Oh Blogger, Where art thou?

So needless to say, I've been AWOB (absent without blog) for a while.   From family vacations, to visits from friends has kept me from just sitting down and putting the fingers to the keys.  The good news is that I have been busy, so I will be posting multiple blogs on the recent happenings for your viewing pleasure.  Now all I have to do is upload 348 photos from the camera onto my computer!  

White Christmas in Vegas??

So last winter was the first time I hadn't seen snow on Christmas in 10 years.  Not a lot of snow happening in Vegas.  Even though I love being able to wear shorts for 9 months out of the year, I really missed the snow.  I was wishing we could have escaped to a snowy log cabin in the mountains with our little family, a box of pancake mix, hot cocoa (with peppermint Schnapps!) and a Scrabble board.  Since we couldn't go there, I decided to bring it to us.  I made a gingerbread log cabin.  The one I had a picture of in my mind complete with a wood pile and woodland creatures roaming about.

 I bought (gasp!) a gingerbread house kit to save a little time due to my spur of the moment idea.  I get a lot of those.  I used melted sugar to hold the pieces of the house together.  I like to use that instead of icing because it dries really fast and it has a much stronger hold.

I did use royal icing for the snowy ground and to hold the mini pretzel sticks to the house to give it the look of snow sticking to the house and in between the "logs".

 Before the icing on the ground set, I made the log fence by pushing each pretzel "x" into the icing.

I used Twizzler Pull and Peels for the door and window.  I also found a package of snowy pine trees from the 99 Cents store (pure luck!) and I bought a package of Native American themed toys that had the animals in them from Joann's Fabrics.  Some cotton in the chimney and a small pile of "wood" were the final touches.  I was really happy with the way it came out, although next time, I will make the gingerbread myself.  We saved the animal toys for my son to play with when he gets older.

Even writing this post is making me wish it was Christmas right now.  Maybe this year we will get to see a life- sized snowy log cabin in person!  If we do, you can bet you'll see the pictures!

Crazy Crayons

Toddlers + crayons = lots of broken bits that are really hard to color with.  We try to find uses for just about everything to avoid throwing them away into the giant landfill we call planet Earth.  Here's a cute and easy idea of just what to do with all of those crayon pieces.  Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Take all of the paper off each crayon piece. ( While you're at it, be sure to put the paper into the recycling bin.)  Put all the crayon bits into a bowl.  Take a nonstick mini muffin pan and fill the compartments with the crayons.  Bake for 10-15 minutes. (my oven to closer to 15).  Cool completely in the pan and turn over to pop them out.  Now you have crayons that look cool and won't break easily.  It's CRAZY!

Her Maiden Voyage

Okay, here's the thing....up until recently, I didn't understand why anyone would want to write a blog.  What do people write about ? And who else would care?  Who wants to read about other people's lives and  them going on and on about blah, blah, blah? (hence the name of my blog).  But lately, I have found myself not only reading other people's blogs, but really enjoying them.  I mostly read blogs to get creative ideas and inspiration and I have found them very useful.  I am no longer mad at the blog.  So here's my contribution to cyber-society: a blog about things that make me happy.  Things like cooking, sewing, party planning, gardening, and I'm sure there will be a random topic here and there.  So I hope you enjoy and I look forward to your comments!  Whoever you are.