The Cake Topper to End All Cake Toppers
For those of you who don’t know her, this is my sis, Beans. She is my one and only sibling, and she is just as odd and crafty as I am, so we get along great. She got married late last year, but still wanted to have a reception to celebrate. This whole week of posts is dedicated to Beans. Congratulations, Beanie Wienie, and I hope you enjoyed all your crafts. I may take a break for making you things for awhile.
Beans wanted a unique and beautiful cake topper for her wedding cake. She searched around on Etsy, but couldn’t find anything she liked that was also in her price range. Clever Chick to the rescue! (Again!). She came over one weekend, and together we crafted it out of clay to be fired in my kiln.
We started out with a simple base and archway. We used a tupperware lid as the template for the base, to make sure it was actually round. The big piece in the center, which we not-cleverly-but-amusingly titled the “Poop”, is just there to hold the arch in place while we worked on it, and during the drying process.
I then textured the archway to look like wood. I even added little twig stumps, and hid hearts and their initials in the texture.
Beans created the pair of birds sitting on what would eventually be their swing. Beans loves birds, and has tons of bird figurines in her house and garden. She set them up so they were nuzzling each other. She also punched holes in all four corners for later.
Here is the plaque that will go at the top of the arch. Both of their first names start with A. You can see that the birds came out super adorable. The cake itself was the same blue color as the glaze we used. The spool of thread is from an antique store, and that’s what I used to hang the swing.
I used paint on the archway. I mixed the color I wanted, painted it into the texture, then rubbed it off with a wet sponge. That’s what this photo is showing, plus a “B” for Beans!
Here’s the fully assembled product:
And here it is in place atop the beautiful and delicious cake made by Brandy the Stewrat who features in many of my posts.
And, oh yeah, it tasted as good as it looks. Now my sis has a keepsake she can display all the time with her other bird collections. I attached the plaque and held the swing in place with some silicone glue, and the grass texture on the bottom is just paint textured with a brush. Everyone loved the cake, and it’s incredibly special. Look forward to more wedding and reception madness as the week continues!
My Birthday
As I am writing this, it is my birthday. I’m publishing it a few days from now, so none of you bastards can STEAL MY IDENTITY!!!! Haha, jk, it’s because there are already posts lined up, and I’m too lazy to reorder everything. The reason I’m typing right now instead of out eating fancy food, and getting foot rubs from Hubby, is that he is fantastically sick. For those of you who follow me on twitter, you know that my main goal is to avoid catching whatever it is he has, and secondarily to not be responsible for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. Somehow, I know that the zombie apocalypse will be eventually caused by something stupid I do, and I’d like to prevent it as long as possible. You’re welcome, America.
Anyway, in spite of being indoors (and downstairs, to avoid contagion), I have had a pretty awesome birthday. I had a Halloween party for my birthday party this year, so I basically just celebrated early. I got to do several of my favorite things: 1)Hang out with my friends 2)Dress in a costume 3)Drink heavily 4)Eat a cake made by Brandy, the stewrat. (pics to follow).
Yesterday, my gift from Hubby came in the mail. It is FIVE books of a series I have been wanting! Now he’s sick so once I’m done writing things for you people to read, I can go read. The girls at work also took me out to lunch to get some Pho (you KNOW I love me some pho), AND made me chocolate cupcakes with raspberry frosting!!! PLUS I had about 80 million “Happy Birthday” notes on my facebook! All in all, a great birthday since it is on a week day.
I’ve been told that this year will be the last good one, in life? in eternity? I don’t know they weren’t clear, but I can see that. Soon people will be all “ohh, you’re almost thirty! WHERE ARE YOUR BABIES? YOU MUST HAVE BABIES NOW!!” I’m not looking forward to that.
Now, here are the pictures that will show you why I had such a fantastic birthday on Halloween weekend, and why I was too busy to post a bunch of Halloween crafts:
Yes, that is me on the right, dressed as the Baroness from G.I. Joe (the cartoon, not that vomit of a movie that just came out), and Hubby is dressed as Adam Ant, the singer.
Here we have Goose from Top Gun, and Risky Business (aka Brandy who makes the world’s best cakes).
Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton from The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
Yes, little Flapjack had a costume! Captain Flappy von Flapjack!
The most awesome Rainbow Bright ever! Her wand even lit up!
And here are all my naughty nerds! You can see Brandy went all out as Risky Business, then we have a Punk, the Baroness, Rainbow Bright, someone who just came from her grandparent’s house, Dolly Parton, and a Cholita!
This is my fantastic cake that Brandy made! It’s a 1up mushroom from Mario Brothers!
And then Mario and his controller showed up!
Mario and Bowser have some, uh, tension they need to work out.
They make such a cute couple!
Beetlejuice, with pet sand worm, and Grumpy the Carebear seemed to be having a great time together.
Beans is a zombie prom queen. She even made her own banner, which says “Prom Queen 1984″. The writing looks spectacular, and I totally stole it for another year. If you haven’t guessed by now, the theme was 1980′s.
Sarah did a fantastic job making her blue fairy costume. There is still glitter in my kitchen though.
Here we have a golfer (who took some heat for her “costume”), and Punky Brewster. Punky even had buttons all from the 80′s on her jacket!
Marty McFly here even made her own hoverboard! I wish I’d gotten a better picture of it, but it looked dead on! These two, Samantha and Jon, just got married, and I was honored to attend. Congratulations you two!
We did a lot of decorating as well, but this post is REALLY long, even by my wordy standards, so that will probably show up in another post. I hope all of you enjoy Halloween, and are as inspired by my creative friends as I am.
Vineyard Visit
We got to see the vines, take a tour of the winery, and see the giant barrels and tanks and things. Most importantly, we got to drink.
Crazy hats were a requirement
Our group loooves theme parties, and this one’s theme was crazy hats. The threat in the evite was that a crazy hat of Dr.Stacey’s choosing would be provided if you didn’t supply your own. Matt (in the background) wore a tiny straw hat, and Hubby (in the foreground) wore a leather pilot’s skullcap, as well as goggles. They are all drinking wine with jalapenos in the glass. This place also had fantastic sangria. Dr.Stacey provided cheese, fruit and crackers, and we had a grand old time. The great thing about good friends is that you can get together to do almost anything, and have a blast.
Time Machine cake!
The crowning jewel on a fantastic day, was we got cake from Brandy the Stewrat! Brandy’s cakes are legendary (at least among our group of friends), and this one met and exceeded all expectations. It’s a time machine, because we didn’t get to celebrate Matt’s bday until May, even though it was back in February. Believe me, it tastes even better than it looks, if that’s possible. Now my lunch seems unappetizing. I just want CAKE!! Om nom nom…
