“Why Don’t You?” Wednesday

A passel of days, possums, and then, tout d'un coup, we are upon the most famous Wednesday of all, Ash Wednesday. But do not be afeared, as the Diana Vreeland aesthetic does not believe in sackcloth and ashes. And so, without further ado, Why Don't you...

* Work a set of dining-room chair seats—each set marked with a musical instrument: drums, fife, bagpipe, violin, et cetera—in brown wool on a natural-colored background and from each instrument a ribbon of a different color, fluttering as from mandolins of troubadours?

* Remember that Jansen of Paris has a shop in New York and go and see their gilt bronze palm trees dripping with Bristol drops and chains of beads—or order from them one of those lovely and not expensive needle-point rugs in fawn wool scattered with pinky brown ostrich feathers?

* If you paint a dark dining-room in a city apartment, stop trying to brighten it and paint it dark grape red and drape the windows in festoons of real Scotch tartan?

* If you have an awkward, impossible sitting-room, why don’t you give up all idea of a grand salon and make the whole thing as snug and compact as a little yacht, with walls lined with comfortable banquettes covered in sailcloth or bed-ticking?