Portable Dog Bed - Pet Challenge Submission

Coming up with an idea for this challenge was easy for me, because we JUST went camping and of course, we took our beloved Sammy the Dog. She is our first child and tag along whenever possible. She LOVES camping! This picture was taken over Labor Day at Knoll Lake, Arizona where we camped for the weekend. She was just a perfect camping dog .. she let us know whenever there was noise, she ate the fallen food from all SIX children who were there, she lounged by the fire, and of course she took a dip in the lake! In other words, she had a blast! 

OMG I love her! (@ camping over labor day)

 Now our first night, it got COLD and what do you know ... as soon as we opened up the tent to get in, she just followed us! She's no dummy ... she wasn't about to sleep alone when she could get in the confines of the tent and cuddle! She was so funny - she curled up into a ball at the foot end of the tent and slept there contently all night. Of course, I gave her some extra blanket to sleep on so she wouldn't be uncomfortable (the horror!) and shared a cover up blanket with her too- she may look tough, but she's really a cupcake.


The blanket spread out --- it's half the size of a beach towel.

Back to the challenge ... all weekend, I was so happy w/ how much fun she was having but I kept feeling badly that she didn't have her bed. That ground was hard after all. So, when I was thinking about this challenge,  I knew I needed to make her a portable bed.

I came across this one at Martha Stewart and ran w/ the idea. One requirement for my "travel cushion" was to make Sammy (short for Samantha) a GIRLY bed ... everyone always thinks she is a boy! So I picked an old pink beach towel.

My modifications were to just use one beach towel doubled over vs. two towels. I also added an elastic strap so that it can easily roll up and be stowed away for the next outing ...whether that is camping or her friend Ramsey's house for a sleepover. If you don't click to Martha's webpage  - basically this is two layers of quilt batting encased in an old beach towel. You cannot see it in the pics, but I sewed around the outside edges and created grids in the Portable Dog Bed so the batting doesn't move around w/ washing (think a duvet cover with those "boxes" in it).

I'm really pleased with the outcome  - this is definitely something we'll use and it was nice to craft for "Tam-Tam" this round!

It rolls up nice & tight

Geez, I love this dog. Well really, I think our whole house does...