Wedding Cake Topper DIY

     Sorry, it's more wedding prep talk.  So, future hubs (fh) decided he wanted cup cakes for our wedding instead of a traditional stacked cake.  I am cool with that.  But, he still wanted the fancy cake top to cut and attempt to plaster in my face (he thinks I am not on to him).

     I went on line and started looking at the cake topper things. I picked out a few generic ones that are nice and present the options to fh.  He mentions that he wants one that is custom or kind of a caricature of us. So I research and find the ones made from polymer clay can ran between $200-400.00 depending on the level of detail.  He nearly choked but was still considering it. On etsy the one we liked was going to be $280.00 plus a good $65.00 shipping from Korea. I told him I would give it a shot.
   I had never touched polymer clay before but thought it might be fun. So I buy a bunch in the colors I need, watch a few youtube videos on it and I am ready to get started.  Really wasn't that hard.  The worst part was the suit jacket for the fh caricature.  The little pocket sash and collar was the hardest part. All in all is was kind of fun but took me about 10 hours.

        Fh is a big golfer and we live on the 9th hole of a golf course.  Hence the golf club in hand and the 9th hole flag. The flag is actually a chop stick I had sitting in a drawer that I painted black and with the yellow/black polymer clay square glued to it. The 'green' is actually a wooden disc I got in some gourmet cheese months ago and thought, "what a perfectly round/flat piece of wood. I should save it in case I ever need it for something". This is actually the colors of his suit, the flowers and the design of my dress.

I am going to have to do a little touch up in the golf club because at this point it looks a bit much like a gun in its current state. But I am happy with the way it came out and it cost me about $40.00 to make.

Okay, so I have less than six month until our wedding on Oct 4th 2013.  I am dealing with details now.  So I go to order my wedding shoes.  Holy crap, the ones I liked are over $210.00. I was looking on Etsy and they are all beautiful but very expensive and I am only going to wear them once.  I am the queen of frugal and only paid $124.00 for my gown so to pay that much for my shoes seemed unreasonable.
So I took a good long look at the shoes I liked and thought, shoot,.... I can make these. I bought a pair a white satin shoes online for about $40.00, went to an antique store and bought a little doily for $7.00 and hit Michael's Craft store for some "Bling". I am going for a vintage theme so the white shoes with the antique doily made a perfect contrast. This is what I created and I love them.

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   This is my Dad, Bob Daly before he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s six years ago.  He was working full time at a funeral home as an attendant.  He had his own home, car and was very independent. Shortly after he moved in with my daughter and I. He spent a several years living with each of my sisters and now lives in an assisted living facility here in Charlotte, NC.

   He has become very frail and thin now. It is painful to watch the slow progression of the disease take his mind and body. He always looks so frightened and confused. Each time I visit I end up sitting in the parking lot crying before I leave.  But not going to visit him is not an option.  He was a great Dad, reliable, loyal, and strong. Fun to be around, all the kids loved him.  He was smart, could fix anything and loved to go camping and traveling with the whole family.  Now, it is hard to convince him to leave his apartment and go get groceries.

   He used to love music so, I gave him a radio/CD player for his apt.  He can’t seem to remember how to turn it on though. He used to sing to us when we were kids all the time.  Now, he can’t remember the words to any songs. It breaks my heart when I see the diseases symptoms of anger and aggression.  He was always so gentle and reasonable; he just wanted us kids to do the right thing.

   So I go and visit, watch him point to the lamp and call it a fan, see him standing in his kitchen just looking around and I know he has forgotten why he went in there.  I know he is frightened and so am I for that matter.  But there is nothing I can do but, love him and wait with him for the disease to take him. In the meantime try to make his life good for him in little ways.

My fist Blog,...whaahoo!

   Okay, so here is the first entry in my official life of Blogging.  My intent is to share the things that make me laugh, piss me off, ruffle my feathers and make me stop and go,...'Aww, wtf, that is so sweet, or how can people that stupid live". 
   Today not much ruffled my feathers other than the chic across the street that lets her beagle puppy out at 6:30am to pee and leaves him out for 40 mins while she showers and he barks/howls non-stop.  Now mind you he is a cute little bugger, she however is clueless. His name is 'Tiny', they got him from the pound about a year ago and I am guessing they thought he was going to be just that, tiny.  Well, he grew into a normal sized beagle so they leave him chained up to the front porch for hours howling.  They got an itty bitty replacement dog that is apparently the acceptable size (in their eyes) and that dog is carried around, fussed over and is only seen outside long enough to pee (In her pink little doggy jacket).  Poor Tiny on the other hand shivers on the front porch curled into a ball alone in the dark (no doggy jacket mind you).