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There is a LOT of pressure in our society to live the perfect life.  A serious “Keeping up with the Jones’s” obsession, as they call it. I do not claim to be a super mom crafting professional, but rather, just an artist giving it my best or sometimes just my experimental attempt at projects!

Years ago when we were living in our small 1950’s basement apartment we made gingerbread houses… tried to… from scratch.  It was an experiment to say the least.  As artists it is important not to kick yourself every time you got something wrong but rather, learn from whatever you did wrong, figure out how you will change it the next time and move on!

That is why I have kept this picture of my fairly pathetic attempt of a gingerbread house.  At least we had a good time laughing about how bad it was. As we started to ice the gingerbread house is would droop more and more. Classic Pinterest Failure (and Pinterest wasn’t even around yet!)

2008

These pictures (below) are from our visit to the Festival of Trees in Sandy, UT.  It is a benefit for a local children’s hospital.  This is what true professional gingerbread building skill looks like.festival of trees_1

I love the cozy log cabin look.  What better combination for the frosted icing snow.festival of trees_2festival of trees_3

An adorable street of the Minions house from Despicable Mefestival of trees_5

The log cabin look (below) was made with stick pretzels and I loved the colorful candy cane sticks use for the porch poles. Blueberry and blue raspberry are my favorite!festival of trees_6

Chex cereal was used for this gingerbread house roof.  I also like the dollops of melting snow piles made from icing.  Has a more realistic flair.

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An out of the box Hawaiian styled gingerbread house.festival of trees_8

Flat sticks of gum for the gingerbread roof was a cute idea.  And the rock candy chimney. Yogurt dipped pretzels for an ornate styled fence.festival of trees_11

Giving a thumbs up on the job well done to my cousin in law Sarah! Gingerbread house building is a strong holiday tradition with their house.festival of trees_12

And last but not least, a gingerbread tree house!  So fun.  I love the artistry of this one.

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Photography by: http://effervescentmediaworks.com

Why I love the art of gingerbread house making: When I was a child, my neighbor across the street invited me over to make a gingerbread house.  I looked forward to it all week. When that Saturday came, I was invited in and saw the crazy effort it can take to create gingerbread houses from scratch.  She had spent the entire day preparing the many walls and roofs and chimney parts for us to assemble and put together.  I remember feeling very special that she would take the time to prepare this activity for me to be a part of.  The holiday craft is one that is socially fun and a wonderful tradition as families gather around the table decorating their individual or group gingerbread house, sharing the bowls of candy and snitching a few tastes along the way.  And they are a fun little treat to last throughout the season as my cousin in law and his wife know as my 1 and 3-year-old kept sneaking snitches off their gingerbread houses:)

Have you had Pinterest failures? AKA craft attempts that turned out less than impressive!  Please share them in a comment below!  On the other hand, have you created a Gingerbread house that you are proud of? Share your results!

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