When little man was born, we had a ton of custom onesies - some that we made, some that friends gave as gifts - we were completely set with unique outfits for Mr. Man. 

Now that he's almost 6 months old, he's more than doubled his birth weight and is non stop growing - leaving me in a pickle... all of his cute handmade clothes don't fit anymore... what to do?

To the stencils!

This past weekend, I made Mr. Man not one, but three different custom onesies!

First, I ran straight to my Stencil 101 book by Ed Roth...

Oh snap! A little glitter in the paint was all this low rider needed to be completely awesome!  It's too bad his hot rod shoes don't fit anymore... le sigh...

Next, I thought I'd try one of Lotta Jansdotter's designs from her book Simple Sewing For Baby...

This stencil was just the shape of the gator - I thought it looked a little plain, so had to add some socks, shoes, teeth, scales... just to fancy him up a bit.  This gator has the same amount of teeth as my son at the moment... in the same places!

... so, after gaining inspiration from two different sources, I thought I would go off the grid and try a design on my own...

It's Q-tastic!  This one also looked a little plain with just the stencil, but it was nothing a little embroidery couldn't fix!

Stenciling is one of the easiest ways to create custom everything - try it sometime, you just might like it! 

This year, we've got something extra special to be thankful for... it's our little man's very first Thanksgiving! 

I wanted to commemorate the occasion with something special that we could keep and use for years to come.

Thankfully, my buddy Vickie Howell has the perfect idea for a Turkey Day keepsake that was not only fun and easy, but Q and I were able to create it together - our first crafty collaboration!

Turkey Day Place Mats!

Since Quinn is an experienced painter, I thought he would like to provide the focal point to our place mats.  My original thought was to get him to do hand prints and then I would make them into 'hand turkeys' - kinda like elementary school.  

What I didn't know was how completely impossible it is to get a 5-month-old to hold a hand covered in paint still for even two seconds...

So, my hand turkeys quickly became more of an abstract study in orange... which turned out beautifully!

After Q was done with his portion on the place mats, I stamped 'Quinn's First Turkey Day' on them in copper sparkly fabric paint (a little note: fabric paint isn't the best option for stamping - I probably should've used stamp ink... so, they're far from perfect, but that's just how being crafty goes sometimes)

I attached Quinn's art to some plain brown fabric, embellished with ribbon, sewed into place mats, and that's it!  Easy peasy!

Check out Vickie's column, Craft Apparent, over on PBS Parents for inspiration on your own version of Turkey Day place mats!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday Friday!  So much good stuff to share with you today - let's get to it!

First up, check out Antler Frame by Paperdoll Woodshop...

I absolutely love this frame - I mean, it has antlers, so, how can you go wrong? 

Next up, check out Owl Family by One Gift One World...

Hey, that's my family!  These are so incredibly beautiful - if I didn't have 4 kitty boys that would most certainly break one of these and hide the others under the couch, I would love to own this sweet little owl trio.

...and finally today, one for the Man Cub.  Since it's mid-November now, I'm guessing that any day now it might be chilly outside... it is almost Christmas, so, it has to get cold at some point, right?  When it does, wouldn't my little man look absolutely adorable in this Cashmere Silly Bear Hat by Fuzzsicle?

So cute!  The fact that it's cashmere is a total bonus, but what really made me fall for this hat is the super duper cute embroidered bear - almost too cute for words!

Happy Friday!