A little more expensive....

This is probably the hand made gift that will cost me the most this year; however, I was really drawn to them and have convinced myself that they're worth it. They are Suede Pillows.

You need about a 1/2 yard of fabric, 1/2 yard contrasting color fabric, and about an 18-inch pillow.

• Cut one 19-inch square and two 19-by-12-inch rectangles. Lay rectangles on square so they overlap a few inches in the middle (this will be the opening to insert the pillow). Pin all the way around; sew with a 1/2-inch seam allowance.
• Cut away some seam allowance by snipping diagonally across each corner. Turn right side out; insert pillow through opening. For the contrasting sleeve, cut a 19-inch square (for a 1/4 sleeve, cut a 19-by-14-inch rectangle).
• Fold in half end to end, and sew along ends and fold (snip corners as before). Turn right side out; slip over pillow.

I'll close with a story from my Cyber Monday. I had picked out some clothes for my almost 3 year old last week at gap.com because I knew they would go on sale today, Cyber Monday. Since I had already picked them all out and saved the order in my "cart" on gap.com, I knew all I needed to do was log-in and pay quickly during between classes.

I first time I type in gap.com this morning, a screen pops up that says "due to website construction, check back later". So I wait till my lunch break and try again. I get onto the site this time and fill out all my shipping/payment info. I click "submit order" and the site doesn't do anything except say "error". I click it again and it says processing, but then says error. I start to stress out thinking that it has now charged my debit card twice which would just be annoying to have to call the bank. I log onto my bank account and there hasn't been a transaction from gap.

Sooooo.....I call gap customer service to make sure I wasn't charged yet since I didn't get to enter my "free shipping" code. They tell me their site has been broken most the day......hmmmm....that doesn't help. They transfer me to a sales lady who has to manually type in the 12 digit number to each of the 9 items while waiting for her computer to update....this takes about 30 minutes.

Finally, after about a hour of simply trying to order my son some Christmas clothes, I finally get a confirmation number and my package is on it's way!

Needless to say, it seemed like a lot of work but this Wednesday, I'll get my son's first Christmas presents of the season! I guess it was worth it:)