Faulty Cottages

Almost every year we build gingerbread houses and usually we use graham crackers and homemade royal icing for our construction materials. This year, because of time and space constraints we opted for using kits-big mistake! Kelli and I worked as a team and of course Chad and Tasha were a team. We opened our kit to find amost every piece broken or cracked! This inspired me to whisper to Kelli- "We'll just build a cracked house." Well---Kelli thought I said "Crackhouse" and so that was her inspiration for the broken glass laying all around(which she made from scratch) and the bars on the side of the house, not to mention the general trashy appearance of the whole house. The neat and tidy 'Martha Stewart' side of the house is just a fake-out to keep people from getting suspicious!

Newlywed's Cottage

Team Newlywed had some structural issues as well. No matter how much frosting they used, the roof would not stay on! So they made a nice little living room scene with a gingerbread man dressed as Santa . I think the X in the front yard is an alien landing strip.

Cones for Christmas

A couple of weeks ago I saw these fantastic moss cone planters at Home Depot of all places. I knew I could do something fun with them but wasn't sure what. I bought two and then headed to my favorite nursery for inspiration. They just happened to have some wonderful cyclamen on sale so I chose this one , pink with white edges, lovely! Then I filled around the cyclamen with white dianthus and Santa Barbara daisy. I had considered planting a poinsettia in the cone, but thought I could get a longer lasting display by opting for the cyclamen. The cone hangs outside my breakfast nook windows where I can get a lot of enjoyment from it. As for the other cone, it still sits empty on the potting bench, waiting for me to have another bolt of inspiration, maybe filled with Christmas greenery and berries?