Ta dah!

Hello again

The house is complete! Hallelujah! It's rather wonky and the icing isn't perfect but it's fun and I hope the young teenage girls at the party this afternoon will love it and it will add to the spirit of Christmas which is vital or else all these decorations and cards etc are a waste of time.

Never make the mistake of thinking these things are easy, as unless you're used to using icing bags and making biscuits etc, you'll struggle with a few basics, as I have. When I was young we used to have a metal piping type tool which I remember finding alot easier to use than these bags where you lose most of the icing in the bag.

Oh gosh, when I'm looking at these photos it's revealing things I hadn't noticed, as the photo above makes it look like the roof pieces are joined mainly on the right but that's not how it appears in 'real' life.

Anyway enough excuses, here are the things I've learnt whilst doing this i.e points to remember so that next year's is amazing!!

* Add more egss to the gingerbread mixture or find a whole new recipe for it.
* Make each piece only 0.5cm thick or the whole house is too heavy, especially the roof.
* Make up two batches of icing as the house seems to need that much.
* Build the house on the base you're going to present it on.
* Have the Christmas lights on and a  bottle of wine handy with Christmas music playing
* Build the base first and leave it to harden over night before putting the roof on

* Do not be tempted to decorate prior to completing the build.
That's all I can think of for now and I need to get myself sorted out and some cleaning done; no wonder this house is a tip with two dogs and a loony in the house making stuff all the time!

Take care out there and if I don't get time to do any more fun stuff before the big day; I hope all goes well for you and you can make the most of the season as possible. Believe you me, there are days when I get down, especially with the greyness, cold and wetness all around and money and people but if you get a chance, make something for yourself or a gift and wonder in that - enjoy!

Happy Christmas and take care out there!

Progress?

Hello there

After not a very good day at all at the Trafford Centre; a traffic hassled trip to Hobbycraft on the way home and an awful walk with the dogs(refusing to come back to us at 4pm when I'm tired and it's basically dark, is not an endearing feature of theirs), I decided late tonight to do some house building. I'd had calming time by then and thought that I'd try to reclaim some of the day by doing some of the Gingerbread house. This was a dangerous strategy but it turned out ok in the end.
I got into a right mess with the icing as it's not something I've done in a long, long time indeed; thankfully I made the icing up yesterday so no clouds of white tonight. I began by piping the icing along wall edges to fix them together but soon turned to 'plastering' it on. After initially managing to get the four walls up, I tried to put one of the roof pieces on - without success! I then also realised that it would be better if I erected it whilst it was sitting on what I will be carrying it to the party on, so I broke it all up and started again. This time I thought it wise to just do the four walls and leave them overnight to harden and 'cement' together. Maggie helped me at this stage but purely as she was unfortunate enough to walk into the kitchen at the wrong moment and she soon exited at an advantageous time- so much for family fun!

After seeing that the four walls stayed together, I went ahead and did some decoration stuff - all I can say is the piping work is harder than it looks; especially if you don't have a very fine nozzle to do things like the windows and door. I had to buy nozzles especially for this house; hence the visit to Hobbycraft but it was only a basic set which didn't include a fine one. It was quite fun sticking the sweets on and then I found some little iced balls etc type decorations in a cupboard, which is where I got the cute little snowmen from.

Anyway, I'd better go as it's almost ten past midnight and Chris just came in asking if I was actually intending on coming to bed. Here's what it's like so far. As ever, far from perfect but please cross your fingers that it all stays stuck together.

The container and lid were there as support originally and then I wasn't brave enough to move it!

Take care out there

Update on Gingerbread house

Hello again (yes, twice in  one day - hope you're coping under the pressure)

This is where I'm up to and it's 19.30 on 18/12/11

Kirstie says that she likes to decorate the house prior to attaching it all together then leave it overnight to harden but I'm not brave enough for that. I've put the pieces away in an airtight container for now. I'm going to assemble the house first as I'm worried that if I spend ages decorating the walls etc and then when I assemble it, it collapses, I'll be so cross and upset.

Wish me luck!

Take care out there

Guess what I'm up to

Hello there

It's all Kirstie Allsopp's fault I'm in this mess; flour everywhere, loads of washing to do and a fridge/freezer full of baking trays.

That's right; I'm in the throws of making a Gingerbread house. I have enjoyed all of Kirstie's programmes trying to encourage the British public to get crafty. I managed to watch the first of the Christmas one's on Channel 4 a couple of days ago and then I went online to see the show's website and I was inspired to try the house which she gives the recipe for -Click here. I must say though that I didn't find the ingredients correct as how can 675g of flour be gelled with it's ingredients purely with 1 egg and 6tbsps of syrup? I had to add another medium (free range obviously) egg as well as quite a bit of water throughout the process. The sections of the house are all in the fridge/freezer as I type and I'm off to do some more washing up.

Chris, bless him, has taken the dogs twice today without me as I've been busy cleaning and doing this and he went food shopping alone and got me a tonne and a half of sweets to decorate it with and some icing bags but he forgot to get me any nozzles. I'll get those tomorrow in the Trafford Centre, where Maggie wants to go. I won't be decorating it until tomorrow anyway. I'm hoping to get the icing done today and put it in an airtight container until I'm ready to do the fun stuff.

Best get on with it then, hadn't I?!

Take care out there