Fallingwater Gingerbread House

Model Statistics:
•It took over 12 hours to design
•It took Brenton and I around 40 hours to build and decorate
•There are around 164 different pieces of gingerbread
•It took roughly 12 square feet of gingerbread dough (that’s four large batches) to make all the walls, floors and roof
•Over 8 bags of powdered sugar were used to make all the frosting
•It took over 40 sleeves of large Smarties which are used to simulate dry stack stone on the building exterior
•The river and water fall are made up of three batches of hard candy

Best gingerbread house cookie:
2 C light corn syrup
1 1/2 C packed brown sugar
1 1/4 C margarine
1 tsp salt
9 C flower

Melt together the corn syrup, brown sugar, and margarine. Mix till smooth then add in flour and salt.
Bake for 15 to 20 min at 350
*If the pieces get warped throw them in the microwave for 15 seconds and they will flatten out.


Here's a little more on our gingerbread house!
Check out what became of our Falling Water Gingerbread House!
Click HERE to see last years entry...#12 Grimmaulds Place

Podcasts

So as many of you know I have one of the most boring jobs on the planet. I am a horticulture technician. In less glamorous words I water peoples' house plants. I drive around in my car all day and when I'm not in my car I'm wandering around businesses with my awesome tool belt and watering cans. Despite what "Music and Lyrics" portrays about plant waterers, I have never met anyone famous or helped write a hit song. In fact i dont really talk to anyone and no one really talks to me. You would think that day after day alone in my car or alone in an office full of people I would start going crazy or be really sad about my life....BUT not so!!! I have PODCASTS.
Josh and Chuck from "Stuff You Should Know" and Jad and Robert from "RadioLab" are always with me. They keep me company at all times. They entertain me for hours on end. They fill my head with random facts ranging from zombie attacks to sleep walking to love to organ donation. I always find myself saying," I was listening to a podcast about that just the other day..."
Up to this point I have listened to 57 RadioLab episodes totaling 1.6 days and 266 Stuff You Should Know episodes totaling 4.4 days. I have enjoyed every minute of it. It turned my hopelessly boring job into an outlet for me to listen to podcasts!

Annie's Wedding

Headbands

A few months ago I saw these really cute headbands in a store but they were a ridiculous price. Like I was going to pay for something that was so easy to make! pah-lease. Well, after several failed attempts... I finally got it! They are so fun to make. They are wired. That is how they hold their shape and they stay on your head oh so well!
I love copying creative people!

typewriter+sewing machine=really great cards

Lately I have been getting into vintage things. Old books, old desks, old stamp collections, old frames, old lamps. I spend a lot of time at DI and Savers. Yard sales have become my best friends. My apartment is slowly filling with all these beautiful old things that I LOVE which I will most likely regret buying one day.
One thing I love is taking old things and creating fun usable things. The latest and greatest are these cards...

(My typewriter which I took from my attic. It was my moms. She got it for a high school graduation present. Love it!!)

(My sewing machine which I got from a yard sale. It works!)



***My roommate and I are probably going start a vintage business and one of the things we will be selling are these cards. Let me know if you are interested!

Hey Honey!

Phase 2: Honey Extraction (Phase 1 is a few posts back "Whats the Buzzzzz")
I always knew you wanted to learn how to extract honey! I know I did. Luckily for both of us I have a father who is a bee keeper. When he said he was extracting honey this weekend I knew I wouldn't want to miss it. My neighbor, Russell, came along too.

In each of the bee boxes (aka hives) there are slats that fit inside vertically. These are called "supers". There are about 10 supers per box. As the bees do what they do best, make honey, these supers are filled with honey comb (the little wax hexagons brimming with honey). My dad keeps tabs on their progress all summer and as they fill he adds more boxes which are have 10 more empty supers.


On extraction day. Dad, in the bee suit of course, took all of the full supers out of the boxes. We took them into the garage where the extraction operation was set up. The first step is to remove the layer of wax covering the comb. It is melted off using a heated knife. The wax can be used to make candles (pretty cool!)



Two supers are put into the big metal spinning extractor where the honey is literally flung out of the comb onto the sides of the extractor.


The honey then drips down the insides, out a hole in the bottom, through the strainer into a pot.


An entire box of honey left for each of the bee colonies. They eat the honey to survive the winter.

Bees are really amazing little guys, making wax and delicious honey! They are surprisingly nice too. There were no stings reported.
My parents are planning of selling their honey... so if you are interested please feel free to email me. garden.melodies@gmail.com

Goodbye to the Greek

After 3 years of living in The Greek House I finally had to close that chapter of my life. It was hard to say goodbye to my room and to all the good memories that were made in that house. It has been home for so long I cant believe other people will live there and not know all that has happened there. I will miss my Greek House and all the wonderful people I lived with and friends I made there.