Hobby Thread - January 4, 2025 [TRex]

Welcome hobbyists! Pull up a chair and sit a spell with the Horde in this little corner of the interweb. This is the mighty, mighty officially sanctioned Ace of Spades Hobby Thread.

We gave the Ace of Spades Wheel of Hobbies(TM) a spin and it reminded us that we previewed a gingerbread theme last week. Maybe we need to feed the wheel more often...

For this hobby thread, we speak of gingerbread. It both edible and a flexible building block. We will let the Food Thread take the lead on matters of recipes and taste. The Hobby Thread will focus on making things with gingerbread. Houses are the most frequent subject but we shall not be limited to houses. Anything you build out of gingerbread is in scope.

Do you have holiday gingerbread traditions? What do you build? What past builds are you proud of? Do you have memories of decorating gingerbread houses as a child? Do you build anything other than houses? Do you have epic success or failure stories? Do you have secrets of clever uses of food ingredients? Did you make ornaments out of macaroni? Think of the pastabilities!

What are you hobbying these days? As per usual Hobby Thread etiquette, keep this thread limited to hobbying. Your participation does not need to limited to the theme. All hobbying is welcome. However, politics, current events and religious debates can live in threads elsewhere. Even though it is arguably religion, college football is fair game. Play nice. Do not be a troll and do not feed the trolls.

Gingerbread history and trivia:

Did the story of Hansel and Gretel inspire gingerbread houses or did gingerbread houses inspire the fable? Which came first? Gingerbread houses likely existed before the story but the story made them more popular. They were not originally associated with Christmas. In the 1600s, only professional baker were allowed to make gingerbread except for Christmas and Easter which is why gingerbread became associated with special occasions.

Some English villages had a tradition of young women eating gingerbread men to improve their marriage prospects. Towns having fairs on the day of their patron saint would produce gingerbread cookies would have the saints image stamped into the cookie.

Five different ways to make windows for gingerbread houses:

99 submissions from readers and viewers of This Old House. As you might imagine, they are detailed, extensive, over the top, and totally unreasonable for most humans. Many hours, much material, and many use tools like Dremel cutters in their builds. Click to see them all.

Click on the link for full instructions: This Mid Century Modern Gingerbread House Is the Winter Baking Project We All Need Now

Making trees from stackable sugar cones:

Family Piper made several gingerbread houses over the holidays:

Well done and thank you!

Lurker and occasional commenter HappyFun sent a batch of photos from their recent family gingerbread house building party. Not enough space here for all the creations, but here are a few.

Excellent gumdrop usage:

Chex mix and donuts along with artful landscaping:

Award for the use of gingerbread to create a Cybertruck instead of a house:

Well done!

This site has several creative gingerbread house ideas. The barn and church are my favorite but click for more:

The gingberbread Miller High Life Dive Bar was an actual thing in 2021. It cost $50.

It includes a gingerbread bar; barstools made from peppermint sticks, with starlight mint seats; an edible jukebox; and a frosted gingerbread pool table, with tiny candy billiard balls and cues made from pretzel sticks.

The kit also comes with a mustachioed bartender and gingerbread “regulars” that, according to the beer maker, have been “infused with Miller High Life,” which is probably what plenty of people will be while they’re building this thing.

And it has seriously thought of everything — including the sticky floors.

The kits come with Vermont maple syrup for you to pour over the bar’s floor when you’re done building it, for that finishing tacky-floor touch.

Yes, the interweb has other less family friendly gingerbread projects. The Miller High Life Drive Bar is as close the Hobby Thread content is going to get to more "creative" gingerbread hobbying.

Not gingerbread, but squarely in the realm of the Hobby Thread: A 4,500 piece Hot Wheels collection is up for sale. It was assembled by a single person over 30 years. Sadly, most are in the original packaging which means they were acquired for the collection rather than played with as God intended. The online auction ends January 8. No reserve.

This also has nothing to do with gingerbread but this is an enormous piece of wood being turned on a lathe. The first few passes look like quite a rodeo ride.

Did you miss the Hobby Thread last week with a theme of hobbying in review and looking ahead? The comments may be closed, but you can re-live the content.

Notable comments from last week:

Words of wisdom:

"Because despite all our troubles, when things are grim out in that wide round world of ours, that's when it's really important to have a good hobby." Posted by: tankascribe at June 22, 2024 07:41 PM (HWxAD).

If you have trouble finding something in the content or comments that resonates with you, hijack the thread for your hobbying as you see fit. We will feature a different theme next time. Send thoughts, suggestions and photos of your hobbying to moronhobbies at protonmail dot com. I told my gingerbread man a joke and he crumbled with laughter!

posted by Open Blogger at 05:30 PM

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