Do you know where the phrase as easy as pie came from? Well I didn’t either until I googled it just now. I always doubt my phrases that come to mind, so I have to double check them before writing them down. Usually it works to my benefit though, since I learn a little something. I figured that “as easy as pie” referred to how easy it is to make pie, which I thought was a little strange since it is no easy or quick task. But, no. It was originated in the 19th century, referring to the ease of eating apple pie. I guess it’s easy to eat since it tastes so good? I still don’t fully understand it, but there is your fun fact for the day.
Now onto my pie/cake/cookie stand post. I first got the inspiration for this when I was at Dartealing, a cute tea room in Soma. I first found the tea room while walking to lunch near my new office, and then decided to go for a girlfriend’s birthday a few weekends ago. It is my favorite tea room in the city yet, and is very similar to the tea room that I want to open one day. I will be sure to tell you more about my future tea and craft room in another post! Anyways, instead of only having 3 tiered stands like many tea shops, they had cute 1 tier cake stands. I examined them, and found out that all there was to it was a candle stick, glue, and a cute plate on top. The shopping started.
I went to the Alameda Point Antiques Fair recently, and I was at my first booth and found an awesome plate. It was the first booth of hundreds, so I put the plate down, walked around the whole booth to think about whether or not I wanted the plate. In the meantime, a lady picked up my plate and was looking very interested in it. I started hovering over her because I immediately realized how much I wanted the plate now that I couldn’t have it. Then, the terrible thing happened which made me learn a valuable lesson. She bought my plate. MY plate! But I had no claim on it since I wasn’t holding it or had paid for it. I will never do that again, that is for sure. Fast forward to last weekend at a consignment store called Leftovers off of Polk Street. I found another cute plate, carried it around the whole store with me until I was ready to purchase it. On the way out I found a candlestick holder too! Killed two birds with one stone. At that point, the only thing between me and making my stand was dinner plans and a glue gun.

Purchased the glue gun, and was on my way to put together the stand. I put the glue on the rim of the candle stand and placed the plate on top, centering it on the stamp/brand on the bottom of the plate. Little did I know that the stamp was not in the center. While I realized this, the glue stuck and was not moving. My perfectly cute stand was lopsided. I called over a helper who knew what he was doing. He turned on my hair blow dryer and took a knife to it and finally it undid (good to know you can’t get the glue too hot- no dishwashing!)

Now back to square one. This time, I turned the plate upside down and put the candlestick with the glue on the rim to the real center of the plate. Muchhh better that time. And voila! A beautiful, colorful, dessert stand that only cost me $10. Luckily the repairman was free of charge.

Grab a cute plate and an old candlestick and you can make one too! Another idea is to paint the candlestick to go with the plate colors. I’ll keep you posted if I try that version too 🙂
4 Responses
You are so funny. So the question is do you like this plate as much as the one you lost? Also, have you tried putting a cake/pie on it to see if it works. Maybe that could be a reward for the handy man.
haha unfortunately not! I love this one but the other one was cuter. Do you like seeing your kitchen counter in all the pics? 🙂 And yes, I will be sure to fill the stand with goodies soon..
Reminds me of the purse you wanted in New York……oh maybe I shouldn’t have reminded you! xo
At least I could blame someone other than myself for that one!