it's never too early!

flower stocking
okay...so you're thinkin the heat really fried my noggin for me to be bloggin up a christmas stockin at this time o year....but you're wrong o wrong!

i always hate it when martha or one o the other divas of doins mag up some fabulous feat for us to fall for when it's waaaay to late for us to even ponder attemptin to follow in their fab footsteps! like martha's plant pick o the month....they're always pretty as they can be but the publication she picks to pop em into is the time o year they should be in full bloom...it is my opinion she should put the pretty photos in around the time o year we too could plop em in the ground...not long after...so all we can do is watch her parade her prize peonies or whatever past us!

it's for this reason that i thought i'd begin showin you a few o the stockins i have made for my mini and many others....maybe if you are an annual stockin sewer and stuffer, i'll have somethin that may inspire you to get goin a bit early this year.

i love stockins to stuff and must admit i make em for other times o the year besides just christmas....nothin like gettin a birthday stocking chock full of all your favorite lil things! or havin the easter bunny hop away, havin left a egg filled sock! i love stockins so much and have made mini a plenty - so many in fact that instead of just an advent calendar with lil doors that fly open for the month o december i do up the advent calendar o stockins!

i usually do em up while she is at school and when she gets home, she finds em hangin up in the entry way - one for each day o the month! inside i tuck away a special ornament, a lil note to keep with the ornament so years from now she'll know why it was picked or made for her and then maybe some other lil treats. there have been years when i ran outta ornaments...when this happens i find one from when she was a baby and the note enclosed tells the story about the old one...she doesn't care whats inside really... just as long as the stockins get hung and we have one for each night when she gets in bed. whatever i put in, the result is a couple o hours every night that month, me tellin her stories about a lil of everything and her tellin me stories about the things she remembers. i could miss christmas with no problem but the advent calendar stockings are the highlight of the year for both of us!

here is one o my favorites - the one for day 18. i made it the first year i started makin my wool felt flowers...in fact, if you had the doo dad felt flowers delivered via download, i am pretty sure you have a few o the ones from this stockin yourself!

so...that's my push for you to start thinkin about the things you can start makin now for that big gift givin day....you sure will think kindly of me come december first if i can gently nag you to at least start the warmin up process NOW! maybe i'll blog up a stockin a week - just to keep sort o inspirin and remindin you how good you'll feel and how much money you'll save if you start some things in august....then come december you can just sit back and eat bon bons and do some scrappin while everyone else is fightin the crowds!