2011 Adventures of Kelvin The Elf

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

I hope your day has been as blessed as ours has!  It's been a nice, relaxing day at home with family.  As the family naps, I decided a little blogging was in order!  I've been told that I should document the visit of our Elf on the Shelf, Kelvin's this year, so I thought Clearly Candace was just the place to do it!

Kelvin arrived at our house last year and simply sat on shelves, the Christmas tree, cabinets and other high places in our great room. He was pretty boring and a little creepy, if you ask me.  Well, he must've had great 2011 at the North Pole because he was all over the Baker House this year!  I posted a daily photo diary of his 24 days of December with us on Facebook.  The wonderful (addictive) world of Pinterest gave me motivation!  I hope you enjoy Kelvin's 24-day adventures before Christmas.  My apologies for being lazy and opting for iPhone shots instead of using my Nikon.  Hopefully the 8MP camera isn't too bad. ;)

A very Merry Christmas to you and yours! 
Candace <>< 

PS: I also included a few bonus "deleted scenes" at the end. :)  Enjoy!

Kelvin T. Elf's 24-Day Adventure

Day 1

(Kelvin is BACK!)

Stale Marshmallow Bath Celebration!

Day 2

Date Night!

 Day 3

Cirque du Kelvin

Day 4 

I Miss Snow

Day 5 

Damsel in Distress

Day 6

"Maybe poker's not your game, Snow. I know, let's have a spelling contest!" 

--Doc Kelviday 

(reference: Tombstone)

Day 7

In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the children sleep tonight...

Day 8

Rollin'

Day 9

Sugar Plum Tuckered

Day 10

Fighting for truth, justice and the Elvish way

Day 11

A Relevant Read 

Day 12

Kelvin, this is NOT what I meant by "rumbly in my tumbly!"

--Pooh

Day 13

In a Jam

Day 14

This Sucks!

Day 15

Kelvin, Use the Force!

--Obi Wan

Day 16

It's fun to stay at the...

Day 17

King TutanKelvin

Day 18

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas are thumbs to Gig'em.  

And beating Northwestern would be nice, too.

Love, Kelvin

Day 19

How was I supposed to know Rudy was allergic?!

Day 20

Dang-a-liiing from a striiing, Soon it will be Christmas Day

Day 21

Elf Planking

Day 22

Stick 'em up!  Or I will!

Day 23

Mission M&Mpossible

Day 24

O Come Let Us Adore Him

Christmas Morning

10-4, Mr. C.  Reporting back to base.  Over and Out.

--Captain K.T. Elf

Bonus Deleted Scenes!

Jackpot!

Oh, Elf Bungee, Oh Elf Bungee...

Tumble All The Way

Excellent Elf Form

Glue Goners

Tebowing

Speaking of Tebowing, I believe Tim Tebow's Christmas Eve Tweet says it all. 

"...what's most important is being able to celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas everyone"

Merry Christmas, everyone!  See you in 2012!

With Him in Mind,

Clearly Candace 

Is the Silence Killing You?

Dear Friends,

I'm still here! I thought an explanation for the long blog silence this past month was due.

First, two family trips to East Texas and my family's river cabin in South Ark have definitely made it hard to make time for creativity. :)

Second, believe it or not, I have another job! Yes, it's second to Mom, but it's still a job. :) I manage a local environmental program for employers via a non-profit org here in Central Texas. Surprise! ;) Yesterday was the deadline for my Partners to turn in their annual reports on their environmental efforts. Needless to say, I'll be busy for a few weeks. :(

Finally, it is also very hard to be creative when your "creative space" is in near chaos. This iPhone pic doesn't even do it justice...


I was standing on piles of crafts to get this one. This is one big messy Candoozy in the works!

Sooo...I've definitely got too much going on! Prayers are always welcome! :)

Maybe I'll get a chance to post a little something I've been wanting to show you soon. Stay tuned and thanks for your patience and support for Clearly Candace!

Keeping Him in mind,
Candace <><

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A "Buggy Bash" by Traci

My college friend Traci (aka T-MAC) sent me this email last month:

Okay, party genius!  I thought of you this morning as I was trying to nail down a party theme for Pax's 4th (and realized you'd be more rational than a 4 year old, who is full of good ideas, but...)

He wants either... 

a dress-up party (everyone dresses funny, gifts could be simple things for his dress up box - old ties, funny glasses, etc.),

a truck party (have a friend park an excavator in our yard and do truck stuff), or
a bug party (his obsession right now is beetle bugs, digging, building habitats, etc.).

Would you mind telling me if you've seen any good ideas to go with any of those?  Party favors or games?

Whatever you have time for, I'd appreciate!

"Party genius??"  Hardly...

I did try to come up with some ideas to help her brainstorm a fun party.  We both quickly knew what the theme should be.  These were my thoughts.  I underlined those that T ended up using, in addition to some of her own awesome ideas!

I kind of see this being a little passion of Pax's following your blog.  He has his momma's love of nature in him for sure! :-)  There are tons of bug themed-things out there now that it's spring. Oriental Trading would be good and even dollar stores.  You can probably find nets and bug boxes CHEAP!  Lots of good color opportunities here too.  My kids get bugs from the treasure chest at school all the time that would be cute for this kind of party.


Cake: Toy bugs could be easy cupcake toppers!  Butterflies, ladybugs, bees (for girls) and worms, beetles, dragon flies, aunts grasshoppers (for boys).  I also saw an Oreo dirt cake with fake flowers on it with gummy worms that you could cover with bugs!  It was in a plantar too!  Or you could make little dirt cakes like cupcakes with owrms and bugs on them with a fake flower - cute!

Games/Activities: Bug hunt: Like an Easter egg hunt where you hide bright-colored toy bugs around the yard, or a REAL bug hunt - most bugs gets a prize?  Dress-up: Make antenna headbands to wear with pipe cleaners (maybe sparkly for girls), bug color sheets, pin the wings on the bee/butterfly, make wings or stingers to go with antennae? - then they get to dress up like bugs.  Bug art: Get foam shapes of butterflies, ladybugs, or make ants/beetle shapes to glue on hats or paper, pompom caterpillars, pipe cleaner spiders...

Favors: Toy bugs, antennae to wear, bug boxes, nets and/or stickers

Decor: You could hang bug shapes around the patio or from ceiling from fishing line, bug shapes as confetti on tables, I bet there are cute decor ideas that I have yet to see. An ant garland or banner would be cute since ants walk in a line.  Maybe I could make and send a banner pattern/stencil for you to cut out and put together!

Food: Snacks could be gummy worms, those Keebler bugs grahams, raisins (ants), etc.  Ants on a log - celery filled with PB and raisins on top!

She flattered me with this reply:  

You just rattled all those ideas off the top of your head??  Those are great! I'm with you, I'm more excited about bugs and dress-up because it's more specific to him.  Thanks SO much - I'm really excited now, I needed a little spark to jog my mind a bit today and you did it!

With that, the party planning began.  Being 3 hours away, I really wanted to contribute something.  I ended up spending a whopping $3 on this:

...and created this! 

Along with a small gift for P, I shipped T the roll of ribbon and all 36 shapes to decorate as she wished.

I wanted post this to share what T-MAC came  up with!  Congrats, Traci, on creating the cutest little "Buggy Bash" for the cutest little bug lover ever!  Blog worthy, no doubt! :) You go, Girl! 

Happy Birthday, Pax!  Wish we could've celebrated with you!

With Him in mind,

Hope for Hope

Our neighborhood has been blessed with a precious new baby girl who was recently adopted by friends who have been waiting for God's timing for another child in their family.  Their prayers have been answered with sweet Baby Hope, so perfectly named. :) Congrats to Rich, Jennie and Codie!

While the family was in Cali for Hope's birth, a few neighbors got together to bless the new family with a little welcome home surprise, including a diaper cake, of course! :)

Baby Hope's Diaper Cake

Welcome Home!

Thanks to God for the blessing of new babies and perfect timing!

With Him in mind,

Diaper Cake Love

I wanted to use a Clearly Candace post to share and promote one of my little passions: Diaper Cakes!  I love making them because they are fun way to be creative.  I consider them a great blank canvas to work with!  I enjoy putting together colors, themes and coordinating with baby nurseries and showers.  My favorite part, of course, is the ribbon, as well as the never-ending topper ideas!  It's just fun to me to come up with the next cake! I've also enjoyed making a few "made to order" styles for showers, too.

I use the "fanned method" for my cakes because I think it makes them look more like cake icing than than the traditional "rolled method."  It's also much easier!  My main cake making necessities include diapers, 2 sizes of pie plates, a paper towel roll (or cylindrical centerpiece like a bottle), rubber bands and a Lazy Susan. Throw in some fun ribbon, scissors, a hot glue gun, and fun topper and flair, and I'm all set!  If anyone in the Central Texas area is interested in one of my cakes as a great shower gift or table centerpiece, let me know!  I'd also consider sending them to you long-distance folks out there!

Below is my cake blog header photo.  I created a little blogspot to help advertise and showcase them with some estimated pricing for potential orders.  It's obviously a very new potential side biz!  I don't have too many in photos, but plan to grow my collection with time. Contact me for more details!

Introducing: Sweet Cakes by Candace

PS: I've also started doing a new diaper gifts to welcome a few new babies!  Here's one and check here for a few others!

It appears that Blogger has deleted my old diaper cake blogspot, so I will be creating a page on Clearly Candace for Sweet Cakes by Candace. :)  Here is a slideshow of the cakes I've made since the beginning!

Thanks for visiting!

With Him in mind,

Polka Dot Love & Baby Sprinkles

I've helped host two baby sprinkles in recent months.  In case you are not totally sure what a baby sprinkle is, it's a slimmed down baby shower for moms who are expecting a "nextborn" baby.  Since major goods are covered, sprinkles are often given when having a baby of the opposite sex of the siblings and/or when there is a time gap between kids, making newer baby gifts a necessity!  My two friends Kelly and Laura were the "sprinkle-ees."  Kelly had the baby gap and Laura had too much pink! :)

Kelly's Sprinkle...
In September, my good friend Natalie and I hosted a sprinkle at my house for our sweet friend and neighbor Kelly.  Kelly, newer to the area, was still settling in and meeting new people, so we decided it would be fun for the neighborhood gals to sprinkle her with some love!  This was her 3rd child three years after her 2nd, so a bit of a gap. Specifically, we wanted to get some cute girlie things for Miss Annabelle-to-be, along with donations toward a gift card to Target for basic needs.

Kelly planned to use sage green and a few shades of pink in the nursery, so I created this simple invitation:

This is kind of where my polka-dot party decor phase began. :)  For decor we got polka dot napkins and solid paper plates from Target.  A few balloons were added to the mix, along with the diaper cake, of course! The diaper cake had light pink and light green topped with an "A" for Annabelle, since Kelly and hubby Shawn had just confirmed baby's name by sprinkle time.   I made a banner and tied ribbon here and there for color.  We kept the food light with some punch, fruit, crackers and cheese. The cake was really cute.  Randall's had a cupcake cake in the shape of a onesie! Everyone loved it!

We played "Kelly & Baby Trivia," the "Don't say Baby" pin stealing game and t.p. belly measuring - K was  a tiny mom with a 3rd child! :)  Winners got cute animal print scarves. Here is a photo collection of the fun:

We also created little "Neighborly Love" coupons for Kelly, offering what we could to help her out when Annabelle came and she began adjusting to 3 kiddos.

Miss Annabelle has grown into the cutest and sweetest baby and gifts from this sprinkle has kept her quite fashionable! ;)  Congrats to the McGraths on bringing a precious addition into this world.

Laura's Sprinkle...
My good friend Laura is a close girlfriend from church.  Fellow friends Kristin, Keri and I decided that since Laura had loaded up firstborn Miss Kennedy with way too much pink, Baby Trace-to-be was going to need some blue.  So plans were made to sprinkle her with some!  I came up with my favorite invitation design {smile} and envisioned some decor ideas for the venue.  We chose to do a dutch-style brunch at a great local bistro.  Here's the invitation. (Sorry about the blur on bottom...thought I had a better shot than this.)

Unfortunately, my and hubby's 10th anniversary getaway ended up conflicting with the sprinkle date, but even though I couldn't attend, I was committed to the decor to send with K & K.  My contributions:

• Diaper cake, of course! ;)
• Invitation to display
• Polka dot confetti
• Baby wishes cards (this is what I came up with to put on the plate)
• Baskets for the cards (dollar store 2pk)
• Cute fleur-de-lis / damask decor stands tied with ribbon (dots and damask are in Trace's bedding)
• Thank-you tags for cupcake boxes to go (using my first circle cutter - worth it!)

Some shots of the completed items before passing them along:

Some shots by K&K showing the fun!

I HAD to include this.  My son (just 5) did the baby wishes for Trace - I gave him NO help nor suggestions.

Laura, it's adorable things like that that make those baby boys near and dear to Momma's heart! :) Can't wait to meet Mr. Trace!!

So thankful for God's blessings: Babies

With Him in mind,