#tree slices

Earthy car charm... I am in love with how this first one turned out. I’m going to experiment with different woods and sizes, but I’m already smitten and can’t wait to make more.

Something I'm learning about planning my wedding is that there are these weird little details that I get obsessed with. Things that if it was any other event, I wouldn't care much about, but since it's my wedding I care about way, wayyyy too much. I'm learning this is normal, something that just happens to our brains and I'm learning to just go with it, to indulge myself in these tiny obsessions, take the steps I need to make them a reality and, if they aren't possible with my zero budget, I calmly tell myself to move on to a more attainable obsession.

 One of the details I obsessed over was finding a wooden cupcake stand made from tree slices. I had seen a couple on Pintrest and made it my mission to find one. I figured it would be easy, with all these "rustic" weddings someone had to be selling one or craigslist right? Nope. It seemed like these were something that only existed on internet blogs and I started to wonder if every photo I saw of one was just the same one passed around some special club. I finally found one on Etsy, but the shipping alone would be $90  on top of the $120 price tag. The reason we are doing cupcakes in the first place is to save money by not buying an expensive-ass wedding cake, so spending $300 on a stand would pretty much negate that logic.

So, I decided to make it myself. I searched the internet looking for "tree slices" and though I got some good tips, like calling a local tree service and asking if I could buy pieces of a tree they had chopped down, or chopping down a tree yourself (not really practical to a renter in Los Angeles, but maybe good advice for land owners in more rural areas) but I found no place to actually buy tree stumps or "slices".

 I ended up getting in touch with a local wood worker (okay, it was Nick Offerman, this is the only time I've used any "Hollywood connections" and I think it's funny that it was for such an un-Hollywood thing) who had what I needed and I purchased four tree slices ranging in size from 4 to 13 inches from his wood working shop.

Next, it was off to Lowes where I bought a long wooden pole, about 1 1/2 in width, and asked them to cut it into various short lengths for me. I didn't measure these pieces, just eyeballed it, but I think they are about 4 inches tall. I also bought wood glue and stain there, then headed home to make the stand.

Step 1: I wiped down the wood slices and treated them with the stain. This would not only give them a rich, dark brown color, but would help them stay intact (not split) and protect them from the elements.

Step 2: After the stain was dry I took the short wooden pole pieces and glued them down to the middle of the pieces that would be on the bottom.

After letting that dry, I glued them together, one layer at a time, and rested bricks on the top of each layer until they were dry. After a few hours of drying, the cupcake stand was done!