Project: Why it is good to follow directions

With a title like that you might get the wrong opinion about this post. But I assure you I am probably going away from the obvious direction the title might take you.

It is good to follow directions. Things work when you follow them. Things go as planned as you follow them.

Which is why I am SOOOOOOooooooooooooooo thankful that my mom has let me stay at my house these past 2 weekends to do my part of this project on my very, very own. Hell freakin' yeah, people. I love her, she is my mom and I act SO MUCH LIKE her. Except in some ways that I hope are good ways. Like I DO READ AND at least try to FOLLOW ALL DIRECTIONS. And let me tell you. It works. My mom merely takes them as suggestions. And once she reads them she kinda just forgets that possibly whoever wrote them knew what they were talking about. Now maybe I am bragging a little early here... and I hate to jinx it, but so far so good on this project. And that is a wonderfully nice thing.

I finished the model and cut all the pieces apart this week. Then Friday made more gingerbread and cut out and baked all the pieces. I would like to credit some of the very good tools I used this time: A pizza cutter, a fang shaped knife I have, a Pyrex rolling pin and parchment paper. First, if I would have had the pizza cutter the first time I did this, things would have gone MUCH better. And second, parchment paper is the bomb and worth every.single.penny.

I also read online (See DIRECTIONS that might possibly be helpful to follow) that it is helpful to dry your pieces in the oven at 200 degrees over night. This worked great for a few pieces that came out softer than I wanted. However, when you do this, make sure that all your pieces are on a flat surface. I didn't have enough space in the oven so I stacked pieces on top of each other. So for most of them it was fine, but for some that were in between or on top of smaller pieces, they ended up unlevel and misshapen by the morning. So I had to redo those this morning.

Then I took a break and we went to lunch at Chili's. Gave the MIL our truck so she can finally get her wrecked car fixed this week. WOOHOO, I will be glad to no longer think about that. At least hopefully, it will all be done after this week. She has already gotten 6 warning tickets for driving like that AND anyone who wants to ride with her has to ride in the back seat. If you know her, you know this doesn't bother her in the least. Which, LOL!

So back to work... I made royal icing with meringue powder for the glue to hold all the pieces together. This is where, OMG, following the directions is amazing. A-maze-ing. It turned out perfect. Like cement! It is going to be so much easier just because of THAT. Last time I guess we tried to make our own royal icing with egg whites? Because we didn't have meringue powder or ran out or didn't want to run to town? I don't know. All I know is what we did do, IT DID NOT WORK FOR THIS PURPOSE. Maybe for flowers or something, but not this. I remember having it dripping everywhere and having to hold pieces together for 15-30 minutes to get it all to stick. This time, none of that. YYYYYAYYYYYYYY! I think there are 2 other factors here, the weather is not humid and I have an awesome mixer that made it peak like it is supposed to. I am going to have to get mom one of those.... I really think it might be an important factor.

Supplies:

I forgot to mention these supplies ;-)

The house I am trying to model. Yes is it very old... run down and dirty. I am trying to paint it in a different light. But, this is where my grandfather has lived his whole entire 90 years. So pretty cool if you ask me. If I had money, I would repair this house so it could make another 90 years.

Building.....

Done with the structural part. Sunday I will tackle the real decorating. I wish myself good luck!