More Gingerbread Friday

  Hi everyone. It's another Friday, and for those who celebrate Christmas, it's now less than a week away. (Wasn't it just Thanksgiving?)  For me, my family will be celebrating  on the 23rd and 24th since this year my daughter is going to spend the actual holiday with her husband's family.

   Today I am joining Nicole for her Friday Face Off and also Gillena for her Friday Lunch Break. This past Monday I shared some cool gingerbread art I saw at a display put on by the Portsmouth Historical Society in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.   I thought I'd be festive and share a few more today. If you missed the ones from Monday you can find the link here: T Stands for Gingerbread.

   I saved the ones with lots of faces for Friday Face Off today. 😏

     This first one has no face as it's the ghost of Christmas future from Dicken's Christmas Carol.  Look at that fondant lace. It's pretty amazing.

   This next set of photos shows the business category winner. It's a rendition of Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water (for those of you who may not be familiar with the architect or the building).

   This under the sea view may not be the most technical, but I thought it was a clever idea.

And for another ocean scene how about this giant squid and the submarine?

   And for the Dr. Who fans, here's a few daleks for you.

A few of the adult creations

  How about a mouse trying to pull Santa's sleigh on an airport runway?

   Or Godzilla...

  I think there were close to 100 gingerbread houses that people entered.  I'll finish with this one which has a local connection to the Celia Thaxter home out on one of the Isles of Shoals (a small group of islands 6 miles offshore from Portsmouth). Celia Thaxter was a famous poet in the late 1800's, and she is originally from the seacoast of New Hampshire.

I hope you enjoyed the gingerbread constructions. Have a great Friday and weekend ahead. And for those of you who celebrate Christmas but I only "see" on Friday's, I wish you a wonderful holiday.

T Stands for Gingerbread

   Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And hello to everyone who stops by for T over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.

   It's been another cold and windy week in my area. Especially today, Monday, the 15th. With wind chills our temperatures  felt like they are in the single digits (degrees F)  or somewhere in the negative teens (degrees C). Brrrr. Thankfully we are lucky to have a woodstove on the first floor that helps keep the house nice and toasty. 

   One day last week I went out with a friend. We ended up in downtown Portsmouth (New Hampshire) where the historical society was putting on a gingerbread house show. This show was open to anyone who wanted to join, and they had different categories you could enter. Those categories included youth (12 and under), teen (12-17), adult, business related, professional (for profession bakers) and multi-age. 

   Some of these houses were amazing, and some of them, although not houses, were creative gingerbread sculptures. I thought I'd share a few photos today. It was a great way to enjoy some holiday spirit.

First up, for those of you who like color.

   And here's one of several Grinch themed pieces.

The ski chalet,

 the garden house,

some Asian inspired  design,

  and I really wanted to break off a chocolate moose and eat him when I saw the next scene. (But of course I didn't. 😏)

  

   These next 2 photos show the winning creation  of the teen category with another Grinch scene. 

  This one is based on the Disney movie Encanto (which I haven't seen but this is a gorgeous gingerbread book.)

Then we had a gingerbread basket.

  I'm not sure if this is a village view or a church, but it's still a pretty winter scene.

    And lastly for this post, this one  built by a local candy store.

   I have a few more photos to share, but for the sake of not making this post too long, I'll save those for another day.

     After we left we needed lunch, so we checked out a newer restaurant downtown called Cheese Louise. They only serve grilled cheese sandwiches, plus some soup and other things to have with your sandwich.

   I had a traditional Vermont style grilled cheese (just cheese in my sandwich) meal, which came with a drink (I had ice tea) and a side. I went for their tomato soup. The photo  at the order counter showed the side as a small cup but mine came as a huge bowl. The other drink on the table is my friend's lemonade.  It made a delicious warm lunch on a chilly day.

   That's all for me this week. Stay warm if it's cold where you are. Wishing everyone a happy T day and week ahead. 

Pre-Holiday Play Day

The holidays are here- 

well kind of- 

but for me they are since this day I am on vacation!!!

Got to love vacation Mondays!!!

Really feels like vacation today when I didn't need to get up for work.

(Actually hit me last night when I wasn't thinking about how I had to go to work in the morning- really makes a Sunday night much more relaxing.)

So today's post I want to show you 

a couple of cards I made for the nieces and nephew.

Also some holiday kitchen projects.

Yummy!!!!

This card photographed poorly in our winter darkness,

but you can see the silver snowflakes I stamped on the background.

Since I was in a rush to make these

(do that every year-why is that when I know I'll need them?)

I used a lot of die cuts.

Big snowflake is from a Sizzix set-

, 

skiis are from a Marriane die set and the bow is from Memory Box.

Saying is from a Flourishes' set called Snow Day.

Just in case you were wondering.

Now that I look back at these cards I say, why didn't I put the skis together  and use the bow in a slightly different manner? Why didn't I put the Merry Christmas in the next card in a slightly different  spot? Oh well, they are what they are. And they're not too bad, considering I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about the final product while putting these together.

Cards are not my strong suit, as I've told you before.

Here's another ski themed card (my niece and nephew are HUGE skiers-my nephew is even on his college ski team). This time I used the same Marianne ski die, a Memory bird die, snowflake #2 by Sizzix (my latest go to snowflake I must say.)

and the Merry Christmas words die by Dee's Distinctive Dies. I embossed it in black so it really stands out.

Anyhow...

So yesterday while my husband wrapped my gifts I got banished to the studio-such a tough thing I must say.

Finished up my hanging snowflakes.

Got caught up on my holiday journal.

Then when I was finally allowed back downstairs,

Katie decided to do some decorating.

She isn't into cooking or baking at all, but decided to make a tree cake.

Love the lighting in this photo.

Her tree came out great for a first time decorator too.

I used the leftover frosting to finish off my gingerbread house-which I put together last Sunday and it needed some decorating.

What do you think?

I decorated this with assorted candies...quite pleased with the cuteness of the results.

I just needs a little plastic reindeer.

And I made some homemade bread- buckwheat, dried cherry and hazelnuts from this cookbook

which I picked up as a present for myself from an Amazon Daily deal for like $10.

There's some great recipes in this book, at least the look and sound good.

This is the first one I actually tried.

I must say I had a great day. Relaxing, creative, holiday-ish.

Perfect for a dark, wet and then icey Sunday in New Hampshire.

And now today-

I need to make a lasagne for tomorrow when we go visit my family.

I've got to wrap the hubby's presents. 

I have an appointment to get my haircut.

Busy but not too too busy of a day.

Oh the holiday chores.

Fa-la-la-la-la!

Thanks for stopping by.