Victorian Splendor - Part 2

Let me begin by saying, it's a miracle that I am still even working on this project!  My mind didnt' really have time to rest to really think this thing through before I was "thrown in the fire" so to speak, my "adopted daughter" is due to give birth at any moment, and I've taken on the Grandparent role for her other 2 children since her Mom doesn't live here and well, my thyroid meds are off again and I'm just tired.  Add to those things I seem to be at that menopausal witch time of my life and all things added together are not a great beginning to my 2nd only gingerbread house.  LOL  I'm trying to go with the flow though.  All those years of praying for patience with my youngest son have suddenly come in handy.  LOL

So, we've had a couple close calls on Vanessa giving birth so I've neglected to get started on anything that might take time, because I don't like leaving a huge mess in the kitchen.....it's the OCD.....so anyway....I decided, given that I had 2 vacation days left at work I needed to use before next month anyway, and the fact that I've been on edge, maybe it was wise to go ahead and take those 2 days.....so here I am.  This week, I found the gingerbread pieces that I made last Sunday, apparently didn't bake long enough and they were being very pliable and bending....so Tuesday evening was spent re-baking all the pieces.  Last night was spent getting together a pattern for the dog house, the teeter totter ( these will be out in the "yard") and fence pieces and last but not least, re-sizing the round room pattern.  Today I got up early and started rolling out more gingerbread dough......now at this point, I have rolled out 2 rooms from Sunday, of which the 2nd completely flattened out and didn't make it.  So, I started early this morning, 7:30am....thinking I'd get a early start so maybe I could actually take a break and read this afternoon.  I love to read.  Anyway....let's just say.....I almost threw EVERYTHING in the trash and sent out a email that said, I'M DONE!!! NO MORE......oh wait I did send that particular note out to my friend Rich, the designer.....yeah, I wasn't in a good place this morning......I sent that note to him after round room #7 crashed and ended up a pile of dough on the bottom of my oven......I can't even begin to explain how that happened....but it did!  So after sending the email.....that was short and sweet, it literally said I'M DONE!, LOL, I sat down and contemplated giving up.......my mother always would tell my sibling and myself, you have 5 minutes to cry, but then get over it.  I didn't cry, I was too mad.......but I gave myself 5 minutes and re-thought the whole round room process and then it occurred to me I was going about it all wrong!

I had been trying to bake the round room on a can to get that curved effect.......but what occurred to me as I sat there ticked off is that, when the piece is coming out of the oven, it's still very pliable.....what if I baked it flat and while it was still warm, draped it over the can as it cooled to get the rounded effect?????  So, I got back up and started rolling out more dough.......guess what, it worked!  WOOOOO HOOOOO!!!!  Now, it did have some, what I refer to as "stress fractures", but the fact that I plan on treating that wall with a stone look anyway, I felt it was okay.  Here are the finished pictures:

So once that was done and the fence pieces, the teeter totter and dog house pieces were done, I cleaned up the mess.....and then made royal icing, as I'm going to need it to "glue" my house together and I'll also be using it to decorate with.  I went ahead and colored some of it brown, since that wall is going to have
"brown stone" on it anyway.  I thought if I painted the wall it would help re-enforce the piece and make it stronger.  When royal icing is dry it's very hard, so I am hoping my theory works......at this point, all I can do is wait and see.  Here is a couple pictures of the piece now "painted".

That's it for now......I'm feeling better than I was at 10:30 this morning.  I no longer have the urge to dump everything in the trash and forget this even happened.  LOL  I have decided I am crazy for attempting this.....I have no formal culinary training, just a passion of all things baked and decorated......I'm hoping that passion is strong enough to get me through the next 20 days without killing a certain designer I know. LOL

Until next time....the saga continues..........