The rise and fall of the gingerbread house

This year we decide to make our gingerbread house from scratch. I found a recipe with directions here. It was a three day process, we did a few things wrong, had trouble getting the roof to stay on...finally it stayed, a bit of a shanty-shack, but still, it resembled a house.

Then it came time to decorate. Let me just say, decorating a gingerbread house with a 4yo and an 18mo is quite a challenge. I often get frustrated because I'm so focused on the finished product, and have to remind myself (over and over) 'it's the journey, not the destination' !!!

Finally we were done, frosting everywhere, craziness, then the roof fell of and the side cracked.


The boys thought it was great and started chanting 'eat it, eat it', so we ate some:) Today, it met it's fate in the bottom of our trash can.... the candy was awful, the frosting yummy, but soooo sweet and the boys wanted to live off of it! Bye, bye Gingerbread house! We will try again next year. If you care to make one, here are a few things I learned-

-cut the front and back wall with the triangle attached, not as separate pieces
-roll it out thinner (especially the roof) and cook longer

-whip the frosting for a very, very long time so it is very stiff

-get a real 'piping bag' and not a ziplock bag (they would not stay sealed)

-decorate with candy you like (assuming you are going to eat it) not cheap drugstore candy

-have fun and don't worry if it doesn't look like all those beautiful gingerbread houses in the Martha Stewart magazine:)

giveaway at Natural Suburbia

Check out the giveaway at Natural Suburbia! Good luck!!!

WIP Wednesday!!

For some reason this photo keeps loading sideways!!!

Everest really wanted in on this photo session!

I love knitting socks, especially kids socks! They go much quicker!

I finally knit a hat for my husband! It reminds me of coffee...

Pj pants for Kylan that ended up way to big...

Holiday gnomes:)

I have a few more started, but crafting with an 18 month old is so challenging. We started these while he was napping, but he takes short naps. He wants everything I have in my hand and likes to attack the sewing machine, my sewing baskets...just don't let him see my tomato pincushion!!! He loves tomatoes and freaks when he sees (and can't have) the pincushion!

Wishing you a warm and peaceful day!

hope for the garden

After a few failed tries to seed the garden beds, I finally got around to start some trays and they are looking good so far:)

A few days ago I managed to garden in the rain with the boys, I wish I would have gotten some pictures of them playing in the mud! We also got a bunch of onion sets in the ground and some garlic.

Bulbs are popping up everywhere!
It's funny that as soon as Winter arrives, Spring is on the mind!

sweater of my dreams...

I just read the story of Yuri's New Sweater on Farmama's Blog, check it out! I don't even know how to spin wool yet, but someday I dream of sheering, processing, spinning, dying and knitting a sweater. It's odd, I have these deep urges to do such things, I don't always understand why, but it just seems amazing to me...

Welcome Winter!

Two days ago all of the trees began dropping their leaves, raining brown and gold. The wind and nights much cooler, we now welcome winter...

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How odd it is that when everything else is withering and dieing our Hollyhock

is green and blooming! How long can it last???

We are ready for the storm, said to hit tonight, hoping it will bring much need rain. We have had a couple years of low rainfall & our reservoirs are thirsty. It is amazing (and scary to watch) how much these redwoods bend in the wind, so thin and tall, we are luck to live in the sunny center of a cathedral of trees.

Losing their leaves, they will soon be bare trees covered with deep orange ornaments:)

Just a few leaves left in our mini-vineyard.

2 cords of wood, already seem to be plowing through it!

my sweet helper

My lovely Zinnias, that bloomed forever, look just as beautiful, but in a different way!

*Wishing you warmth*

WIP Wednesday!!

It's Work-in-progress Wednesday!

I have some catching up to do, since I haven't posted WIP for the last few weeks-

This first picture is of the sweater vest I was working on when I went out of town. I eventually decided I didn't like the way the yarn looked and tore it out. Something about the sheen of the yarn or something, so I need to find a replacement so I can start over. It's cold outside!

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I started some lil socks with this beautiful self-striping yarn. I LOVE the colors and want socks for myself made out of this!!!

And then there are bonnets... I love making these 'Lyra Caps', multiple strands of big fat yarn and big needles make for a very quick project! Kylan really wants one, he picked out brown and orange for his... they are pretty girly, but he's 4, he can get away with it:)

I also made a couple pair of super soft fleece pants for Everest and my cousins little girl. I've had scraps of this fabric for a long time and once made a blanket out of it. Sewing with little ones around is challenging, but I'm hoping to try more often. These pants were so easy and quick to make, and K has a long list of requests!

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Christmas is on it's way and I better get knittin'....
Have a beautiful day:)

Persimmon Love-

Everest enjoying a ripe persimmon...

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We have two persimmon trees, and they are producing a lot this year! They are the type that you can not eat until they are squish and super sweet. The boys LOVE them and will eat as many as I'll let them.

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When I pass the bright orange fruit sitting in my kitchen they always make me think of that scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when the kids go into the room full of trees that grow candy, they look that good! And they are almost as sweet!!!

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So far I have made Persimmon Pie which turned out ok, and persimmon bread which turned out quite good. I think the next batch of ripe fruit is going into the dehydrator. The nice things about persimmons is that you can pick a bunch and leave the rest to pick later. They don't seem to ripen on the tree, and take several days inside to get nice and squishy. We have lovely persimmons from October to January:)

*blessings*