Maybe not by the chimney, but certainly with some care :)  I was up into the wee hours last night to hang the Christmas stockings, largely because, even though I don’t have much holiday decorating done, I really want to link up to the mantel party at The Lettered Cottage and the link party at Craftberry Bush.

I made these stockings two years ago after purchasing a sewing machine at one of the big discount stores, because I was determined to create burlap Christmas stockings for my family.

Well, I did make them.  And, for my first sewing project, I have to say… I was pretty darn proud!

I created my own makeshift pattern, lined them, and attached pieces of linen with stamped ‘names’ on each.  My junior high home economics teacher would have been proud!

Junior high home economics class was the only place I ever received any instruction in sewing.  I guess you could say I flunked the class, since my mother put the zipper in the purple skirt I chose as my class project.  Why purple, you ask?  The school colors were purple and gold and I wanted to make something to wear on purple and gold day!  I don’t know that I ever actually wore the thing, but thanks to my Mom, I did complete it.

I digress…back to the stockings…

It may be you would like to have your own name on your Christmas stocking, rather than a beach word that starts with ‘s’…what can I say?  I think it makes things interesting to add a little personal style, and since my holiday décor is coastal, why not ‘sun’, ‘sand’, ‘surf’, and ‘sea’?  My daughter took dibs right away on surf (since she owns her own surf board, I  figured it was a no contest)… the guys really were indifferent…as long Santa included a few gifts in the stockings, it really didn’t matter what they looked like!

I hope you enjoyed the photos of my homemade family Christmas stockings.  Now that I have the stockings up, I really need to get going on the rest!

It takes a lot of late night televison to get everything done…have you ever seen reruns of The New Adventures of Old Christine?…they are pretty funny!  If you are ever up at 1:30, check it out!

And now, I can link up to the party I mentioned (the reason I had the motivation to start decorating)…take some time to visit all the other great mantels and ‘un’ mantels by clicking here to see the Mantel Party at The Lettered Cottage and here to see the link party at Craftberry Bush.  Enjoy!

Thank you so much for stopping by, Jackie