Gingerbread House

I met some friends today and decorated a small gingerbread house, something completely new for me. The lady who brought the houses & stuff to decorate them with is very experienced at it, and has won awards and had her houses featured in magazines, so it was really quite a treat to have her helping us out.

Things I learned while decorating:

1. I do not have a very steady hand while using the icing bag.
2. Royal icing dries really quickly.
3. So make sure you've got things where you want them before using the icing to place them.
4. Royal icing also kind of smells gross to me.
   
5. Like meringue.
   
6. Perhaps because it's basically like meringue with lots of powdered sugar.
7. Gumdrops are fun to use for decorating.
8. They make neat trees.
9. As long as "neat" means fun/cool/interesting, and not literally neat.
   
10. Because my trees weren't literally neat.
    
11. They were kind of leaning.
12. Perhaps even deformed looking.
    
13. I'm not the best decorator.
14. But I still had fun.

If I can track down my camera & camera cord, I'll post a picture of my house.