Gingerbread House

Emboldened by my success making a giant gingerbread mushroom and not wanting my new skills to go to waste, I helped my neighbor and her 3 daughters (ages 12,10,8) to make a large gingerbread house.  I designed a four gable house so they would each have a large equal sized piece to decorate.  In their kitchen each of the girls rolled out and designed their front.  We baked them first so they would cool and they could decorate while I rolled out and baked the other pieces.

Here is the Mom and the 8yo's fronts (drying out on a cookie sheet, not baking them like this!):



And here are the 12 yo and 10 yo's fronts:



There is just a little bit of side that will show so I practiced my piping on them.  I designed it so the foot print of the house is a cross.



And here are two angles of the finished product.  I went over to take pictures last nite because the girls plan to demolish it and eat it on Christmas!





And yes those are gummy worms around some of the windows.  An innovation I never imagined.

Thanks for looking and enjoy the holidays!
Kathy

Gingerbread creation

"Deep in the Forest"   I made this for The Family Place's 13th annual Gingerbread Festival.  There was a peoples' choice vote and I was third place (adult catagory).  The big blue mushroom is about 15 inches or so tall, and the scene is all edible except for the base it sits on.  These photos are the morning before the festival before I transported it over.

I'm totally hooked!  I'm already planning next year's creation.  My friend Linda made the flowers and leaves which we dried on wax paper then I put them where I needed them later.

I got tired of making caps and stems for the smaller mushrroms and thought I'd try forming mushrrom shapes whole and cooking them.  Of course they collapsed as they cooked,  but they turned out to be perfect for the roof mushrooms.   There are little elf faces made out of marshmallows in the windows of the mushroom stem and hiding in the shrubery behind the little house.

I tried too make even the back side pretty, and I put some candy way up high under the cap.

This is the first thing I've ever made from gingerbread and royal icing.  By the time I got to the butterfly, I'd finally gotten good at the icing!  

Thanks for looking!

Vintage Pinecone Elves diy

I know its not Christmas, but I run out of time and don't make Christmas crafts at Christmas!  I love vintage pinecone elves.  Here are some of the ones that I put out at Christmas.  The ones in the bowers were on our Christmas tree when I was a kid (I have 6 total).  The little girl skier was my mother-in-law's.



Then there are these which are in bad condition but I still like them.   I think it would be nice to have a few dozen more so they could take over the Christmas tree.  A few years ago I gave my brother six in the bowers (like our childhood ones) that I bought on ebay.  Even as I was purchasing them the prices skyrocketed!



So I've been saving supplies for years to make my own.  I would want to make them anyway, but the high prices of the "real thing" is another incentive.   Many people have made very nice modern versions.  BUT I love the faces on my vintage ones and want more like them.



Love that face!  Some vintage ones have mean faces.  I prefer this face.
A couple weeks ago, I mentioned to a friend that I had all the supplies and have been wanting to make them for years.  She asked me to show her craft circle how and offered to come and help me figure it out a few days before.  So I was forced to do it!  The day before she came, I made some faces from sculpy and gathered all the materials together.  Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of what my friends made at the group.  I shared my supplies, including faces and sculpy mushrooms.

So here are the ones I made which are like the traditional ones...



And a close up:



And here is my favorite one that I made.  There is only one because I had only one dried squash top and one dried shelf mushroom.  I am going to make more next fall after I gather more tops and shrooms.  He is sitting on a pinecone like the vintage ones in the bowers.  I will ponder if I want to make some similar but in bowers.



View from back, you can see his mushroom cape and that he sits on a pinecone.  Body is an acorn.



Here he is with a vintage reindeer and a mushroom that I made a a while ago.



Thanks for looking!

I'm linking up to Vintage Inspiration Party at Beyond the Picket Fence, The Sunday Showcase by Stephanie Lynn, Block Party at Keeping it Simple Crafts, ShareYour Creativity Link Party at Its Overflowing and Lets Talk Vintage at Bella Rosa Antiques.  Be sure to check out the other fab projects!

Kathy

Upcycled Shabby Shrooms Christmas ornaments

I obsessively made 45.

Roses, hung with embroidery cotton and a small button.



Red with white spots, paired with a small german spun cotton shroom and sitting on a clothespin.



Same as above but pink.



Red one in the hibiscus tree:



Made with my childhood bedspread (50 yrs old) which really fell apart last time I washed it, and wine corks which I have plenty of!

Thanks for looking.

Check out some amazing creations at Motivate Me Monday over at Keeping it Simple and at Stephanie Lynn's Sunday Showcase and Thrifty Things Friday at the Thrifty Groove.
Kathy

My Christmas Tree is still up!

I've been obsessively playing with the Kindle that dh got me for Christmas. I was in a lull from studying spanish, but now with Spanish books and dictionary loaded I can read and just move the cursor to words I don't know, and with luck, the dictionary recognizes them and tells me in a little screen at the top or bottom of the page.

Plus I've been buying or loading free books. Yikes! Its a time sink!

Meanwhile my beautiful pillow fabric sits waiting to be sewn.

I'm making a commitment to myself to post the newly made pillows and other things next week, Tuesday. I do so much better with deadlines.

I didn't see one of my friends until after Christmas, and Ididn't have the right size box for her gift so I made a little house with a roof that opens up out of some old file folders. I glued stones on the eaves so the box would stay closed. Little houses could be decorated differently for other occassions. Here it is:

 

 

What's the longest you've left up your Christmas tree? I'll tell my date next post.

Kathy

Woman Cave In Progress Brag plus need help about what to do on one wall.

My not very comfy sewing room and furniture and stuff catchall is what our upstairs hallway/living room used to be. This fall I began the work to convert it into my own hang out spot. Dispite that it has 6 door openings there is a nice sitting area down by the south facing double window.

Here is the only before I could find, with some of the paneling already down. You can see some old wallpaper under the plastic vapor barrier that my husband put up (yes he took the paneling down to do it) after blowing in insulation when he bought the house.

 

 
This pretty wall paper was on the one wall that wasn't paneled. I love it and I enjoyed it for many years, but it was old and beat up, so it went with the rest of the wallpaper.


Here is a pic of the space in progress, with the plastic down.
 

Hooray! The wallpaper is stripped off the walls and walls and ceiling are repaired and a layer of plaster applied. Walls painted a cool green. Here is my new chartreuse couch. My sewing machine plays double duty as a side table with a groovy lamp on it. I want to get a nice big piece of art work to hang over the couch.

 

My house doesn't have a fireplace (or mantel clearly) but this old dh family heirloom marble topped bureau which stores our bed linens can be my mantel I realized.
QUESTON ??? Should I put a mirror over it? The one that came with it I don't like. What about a big round one? Or something else?

 

I saved some of the green wallpaper which I have framed and plan to hang on the wall where it used to be.

 

So here is the sitting room end, by the window. Sorry it was hard to photograph due to the bright window. To take the photo I'm standing with the marble topped bureau on my right and my sewing cutting (or craft) table on my left.
I've had my neighbor women's group over. And I spend a lot of time there. I love it! Though I still have a way to go, decorating reupholstering the chairs you can't see.

 

I was inspired by a Jamie Drake room. I may give more details about that in future posts. The room is lighter and less earth tones that my dlowstairs living room.

Thanks for looking.
I'm hooking up to Bobbypin's Boardwalks Bragfest and Project Diaries at Stories of a House. Check out the other fun projects!

Kathy

Christmas birds and woman cave preview

I have wanted some of those old candy holder birds. The "cheap" cardboard ones from Japan in the fifties.

 

The head comes off and you put candy inside if you want.

 

Here are a bunch sitting in a nest of old plastic foliage pics and a star garland I just got from my mom. Along with a preview of my new woman cave chartreuse couch. I'm going to post about my new sitting room next week.

 

For some reason Mom cut some of the leaves off the mistletoe, but she saved them. Thanks Mom!

 

I really like that the birds are so determined looking, plus glittery.

 

Its a lucky thing that I like them so much because I got these on Ebay. In the heat of the last moments of the auction, I entered four digits and forgot the decimal point. Needless to say, I won. I'm fortunate that the other bidder wasn't completely wacko, and hadn't made the same mistake!

 

I got this cute sleigh at a thrift store. Its nice as is, but not the right colors for my new room.
 
The birdies do look cute in it. I couldn't find my doll that I wanted to drive it. But I might before Christmas.
 

I'm linking up to Colorado Lady's Vintage Thingies Thursday and the party at Very Merry Vintage Style. Check out the other cool vintage Christmas ideas!