An Almost Tropical Christmas

The calm before the kitchen storm. Since the photo was taken, I've baked several pieces for the gingerbread house, and there's flour everywhere. That's OK, I like the look of a kitchen in-use. We made it into the low 60's today (parts of Nebraska on the Kansas border hit the 70's) and it feels slightly odd to be baking gingerbread-now I know how people in California feel. I have the windows open because any opportunity to do that in December is worth taking advantage of. Blondin has been hanging around the door-I think he can smell gingerbread at 100 yards. 

 I'm attempting a model of our row of houses on the block from gingerbread. I even bought some candy moulds shaped like cars to put in numbered spaces in front. I have fruit leather for shingles, chocolate covered cherries for the a/c units on the roof, and granola for the pebbles. We'll see how it goes, but I am rather excited about it. The pieces need several days to dry out completely before decorating and assembling. I should have started earlier, but I think we'll still have plenty of time to enjoy it. I had to scale it down when I noticed none of my baking sheets were large enough to accommodate the pieces! Just as well-I still haven't got over the year I baked St. Paul's Cathedral from gingerbread (a dome? WTF was I thinking baking a gingerbread dome?!).

It IS looking a lot like Christmas (inside, anyway).

I'm back to layering because it is 30 degrees when I get up in the morning, and 62 by noon! 

Outfit Particulars:

Pendleton wool skirt-Goodwill

1970's lacy knit sweater by College Town-Thrift World

Lurex polo neck-Goodwill

Vinage Naturalizer shoes-Thrift World

1960's vinyl handbag-Thrift World

Shiny Brite Christmas corsage-Thrift World

Christmas star earrings-K Mart

Cinnabar bangle-Hand-me-Ups

Painted lucite bangle-Goodwill

Fragrance-Fire and Ice

Lippy-Maybelline Vivid Rose layered with some stick gloss the name wore off of.

Every year, I like to bake cookies for the Game and Parks employees at the State park where Danny does his bird-banding. These are people that have been there for years, and have watched Danny grow-up. I try to decorate cookies that have something to do with our local wildlife (one year I did some elaborately decorated songbirds and raptors). This year, I'm doing fish (walleye, paddlefish, crappie (it is pronounced, "Croppy") and bass. I thought it would be fun to make cookies in the shapes of lures (spinner, etc.) but then I came up with the idea of including a small bait box filled with gummy-worms candy. I can't wait to get started. I need a similar box of cookies for the Friends of the Library volunteers, but they typically get holiday decorated cookies like wreaths, doves, and stars. Books just don't work that well as cookies (I've tried). 

These are on the lesson plan for art tomorrow afternoon. I'm letting Danny design them, which means they might be interesting.