DIY Holiday Contest: Gingerbread house from scratch

Reader Kendall scoffed at the gingerbread house templates he saw at the his neighborhood box store this year, opting instead to build his gingerbread house entirely from scratch. The results, and instructions from Kendall, after the jump.

Kendall writes:

I have always wanted to make a gingerbread house, but every holiday something comes up, like finals, having a baby, going out of town... This year I wanted to make it so.

Here´s how he did it:

1. Create a template. I made mine out of paper first, realized gingerbread dough sticks to paper, and used parchment paper instead (available at any decent grocery store). Because this was the first house I made, I was conservative in the design, next time I´m going for St. Peter´s Basilica.

For more pics of Kendall´s gingerbread house and the rest of his step-by-step, click here (click through gallery in reverse order... sorry).

Got your own savvy DIY holiday project? Want to win your own copy of Lifehacker the book and other great prizes? Check out the DIY Holiday Contest rules for details. — Adam Pash

ContestCookingDIYHolidaysHousehold [SHOW]

School Teaching Kids How To Use Fountain Pens; Do They Teach Math With An Abacus Too?
Now I´m as big a fan of the fountain pen as the next guy, but I´m not exactly convinced that it´s vital to teach our school kids how to use one. However, it appears not everyone agrees. Following just a few months after the hand-wringing from some adults that the kids of today are doomed for being better at using computers than being able to write cursive, comes the news of a private school in Scotland that has decided that teaching kids how to write with fountain pens is of utmost importance. Apparently, fountain pens (not other types of pens) boost the kids´ self-esteem and improve their academic performance. It´s not at all clear how they go about proving this, other than a couple of random anecdotes, but the school is absolutely positive that fountain pens are the key to a child´s success. Not to knock the importance of decent handwriting, but if the purpose of school is to prepare kids for the world they´re going to enter as adults, I would think that how to use a fountain pen would be pretty far down the list of marketable skills. Then again, this other article points out how business schools feel they need to teach students to be better writers, as they tend to send stuff out without proofreading (or thinking) when they type it up on a computer. [SHOW]