Housewarming or Hostess Gift Idea: Embroidered Tea Towel

A couple weeks ago we visited friends who have recently moved to Charleston, South Carolina. They just bought their first house, and they were kind enough to welcome us into their home for the weekend (and play city tour guide), so I wanted to bring them a little gift to say thank you. One of my favorite housewarming (or hostess) gifts is a hand-embroidered tea towel for the kitchen. I use classic white flour sack towels and embroider cutesy little food-related patterns on them. They're quick projects that only take a couple of hours, but it's fun to be able to give someone a handmade gift.

What You'll Need:

Embroidery Floss (whatever colors you like)
Tapestry Needle, Size 22 or 24 (tips on choosing needle types and sizes)
Embroidery Hoop (I use an 8" hoop)
Cute Patterns (see below)
Flour Sack Towels
Water Soluble Tracing Pen 

Favorite Patterns

These are some of my favorite patterns that I've found.  Aren't they adorable? I do the bacon and egg love story or the happy coffee pot the most frequently.

Left to Right: True Love #5, True Love #2, True Love #1 patterns by Gina Matarazzo Design and Illustration

Clockwise, Starting at Top Left: Coffee, Grumpy Grill, Cupcake, and I Heart Tea patterns by Wild Olive

What to Do

Once you've picked a pattern and your embroidery floss colors, it's time to get started!

1) Place the towel over the pattern such that you can see it through the fabric, and trace along the pattern with your water soluble pen.

2) Place the towel securely in your embroidery hoop, and get to stitching! Using all 6 strands of embroidery floss, embroider along the lines of the pattern. I use the back stitch most frequently, and I like to use French Knots for eyes. 

Note: If you're new to embroidery, I highly, highly recommend Wild Olive's Embroidery Basics. They're incredibly helpful, and they got me started!

3) Once you're finished with your embroidery, simply rinse the towel to remove the water soluble ink, and let it dry.

4) Ta da! You have a pretty, handmade, one-of-a-kind gift that will hopefully bring a smile to just about anyone's face!

DIY Serving Tray

This week my husband and I teamed up for a craft project: a DIY serving tray! Power tools were involved, so of course he wanted to be involved. And I loved having him help out, even if he did over-engineer things a bit (I mean, seriously. Was epoxy really necessary instead of Wood Glue? I think not.). I was looking for a way to use a beautiful piece of fabric from Sew Fine Fabric, so when I saw this photo on Pinterest, an idea was born!

I'm really thrilled with how the finished product turned out!  I think it will be a fun, versatile piece to have in our kitchen! It can be used for serving drinks at a dinner party, displaying decanters and pretty glassware, serving a pot of tea and tea cups, delivering breakfast in bed, or setting out cheeses or snacks at a cocktail party. If you're curious about trying to make one of your own, here's what we did!

Materials

Framed Clear Dry Erase Board (or a wooden picture frame)
Fabric (similar prints here and here)
Scissors
Measuring Tape
Foam Board
Plywood
Utility Knife
2 Cabinet Handles and screws (be sure to buy screws that will not exceed the thickness of the tray)
Drill
Epoxy
Sand Paper
Masking Tape
Newspaper
Black Semi-Gloss Spray Paint

Construction

1. Measure the inner surface of the back of the frame. Cut the fabric (with scissors) and foam board (with the utility knife) to fit.

2.Measure the outer surface of the frame. Cut the plywood to fit using the utility knife. Sand the edges such that they are smooth.

3. Sand the back of the frame with sand paper in order to help the epoxy adhere.

4. Ensure that the glass or clear plastic is clean and then insert the piece of fabric such that it shows through the front of the frame, and insert the foam board behind the fabric. The foam board should be flush with the frame. (If foam board is too thick for your frame, you could try using a foam sheet or a thin piece of cardboard).

5. Apply epoxy to the back of the frame, and place the piece of plywood on top, ensuring that it is properly aligned. Apply firm pressure until the epoxy cures (ours took 10 minutes).

6. Measure the length and width of the frame so that you can center your handles. Mark the hole locations, and using a drill, drill a hole for each handle screw, sanding away any excess material left by the drill. Install the handles to ensure that they fit properly.

7. Using masking tape and newspaper, mask the glass or plastic surface on the top of the tray to protect the top from spray paint.

8. Remove the handles, and sand the entire surface of the frame and the back of the tray with sand paper to help the paint adhere.

9. Use a coat hanger to hang the tray by one of the screw holes somewhere outside where you can spray paint. We used a tree branch in the backyard.

10. Let the paint dry. Once it's dry, remove the masking tape and paper and re-install the handles.

11. Ta da! You're done! All that's left to do now is to enjoy your pretty new tray!

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Bonus: Since this was made from a dry erase board, it can be written on with dry erase markers to label drinks, cheese, etc. At a dinner party, you could write out a "Signature Cocktail" recipe to go along with the bottles on the tray. Or you could write cute little statements like "Cheers!"

Rib Knit Cowl

It's knitting season again! I may hate the winter, but I love an excuse to get my needlework out. I'll happily sit curled up on the couch for hours, work spread over my lap and watching re-runs of Friends. Throw in a mug of hot tea, and you've got yourself a fine afternoon. I'm such a little old lady at heart. 

At last season's Medford Winter Farmers Market, I picked up a skein of this lovely hand-spun yarn from Natural Specialties. Finally, I came across the perfect project for it: a ribbed knit cowl pattern from Tentenknits. It looked so pretty and warm. 

So I got out my yarn, my needles, and my knitting bowl and got started. It's a simple pattern that I was able to finish over the weekend. Here's how I made mine using straight needles rather than circular needles, as the original pattern calls for. (Someday I nee to learn how to use those).

Materials

Size 8 Straight Knitting Needles (I used 14")

Skein of yarn

Yarn needle

Pattern

Cast on 64 stitches (starting with a yarn tail of ~32 in)

*Knit 4, Purl 4, *repeat the pattern until row is complete.

Continue until you have about 12"-13" inches completed (~50 rows).

Bind off. 

Cut the yarn free from the yarn ball, leaving a tail that's around 1.5 ft long. 

Thread the tail through a yarn needle, and use a whip stitch (similar to this method) to stitch up the sides of the rectangle, forming a long tube.

Once stitched up, cut off any of the remaining yarn tail.

Ta da! Simply pull it over your head in place of a scarf to keep yourself cozy and warm all winter. I've been using mine for a couple of days now, and I love it. 

Pumpkin Carving Party

Last weekend we hosted our very first pumpkin carving party. With our friends Kevin and Andrea, we celebrated all things fall -- warm comforting stew, pumpkin beers, football, mulled apple cider, carving pumpkins, and roasted pumpkin seeds! This post is pretty belated since it's no longer the season for carving pumpkins, but hey, at least it's still the season for everything else!

For dinner, I set the table with fall linens (when you get married in October, all of the linens you receive are in fall colors) and a bowl of apples that we picked for a centerpiece. My husband was the chef for the evening, and he whipped up a delicious Pork and Green Chile Stew (Chile Verde) to serve with homemade flour tortillas (homemade tortillas require a little extra effort, but man are they good!). It was warm and hearty, perfect for a chilly evening.

After dinner, it was time for the UT game.  And since you can't watch football without beer, we decided to sample pumpkin beers, serving mostly local options: Southern Tier Pumpking (our favorite), Cambridge Brewing Company Great Pumpkin Ale, Sam Adams Harvest Pumpkin Ale, Sam Adams Oktoberfest (not a pumpkin beer but it's Fall-ish!), Cisco Brewing Pumple Drumkin (we didn't care for this one).

I also put on a pot of mulled apple cider right before our guests arrived. I have a super simple recipe that I use, and it can sit and simmer until you're ready to serve it.

Mulled Apple Cider

In a slow cooker, pour in 1 gallon of plain apple cider and stir in 1/4 cup brown sugar. Then put 4 cinnamon sticks, 3 tsp whole cloves, 2 pods of star anise, ~1/2 inch of ginger, thinly sliced, all onto a piece of cheesecloth, and tie it up with a piece of kitchen twine. Add the bag of spices and slices from one orange into the slow cooker. Heat on Low for at least a couple of hours before serving. (And while delicious on its own, it's also good with about 1 oz of bourbon stirred into each mug!)

Around halftime, the Longhorn game had a rain delay, a perfect opportunity to start carving pumpkins. I spread out a big table cloth in the living room, and we put a few pieces of newspaper under our pumpkins to keep the innards from seeping through the table cloth and onto our rug. Using tools and patterns from grocery store carving kits, we got to work! (It's also a good idea to put out a few bowls for pumpkin innards and paper towels and/or kitchen towels for wiping hands).

It was so much fun, and everyone's pumpkins turned out great! I tried out the engraving technique, which was fun but disappointing because it didn't glow like it was supposed to when I put a candle inside. I guess I didn't scrape away enough of the pumpkin.  Everyone else went with traditional jack-o-lanterns. Here's the line-up:

And here they are after the official lighting ceremony! :)

With the pumpkins done, I poured everyone a mug of cider, and we served the delicious homemade cookies and ice cream that our friends brought for dessert. And finally, before they headed home, I roasted some of the pumpkin seeds leftover from carving.

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Preheat oven to 300°F. Scoop out the seeds and then clean by rinsing them in a colander and removing any remaining pumpkin flesh. Dry the seeds by dumping them onto a towel and patting dry.  Once dry, pour the seeds into a bowl. Add in olive oil, salt, pepper, cumin, paprika, and chili powder. For seeds from one pumpkin I used  a couple teaspoons of oil, a couple good pinches of salt, pepper from a few twists of my grinder, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp paprika, and 1/8 tsp chili powder. Place the seeds on a foil-lined baking tray and spread them out in a single layer, and place the baking sheet into the oven. Roast for about 20 to 25 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so, until the seeds just begin to brown. 

It was such a fun evening -- a great excuse to get together with friends who we don't see nearly enough! We put our pumpkins out on the front porch to greet trick-or-treaters on Halloween. And now, somehow it's already November with Thanksgiving right around the corner. Where is the fall going?

Date Night Idea: Movie Night

We didn't have any big travel plans for the Labor Day weekend, so Sunday we were able to spend a much needed quiet day at home.  For a stay-at-home date night, we decided to turn our living room into a movie theater.  Sure, this isn't exactly the most creative idea, but we had the best time (best of all, the seats are more comfortable and more conducive to snuggling)! Here's what we did to turn a "ho-hum" movie night into something really fun!

1) Pick a signature drink for the evening. 

I wanted something with a little carbonation, reminiscent of getting a Coke at the theater, so I made a pitcher of Long Faced Doves, which was delicious (and contains a good splash of ginger beer). It would also be fun to pick a drink inspired by your movie choice.  When watching Sabrina, maybe make a champagne cocktail fit for one of the Larabee's famous parties!  And your signature drink doesn't have to be a cocktail! A bottle of French wine would go perfectly with Amelie. You can even go non-alcoholic: a pitcher of water with fresh fruit and mint, a "mocktail", flavored lemonades, etc. The key is to make something a little out of the ordinary to help make for a special evening.

2) Pop some popcorn! 

You can't go wrong with a big bowl of buttered microwave popcorn (or a bag of kettle corn, our choice since our microwave sucks). If you can find it, try Quinn Popcorn, from right here in Massachusetts! Their natural, organic microwave popcorn comes with flavor packets to toss with the popped kernels. We tried the Vermont Maple + Sea Salt and loved it! Next time I want to try making my own flavored popcorn (or a treat with popcorn inspired treat)! Here are some recipes on my "To Do" List:

1. Southern Living BBQ-Ranch Popcorn, 2. The Kitchn Buttery Popcorn Ice Cream, 3. Serious Eats Buttered Rum and Cranberry Popcorn, 4. Quinn Popcorn, 5. Serious Eats "Pesto" Cheesy Garlic Popcorn, 6. Joy the Baker/Smitten Kitchen Buttered Popcorn Chocolate Chip Cookies

3) Stock up on your favorite movie theater candy.

How often do you indulge and eat candy at home? If you're like us, never (Halloween leftovers don't count). So splurge a little and get a box of your favorite candy (after all, it's cheaper than at the theater).

4) Put to use those cute plates, napkins, and paper straws that you usually reserve for parties

If you're like me, sometimes you have a tendency to reserve your cute little party wares for guests. But a date night is a special occasion too! Going to a little extra effort to doll up your spread makes the night seem more special and out of the ordinary.

1. Assorted Striped Straws, 2. Gold Star Straws, 3. Orange Chevron Straws

5) Pick an old favorite to relive together.

I am slightly addicted to buying cheap DVDs, so I have racked up quite a collection thanks to $5 bins. They're all movies that I could watch over and over, but I tend to forget about them in favor of Netflix new releases. For a date night, it's fun to pop in an old favorite, one where you can probably recite every line together. For an added romantic touch, maybe watch something that you originally saw at the theater on one of those early dates!

6) Get creative! Make your own rules!

So we also had some cheese and crackers for our movie night. Do you normally have cheese and crackers at the movies?  Definitely not. But did cheese and crackers sound good to us while we were at the store? Absolutely! Things don't always have to fit perfectly with the theme to be fun! So whatever you can dream up to make for a special night, go for it! 

7) Enjoy spending the evening with someone you love!

No explanation necessary for this one, whether it's a date, good friends, or your family!

Shakespeare and Planning a Picnic

Last night, we went to see the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company perform "The Two Gentlemen from Verona" as a part of  Shakespeare on the Common. They put on a different Shakespeare play each summer, and it's something I look forward to every year. In fact, it's another one of the many reasons I love summer! 

They usually place the story in an unusual modern setting and always do a fantastic job bringing Shakespeare's words to life. This year the setting was 1960's-era Las Vegas, and performances of Frank Sinatra classics were scattered throughout, tying in with the story. Basically, it was Shakespeare re-envisioned as a musical, and it was so much fun! (If you're in the Boston area, you have until this coming Sunday, 7/28, to catch a performance!)

This is also a prime opportunity for a picnic in Boston Common! I had so much fun planning the meal, and I loved the spread we put together this year. Some of these may seem like no-brainers, but here are my essentials for an awesome picnic:

1) Good Food (that travels well)

I like to pick a variety of items that play well together and travel well.  I try to keep a little variety and have fruit, vegetables, cheese, starches, etc. Here are the recipes I used for this year's menu (many of which can be made ahead of time and actually improve if given a night to marinate).

Tortellini Salad : Cheese tortellini, salami, peppers, red onion, and fresh basil dressed with red wine vinegar, lemon juice, and olive oil. I love this recipe.

Bean Salad : I tweaked this recipe a bit to put together a salad of green beans, chickpeas, edamame, fresh green peas, and slivers of red onion tossed in a vinaigrette of oil, white vinegar, and lemon juice (note: lemon juice and plenty of salt were key for me. I found the original recipe a tad bland).

Marinated Feta : Large cubes of feta marinated in olive oil with rosemary, thyme, garlic, and crushed red pepper. 

Rosemary Lemon White Bean Dip : An alternative to hummus, this white bean dip is so flavorful and great with fresh pita or toasted pita chips

Fresh Fruit : I brought sliced nectarines, which served as a nice, simple dessert

2) Refreshing Drinks

This year I made a pitcher of White Sangria. I used a bottle of Pinot Grigio, 1/4 cup of Cointreau, 1/4 cup of simple syrup, and slices of 1/2 grapefruit, 1/2 orange, 1 peach, 1 nectarine, and a handful of strawberries and grapes. Snacking on sangria-soaked fruit is an added bonus here.  

For something non-alcoholic, I really love this Watermelon Limeade recipe or this classic lemonade. It's also a good idea to bring along some water as well, something I forgot this year.

3) Blankets (or old tablecloths) To Sit On

I use a couple old tablecloths that I inherited from my mom for picnics. My favorite is an old red and white one.  Any blankets or tablecloths you have laying around (that you don't mind getting a little dirty) will work. Or you could splurge and buy a pretty new one like this one from Terrain.

4) A Big Bag (or Picnic Basket)

I use a large insulated bag, which works great, especially for cold items, but I swooned when I saw this beauty from Anthropologie.

5) Support Equipment

No picnic is complete without packing the necessary support equipment. Don't forget plates, utensils (for both eating and serving), cups (I go for sturdy Tupperware cups), plenty of napkins, cute straws (optional, but who doesn't like cute straws?), ice packs/bags of ice to keep things cold, and something to hold any post-picnic trash (I use a gallon ziploc bag). Finally, I bring extras of everything because you just never know what's going to happen when you're eating outside.

It's also not a bad idea to bring some sort of bug repellent, whether it's spray, one of these Off! fans (they totally work), or a set of tiki torches (I kid).

6) Umbrellas In Case of Rain

Even when the forecast calls for 100% sunny skies, as it did yesterday, an unexpected rain cloud can always blow through, as it did yesterday. As soon as we found a spot to spread out our blankets, it started raining! We huddled under a shared umbrella with the lids on all of our food, laughing at our good luck. It only lasted about 10 minutes, just long enough to soak our pants and our blankets (but not our spirits)!

Happy Picnicking!

How to Host a Grilled Pizza Night (and How Not To)

Two sweet families joined us Saturday for a backyard cookout featuring build-your-own grilled pizzas.  In tow were their unbelievably adorable babies, Noah and Ella.  How sweet are they?

We met both families through my husband's graduate school program, and both are about to leave Boston, headed for new homes and new careers following graduation, so it was great to have one last get-together!  Boy will we miss them! 

Set Up:

As this was an impromptu thing, we kept the decor simple  I threw a table cloth over our weathered picnic table, added a vase of fresh flowers, and that was that.  Thanks to throwing a couple baby showers, I also have a surplus of colorful cocktail napkins, mason jars, and striped paper straws that come in handy for cook-outs.

The Menu:

We provided drinks and pizza "fixins" while our fabulous guests brought appetizers (pita chips, hummus, and bacon-wrapped ricotta-stuffed dates), sides (a gorgeous spinach salad with cantaloupe, strawberries, pecans, and goat cheese), and dessert (to-die-for sea salt chocolate chip cookies).

For drinks, I went with the ultimate summer combo: lemonade and sweet tea, which yields a third bonus  drink (mix equal parts lemonade and sweet tea for a mighty fine Arnold Palmer). We also had a bottle of Rose wine and a cooler of beer on hand.

A quick poll of our guests' favorite toppings (as well as our own) resulted in a fine spread: tomato sauce, pesto, fresh basil, baby bella mushrooms, roasted red peppers, a mix of dried italian herbs, prosciutto, pepperoni, and of course cheese. We usually use just grated mozzarella, but this time we added in some fontina for fantastic results!

How to Grill Pizza:

Rather than making our own dough, we used balls of bagged fresh dough from Whole Foods (most supermarkets sell it in the bakery section).  We divided each ball into thirds, which was perfect for individual pizzas, and my husband stretched and tossed until each resembled a thin disk.

Stretch the dough a little thinner than you want your crust, as it will puff up some once cooked. Once stretched, poke the surface all over with a fork to prevent large bubbles in the crust.

For grilled pizza, you need your grill to be as hot as possible. Once the dough was tossed and the grill was piping hot, we grilled each crust on one side for about 1.5 to 2 minutes (with the lid closed).

To get the dough from the kitchen to the grill, we use a wooden pizza peel dusted with semolina or cornmeal to prevent sticking. One quick jerk should slide the dough from the peel to the grill (as Julia Child would say, you have to have the courage of your convictions about you).

We then put each crust (grilled side-up) on a plate and let our guests start decorating their pizzas. Even Baby Noah got to help with the pizza topping decisions.

Once pizzas were topped, we slid them back onto the grill  one at a time (again using the semolina-dustd pizza peel) for about 2 minutes to cook and crisp up the bottom and to melt the cheese.

 

Serve and Enjoy:

As folks got their pizzas one by one, we gathered around the picnic table and dug in. (Pro Tip: Forget about pizza cutters. The easiest way to cut pizza into slices is with a pair of kitchen shears.) At this point, we could sit back, relax, and enjoy the rest of the evening!

Evenings like this are why summer is my favorite time of year, especially in Boston. Everyone comes out of  winter hibernation, we cook out on the grill, we sip on lemonade or refreshing pink wine, we bask in the sunshine, we swat mosquitoes, and we laugh. What a wonderful night!

Lessons Learned:

Now, lest you think this all went off without a hitch, we learned a few valuable lessons at this cook-out. Thank goodness we have such sweet, patient friends to be our guinea pigs as we continue to get this whole "entertaining" thing figured out.

1) When you invite more than one southerner to a cook-out, make more than one pitcher of sweet tea. Otherwise it will disappear within the first 15 minutes of the party.

2) Doing one large grilled pizza is an incredibly quick meal. In less than 10 minutes, dinner is on the table, so we were surprised at how much more time consuming and labor intensive individual pizzas were (especially for the grill-master).

Next time, we'll toss each crust and pre-grill one side, cooling them on wire racks to prevent sogginess, prior to guests' arrival. When people arrive, they can decorate their pizzas all at the same time. The host can then line them up in an assembly line for the last step (cooking the bottom of the crust and melting the cheese).

3) Don't forget to use the practical, sturdy paper plates, ideal for backyard cook-outs and for minimal clean-up, that you sent your husband on a completely separate errand to get prior to the cook-out. Oops.

Embroidered Baby Swaddling Blanket

A few weeks ago, we had a baby shower for one of my friends. I was in the mood for a crafty project, so I embroidered a swaddling blanket for her, using a little owl pattern, since she is decorating her nursery with baby animals. Despite being a slightly larger project than my Embroidered Cocktail Napkins, the steps are exactly the same, and it's still fairly quick and super fun.  The stitching will take probably an afternoon or two, depending on how comfortable you are with embroidery.

A muslin swaddling blanket is great for stitching, given the loose weave of the fabric, but this pattern would be equally cute on little bibs, a decorative pillow, or framed for the nursery walls (you could even frame your work inside an embroidery hoop as seen here, here, and here).

So here's how I did it!

1) Find a Pattern

I used this darling pattern that I found on Pinterest.  It was meant for a stuffed plush owl, but it's equally perfect for embroidery.

(pattern from Denise Loves Art!)

2) Gather Supplies

Here's what you'll need:

Printed out pattern (it's a big blanket so I used a whole piece of 8.5"x11" paper)

Scissors

Pen

Tape

X-ACTO Knife

Cardboard box, broken down

Embroidery Hoop (I used an 8" hoop)

Aden + Anais
Aden + Anais Swaddling Wrap (this brand was highly recommended by friends with babies)

Water Soluble Pen

Tapestry Needle, Size 22 or 24 (tips on choosing needle types and sizes)

DMC Embroidery Floss

3) Pick Floss Colors

I used the following embroidery floss colors, opting for a pink-hued palette, as my friend is having a little girl. Blue, green, brown, and yellow would be sweet for a little boy. Or use whatever colors tickle your fancy!

  

         Owl Outline: 838 - Beige Brown Very Dark
         Wing Outline: 3832 - Raspberry Medium
         Inner Wing Stitches: 3833 - Raspberry Light
         Inner Eye Circles: 676 - Old Gold Light
         Middle Eye Circles: 3833 - Raspberry Light
         Outer Eye Circles: 3832 - Raspberry Medium
         Beak: 676 - Old Gold Light

4) Trace the Pattern

This was actually the trickiest part of this project! Because the blanket was so cozy and thick, I couldn't see the pattern through the material. I was working at night; therefore, holding it against a lit window was out of the question.  So I had to get a little creative, cutting the pattern out of cardboard using the following steps:

Step 1: Cut out the owl with scissors.  Tape the paper pattern to a piece of cardboard, and trace the outline. Use an X-ACTO knife (and an extra piece of cardboard underneath to protect your work surface) to cut the around the outline.

Place the cardboard pattern wherever desired on the blanket (I chose a corner), and trace around it with the soluble pen.

At this point, it will look vaguely reminiscent of the Millennium Falcon. (Side Note: How cool would that be on a swaddling blanket?!)

Step 2: With the paper pattern, cut out the wings and along the bottom of the eyes and beak. Lay the remaining piece of the pattern on the cardboard. Trace around it, and cut along the lines, setting the cut-away pieces to the side.

Align the remaining cardboard pattern with the outline on the blanket, and trace the wings and the bottom of the eyes and beak.

Step 3: Now take the paper pattern of the owl's head, and cut around the top of the eyes and beak. Place on the cardboard head and trace. Cut along the lines, so that you're left with a cardboard pattern of just the eyes. (It'll look like cardboard owl sunglasses)

Line up that piece on the blanket and trace around the top of the eyes.

Step 4: Next, cut out the middle circle of one of the eyes from the paper pattern.  Place it on top of the blanket, centered on the eye, and trace around it for each eye. Repeat this method for the inner circles.

Step 5: Finally, I used the edge of a cardboard wing to fill in the wings. Line up the curved edge where you would like to place the lines, and follow the edge, drawing short dashes. Repeat until you have three dotted lines per wing to match the pattern.

Now you're finally finished tracing!

5) Start Stitching

We've made it to the fun part! Place the blanket in your embroidery hoop, and start stitching!  You can use whatever combination of colors and stitching techniques you would like to create your little owl, but here's what I did:

Owl Outline:

Using all six strands of the dark brown embroidery floss, back stitch along the outline the owl, leaving the outer edge of the wings un-stitched (see final picture for clarification).

(Note: Embroidery floss is made up of six strands, and you can vary how many strands you use to create thicker or thinner stitches.)

Wings: 

To embroider the wings, use all six strands of the darker pink floss and the stem stitch (I use Wild Olive's alternate stitch, as I find it much easier than the first technique). The stem stitch gives a little texture to the wings, like feathers. Then, with all six strands of the lighter pink, use back stitches to embroider the dotted lines on the wings.

Eyes: 

Stitch the outer eye circles with all six strands of the darker pink floss and the back stitch. Switch to the lighter pink floss, and use all six strands to back stitch around the middle eye circles. Finally, switch to the pale yellow floss, and use all six strands to back stitch around the inner eye circles. Then use a horizontal fill stitch to fill in the center of the eyes.

Beak: 

With all six strands of the pale yellow floss, back stitch around the beak; then fill it out using a fill stitch.

6) Rinse

Now that you're done stitching, remove the blanket from the embroidery hoop, and rinse under cool water to remove the soluble ink. Once it's dry, you have an adorable, personalized, one-of-a-kind baby gift. Ta da!