TINY HOUSES...

Are you a fan of the craze 

that has been sweeping the country 

for awhile now? 

 I'm asking about tiny houses.

I admit that I sometimes watch

 the show on HGTV.

 I do like to see 

how the rooms are laid out and 

how they are decorated 

but to live, for any length of time, 

in one would drive me crazy. 

I'm not talking small houses. 

 I know that the time will come 

when we will be looking at those,

 but small houses and tiny houses 

are entirely two very 

different things.

Now,

 I do like little.

  You may have noticed 

that I use that word a lot

 in describing some things. 

 I associate it with the four "C's":

  cuteness, comfort, coziness and cottage.

When we celebrated 

our first Christmas in the Cottage, 

I bought a little Christmas village.

  I used it for a few years,

 having lots of fun making 

snow drifts and arranging bottle brush trees

 around the houses.

  After awhile 

some things were misplaced or broken 

and I sold the remaining pieces

 in a garage sale. 

 I knew it was time

 to make someone else 

happy.

I have always wanted 

a gingerbread house. 

 Not a big fancy one,

 embellished with candy canes and gum drops,

 but a little one

 that looked like a 

Swiss chalet...

...however, 

since I have never had the desire 

to make one myself, 

I thought this cake pan 

would fill my needs...

...and, it did make 

a cute cake that tasted wonderful...

but when it came to decorating it

 with the required icing, 

it was a disaster! 

 I finally finished it

 with a dusting of powdered sugar

 and FYI: 

 to keep the sugar from disappearing 

into the cake, 

add a small amount of

 cornstarch 

to the sugar.

So,

 this year, 

I bought this sweet little cardboard cottage,

 two different shades of brown paint 

and a white paint pen.

I put the finished project 

under glass 

and that fulfilled my wish 

for a gingerbread house 

until I remembered

 one little house that was left over 

from the original Christmas village

 and I thought, 

why not!

I forgot to take a picture before

 I started painting it,

 but you can still see 

the ugly green paint

 that was on it...

...and after a couple of coats of paint,

 some snow and some glitter, and

  even though the transformation 

didn't come in time

 for Christmas...

...the newest little gingerbread cottage 

is done in time for 

the snowmen of

 January.

When Tami and Tim spend Christmas 

with his parents 

they do a basket exchange.

  Tami bought this little music box 

to add to her basket.  

While she was getting things together,

 she realized it didn't work

 so she asked me if I wanted it. 

 What? Are you kidding? 

 I'm not proud

 and it makes the sweetest addition

 to my type of

 tiny houses.

...Judy...

Happy January

 everyone 

and stay 

cozy and warm.

I'm joining a new party today:

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