Big tick...

A number of blogs I stumble upon seem to be doing a challenge/blog-along/thingy about Pinterest fails- you know, those gorgeous pins that seem so, so easy, but in reality they suck proverbials, and rather than an impossibly beautiful, designer-esque outdoor living area made entirely out of recycled brick timber pellets, you end up scraping pudding off the kitchen roof for the next twelve months, and the cat has disappeared into the roof space never to be coaxed out. You get my drift.

With the ever-approaching festive season upon us, Pinterest is choc-full of gingerbread houses, gorgeous things complete with turrets, moats and drawbridges, some of these houses a family of six could easily move into and live quite comfortably. I've entertained the thought of having a crack at one of these for a while now, but have always put them in the too hard basket. An opportune chat with a school mum last week gave me the motivation to have a go. I googled some templates which involved cardboard and a hacksaw, then that afternoon I went to House and bought a kit, basically house shaped cut outs with infalliable instructions. Apparantly.

Yeah, yeah, we can all see how this is going to end. Badly, no?

Well, naysayers, all of you. You should be ashamed of your lack of faith.

The house turned out a treat. The Little Miss and I made the dough on Thursday, Saturday night I baked all the components, and Sunday The Man and I constructed four walls, a roof and a chimney whilst the cherubs separated M&Ms into their different colours. BabyG went nuts with the decorations, and when the three of them went to visit their Aunty, I triple-wrapped it in cellophane and placed it in the centre of our dining table where it is to remain, UNTOUCHED, until Christmas night, despite the Little Miss asking me three times a day if she can have some. And once I finished the clean up, I found myself alone in the house, with a big bowl of left over M&Ms, and the agreement of my little pal who used to live across the road, that if anyone asks (ie BabyG), she came over and helped me polish them off. All is well in the world: