Sunday, December 21, 2008

Part of why I haven't posted lately...

I've been working on this!



This was the entry in the Gingerbread House competition for the Midwinter event in the Barony of al-Barran, Outlands. It was a group effort by the local bros and watchees: Rhianwen, Ealasaid, Morgan, Tiou, Rurik and myself, with additional help from Brian (Tiou's bf), Trey/Tenkai (Rurik's buddy) and Tanley (friend of mine w/gingerbread experience). It took 4 days of work, with final assembly done on site. Omar did the label placards, "Peaceful Pastoral Nomads".
We have the yurt on a cardboard cart, with oxen, brothers, and even a leashed Scot (complete with kilt). The decorations are done in icing, licorice, peppermint sticks, and pretzels, and if I can get a good close-up picture, there are even tiny date bits for "ox plops" that are being collected behind the cart. Other than the cart and the ground board, the rest is edible and even tasty!
I was honestly hoping for more competition. There were two really cute entries in the children's division, and a very nice gothic castle with gummy fish in the moat for the other adult entry. We gave the castle a Mongol guard after the judging, with the owner's permission, to guard the fish in the moat.
I think we came in second for the table-setting competition, but the winners did a complete traditional Japanese setup, and even brought their own tables! Very nicely done, indeed. The codpiece competition was a bit of a bust, unfortunately, for lack of entries. The spiffy garb was nice to see, and I forget the fellow who won it, but he looked sharp.
More pics to come eventually, but I'll probably put them in the flickr and just post a link.
Besides, it was worth waiting till this was done to make it my 100th post in this blog!