Marathon Monday (on a Tuesday) - 4th Edition

I think this dog enjoys mocking me sometimes. I mean...I am supposed to be shaming him and he acts all bored and yawns. 

He's all like 'whatevs Mom. I'll vomit all over your favorite yoga pants and then proceed to rub it into the mattress because I do what I want.'

Well besides cleaning up puppy vomit, I spent the day doing chores because we have been little piggies lately and this place needs a deep cleaning. I was *almost* half way done and then that little guy set me back a few hours with his added mess (by the way...that mound of laundry in the background was what was on the bed that I washed today and was trying to put away).

Have I talked about vomit enough for you yet? Yeah? Good. Let's move on. 

I haven't done any sort of marathon training update in a bit, so I thought that I would fill you in on where I am at with my training, how it is going and whether or not I have pooped myself yet on a long run (hint: I haven't). 

Last week was an 'easy' week meaning that I had four runs total and they were 4, 7, 3.5 and 11 miles in length. Every few weeks is considered an 'easy' week on our plan. Basically the long run for that week is a few miles less than the previous weeks so your body can do a little bit of recovery. In other words, three weeks ago my long run was 13 miles, two weeks ago it was 15 miles, last week it was 11 miles and this upcoming week's long run is 16 miles.

This week is week 8 of the 17 week training plan. I have only missed one run (I think) that I didn't make up the next day so on that front, I am doing WAY better than the last marathon training plan. I think only running four days a week is perfect for me. Giving myself three non-running days a week really makes me happy and seems to push me to actually get out and run. Knowing that once I run I get the next off is a lovely and motivating thought. 

My running time is getting a bit better thanks to the cooler temperatures. I had a few long runs a month ago where I ended up at a 13:00 minute mile pace due to lots of walking and water drinking, but with my 8 mile and 11 mile long run last week where it was 70 degrees out when I ran, I averaged a 10:30 mile. I am curious to see how the 16 mile long run goes this week. I don't expect a 10:30 pace, but am shooting for an 11:30. 

On the weight loss front, I have been hovering between 149 and 150 lbs still. I've been around this for about three weeks now and haven't really noticed any changes in my body. I did get into a bad habit of eating way too much for about two weeks when I was PMSing, so this week I am working on fueling my body, but trying to not overeat. I have set a goal of trying to get to 145 pounds by September 26th (our 4 year wedding anniversary). Hopefully with eating better and this increased mileage, I can get through this weight loss plateau with a healthy 1 pound a week loss.

Also, something that I need to work on is drinking a lot more water. I did great for a few weeks and was consuming over 100 ounces a day, but with the poor eating habits came poor water consumption. I didn't drink enough water yesterday on my 11 mile run and got so insanely dehydrated afterwards. I had to work at one of the boutiques I sell at and actually ended up vomiting (a green smoothie no less!) while working because I had such a bad dehydration headache/nausea. Drink your water kids!!

And that's the last time I talk about vomit in this blog post. Promise!!

I am getting back on track though and am right around 70 ounces for the day. I have to chug some water soon to help me reach my daily quota!

Can I just interject and say that I am so happy that I work from home because when you drink so much water, I love just being able to walk 10 feet to pee. How do you office workers do it? Does everyone just think you have a bladder infection or something? I would be so self-conscious about it and imagine that I would always talk about how much water I drink to my co-workers so they didn't think I was ill or something. 

Back to running...

This week I am running 4 miles on Wednesday, 7 miles on Thursday, 4 miles on Friday, resting on Saturday with my long run of 16 miles being on Sunday. My long runs are usually on Saturday but I didn't do last week's long run until yesterday due to traveling so I am slowly moving my schedule around to get back to Saturday runs.

Along with that running schedule, I plan on adding strength training to my schedule twice this week on my 4 mile run days. I love the Jillian Michaels DVD, 'No More Trouble Zones' and will be doing that 45 minute DVD both days. I am hoping to get a little bit of muscle definition going and if I can handle the two times a week strength training sessions, I am going to add a third one in on one of my rest days. 

So .... that's about it! I was thinking about doing a blog post in a week or two about what I am eating during this training period as a vegan. Just in case you were interested in how the heck I get my calories.

By the way, sorry for the lack of photos in this post. I look pretty bad whenever I am done running, so those sorts of photographs don't happen often, but here is a random photo of me in running clothes with my husband and mother-in-law at the end of June. 

 Kind of related to the post right? 

Have a great night everyone!

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Oh hey...

Oh hey....

how's it going?

Good? Good.

Didn't mean to step away from blogging last week but I didn't make my usual weekly schedule and it threw me all out of sorts. I still haven't made a weekly schedule for this week, but I plan on doing it first thing in the morning (pinkie swear husband) so hopefully this week is a little more productive and less chaotic than last week.

No real direction for this post, just a general sort of updates post with terrible transitions.

TRANSITION!

Last week I received an unexpected care package from my lovely sister-in-law. I am absolutely digging this new trend of people mailing me random gifts. Please continue this!!

I got some sweet pictures from my niece and nephew, Trader Joe's 'Just Mango' fruit slices (so delicious), beauty samples she had hanging out in her house, some fabric she thought I would like and an adorable running skirt.

Seriously...how cool is she? I am actually eating the last bit of those mango slices right now and you all need to go get yourselves some asap.

Also on Friday, I got another care package from my mom (well....it was mostly for my husband) but it included a box of wine (she knows how much I love myself some boxed wine) and some chocolates for me.

I ate all four pieces of chocolate in the time that it took me to find my camera and take a photo.

I inhaled it.

TRANSITION!

Thursday we headed back to Savannah for the weekend. Man oh man....did we miss it.

Friday I had a business meeting in my favorite place in the world.

Can I just go ahead and live in a yarn store now?

My husband and I like to play a game called, 'when we have money' and my future is always revolving around owning/working at/sleeping in a yarn store.

After my business meeting we went to the mall to buy my husband a new suit.

Did he need a new suit? No.

He has four perfectly good suits at home.

But during the packing of his clothes for this trip, he needed to bring along a suit for a fancy cocktail dinner on Saturday with the law firm he worked at over the summer.

He grabbed from his closet his pinstripe navy blue dress pants, his brown tweed wool dress pants and a different shade of navy blue sports coat.

Once we were unloading the car in Savannah at 11pm on Thursday we noticed the mistake and that he would look quite ridiculous in any combination of the three things, so we were faced with the dilemma of a 9 hour car ride or spending $160 on a new suit.

So we got to spend Friday doing his favorite activity ever (HUGE SARCASM) and buy him a new suit.

TRANSITION!

Saturday I did my hair for the first time since March. Meaning I spent 45 minutes blow drying and straightening it. Hair is so much work!

Since we had that fancy cocktail party to go to that evening, I didn't just want to throw my hair up in its usual ponytail. I wanted to look all pretty and grown-up.

We arrived at the cocktail party looking all fine but I was soon agast to learn that we were spending the entire evening outside.

OUTSIDE!! In 95% humidity.

My hair quickly went from sexy and sleek to this....

TRANSITION!

Last night we spontaneosly decided to go see some live music and we were rewarded with seeing the best concert of our lives from a band we had never heard of before.

Sorry Backstreet Boys concert from 2000. You've been replaced in my heart.

The group was 'Band of Heathens' and the two main guys from the band were giving an acoustic performance last night and it was so good. Their voices were incredible and the song writing was top notch.

Here's a little taste...

The opening act was amazing too. The bass player was the absolute most happy guy that I have ever seen on the planet and watching him dance around and have fun was so contagious. John and I both had smiles on our faces after watching them for a half dozen songs.

TRANSITION!

Today we got our AC fixed. We actually haven't had AC all summer long and while it wasn't fun, we looked at it like an opportunity to cut our summer electricity bill a bit (glass half full kind of folks).

We had ceiling fans and one little fan we moved from room to room (a little white trashy we know) so we weren't too bad, but it was always around 82 degrees in our place.

We finally asked to get it fixed yesterday after coming back from our weekend away and being hit by the sticky heat of our home. The AC guy came today while I was out for my long run and I can't tell you how pleasant it was to come back home from an 11 mile run and to be greeted by a wave of cool air.

The AC confused my body though because I got all chilly while getting ready for work (it was set at 67!) so I left the house in jeans, a sweater and a hat and then looked like the fool walking around Atlanta when it was 80 degrees out.

TRANSITION!

Today was John's last first day of law school. Only one more year to go!

I bet it is going to go by incredibly fast.

Well....for me I guess since I don't have to do any work. Probably not so much for him.

That's about all the updates I have here. Linking up with Sami for her weekend shenanigan's.

Have a great night everyone!

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Our Weekend at Summer Camp

Phew.

I don't know how you parents do it.

This past weekend, John and I took our 'Little Brother' to a summer camp sponsored by Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America (BBBS) and we are exhausted.

We got back late Sunday night, and here it is Tuesday at noon and I am still recovering from our weekend.

I am still slowly drinking my morning cup of coffee and we just spent a while searching Youtube for clips of Carlton dancing.

We lead a busy and exciting life.

Anywho, this weekend was all sorts of fun and tiring.

We arrived at the summer camp around 11am on Saturday and did the usual icebreakers with the other 100 or so 'littles' and 'bigs.'

This basically involved us saying...

'My name is Ashlee and I would bring avocados to a picnic.'

'My name is John and I would bring jam to a picnic.'

Our little's two older sisters were at the camp which made him happy and John and I were the only married couple at the camp. With BBBS, you can be a solo 'Big' to a 'Little' of your gender or if you are married, you can do it together to a male 'Little.'

This was something we wanted to experience together and I am so glad we signed up for the program this way. I love seeing John interact with our 'Little' and just seeing how much of a positive impact our relationship on him.

Our first activity of the weekend was archery which our Little was soooo excited about. When we first told him about the camp a few weeks ago, this was the one thing that he kept talking about. I am glad it was our first activity of the weekend so he didn't have to wait any longer.

Waiting ever so patiently

 

Getting instructions...

First shot and he turned out to be pretty good!

Can you figure out which one is me and which one is Katniss Everdeen?

Didn't think so. 

 Somebody had to shame us all with his perfect form. 

After archery the rest of the day was filled with playing improv games, painting rocks, having 'Spirit' time which consisted of a lot of synchronized dancing and singing (which my husband purposefully hid from once he found out what it was), eating Smores by a campfire, playing carnival games, eating the 'vegetarian' dinner of white rice, going swimming in a big pool with a water slide, and participating in the 'Wacky Olympics' which was just a ploy to be covered by our Littles in hershey's syrup, shaving cream and applesauce. 

As it got dark on Saturday night we discovered that this was going to be the first night that our Little has ever slept away from home (he has never even stayed the night at a friend's house), so there was a lot of tears and homesickness. 

I was staying in a girl's cabin with one of his sister's so she helped me soothe him enough to stay at camp, but John had the adventure of sleeping with him in the boy's cabin that night. 

Neither of them got very much sleep that night and as soon as it was light out (6am) they finally left the cabin and went to the playground to spend the next few hours until breakfast. 

After breakfast we got to go fishing where our Little caught two fishes and John caught one too. 

As John was the only male Big in our group for that activity, he had the pleasure of unhooking everyone's fish.

The rest of Sunday was filled with more 'Spirit' time along with playing games with other kids his age.

We left camp and headed back to Atlanta for our Little's first professional sports game. 

We had some pretty amazing seats to the Braves game courtesy of John's mom and our Little enjoyed the game even though it was so hot that day.

After sitting in the heat for a few hours, we realized that thanks to our tickets, we had access to the club level at the Braves stadium and we found some seats in the shade and enjoyed the rest of the game from our new vantage point.

Our little was pretty emotionally and physically exhausted at this point and needed a little alone time.

When John and I saw this photo, we started singing 'All by myself.......' at the same time. 

After we dropped off our Little at his house, we stopped by the grocery store, got a frozen pizza, a bottle of wine and a bar of dark chocolate and sat on our couch for the rest of the evening watching 'The Sopranos.'

After this weekend, we have vowed to never have teenagers and that we will force our children to go from age 12 to 21.

No inbetween for us, thank you very much.

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

Interview with Pearl from Gray December

Today I am really excited to get to share with you a newer etsy seller who opened up her store earlier this year. I first stumbled upon her shop when I saw a set of her ombre measuring cups pop up on the etsy main page. 

I was instantly smitten and started adding so many of her store's items to my favorites. After reading her answers to my questions, I can tell she is going to be very successful on etsy.

I hope you enjoy getting to know more about her as much as I did!

P.S....Click on any of the photos in the blog to be taken to that item in her etsy store!

Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started.

My name is Pearl Sturtevant, I live in a little coastal town in California and I will be 20 years old this month.

I've always liked the idea of running my own business and being my own boss. I started helping a friend of mine who has a successful pottery business on Etsy with shipping her orders in early 2013, and became interested in opening my own shop. My sister had also recently opened her Etsy shop (GiselleNo5) selling handmade clay stamps and was doing so well, it was exciting to watch her business grow and see the joy she was getting out of it. It's daunting though, to start your own business, so without their pushing me to do it I probably never would have! But on Febuary 19, 2013 I finally opened my little shop, GrayDecember, selling hand painted pottery. I am so glad I did, I am slowly but surely gaining confidence and listing more designs. I have had 14 sales so far, including an order for 15 measuring cup sets! It is exciting to send little pieces of yourself to places like Australia and Norway, I love that Etsy allows me do that.

Apart from creating things, what do you do?!

I love to draw, play guitar, read and watch old movies. I have a big family and am the youngest of seven sisters so spending time with everyone is one of my favorite things to do, we have so much fun together it's ridiculous! I love hanging out at their houses and playing with my nieces and nephews.

Where does your inspiration come from?

I love simple yet beautiful patterns, designs, and colors. Nature is a perfect source of ideas, I have things in my shop that were inspired by ladybugs, zebra print, coral, chrysanthemums, cherry trees and even crocodile skin.

Also, I get inspired by seeing what colors other people like and how they use them. For example, I usually don't like mustard yellow but then I look at my sister's kitchen where she has it paired with a gorgeous vivid aqua blue and I love it! So now I have plans to do a measuring cup set in those colors.

What does handmade mean to you?

To me, handmade things are so special, unlike anything that ever comes out of a factory. Handmade means enjoying the result of someone else's creativity and ingenuity in your own home, and there is nothing as beautiful as that.

How would you describe your creative process?

It varies. Some days it involves blasting great 80's music and painting whatever designs pop into my head, other times I carefully plan out exactly what I want to do and ask others for input first. Both extremes work well, so I just go with it. 

What handmade possession do you most cherish?

Oh that's easy! When I was five years old I found an absolutely beautiful hand carved wooden elephant with the most amazing intricate imitation ivory inlays. It was buried in the field beside our house, someone must have left it there or lost it. It is like nothing I have seen before and I won't ever get rid of it. It is old, weathered, imperfect and in places even broken, and I love it.

How do you get out of your creative ruts?

Ask for ideas! I will often get stuck and feel like I have run out of creativity. Whenever this happens I have found it is a huge help to ask my family and friends "What should I paint on this?" They have ideas that would have never occurred to me! My funky "Hungry Monster" dinner plate was my sister's idea, it has been very popular and I would have never thought of that! 

Where do you see yourself and your business in a few years?

I would love to have my own studio. I imagine a cute little workspace packed with supplies and new designs, where I can be creative and not have to worry about making a mess. I see myself branching out and finding new things that people love. I am about to start a second Etsy shop, called LittleMissive, that sells custom notes inside of hollow painted eggs. I am excited to see how I can get creative outside of pottery!

What is the best and worst thing about being an artisan?

Being your own boss is the best but also the worst I think. I love being able to do whatever I want and be creative but staying motivated is a challenge. Sometimes I wish I had someone telling me to get things done!

What advice would you give to other artisans trying to sell their wares?

Honestly, it's all about the photos. I can't stress this enough! Never underestimate the value of a great listing photo, it makes a WORLD of difference. I have had items that weren't getting a lot of attention even though they had been on Etsy for months. After I took a better listing photo they have completely turned around and become popular. Taking photos of your items can seem daunting but you don't have to be a professional photographer to get great shots, all you need is determination, looking to constantly improve, and willingness to research helpful hints if you get stuck. And it doesn't have to be complicated or expensive! The white background in all of my photos cost me $2 to buy and make. It's just a white poster board taped to a L shaped cardboard support. So simple and cheap but it looks amazing in photos!

What is the most popular item you sell?

Hands down - my orange, coral and pink ombré measuring cups. I can't make enough of those! They have been so popular I just can't believe it - they have been featured on the front page of Etsy, in the Etsy email, in several blog posts and websites, in the Etsy trending items, and were even representing the entire Kitchen & Gourmet section of Etsy for a while! It's funny to think that they were the result of a complete accident, so to speak. I had almost run out of glaze and only had a little bit of pink, red, orange and white to work with that day. So I layered them on and they looked all blotchy and mottled and I thought they would turn out terribly. But they came out of the kiln looking really cool, and I listed them and I was shocked by how much everyone liked them!

What are your top five books, movies, musicians and websites?

Oh no..I can only pick five favorite books?

A Good Year by Peter Mayle
The Secret Life Of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
My Sisters Keeper (anything by Jodi Picoult really)
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Color Code by Taylor Hartman

I love singers like Micheal Buble and Ella Fitzgerald. A lot of my favorite music is classical and oldies, with newer bands like The Fray and Imagine Dragons thrown in the mix.

I especially love old movies like Rear Window, How To Steal A Million, A Room With A View, and You Can't Take It With You. (And pretty much anything with Audrey Hepburn or James Stewart)

Some of my favorite websites are (obviously) Etsy, Pinterest, and DeviantArt (where I post my drawings)

Where can we find you online and off?

My Etsy shop - GrayDecember 

Facebook 
Twitter 
Pinterest
DeviantArt

Thanks so much Pearl for letting me interview you this week! I hope everyone is as impressed as I am with her pottery (I told you the ombre measuring cups are fantastic!) Stop by her etsy store or her facebook page and say hi!

Have a great day everyone!

~ With Love, Ashlee ~

The Last Time I Went Camping + FREE Knitting Pattern

Before I begin this blog post, I just want to say that there are three parts to this ...
1) The Backstory
2) The Story
3) The Free Knitting Pattern

/The Backstory\
If I had to voluntarily choose my spirit animal, I would most definitely choose a lion because they are awesome and have amazing hair.

But in actuality, I seem to have a long and unavoidable connection with bears.

At a young age, my father nicknamed me 'Bear' and that is what I was called all throughout my childhood. Family friends and relatives picked this up to, and no one ever called me Ashlee (unless I was trouble).

My dad granted me the nickname because I apparently was a super cuddly and cute child but when I got angry, watch out cuz I turned into a bear.

My husband's nickname for me is baby bear because he finds it adorable. I asked him at dinner tonight why he choose it for me and he couldn't remember a reason or story behind it....it just is my nickname because it's cute.

 

Personalized Baby Bear PJ's from a few Valentine's ago.

Growing up in Colorado was beyond fantastic for me. My dad was incredibly outdoorsy and together we would plan camping trips, week long backpacking excursions and would hike 14ers (mountains over 14,000 feet) regularly each year.

Each time before we went camping, we would get bear mace at the local REI, he would show me how to safely keep our food out of animal's stomachs and my dad and I would have the most awkward conversations about when my 'time of the month' was going to be because you sure as heck don't want to go into the Rocky Mountains when you are walking target for bears to maul you (they are attracted to the scent of blood like sharks).

(Sidenote: Here is a fun read about the attraction of bears to menstruating women).

So I grew up as a pretty experienced camper, hiker and all around awesome person :)

/The Story\

After living in various big cities on the East Coast with my husband for a few years, we were very excited to move to a state that had 'mountains' again (they aren't the Rockies, but they are better than nothing).

We stocked up all the necessary camping supplies from Wally-Mart (cheddar wurst brats, a box of wine for me and plenty of marshmallows) and headed out to the north Georgia mountains to camp.

John had read about a place online that he wanted to try that was a few hours away, so we took to the mountain roads in our Prius. The drive was fine and dandy until we came to the off-roading part. We ended up having to go a very cautious 10 mph along a curvy, boulder filled road and had to navigate slowly so we didn't scrape the bottom of our car in all the dips, but after a very long drive we finally made it.

The camping spots weren't what I was used to in Colorado. In Colorado, you find a mountain, you build a camp. You find rocks to make a fire ring, you bring toilet paper to poop in the woods and you set up tent in the flattest area.

Here we had parking spots at each camp site, already built fire pits, restrooms available for everyone in the campground and a special pre-flattened area for your tent.

I scoffed at first and talked about how 'this wasn't really camping.'

We ended up finding the only spot that actually had the campsite away from the main area. You parked, crossed a little stream and about 50 yards later there was campsite in the trees. You couldn't see anyone else and we were also really close to the restroooms (hey...if they provided them, I was going to use them).

So we set up camp and did our typical camping ritual...eating, drinking, reading, playing games and trying to be the one who gets to play with the fire.

It's how we roll.

So anyway...first day and night went great. It was a beautiful place, we were having fun and I was making up for some lost time with my cheddar wurst brats (every camping trip I fall off the vegan/vegetarian wagon hard).

So right around dusk on the second night, some fella walks into our camp and starts talking to John. John had walked down to meet him since we were a bit from the road so I couldn't quite hear what they are talking about.

They talk for about five minutes and after he leaves, I ask John what he wanted.

At this point, I can tell that John is choosing his words very carefully.

He casually mentions to me that there was a bear that had walked into a campsite a few down a little bit ago.

Cue me freaking out.

I start being like, 'What?!?!?! What?!?!?! A bear?!?!?!?'

John then proceeds to casually tell me that a family was eating dinner around the picnic table when a bear wanders into camp, walks up to their table WHILE they are EATING DINNER, climbs the table and steals their food.

Cue me freaking out more.

'Oh my god. OH MY GOD! We have to pack up. We need to leave!!'

John starts to 'try' to calm me down telling me that it isn't a big deal, that the bear is more scared of us than we are of him, that he is going to leave us alone, we don't have any food out so he's not interested, blah blah blah.

I am not listening at all to him at this point. I start to get a little bit of anxiety going to be honest.

To calm me down, he pours me a big old glass of wine and tries to get me take my mind off of it by offering to play cards. I agree but I begin my mandatory bear watch.

Did I mention that it is pitch black at this point because the guy walked in right at dusk?!?

So every 5-10 minutes, even though it is pitch black, I scan the horizon with our cheap Wally-Mart flashlight, keeping my eyes out for a bear.

(Sidenote: As I am typing this out right now, my heart is beating so fast because I am scaring the crap out of myself all over again).

After about an hour, I flash my light over the horizon and I see two eyes staring RIGHT BACK AT ME from about 50 feet away!

I start screaming and John immediately goes into super husband mode and starts banging shit, screaming 'HAH! Get out of here! GIT!' and running around trying to scare the bear off.

My first instinct is to save my puppy who is completely baffled and scared beyond belief. We have him tied up to a pole so I start untying knots all while trying to keep my eye out for the bear.

I get Cooper loose and grab the flashlight again. I scan the horizon and the bear has somehow sneaked up on us FROM BEHIND and is 20 feet away, about 3 feet from our tent.

I do what one isn't supposed to do around a bear and grab the car keys and run as fast as I can with Cooper towards the car.

As I am running the 50 yards, out of the woods come running (and I swear to jeebus on this) three shirtless rednecks holding PBRs and screaming, 'Bear? Did you all say BEAR?'

Cooper and I get our butt into the Prius and I hear in the distance my husband and the three hillibillies yelling at this stupid bear. All I hear is drunken southern mountain redneck cussing and lots of noise.

I am shaking I am so scared.

After about five minutes, all four of them come running out of the woods. The bear hadn't left the camp really and keep duking into the woods to sneak attack them from a different angle. The guys grabbed some of our things and ran back to our car after realizing that this bear wasn't going to give up.

My husband and I thanked our shirtless heros and I insist that we have to leave immediately.

My husband makes the excellent point that we won't be able to pack up in the dark and that there is no way we can go down the dangerous mountain road at night in our Prius. I pout. I start shaking and I don't remember if I cried but I wouldn't be surprised if I did.

We all three crawl into our Prius for the most restless, uncomfortable night of sleep ever. We obviously couldn't keep our AC running all night and when we cracked the windows the bugs came in via swarms and I was fairly positive that damn bear was going to come flip our Prius over. So we tried to relax, tried to get comfy in the ever so roomy prius and sweated the night out.

We also had the pleasure of watching every single campsite pack up around us. Our commotion had been heard throughout all 30 campsites and in the morning there were only five or so camps left. Since everyone else had SUVs and they had campsites where they could park at, they got to use their headlights to pack up their site at 11:00pm.

At the first break of light in the morning, I looked like someone on speed packing up that campsite. I was running around like a crazy person, trying to get the hell out of there. We finally hit the road after 30-45 minutes and I have refused to camp since.

That was two years ago and we have been back up to the Georgia mountains twice and each time...I did the smart thing and insisted on a cabin.

As we were driving home from that camping trip, my husband called his parents to tell them about what had happened (he had already moved onto 'the laughing about it' stage while I was still in 'the anxiety attack' stage).

A few days later we got a little present in the mail from them.

My very own bear bell. Apparently the jingling lets bears know where you are so they stay away...

or maybe its so they know where to find you.

/The Free Knitting Pattern\

Phew!

Are you still with me?

Barely? Well...let's make this worth your while.

~ Bear Phone Cozy ~

(want a printer friendly version CLICK HERE)

MATERIALS 

Yarn: About 50 yards of Worsted Weight yarn. I used Lion Brand's 'Wool-Ease' worsted weight in Blue Heather.

Needles: US Size 4 for Cast On (straight or double pointed), US Size 7 double pointed needles 

Crochet Hook: Size G

Notions: Tapestry Needle, Stitch Marker, Pom Pom maker, felt or buttons for face

SIZE and GAUGE

This pattern was originally made to fit a Motorola Defy XT phone. That phone is 4.5 inches tall x 2.3 inches wide x 0.5 inches thick. It is identical in size to the Iphone 4 and .3 inches taller than the Iphone 5. 

 This pattern can easily be adjusted to allow for taller or shorter phones while you work on the pattern. 

My gauge was 5 inches wide by 6 inches tall per inch.

DIRECTIONS

BODY

With the size 4 needles, cast on 28 stitches.

I used the knitted cast on (found here), but if you have a different version you prefer, go hog wild.

Row 1: Using the size 4 DPN needles, join in the round and place a stitch marker at the beginning of the round. Be careful not to twist. Spread the stitches as evenly as possible across your needles. 

Do 1 round of K1, P1

Row 2: Transfer all the stitches to the size 7 DPN's with a round of K1, P1. After completing this round, you should be done with the size 4 needles and have all the stitches on the size 7 needles.

Rows 3-6: Knit 4 more rows in the K1, P1 repeat.

Rows 7-34: Knit all stitches
(feel free to test out the size as you knit along, making it longer or shorter for your particular phone)

Row 35: Finish by a) binding off and seaming flat or b) graft bottom closed.
I grafted the bottom closed on mine.

EARS
Warning: I really can't crochet. I tried to knit numerous types of ears but they were all floppy and didn't look right. Only after fiddling around with crocheting was I able to come up with ears that I liked. 

With that said, I have never written any sort of crochet pattern before, so please let me know if any of this doesn't make sense or is written wrong.

Using a size G hook, Chain 4, Join
Round 1: Work 6 SC through the chain,
Round 2: Chain 1, turn work around and go in opposite direction, do 2 SC in each of the next 5 stitches. - 10 SC total

Tie off and make another.

BEAR BUTT
Using a pompom maker (or cardboard) make a pompom about 1 inch wide. Leave a long pompom tail so you can easily sew it to the bear.

STRAP 
Get back out your size G crochet hook. Leaving about an 8 inch tail, do a chain of 20.

Do not join or anything, just tie off. You just want a chain.

ASSEMBLY
1) Sew the ears to the top of the piece
2) Sew the pom pom to the back side about half an inch from the bottom
3) On the front side, double over the chain and attach it near the middle bottom edge. Once attached the chain will be looped around the pompom to keep the phone in the cozy (see above photo).
4) Make adorable face out of felt, buttons or embroidery thread which only a mother could love. 

Tie off knots, hide ends and stare at your masterful creation.

Email me at mysweetnomsa@gmail.com with any questions, concerns or feedback. I would love to see photos of yours if you make it, so be sure to check this pattern out on Ravelry!

This pattern is for personal use only. Please don't sell anything made with it.

Thanks so much for checking this out!

~ With Love, Ashlee ~