This was not the winning gingerbread house in the workplace competition, although this is clearly "a winner" due to the number of lighted and fast-burning birthday candles stuck into the roof and grounds of this candy house and due to the speed with which our team whipped this together in about 30 minutes. The icing glue stuff wouldn't stick very well so the roof pieces kept sliding off so I used (unlit) cake candles as prostheses to hold the roof up. And, knowing no other team used candles, I stuck about 8 candles on it and lit them up so that there was an extraordinary effect. My team -- of the three teams that participated in this "holiday party" activity -- squeezed in the making of this gingerbread house in between teleconferences and other end-of-year tasks we had to execute so it's surprising we got so far. In fact we were so busy with our regular tasks, the team leader didn't get to even stick on one candy! But, between the green jelly sweets, the raspberry chewy candies and other bits and pieces of sugary doodads, it at least looked somewhat like a gingerbread house when we'd finished. The other teams started DAYS before and spent HOURS working on theirs in comparison. I'm not showing their final products as ours takes the cake, in my humble opinion! I should mention that during the "holiday party" itself I smelt plastic and sugar burning and quickly came out into the office lobby -- where all three team's gingerbread houses were displayed -- and discovered that the birthday candles were burning down and starting to light up their plastic holders and the gingerbread house itself! SO, before there was a need to call the fire department, I quickly blew out all the candles, but only AFTER photographing it for posterity's sake with the miracle of my cell phone. Thank God for silliness, cell phones and sweets!
Inspired yet again by all the arty crafty things I see on Pinterest, I decided to do something with the shapely almond milk plastic bottles I seem to accumulate. So I stripped off the plastic labels from three Califia almond milk bottles and took them outside to paint them with some silver spray paint I'd recently acquired for $2 at a going-out-of-business sale at a nearby hardware store (Brookland True Value) and that was leftover from another project (spray painting used light bulbs as Christmas ornaments). Over a couple of days I did about two coats of this nice shiny silver spray paint on the bottles. I then inserted some plastic candle holders I'd kept from a floral centerpiece that someone had once given me (yes, you can find a use for all those bits and pieces you are hoarding!) and after also spraying them silver, put some bright orange candles in them. The candles I got at T.J. Maxx on sale, ten for $4! I also weighted the bottles with some stones on their insides so there'd be no tipping over! Two of the candlesticks I put next to my fall floral display in the dining room and the other one got a bit more gussied up with a green ribbon and silver paint sprayed fake flower for a kitchen shelf. I'm quite happy with these ornaments and know I can change out the colors, candles and embellishments once Christmas, Easter, St. Valentine's Day, or a birthday comes along. Who'd have thought painting ole plastic bottles and keeping them out of the dump could be so fun?
