Lauren, it will not appear on the blog before that date if you do so.
This is how you can do it, post #722 on this thread:
Forums at Splitcoaststampers
I made a small change in the HTML of my blog:
I changed 'no' into 'yes' in the part you see below (it's typed in red here).
<b:section class='main' id='main' showaddelement='yes'>
<b:widget id='Blog1' locked='true' title='Blog Posts' type='Blog'/>
</b:section>
In layouts it shows "add a gadget" now above my posts. I can use it to write a sticky post.