Rapunzel's Tower (Cupcake Stand)

Our latest creation comes in the form of a cupcake stand for my neice's birthday party.  The theme she picked is "Tangled" (the Disney movie) so I decided I wanted to make it look like Rapunzel's tower.

Here's the first drawing I did (yes, yes, I know, I'm not an artist haha). I wanted to have the traditional tiers with the top tier coming up to the roof of the tower.  The final result is quite different than my original thought.

I found this birdhouse at Michael's and I thought it would make the perfect topper.

I painted it up and added some spanish moss and Rapunzel's braid.

In the garage Alex started the welding the tower with some scrap metal he was able to find at work.  He made 4 legs at the bottom (covered by a piece of wood) and attached the branches.

He added a couple of plates to the top of the legs and secured the wood cover to the plates with silicone so that everything is level and nothing moves around.

A quick coat of primer and it's ready to paint.

I painted the branches brown and the tower part tan with some random brown sprays.  I also added the sheet of "grass" at the base.

I found this pebble scrapbooking paper at JoAnne's and I figured it would work perfect to make the tower look like it's made of stone.

And it worked!

We went to the beach and found some pebbles to add a more realistic feel to the base.  I also brought home some kind of dead beach plant to make tiny vines and wrap them all around.  You can't really see them in the pic, but they're there.  And last but not least, I put some more spanish moss here and there.

Added the wooden discs to the branches and it's coming to life!

Finished!

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair"

This was really fun to make.  I can't wait to get some cupcakes on it and take it to the birthday girl!!

Random Stuff in our House

This bar cost us less than $20 to make and it looks perfect in the corner of our living room.  We have a tiny kitchen and no dining room so we needed somewhere to eat, this was the answer!   Alex built this and I added the trim and painted it up.

We have 3 dogs so finding room in our little house to lay beds out was hard (especially since I can't stand clutter).  This end table was the perfect solution to save some space and add some extra funk to our livingroom.  I went to a used furniture store and bought a used end table, took the doors off, sanded it down, and painted it.  I made the dog bed with some fleece material simply by cutting strips and tying them together (like those knot blankets), and viola!

This is the Doghouse Saloon.  Alex loves old west looking things so he made this by starting with an already built dog house and then added slats of wood to make the whole gunslinger barroom effect.

Like I've already mentioned, our house isn't so big.  We have to use space saving solutions and this is one of them.  For our first few months here we didn't use the TV because there was no where to put it.  This TV stand is perfect.  It's tall enough to go over our love seat.  Alex welded this, and since I wanted the raw metal look, we left it alone.  I'm now happy to announce that we have cable!!  ... That's a big deal when you've been a couple years without it ;)