Gingerbread Log Cabin

I wish I could sneak off to the mountains and stay in a cabin like this!  Mason and Brooke helped build this little gingerbread cabin.

The 'house' is a pre-built one from Target.  My son cut the 'windows' with a small saw used for carving pumpkins.

 The 'logs' are cinnamon sticks.  I used sharp garden clippers to cut them to size.  The icing came with the pre-built, standard gingerbread house.

 The English serving tray holds the display and allows it to be portable.  I used it as a centerpiece for a cookie exchange at my daughter's school, and then as a display in my kitchen.  The 'snow' on the ground is a bag of snow (plastic) purchased from Hobby Lobby.  If you want to stick to the rules and use all food, baby rice cereal works nicely with some sparkly sprinkles added.

The 'pathway' is Big Red gum cut into pieces and placed in a herringbone pattern.  The 'threshold' stone is a cinnamon and sugar covered pecan.  The 'greenery' is rosemary and the heart 'door knob' came from a jar of sprinkles.  The door is a graham cracker.

The thatch roof is made of mini-Triscuits.

The 'stone' fireplace is made from a Target brand of cinnamon and sugar covered pecans and almonds.  (I don't think they are available year round.)  They work great as 'stones' and are so delicious, too!



The 'smoke' is angel hair snow.  I used cotton candy to swirl upward for the cookie party display, but it disintegrated quickly from moisture in the air.  (Cotton candy is available during the holidays in a tub at Wal-Mart.)  The angel hair is malleable and works great!  Wrap it around a pencil to create a swirl.

I used small pretzel sticks to make the fence and medium size pretzel sticks for the 'fire logs' stacked near the cabin.  The 'antlers' are broken pieces from small knot pretzels.

I found the Woody station wagon at Eckerd drug store years ago and attached the small bottle brush tree.  (The wrapping paper came from Target and is my favorite. I bought every roll at our local store!)

We worked on this over several days.  My son and I had planned to enter the local town contest; however, we missed the admission deadline.  Also, I believe the rules are that everything has to be made of food.  The car and the bottle brush trees would have to go, but for our purposes, they add such character!



This is the stone 'cottage' we made years ago.  Several of you inquired about the 'base' of this house.  It was a pre-built gingerbread house, as well.

My son loves to build, so this is a great project he and I can do together.  I wonder what we will come up with next year.  If I could actually bake the base gingerbread house, it would open our possibilities!

I will be posting a bit more Christmas 2013 soon!



Thank you for stopping by and have a great New Year!
 

Circle of Life Wreath

           
So, I am a little behind in posting Christmas...I still haven't mailed all of my Christmas cards.  I guess, a little late is better than never!  My washing machine broke during the holidays, and after two weeks of guests, I have been a tad bit busy hand washing everything...no complaints, because it is good for us to appreciate the wonderful invention of a washing machine!  

 
 I found this large bottle brush tree at a hardware store. It is very simple, but I love it.



I had all these small grapevine wreaths from a banquet display.  I couldn't think of a way to use them at my house, so I joined them with wire to make one large wreath... a 'Circle of life' wreath.


Happy New Year to all of you!

Stay tuned for more Christmas (past!)...