I Stole Three Pillows!

I had only stolen one thing in my entire life, up until this week.  Actually, I only half stole this particular item.  That does not make sense, but it will.  Let's take a walk down memory lane shall we?  I was eleven years old and in 6th grade, it was 1985.  I was living through the worst year of my entire life.  Trust me, that statement is NOT and exaggeration.  Anyway, under pressure and duress, plus influence from an accomplice I took something that did not belong to me!

It was like all days in 6th grade, a horrible one.  I went to school hating my life.  Hating that I was a teacher's kid.  Hating that I had curly hair.  Hating that I was a dork.  Yet, feeling fortunate that I had about three friends.  As usual, I brought my lunch from home.  At lunch time, I retrieved my lunch from my locker and stood my dorky self in the milk line.  With my chocolate milk in hand, I reached into my pocket for my quarter and realized I forgot my milk money.  Of course none of my friends had an extra quarter.  What to do?  Then, the person in front of me (Yes, I remember his name but I will not disclose for the sake of his privacy) says, "Just take a milk."  Shocked, I said, "No way!"  He says, "Put your hand in the box like you are putting you money in, jiggle the coins a bit, and take the milk."  Palms sweaty, heart racing, pressure building, not to mention that my mouth was parched; I caved.  I committed one of the worst crimes Sugarbush Elementary School has ever seen.  I stole a carton of chocolate milk.  I sat at my table and drank my milk feeling like a thirst quenched monster.  I got away with my crime and felt like even more of a loser than I already was.

For a couple days I could not sleep.  I felt guilty.  I was so worried about being caught and expelled.  So, I did what any guilt ridden, geeky 6th grader would do:  I wrote a confession and placed it under my parent's pillow before I went to bed.  I figured they would read the note while I was sleeping and figure out what the heck to do me with my while I was pretending to sleep.  So, do you think I was grounded?  Was I forced to write an apology to the school?  Nope, my parents said, "Don't worry about.  When you go to school today just put two quarters in the milk box."  I went to school, got in the milk line, took one milk, and put two quarters in the box.  My life of thieving had come to end, until the other day.  

18 x 18 Pillow that became a raffle prize.

I have a warehouse of pillow in my house.  Thanks to consistent sales, the supply is going down.  But, there are still quite a few pillows in the warehouse.  I also have a lot of fabric left over from pillows I have made, gifts of fabric, and new fabric waiting to be made into something wonderful.  Well, this fall I decided to play around and make a few 18 x 18 pillows.  While I really liked the size and fabric, I realized that these pillows would be a pain to ship.  I stuffed one, donated it as a raffle prize when I did the Candy Cane Lane Craft Show, and stored the unstuffed pillows in my fabric trunk.  On Monday, I made a pillow cover with the left over red, blue, and gold fabric and was inspecting the cover while sitting on my couch.  My husband and I realized that fabric coordinated with our living room.  Notice I said coordinated because nothing in our house actually matches.  The next morning, the girls and I stuffed the three empty pillows, sewed them up, deactivated the Etsy listing, and placed them on my couch.  Voila!  I have new throw pillows.  But, I shoplifted them from myself.  Is this morally wrong?  It is not like I got any sort of tax break for this pillow.  I made them before I created my company.  So, I guess I just stole from my future sales.  But, while I may have stole from 715 Pillows, I also did my aging couch a huge favor!

As a mother of  four sticky hands and two sticky faces,  a two year old and five year old, my children are constantly depositing unwanted messes around my house.  Therefore, while a couch is on my short list of big purchases, I am going to attempt to hold off for about two more years.  In the meantime, my couch is twelve years old.  Go Macy's!!!  Which means the throw pillows that came with the couch are twelve years old.  

Can you guess which is the new pillow?

My living room!

I made the big colorful pillow.  The small red pillow was purchased from Target.

I put two pillows on the couch and one on the chair.  I think it ties the room together nicely.  I am happy and I don't feel guilty for stealing from my own company.  It is not like I did not pay for the fabric and make the pillows, right?  Right!  To make amends for my crime, I am going to hold a contest on Friday to give away one of my new pillow covers.  So, in the meantime, click on this link and "like" 715 Pillows Facebook page.  You will have to like the page to enter the contest and get a free pillow cover.  Like me, like me, like me.  You don't want me to feel like that insecure sixth grader you just read about, right?