Gingerbread House 2011 done! Now the waiting begins....

 Can you see the stash of candy in the background? I had to really be creative this year as the candies I used 12 years ago, the last time I created a house, are not available anymore. Luckily, Red Vines are still easy to be found, which I used for the bricks, as well as sugar wafer cookies, although these were doubledecker, which I didn't notice until I got them home. Eeek! They kept trying to separate in layers and were a bit bulky. I tell you this in case you want to create a gingerbread house using some of the elements I have.

 Lifesavers were used to make the stained glass windows, although I would really try to find some yellow candies to crush with the lifesavers as I couldn't find the rolls and in the bagged ones don't have the yellow lifesavers anymore. I put a tealight through the back door to illuminate the windows so you could see them better. Note to self, if wanting to use tealights, make the door big enough for them to go through all the way. :-)

 Spearmint gum drop leaves were harder to find this year, it took me trying at 3 stores before I found them, but I also found some very cool Kukaburra licorice that is similar to millifiore flowers, and were easy to slice. Yay! I wanted to get some pastel mint parielles, but the only store that carried them wanted $8 for them, no way was I going to pay that! Note to friends, they would make a nice Christmas present....I'm just saying.....the Smooth and Melty mints are the best!

 This was the first year I used Necco wafers for the roof, and I like the way they worked out. I used chocolate non-parielles and silver draggies as embellishments which my mother-in-law says looks like diamonds.

 

All parts of the house and grounds are edible, which to me is the best part of a true gingerbread house. Now the waiting begins, we shall see who the winner is. I did have one woman pass me as she and her son were leaving the store and she gasped as she saw the house and said, " Oh, your house is so beautiful! It's the prettiest one here that I've seen!" So, if nothing else, I know that at least two people were delighted at what they saw, and that's the reason to created these. To delight the adults and evoke memories of childhood past, and to delight children and conjure dreams of sugar plums....