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Hello my friends. It is 10 days to go till Christmas! Are you excited? I am sure you are…. ;) We are busy busy busy with things around the house (after a kitchen renovation – you can just imagine the work that still needs to be done, yes even 3 months later ;) and then there’s shopping, and catching up with my awesome baby sister and getting to know her ‘mate’ ;)

That’s right, good times are happening ~ we all dressed up our Christmas tree last nigh while listening to Christmas carols of course, and drinking Cranberry Peppermint tea – that my sister, the mixologist, created.  And my daughter was very busy counting on her fingers the number 5 – which represents the number of people now living in our house ;) Fun!

But now let’s pause this excitement for a moment, because I want to share with you a fun little gift I made for my big sister, the one with the little boy, and the one who is very stylish and basically is a modern mama indeed.

Her December Birthday was coming up the other day (sorry, little sister missed it as her flight from LA got delayed), but it happened that same day, would you believe just a few hours earlier. Well, I was really stuck on what to get her ~ I saw some cool faux fur stockings the other day and I instantly knew she would love them. But wait, what do I get? A set of two large, grown up stockings? Obviously that would not be proper to exclude their little almost-two-year-old son. So I had an idea, dug around in my fabric drawer and pulled out some grey toned faux fur strip that I purchased a while ago (yes, sometimes I just get excited about doing some craft, get the supplies, and then they just sit in one of my drawers – so it’s kind of a normal thing that when I need, let’s say, faux fur, I just open up a drawer and there it is! ;)

I decided to make a little stocking from the faux fur and make a really cool modern stocking for the chic mama as a gift.

You can easily find a small roll of faux fur in most craft stores or even department stores, and of course by the meter in fabric stores. I worked with what I had and I was a little limited with the size of my stocking ~ but it worked out just fine.

Materials: faux fur fabric, (as much as you need for the size of your stocking, I used a 4″ craft strip x 1 yard and it was enough for a small stocking), fabric scissors, needle and thread, chalk or fabric pencil to mark your shape., a small piece of elastic or shoelace for the loop on top.

1-2. because I worked with a fixed width of 4″, I needed to add to make my curve from extra pieces. 3-5. mark equal parts, so you create a matching front and back, and cut.  6. pin front sides in.

7. stitch all around. 8. poke in the top and slowly unfold. 9. add a small piece of black elastic to make a loop. 10. all done.

Here are all the 3 stockings with the baby in the centre.  And then my little nephew already enjoying his fun new furry toy ~ before Santa will fill it with goodies come Christmas Night ;)

I would have loved to take credit for all three, but I did end up buying the two large stockings. Sometimes, being creative isn’t about the sweat and tears of starting a full big project from scratch. Sometimes my ‘to do’ list is a little much and then I end up disappointed that I can’t get through all my projects. I’ve learned to keep the list a little smaller as I get older but I still do create.

Give yourself a break sometimes, and if you want to create ~ yes, do create and make handmade gifts ~ but sometimes, be realistic and  just do what you can. It’s ok if you can’t do things from scratch, what’s really lovely I think, is working with purchased gifts sometimes and personalizing them somehow with either embroidery, or adding some finishing touches that really set it apart and make it special ;)

How are you doing in the ‘making gifts’ department? Do you make your own gifts?
Please share your ideas on finding or making the perfect gift ;)