Hi there, this is Kayla again. I am the designer of one of our newer patterns: the jelly bean faces pillow.

Let me tell you, it is a freaking adorable pattern. *said with complete humility* You get six amazingly cute little faces that go on a jellybean shaped pillow, and the best part is, they each have a tail! Adding tails to things just makes things cuter… like when we added tails to the back of Kira’s girls’ shirts and sent them running around Yosemite National Park.

But I digress; we’re here to talk pillows. I love the pattern just the way it is, but with my nieces’ birthdays coming up I had an idea brewing and I knew I would need to make a couple simple changes to my pattern.

First, I think we need a little background. Kira and I are traitors. Pretty much everyone in our extended family either graduated from, or at least attended, Utah State University. My Mom’s dad was even a professor there. We however, went to Brigham Young University (BYU). Because of our age gap, our time in college only overlapped by about 1 year, but it was the best year ever! Kira moved me into my dorm, claimed me the good bathroom, got me a job, and rearranged my schedule to work with said job all while I was traipsing around Europe with my Mom. (Do I have the best sister or what?) She and her husband also made sure I attended every home football game. I wasn’t very involved in anything but homework in high school, so I attended my first ever football game that year and I loved it. It was hard not to sitting next to my sister and brother-in-law; their enthusiasm was absolutely infectious. Kira’s husband, Zac, is crazy about BYU, and football in particular.

He had a rule that we weren’t allowed to leave the stadium until the game was over, no matter how much we were winning or losing. On one occasion, this led to us sitting in the bleachers covered in snow with soaking wet shoes, watching as the players were simply sliding around on the field for the last 15 minutes. Honestly though that is one of my favorite memories from my freshman year. Zac has passed his love for BYU on to his girls. Each girl came home from the hospital in the same BYU onesie. They all know when we are wearing a BYU cougar shirt (they always say “BYU cougars”), and pretty much every cougar is Cosmo. Kira graduated with a Bachelor’s in Biology and I have a Bachelor’s of Psychology. We loved our time at BYU and I know I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Plus it helps that our mascot is not only a cat (my favorite animal) but also just pretty darn awesome in general. Cosmo gained a bit of internet fame a while back when he joined in with the cougarettes’ performance during a game. If you haven’t seen it, you should check it out, cause it’s pretty awesome:

Now back to the real reason for this blog. Kira’s daughters, though terrified of actual cats, say they love them, and they definitely love Cosmo. So, I wanted to make Cosmo the cougar pillows for my nieces and I knew that a few simple changes would make that kitten into Cosmo. I think he turned out pretty darn cute! Poor G, she got her birthday pillow about two months late. From what I hear though it quickly became her pillow of choice. When I gave G her cougar pillow we kind of spoiled the surprise for R and told her that she would be getting one for her birthday in July. Well, that came back to bite me in the butt. Kira and I both flew out to our parent’s house in the first week of July, before R’s birthday. Our parents were then going to take all three of Kira’s girls on a road trip to Canada and Kira and I were to meet them a week later. It wasn’t long after I arrived at the house that I was informed that G had told her sister not to bother packing a pillow because “Auntie Rhodie” was going to be making her a Cosmo pillow for her birthday. While this was true, I was planning on making it during that week between our visit to Vancouver and our trip to Canada. Since I couldn’t send my adorable niece on a weeklong road trip without a pillow, I sat right down and whipped out a second one. I think Kira’s girls approve of their pillows. I don’t think either of them is actually named Cosmo anymore (although I think the name changes every time I ask) but as long as they are happy, then so am I.

If you have anyone in your life who is a BYU fan, Washington State fan, or fan of any of the many other institutions with a cougar mascot, or you just really love cougars, and you want to make your own cougar pillow then you are in luck! If you already have the jelly bean faces pattern, you just need to head out to our website and download the cougar pieces for free right here:

If you don’t have the jelly bean faces pattern already you can grab that here and just add the free cougar pieces while you’re out there. Be sure to look around the rest of the website while you’re there. We’ve got some seriously cute stuff out there. Plus, there’s a whole section dedicated to freebies! Awesome, right?

Thanks for stopping by, and putting up with that long-winded explanation of why we have a free cougar add on.

P.S. Oh, and you know that cute little pocket on the back of your pillow? It’s perfect for slipping in a little tooth-fairy money, or a love note to your child.