Millennium Falcon continued...

STEP 6:
It was obvious that if I wanted to bang this thing out, I would have to throw Blade Runner on and get to work. I found my Director's Cut and went to town, starting with a new batch of icing. I recommend against lime flavouring-very bad. I had to do a lot of sawing and filing to get the cockpit to fit onto the body and even still, it wasn't a perfect match. I was able to cheat it out with gobs of icing, a slab of gingerbread and a few candies.

STEP 7:
I stuck everything together and went to work. As in my career where I am expected to sit for 8 hours, which was the perfect amount of time to allow it to cure nicely. I actually believe that this ship is so well constructed that you could play with it if you wanted to.

STEP 8:
The decorations. I had initially hoped to do a Hoth-themed background but I ran out of time to get all the right candies so I grabbed what I could from the Freak Lunchbox and got busy. Again, not ideal but whatever.

Some tips:

1) no ridged plates

2) huge, no-sided cookie sheets to prevent wrinkling and warping

3) big gingerbread batch

4) no lime icing, or icening as one of my lil budz likes to say

5) given the size, extend the baking time so that the gingerbread is good and firm

6) somehow get the lip off the tomato paste can

7) thinner exhaust

8) royal icening is KING

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Millennium Falcon Gingerbread House

Turns out Michael-who I love-has turned his son onto Star Wars. Given the new movie coming out and shit, I thought it was only right to make up his gingerbread house as the Millennium Falcon. I'm not a pro baker or anything so this was strictly trial and error and also with improvised tools and molds.
STEP 1:
Make the gingerbread, roll it out and cut out some shapes. For this, I was watching Terminator Salvation while tracing with a dinner plate and some rough stencils that I made.

STEP 2:
I draped these guys over a smaller plate to add contour to the hull. If I ever decide to do this again, I will find something without a ridge because you can see how it poked through the gingerbread and kind of sagged.

STEP 3:
Patch that shit! I didn't want to make another batch of gingerbread and didn't have enough to make another hull so used my bombproof royal icing to fix it. This will be the bottom piece to hide my shame.

STEP 4:
Build the exhaust and the rest of the sides. If I was redoing this ever again I would make the blue part thinner. I lit it up with a bicycle light from MEC that fits nicely in the nose of the ship.

STEP 5:
Build the cockpit. Man, I am surprised this worked. I wrapped a tomato paste can in tinfoil then rolled up the gingerbread around it and baked it. Once I got it off I can see that it is way out of proportion but whatever forever. I winged it with the glass part and am pretty proud of it now that you mention it.

STEP 6:
TO BE CONTINUED...

Like so many of my beloved plants, it seems I have ignored this blog for a very long time and I am surprised that it is actually still available. Enough about that...

For those 16 of you who read my last post, things have changed quite a bit. I now reside in temperate Nova Scotia where options for green friends are more plentiful. I am eagerly waiting to see if my Japanese Maple survived this horrible winter. I am sure my lilies, hostas and who know what else will survive but those darned echinacea always seem to have probs.

Planning to start seeds earlier this year. Like maybe this weekend. I planted in July last year which meant I earned one tomato for my efforts. It was a pretty good one though, I must admit.

Spring Is In The Air

I went to Sunnyside yesterday. Grabbed a big bag of potting soil and promptly ripped the top right off. They charge for carts so I thought I would do it old school style and that's what I get. I picked out some nasturtium seeds and a bag of compost. I think nasturtium is really going to be in this year and I plan to stay ahead of the trends.

I took out the old pitchfork and aerated the front lawn, as per the advice I heard on the CBC on Friday. I guess I could have rented a power aerator but doing it with a pitchfork is about a thousand times cooler. I am kind of against power garden tools, especially in the city. I mean, get off your ass and do it by hand for God's sake; it's not that hard. A farm or greenhouse is another story.

Anyways, I raked about a hundred and fifty cigarette butts out of the front lawn after I gave it the once over with the pitchfork. And it really hurt my feelings to find pieces of American Robin under the spruce tree. It won't be pretty if I catch the cat that is doing this.

In the flower bed I can see a million tulips, irises on the south side of the steps, and god knows what else coming up. Of course, those buggering broad leafed weeds are coming up as well as dandelions. The flox looks dead as can be but I know it will come back. I top dressed parts of the flower bed, especially the south side because it is so sandy there. When I turned it two years ago it was as if someone dumped a sandbag in there with some red bricks but I think it is starting to come around. I planted a ton of nasturtium in planters that I will start indoors and gave everyone a good watering before the mosquitoes got too bad.

A Few Bucks To Spend

So I got the thumbs up to blow a little cash on some annuals and perennials so I went to Sunnyside last night a got a few things. I picked up some daisies, cosmos (which I love), petunias, and a few other odds and ends. I wasn't aware that peonies grew here so I got one of those.

I put together a few planter boxes and they look pretty awful. They might shape up later this summer because I am hoping the nasturtium fill in a little bit. They are so spindly though that it is impossible to say whether they will even survive the next couple of days outdoors.

Greenness

I spent my first bit of time in the flowerbed today. I observed that my tulips are about a week behind everyone else's, which suits me because that means that they should last a week longer right? There are a few lilies starting to poke through, and that's all I can recognize. Lilies and tulips. I know there are other green things in the flowerbed but can't tell whether or not they are weeds.

The creeping flox has brightened up considerably in the past week, which is encouraging. Also, a bunch of annuals from last year are growing again but I have no idea what the hell they are. Now that I think about it, I did notice a few pansies that I planted on the other side of the flowerbed are starting to come up. Overall, this is marvelous news.

I started some seeds indoors about a month ago. I hate seeds. They always seem so spindly and never seem to grow properly. I am happy to see that the nasturtium is growing relatively well but who knows if it will survive outside. Three out of about a hundred pansy seeds have lasted longer than a couple of weeks which is no good. Always a better bet to spent the extra dollar or two and get them from the greenhouse.

One thing that is growing in the flowerbed is garbage including my very favourite, the cigarette butt. I would like to know what goes through a person's head when they throw a cigarette butt on the ground and especially into a flowerbed. I would just like to understand.

February Stars

Winter is wearing on, and I've lost my banyan. I mostly killed it, actually. It was a birthday gift and came to me bearing flies which I could never quite get rid of. After sporadic periods of growth I finally just put it outside in the -20 degree weather. One hibiscus is also slowly dying but it just won't give up.

I lost my cyclamen but I bet it will come back. It did this before and sat dormant for quite awhile before coming back. My shamrock is also on the mend after being deprived of sunlight for far too long. All in all, my indoor plant collection is looking poor.

I think my project for the spring will be lots and lots of nasturtium. They really look pleasing and also delicious.