stored in refrigerator for three to four weeks.) HONEY BRAN COFFEECAHE 314 cup all-purpose flour 21 tsps, baking pow- der y tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. nutmeg 1 tsp. salt 2 cups 40 percent bran flakes 'h cup milk 1 well -beaten egg 1/4 cup honey 3 tbsps. melted short- ening 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 2 tbsps. melted but- ter or margarine Sift together flour, bak- ing powder and spices. Stir in 11/2 cups bran flakes. Combine milk, egg, honey and melted shortening. Pour in flour mixture. Moisten. Mix brown sugar, butter and remaining bran flakes. Pour batter into 8x8x2-inch glass baking dish. Top with sugar mix- ture. Bake in microwave 41 minutes. Turn dish one- quarter turn every 11 minutes. Makes nine to 12 pieces of coffeecake. PECAN -DATE BREAD 1 cup chopped dates % cup chopped pe- cans 11 tsps. baking soda Y4 tsp. salt 414 cup boiling water 3 tbsps. shortening 2 eggs 1 tsp. lemon extract 3/2 tsp. vanilla 1 cup sugar 11 cups sifted all- purpose flour Combine dates, pecans, baking soda and salt. Mix water and shortening in lightly. Let stand 1 hour. Beat eggs lightly. Stir in remaining ingredients. Blend in date mixtue with fork. Mix with rotary beat- er until well blended. $lour into greased 81/2x41/4x21/2- inch glass loaf dish. Bake in microwave 8 minutes, turning dish quarter -turn every 2 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before remov- ing to cooling rack. Taste improves if refrigerated overnight before serving. IRISH SODA BREAD 4 cups all-purpose flour 1/4 cup sugar V2 tsp. salt 1 tsp. baking powder y cup butter or mar- garine 11 cups currants 11/2 cups buttermilk 2 medium eggs 1 tsp. baking soda Mix first four ingred- ients; sift into a bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles cornmeal. Stir in currants. Mix together remaining ingredients. Stir into flour mixture until well moistened, but do not ®vernix. Turn batter into a greased 2 -quart round cas- serole, cover with paper towel. Cook in microwave 11 to 12 minutes, turning every 3 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes before remov- ing to cooling rack. Makes 1 loaf. (For a crisp, brown top, brush with melted but- ter and place under broiler of conventional range for a few seconds. Recipes in this column are tested in 625- to 700 - watt microwave ovens. Foods are cooked on HIGH (100 percent power) and un- covered unless otherwise specified: Robin grows up fast A young robin multiplies its birth weight nine times, grows plumage and a stubby tail and is nearly its parents' size in 13 days from hatching to leaving the nest. Rails top employer Indian Railways, the backbone of India's internal freight and passenger trans- portation system, carries two-thirds of the total freight traffic to markets throughout the country and nearly half the passenger traffic. With a staff of about 1.7 million people, it is the nation's largest employer. - 000C e.. R AMR _ NUT FIRE CORN WISE Sweetheart Sale SINGER NOW :348!5 CONESTOGA MALL WATERLOO 884-6981 Reg. $414.95 on the STYLIST" 834 • 8 versatile stitch patterns including built-in blindstitch. • Built-in buttonholer for easy, easy buttonholes. • Free Arm for hard -to -reach places like cuffs and 'sleeves. on the FASHION MATE* 247 • Built-in straight stitch and zig-zag for buttonholes;' buttons, elastics and stretch fabrics. • One-way needle insertion so you can't put needle in backwards. • Easily removed and replaced front drop-in bobbin for fastrewinding. Credit Available SINGER *Trademark of THE SINGER COMPANY Authorized user: Singer Company of Canada Ltd. 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