we used a recipe for “building gingerbread” *edible but not as good as “eating gingerbread”

Butter                8oz
Brown Sugar   8oz
Molasses          8oz
Flour                 2lb 3oz
B. Soda             2tsp
Cinnamon       2tsp
Ginger              1/2tsp
Clove                1tsp
Water                8oz

Cream together the butter and sugar, then add molasses and water, sift all the dry together and add slowly to mixer.  Bake at 325F until done, it all depends on what size your pieces are.  I normally at least double the recipe for a good size house.  Also all of the gingerbread MUST be totally cool before you start to build or the icing will just melt and not glue anything together!

and to put it all together, we used Royal Icing:

Royal Icing Using Meringue Powder:

4 cups (440 grams) confectioners’ (powdered or icing) sugar

3 tablespoons (30 grams) meringue powder

1/2 teaspoon extract (vanilla, lemon, almond)

1/2 – 3/4 cup (120 – 180 ml) warm water

Note: Food Coloring (I use Gel Pastes that can be found at cake decorating and party stores or
else on-line)

For Royal Icing with Meringue Powder: In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand
mixer), beat the confectioners’ sugar and meringue powder until combined. Add the water
and beat on medium to high speed until very glossy and stiff peaks form (5 to 7 minutes). If
necessary, to get the right consistency, add more powdered sugar or water. To cover or ‘flood’
the entire surface of the cookie with icing, the proper consistency is when you lift the beater, the
ribbon of icing that falls back into the bowl remains on the surface of the icing for a few seconds
before disappearing.

The icing needs to be used immediately or transferred to an airtight container as royal icing
hardens when exposed to air. Cover with plastic wrap when not in use.

Makes about 3 cups

Jordan was the one who came up with the idea of adding skittles to the tops of the gum drops and I must say, I love the look. Jalen and I both followed Jordan’s lead.  He told me he was making a pattern, alternating red and green. He also made a sort of gate with the candy canes and a walk way.

Jalen’s house is the one with the candy cane on the roof and alternating red and green skittles stripes.

My house is the last one with the candy cane hearts and red skittles.

It was a fun venture.  We made two batches of building gingerbread, which for the amount and size of houses we were making, it was just too much.  Also, the rectangles we cut were not quite the right shapes so we had gaps.  For next year’s gingerbread villages, I’ve ordered Gingerbread House Cutters (B1101) from foose.  It was quite fun :)

We also made some eating Gingerbread, sugar cookies and white chip chocolate cookies. I’ll be sharing those soon. and can I add. the house smells lovely. I <3 Gingerbread!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Love and Blog you Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy :)

Day 8, two

Me: day 2 of advent calendar

Jalen: Kung Fu Panda 2

Jordan: 2 earth skylanders

Troy: Jalen’s 2 eyes

Day 9, Twelve

Me: safety inspection sticker

Jalen: day 12 on the advent calendar

Jordan:12 skylanders

Troy: 12 cups in a display case

Day 10, Snack

Me: I find it funny that we all took our pictures at different times but chose the same snack. our mickey mouse shaped rice krispy treats.

Jalen:

Jordan:

Day 11, Online

Me: my blog

Jalen: our router

Jordan: his 3DS can go online

Troy: Jordan online

Day 12, In Real Life

Me: my craft stuff that got moved out of my craft room for rehoming/ebay or whatever. and has sat here in my kitchen waiting for me. (ps, ready for an online craft sale?)

Jalen: real people driving and living.

Jordan: the day by day bible.

Day 13, Mail

Me: Calendars going out to mail at the Post Office

Jalen: Lego Catalog

Jordan: Christmas card from Lego VIP program

Day 14, Line(s)

Me: our first year putting up lights outside

Jalen: lines on the table

Jordan: lines of skittles (and other candies) on his gingerbread house.

Thanks for stopping by!
Love Love and Blog you later,
Joscie, rhymes with bossy :)

Jalen chose the large Mickey Mouse ears.  I cut ice cream cone shapes to paint as Santa.

we baked at 250 for two hours. and I couldn’t help but think, I wonder how much energy that’s using?

once they were cooled we brought out some acrylic paint and got busy.

Jordan painted all the elephants dark blue. again no big surprise there.

Jalen painted most of his mickey ears black.

I opted for aqua and also painted my santa.

We did not put these on our tree but instead tied them to gifts. :)

It was a messy and long project but I am glad we did it.
Thanks for stopping by!
Love Love and Blog you Later,
Joscie, rhymes with bossy! :)

Welcome Home Dad

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Mr. Darcy & Elizabeth Bennett

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• Hallow Fields – Scallop Tags  by Kenner Road
• Hallow Fields – Papers by Kenner Road
• Found Circles Brush Set  by Erica Hernandez
• Bella Bella 2-Tape it!  by Carina Gardner

also Jen Martakis is having a sale this week:

Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate your visit. Tune in next time when I’ll tell you about our pumpkin patch trip and fire prevention day.

Love Love and Blog you Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy!

We received Jalen’s Halloween costume in the mail this week. He’s going to be Green Lantern and the costume is super cute. It’s a little big, but I’m sure we can make it work. He says he’s not trick or treating, he wants to give out candy at the house. We also got Troy’s Top Hat in the mail, it’s cute too. I’ve been sewing a little at a time. I got all our pattern pieces cut out and started by sewing my dress first. I have been really precise with the patter cutting, pinning and sewing for this dress and I’m really excited to see how it fits. I was worried the top might not fit quite right and had to seam rip a few times but I think it’s on the right track now.

I bought a few black plastic pumpkins and black rats at Target last month and I am using them for Halloween decor. I took the rats and used a small sharp scissors to cut out the little red bubbles they had for eyes and stuck on some clear gradient adhesive gems. I also glittered my pumpkins with glue and black glitter. I had a little craftmergency when I used up a whole tube of doodlebug glitter on one pumpkin. Thankfully I avoided a craftastrophe by picking up a big jar of black glitter from Martha Stewart. ;)
I also created some cute hybrid decor, you can see here on the Design House Digital Blog tomorrow.

Last Sunday we took a trip down to Pearl Ridge after church for lunch at CPK and then around the mall to check out their “Can Struction” event. We rode on the sky tram, visited the photo booth.

This weekend we are picking up the disc of photos from our shoot with the ever fabulous Marina Miller, I’m so stoked! I am going to get some cardmaking done on this world cardmaking day and then back to sewing. We are looking at just over a week until Troy’s expected return home and we are super stoked about that.
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Love Love and Blog you Later,
Joscie, rhymes with bossy.

Minions,

superheroes…. but whatever the case, I always like to go with a theme. Jordan decided he wanted to be Captain America and Jalen, who insists he doesn’t want to trick or treat didn’t want to dress up, was thinking about thor because really, that hammer (however you pronounce the name) is pretty cool. I was all for it. I thought Troy could be Iron Man or Tony Stark (hello avengers) and I could be pepper or something like that…. but to my surprise Troy opted for Mr. Darcy. :) and I am going to be Elizabeth Bennett. Sadly this costume was a little out of our price range…

We visited Party City near our home and circled that ridiculous parking lot twice before opting to drive to the farther party city store out at Waikele. We easily found a costume for Jordan:

he loves it and so do i.

We searched and picked up a helmet and hammer for Thor but unfortunately the only Thor costumes they had were mens’ size XL or Plus. sadly, tooo big for Jalen. I declared, we’ll just order it online! and when we got home I was further saddened to discover that THOR costumes were just not available in Jalen’s size. so we opted for Green Lantern. oh the disgrace, he’s not an avenger. :( but I’m sure it’ll still be awesome.

We went yesterday to the fabric store so I could pick up some patterns and fabric for Mr. Darcy. I picked the patterns that were closest to what I was looking for and I’m hoping for the best out of this very ambitious project. Today I’m prewashing the linen and cottons and tonight I’m sure I’ll be ironing 8 yards of each. ha. Wish me luck!

We also picked up some products for Halloween decor projects I’ll be sharing as I finish them.

What are your Halloween plans, do you celebrate? do you dress up? I can’t wait to hear.

Thanks for stopping by!
Love Love and Blog you Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy

• we forced some paper white narcissus for the first time since we’ve been back home in the islands.
• we baked a lot of gingerbread and sugar cookies.
• we made gingerbread houses.

• made some cake pops
• made goodie bags for my mail carrier and garbage man.
• got a thank you from the garbage man when i handed it over
• got a thank you note from the mail man in the mail box. it was so sweet, it made me smile. :)
• we saw the ships all lit up for Christmas.
• went to church on Christmas eve.  Jalen was an acolyte and carried in the flame.  He also helped light the candles at the end of the service.  Jordan was excited to hold a candle.

• we went to see the city lights/parade
• we didn’t plan to meet up with MarnaLicious and Family but it just worked out that way :)

• Incrediboy made a come back.
• We went hiking one day with Aunty MarnaLicious after a late night of crafting.  I did not feel well.  Note to self: go to bed on time!
• we went out to eat. a lot.
• I designed, printed, addressed and mailed out 180 Christmas Cards.
• only one has come back for bad address, that’s a record.
• Next year, I will not be sending out as many cards.
• I designed, printed, assembled, wrapped and mailed out 33 calendars.
• Next year, I may or may not be sending out as many calendars.
• we shopped online
• i ordered books for all my nieces and nephews and personalized with bookplates
• they loved them, I’m so excited!
• We have really enjoyed our think geek/amazon Christmas shopping. It was really simplified and I will go this route again.
• Jalen’s computer broke
• we bought a new laptop for the boys
• I called the teaching textbook company for help recovering his grades/progress and resetting our registration.  what an awesome, helpful company. I highly recommend them.
• When asked what I wanted for Christmas, I emailed a link to my amazon wish list.  and I got the best gift ever.
• I got a new camera strap designed for the ladies. and i love it!  It’s by black rapid.
• Jalen learned in his math program about bits, bytes, K, Meg and Gig.
• Jordan learned in his math program how to count pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.
• I designed and screen printed some camp half-blood t shirts.
• I need to go buy more t shirts as a messy work space ruined a few.
• We got a lot of rain
• we bought new cell phones, the nexus s.  the new Google phone.
• Best Buy is not on my happy list.  They had insufficient supply so when I went in to pick them up, I could only buy one.  I had to order Troy’s via phone and it was delivered a few days later.
• I am loving my phone though.
• We saw Yogi bear for another free sneak preview at MCBH
• We saw the Chronicles of Narnia, voyage of the Dawn Treader in 3D, and loved it.
• We bought a new waffle maker from Bed Bath and Beyond. a super fancy double, flip it over kinda waffle maker. $95.
• so excited about it. made waffles like 10 since getting it.
• saw same waffle maker at sam’s club. $65. doh! but not too disappointed.
• missed out on the lunar eclipse/winter solstice due to overcast weather.
• Jordan got a new camera and a spy watch from Granny and Pop.  He took about 65 pictures on it and then dropped and broke it Christmas morning.  So glad we had bought the product replacement plan.  We replaced it with a more expensive shock proof model.
• Jalen got a robot arm and a spy cam rover from Granny and Pop.  He and Troy put both together and is loving it.
• We got Jalen snap circuits and Jordan got some elephants and elephant books.
• Both boys got a kindle to share and airzookas.  These are hand held air canons.  they are a bit unwieldy and difficult but fun when you get the hang of it
• We had steak, rice, corn and sparkling apple cider for dinner.
• We’ve got party hats, noise makers and curly cue thingies to throw in the air.
• We’ll be celebrating new year at 8pm HST.

I hope you’ve had a great 2010 and will join me in 2011, it’s going to be a great one!

Love Love and Blog you Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy! :)

We had a busy busy week last week.  Our 3 year old washing machine leaked on the floor of our laundry room.  The repairman said the main seal failed and he’d schedule a replacement washer to be delivered.  The new one was delivered and installed on Monday.  Our new bed was delivered on Wednesday.  The guys were so nice- they told me to keep the plastic on the bed and bedframe for 3 days to make sure we were suuure we liked the bed so we still had the option to exchange it.  We ended up loving it, so we took the plastic off 2 days later.  I also ordered a bunch of goodies online for Santa to deliver. slowly they are being delivered and wrapped too.  We always say we’re not going overboard but I think this year we mean it. ha ha.

In scrappy news, my 3*2*1*fire layout was featured at club creating keepsakes blog this week, yay!  For my Creative Charms projects here are the dies/punches I used:

• Tim Holtz Baroque Sizzix Movers & Shapers Dies
• Tim Holtz Paper Rosette Sizzix Sizzlits Decorative Strip Die
• Cornflower Punch
  
• Signature Greetings Papertrey Ink

• Bow, Create-A-Bow Sizzix Bigz Dies

and now for my Pea Projects…

Hybrid Christmas Card

• Christmas in Your Heart Kitby Dianne Rigdon
• Glitter letters that I’ve had in my stash since 2007!
• Glassine Envelope
• Cherry Divine Twine
• Tiny Attacher
• Machine Stitching
• Stampin’ Up! sentiment
• Onyx Black Versafine Ink Pad
• Paper Trey Ink Double Ended Banner Die

Dream

• Banner Press 1, The Bestiest [kit] by Lauren Reid

King of the Driveway

• Full Of Happiness Bundleby Edeline Marta
• Bliss Alpha by Lauren Reid
• The Bestiest [elements]by Lauren Reid

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Love Love and Blog You Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy! :)

Today I am thankful for

• waking up in our new comfy bed with my husband of almost 15 years
• our 5 year old who makes an almost daily early morning migration into our bed
• our 10 year old who is a great hugger and avid reader
• many many pies that we will consume today
• time with my family
• good health
• good friends
• central air
• blogging and blog readers
• scrapbooking
• photography
• computers

PS. I am looking for a good way to transport/store in the fridge multiple pies short of buying 144million pie boxes from a restaurant supply.  Do you have any suggestions?

I hope you are all having a great Thanksgiving!

Love Love and blog you later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy. :)

I used my silhouette to cut these leaves out of plain white cardstock.

I mixed up some paint and Jordan worked his art.

I added a little spritz of New Glimmer Mist too. so pretty!

later that evening, we had a little faux fall fun:

please do excuse the blurry photos, I just had to share them anyway ;)  I wanted to glue these leaves to a few sticks and use them for decor but you know what? we have yard service and there are like no bare branches anywhere.  but anyway, we had our fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love Love and Blog you Later,

Joscie, rhymes with bossy! :)