Custom Cake Stand for Casse

When my youngest step daughter was planning her wedding and asked me to do the cake I decided to get a little creative with the cake stand.  Or rather, I asked my dad to get creative for the cake stand.  I wanted to do something out of wood to match her theme and also something to support individual cakes because our homemade cakes are dense and heavy and I was already having visions of a teetering cake collapsing.  This is what dad came up with....

He found some wood burls in the woods and cut off some slices

(side note:  burls are caused by either bugs or disease in the tree, it's the deformities on the outside of tree)

then made a leveling jig to even out the slices.

He used the router to get it level.

 

 

Dad got a piece of old growth wood and squared it up

to make the post for the cake stand.

Perfectly straight

 

Look at the beautiful bird's eye in the wood.

Then he made a tenon to join the wood to the base.

perfect!

Using a special square drill bit he made the mortise,

that took some patience and skill.

All notched out.

Repeat the process once more and then you have a three tiered cake stand.

Here it is before the varnish...

 

and then all completed! 

Isn't it the absolute coolest cake stand you ever saw?

 

This was the finished product at the wedding! 

(Photo taken with only my stupid phone since I forgot my good camera....gggrrrrr!)

Dad also whipped out the two wood burl plates for the satellite cakes at the last minute when I decided I wanted to do more cakes. 

It was so unique and beautiful!

Best of all, Casse loved it and I did not have any panic attacks worrying about the cake falling over.

 

Just June

Last Sunday June and I spent the day together.

 

I had crocheted a blanket for her and last time she had visited she "helped" me with it. 
"Look JuJu! I'm doing it, I'm doing it!!"

 

 

We finished off the blanket....

 

with this cute button on the corner.

 

She put it to use immediately.

 

We did a little playing outside

 

 

and found a caterpillar.  June wasn't sure what to make of it.

 

 

but then she got brave and held it in her sweater,

 

 

got really brave and held it in her hand

 

 

sang a little song to it

 

 

finally put the poor caterpillar down and said goodbye to it.

 

 

We made French bread pizzas for lunch (after we washed our hands of course)

June smooshed around the sauce pretty good

 

 added the cheese,

 

put on the pepperoni

 

 

and TahDuh! all ready for the oven. 

 She's getting some cooking skills early in life!

 

 

We had to run into town to go to the grocery store.  June was in charge of the shopping cart.

 

We got some bread to throw at the seagulls

 

 

and nobody got pooped on! (which is always a threat when you're feeding the birds).

 

 

 

"come here Biwrds"

 

 

And that was my day with just June.

 

 

George

It's a rough life, being a cat.

 

This is George.  He has it pretty tough. 

Sure, he works hard catching mice, shrews, moles, and the occasional bat or snake.  He likes to bring them into the house for me.  It's especially a nice surprise when they are alive...that happened twice last week.  Two mice, two nights in a row, alive, brought into our bedroom in the middle of the night.  It's how I've developed my mad, mouse catching skills.

 

But this is what George does when he's not reducing the population of varmits around the property.

 

He tries to get comfortable and take a nap...like I said, he's got a rough life. 

Do you know how hard it is to get comfortable in his favorite basket?

George is a polydactyl cat.  That's a fancy way of saying he's got a few extra toes. 

 

Clyde named him George in honor of George Forman.  His extra toes make him look like he's got boxing gloves on his front paws.

Oh man, it is difficult to get comfortable in that basket!

 

Then Clyde came into the house so George moved his nap over to Clyde's lap. 

George is Clyde's favorite cat.

 

George loves Clyde's lap because he can stretch out...

 

and roll over.

He's got such goofy paws.

 

Back to the sofa...Clyde must've been moving just a little too much for George.

  Finally, a comfortable spot.

It's a rough life being a cat.