gluten-free, sugar-free, salt dough gingerbread house, part 2

Painting the "candy" decorations.

Beginning to put the decorations on the house.

Note: The glue wont hold long over painted surfaces—so don't paint where you plan to glue!

We are particularly fond of how the roof came out.

The finished gluten-free, sugar-free, salt dough gingerbread house.

The "frosting" or snow is a mixture of white craft paint and corn starch.

For Part 1 of the gluten-free, sugar-free, salt dough gingerbread house, click here.

For the link to the gluten-free salt dough recipe, click here.

Nisser & gluten-free salt dough Gingerbread House

If you look at my posts/photos from this time last year, or if you have been following along since then, you know that I am half Danish, and we like to incorporate Scandinavian traditions. A big part of Scandinavian Christmas traditions are handmade/homemade decorations. So, when we started making gluten-free salt dough a while back, I thought it would be perfect for Christmas ornaments.

These first 2 pictures are of Nisser that we made. We used a template that Andy drew. I cut the dough around the template with a butter knife. After they were baked and cool, Andy and the girls painted them and I hung them with ribbon on our tree.

Then I thought, rather than make gluten-free gingerbread for a gingerbread house, why not use the salt dough? So, last week I made some dough and added a tablespoon of cinnamon to give it a gingerbread color. Using another template that I made, we cut the dough for the house and baked it. Today we hot glued the framework of the house together, on a scrap piece of board.

I didn't want to make the pediment with the dough, so I made a template by folding paper, until it fit. Then Zoe traced and cut the pieces out of cardboard, and we hot glued them in place.

After the structure was complete, we made more dough. We used the lid of a spice jar as a cookie cutter for circles, which we will paint to look like candy for decorating our gingerbread house. We also used a little bear shaped cookie cutter and a little heart cookie cutter. Tomorrow we're going to paint them and attach them to the house like candy.

"Why not use candy?" you may ask. Well, as you know, we don't tolerate refined sugar very well, and I'd rather not have it around anyway, so we are going unconventional here =] I'm also thinking of adding ribbon and fabric —so this is not a typical gingerbread house. But we are having tons of fun with it, and that's the whole point anyway, right? Also, I want to put a light inside and reuse it every year for Christmas.

Part two of our project —still to come =]

Click for the gluten-free salt dough recipe we use.

Arizona Sonora Desert Museum, our last day here.

This has been such an educational trip for us all. In Santa Fe we visited the Folk Art Museum. The 7 hour drive to Santa Fe was worth it, just for that museum. I was like a kid in a candy store in there. Of course, there was much more than just the Folk Art Museum to love about Santa Fe, but wow. I can't wait to go to that museum again.

In Tucson we went to the Botanical Gardens, and today, the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum. Both were sensational. The Desert Museum (for short) was also home to all kinds of native animals: mountain lion, Mexican wolves, owls, gila monster, rattle snakes, humming birds and more. I can't wait to return to Tucson again as well.

Click to see a photo larger.

Hanging out, and taking it easy

in Tucson

Visiting Tucson

Click to see the photo larger.

The view from our hotel in Tucson.

At the University of Arizona, where I attended one semester in college.

University Blvd. It was crazy seeing it and the school again, 11 years later.

The rest are of the Botanical Gardens, where the girls and I spent most of the day, while Andy attended the PubWest conference.

Zoe's dance class performance =)

Zoe is on the far left, grey hoodie, light pick cap.

Also, you may notice, she was the youngest in her class.

Proud mama =)

first snow of the season

We had snow today, and it wasn't even coat weather a few days ago -that's the Front Range for you. Totally erratic, totally unpredictable. Our first winter here, it snowed every 4 days. Then last winter it snowed maybe 3 times total where we live, and it was really warm. We're hoping this winter will be like our first :-)

I'm so excited I found Ashley these matching snow pants (with bib) and coat on Ebay, used, for 25 dollars. They're in great shape, and might even fit again next year. Zoe is still wearing a hand-me-down snow pants, and not too happy about it, but she got to get new snow boots, because she outgrew her last pair. I found her coat on clearance years ago, and it was pretty big at first, but she's grown into it. If it still fits again next year, that will be 4 years she's used it!

They spent the day outside for the most part, with our neighbor, Abi, who is 9. Only when they got hungry did they come inside. Abi was a big fan of my chicken meatloaf, a real boost to my confidence, since neither of mine like meatloaf. We also had salad with GF toast, cut finely like croutons, salami, goat cheese, hemp seeds and I made some honey mustard vinaigrette. The salad was a hit all around. ...Why am I blogging about food here, and not on The Spunky Coconut? LOL