Our Crowdfunder Project is now LIVE! Help us make our dreams come true!

We're LIVE!

Our Crowdfunder project is now live. We now have 30 days to raise the £360 needed to fund our grooming course to enable us to take our small business to the next level.

You can help us by pledging anywhere from £1 - £50. If we reach our funding target within the time frame set, we get to complete our Professional Dog Grooming Diploma and you get some awesome rewards.

If we don't get to our target, we get no money, no money leaves your purse and don't don't get any awesome rewards and we all go home feeling a little sad.

For all the information you could possibly need on my project, including why this is so important to me and what you could ge in return if you help us please click here to read my previous blog posts.

I'm doing this to better myself, to help beat my anxiety disorder, to take my small business to the next level and to follow my dreams but I can't do it without your help.

If you want to become involved in our comminuty, help someone achieve their goals, become a part of a brand that you know and can trust and get some awesome rewards in return please visit our crowdfunding project.

You can donate as little as £1 to our cause. I know times are tough and we're all struggling for money but what you would be giving would be so much more than you could imagine. By pledging, you're giving me a chance to face my fears and follow my dreams.

Please tell your friends and family. If you could convince just 3 friends to donate £1 each we could reach our target in no time at all.

To help us, please visit http://crowdfunder.co.uk/poodlesandpompadours/

24 Hour Countdown for our Crowdfunder Project STARTS NOW!

Our Crowdfunder Project goes live at 8am tomorrow morning. This is 24 hours earlier than originally planned.

We have 30 days from 31st May 2013 to raise the £360 needed to fund our Grooming Course.

You can read all about my project by clicking on the link here to get to my previous blog posts on the subject.

What can you do to prepare for tomorrow? Click here to sign up to Crowdfunder and get your account ready if you would like to pledge to our project tomorrow.

 

We are offering rewards to everyone that pledges and the rewards range from a box of homemade cookies to a surprise goody bag. You can pledge anything from £1 to £50 and every little helps. Even if you pledged £1 and ypu convinced 4 friends to do the same, we would get to our £360 target in no time.

But remember, there is a catch. If we down reach our £360 goal in the 30 days required, WE DON'T GET THE MONEY, so it's essential that we get as many people on board as possible. Please spread the word and convince your friends to pledge a few pounds. It will completely change my small business and open up so many new doors for me.

Thank you.

Until tomorrow,

Hayley xo

 

Lovely Weather for Ducks! Maidenhead Duck Derby 2013

So the weather held off last weekend and we headed off to the annual Maidenhead Duck Derby for some family fun.

It was a lovely day with the dogs. There was lots of stalls, entertainment and activities and the day ended with a duck race of over 3000 yellow plastic ducks down the River Thames.

The Duck Derby is held every year at Ray Mill Island, Boulters Lock in Maidenhead. It's a family fun day held to raise money for lots of different local charities.

You buy a ticket that corresponds with a number on a yellow duck. At the end of the day they set all of the ducks off down the river Thames and the first ones to cross the finish line win prizes.

It's great fun!

My favourite stall of the day was Buttontastic! I have actually met the owners before at the BCA Lambing Weekend and got myself a really cute pair of mint green button earrings so I was happy to see them again.

Buttontastic is run by Conor Musson and his Mum (who is very lovely!). Conor hand-makes all of the jewellery out of vintage or reclaimed buttons and is selling them to raise funds for his trip to Kenya next year to do volunteer work. Good luck, Conor!

Ray Mill Island or Monkey Island as it's sometimes referred to by locals (no idea why!) is a really lovely place and I've been coming here since I was a kid. There is a weir and a little animal section where you can see rabbits and Guinea pigs and lots and lots of cute little birds. Be careful not to get attack by the squirrels though! One peed on me once but that's another story...

I had a lovely time and really enjoyed the walk along the river home, even though my duck didn't win.

Have you ever been to a duck derby? Better yet, have you ever won one!?

Until next time,

Hayley xo

 

Our first trade event. Croydon Tattoo Convention 2013

On June 1st & 2nd we will be attending our first ever trade event for Poodles and Pompadours.

We will be in Croydon all weekend selling our handmade wares at the Croydon Tattoo Convention.

The artist list is filling up fast, the entertainment is going to be mind blowing with Burlesque Performers, Magic, Comedy, Live Music, Roller Girls and a whole load more performing over the two days PLUS traders selling everything from Tattoo Clothing, Body Jewellery & Tattoo Supplies all the way to Calendars & Cupcakes!

I'll be sharing a stall with the lovely Vicky from Stars & Scars. She makes and sells awesome handmade jewellery and paper cuts.

I'll be selling our rockabilly doggie products as well as some special tattoo themed items that I've made especially for the stall.

We'll also be handing out flyers so make sure you pop down on one of the days and say hello!

You can buy advance tickets at a cheaper price here.

For more info visit http://www.croydontattooconvention.com/

 

Our #PPPOTM Pet of the Month is...

Our Poodles and Pompadours Pet of the Month for April is...

JackJack!

@lili_la_scala: @PoodlePompadour #PPPOTM Here's JackJack cuddling a sausage dog called Bismarck! http://t.co/kqTvnbdvyF

JackJack is a Sphynx cat, he's so cute and he even has his own twitter!

You can follow him at @PirateSphynx.

@lili_la_scala: @PoodlePompadour And here is JackJack with his sister Sela. They both only have one eye!! http://t.co/4mloB3EHJH

Congratulations JackJack!

I'd also like to say a huge Congratulations to our runners up, Rascal and Dorris.

JackJack has won a gift voucher for money off of our website.

Such cuties!

Don't forget to enter our #PPPOTM next month for a chance to win. We will be opening our entries from Monday 10th June.

Good luck!

Hayley xo

 

Give Love, Get Rewards: Our Crowdfunder Project goes LIVE in ONE WEEK!

Hi guys!

So I told you before about how on June 1st we will be attending our first ever event with Poodles and Pompadours - Croydon Tattoo Convention - which I will be telling you more about tomorrow.

We also have something else exciting happening on June 1st. Our Crowdfunder Project goes live and you can start to help us fund our Project to complete a 9 month professional dog grooming diploma so that we can expand our business.

You can pledge anything from as little as £1 to a huge £50, and we've got some great rewards for you if you do which you can read about fully and get all the details here.

Here's some of the goodies you could receive if you pledge money to help us.

A £15 pledge gets you one of these hand-painted treat jars. These usually sell for £20 plus postage.

A £10 pledge gets you a handmade bandana made from quirky, retro or vintage fabric. These sell on our website for £15 plus postage

Pledge £30 and get a retro candy stripe pet bowl personalised with your pet's name. These usually sell for £35 plus postage.

Pledge £50 and get a surprise goodie bag filled with lots of gifts and accessories!

Pledge £8 and receive a box of our home-baked Sugar Skull dog cookies. These are not available to buy on our website yet, so you'll be the first to have them.

 

There are many more rewards that you can get for pledging different amounts to help us fund our goal of becoming a fully fledged grooming salon. To read the full list please click here.

 

So what can you do between now and June 1st when we go live? Well you can share this post on Twitter & Facebook. You can let all of your family and friends know about it and help to spread the word. We need all the help you can get.

You can also create your account and sign up to Crowdfunder so that you are able to back our project. To do that just CLICK ON THIS LINK. Create your account by simply filling in your details.

Remember, you choose how much you would like to pledge, your rewards will be posted out to you after our project has ended, and you don't part with any cash unless we reach our full funding goal.

 

We'll be back in touch on the morning of the 1st June 2013 to let you know the link so that you can access our Project and place your pledge.

Thank you for your continued love and suppot,

Hayley xo

 

And our #PPPOTM finalists are.....

I had so many entries for our Poodles and Pompadours Pet of The Month competition that you have made it nearly impossible for me to choose a winner.

All of your pets are just too cute!

I've narrowed it down to 3 finalists and I will be announcing the winner on Monday.

The finalists are...

*DRUM ROLL*

JackJack the Sphynx.

Doris the Dog

and

Rascal the Guinea Pig!

 

@lili_la_scala: @PoodlePompadour #PPPOTM Here's JackJack cuddling a sausage dog called Bismarck! http://t.co/kqTvnbdvyF

@Constancepeach: @PoodlePompadour #PPPOTM Doris :) dressed up with nowhere to go! http://t.co/pdEg8AHeiP

@StarrLitLove: @PoodlePompadour Here is my boy, Rascal, with his "baby". :) #PPPOTM http://t.co/EqW21vNKfO

 

MISSING CAT IN MAIDENHEAD

I was walking the dogs at the weekend and came across this missing cat poster.

It made me sad as I would hate for a family pet to go missing so I thought I would share it here in the hopes that this little moggie will be reunited with his family.

 

Our Pinup Girl and Poodle have names! WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

We had such a fantastic response to our competition to name our Pinup Girl & Poodle that it made it almost impossible for me to choose a winner.

I decided to split it into two categories to make it slightly easier to choose, so we have one winner for Best Pinup Name and one winner for Best Poodle Name.

And without further ado I can proudly announce the the beautiful dame and her four legged friend are now called....

*DRUM ROLL*

BETTY AND LOLA!

The lovely lady who suggested the name Betty for our Pinup Girl was Julie Blackwell

and Gillian Stewart (Oh My Dog!) wins the prize for naming our Poodle, Lola.

You have both won a little treat jar!

The reason I chose these names is because Betty is the name of the wife of the genius who actually drew our logo (Betty Pamper & Nick Beedles from Betty Bee Photos and The Vintage Pamper Box) so that suggestion really stuck out to me, and I chose Lola because I absolutely love The Kinks and I think that sound is an all time classic and Lola looks like a little rock star.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions, there really were some great ones and it was so hard to choose the winners.

We had some duplicate entries, with more than one person suggesting the winning names, so to make it fair, the winners were the first people to suggest the names.

The other 3 people who also suggested the names are our lucky runners up and will be receiving a £5 discount code to use on our online shop.

Congratulations to The Runners Up:

Betty Bradford (Betty)

Hannah Beth Roberts (Lola)

and

Loren Colwell (Lola)

Could the winners and runners up please email me at woof@poodlesandpompadours.com with "Betty & Lola" in the subject line to claim their prizes?

Thanks again everyone!

Hayley xo

 

Our #PPPOTM entries so far. Have you joined our pet picture competition?

We've had some seriously cute pet picture entries for our #PPPOTM competition. I'm going to have a hard time picking a winner!

If you haven't got involved yet why not? All you have to do is tweet us a picture of your pet at @PoodlePompadour and include the #PPPOTM hash tag to take part and your pet could be featured on our blog.

Here's the entries we've had so far...

 

 

 

 

Give Love, Get Love: Our Crowdfunder Project & Rewards

So yesterday I told you all about how we have been approved for our Crowdfunder project and how from 1 June 2013 we will have 30 days to raise a minimum of £360 for me to complete my Professional DogGrooming Diploma in order for me to expand Poodles and Pompadours.

Well as I said yesterday, I'm not just asking for charity. If you pledge to help support me and help my business to grow, you will get sometime back in return, other than just the awesome feeling of knowing that you're helping someone to follow their dreams.

Below is a list of the Rewards that you can receive if you pledge as little as £1 to help us get started. Remember, we only have 30 days to reach our £360 goal, so we need to raise a minimum of £12 per day to stay on target.

• For either £1 or £2 you can get a signed Thank You Card from Myself, Bambi and Bear.
• You can donate £5 and not receive anything for your donation other than an awesome feeling and lots of happy wagging talks.
• Pledge £8 and you will receive a box of homebaked dog cookies.
• Pledge £10 and you can choose any of the bandanas from our website. These are usually priced at £12 plus postage so you're getting yourself a bargain.
• Pledge £15 and you will receive a handpainted treat jar from our website. Usually priced at £20 plus postage
• Pledge £18 and you'll receive an awesome Poodles and Pompadours T-Shirt that I've screen printed by hand. These are not available to the general public yet!
• Pledge £20 and get a £25 gift voucher to spend on our website.
• Pledge £25 and get a £30 gift voucher to spend on our website.
• Pledge £30 and get a Retro Candy Stripe pet bowl which is available in 4 colours. It is handpainted and personalised with your pet's name on it. These are £35 on our website plus postage.
• Pledge £40 and get 2 for the price of 1 grooming session once I have completed my grooming course. This is only available to local Maidenhead residents.
• Pledge £50 and get a surprise goodie bag filled with handmade gifts and treats worth over £50! Everyone loves a Lucky Dip!

Our project goes live on June 1st. £360 could actually change my small business and my life forever and it would all be down to you.

I will let you know all of the relevant links etc for when it goes live, and will keep you up to date with any progress.

Please share this with your friends and family. Even if you and 5 of your friends just donated £1 or £2 each, if everyone did that then I would reach my goal in no time at all.

I know this is such a difficult time for everyone, and people are really suffering financially but all it takes is a few tweets, a Facebook like and a couple of £s and something magical could happen here.

Until next time,

Hayley xo

 

WE NEED YOU! Please help us make our Crowdfunder dreams come true.

 

We desperately need your help! We have been approved for a Crowdfunder project.

Crowdfunder is a website which gives people the chance to pitch their ideas to the public and if they like it, they can pledge as little as £1 each to help support the project and get it off the ground. If you don't meet your funding target within the time frame that you are allowed, your project doesn't get to carry on and you don't get any money. Boo hoo! :( This means that only the popular projects that have people who believe in them will receiver their funding.

On June 1st 2013, as well as attending our first ever Trade event for Poodles and Pompadours (Croydon Tattoo Convention - more about that later!), our Crowdfunder project will also go live to the public.

We will have just 30 days to raise the £360 needed for me to complete my Professional Dog Grooming Diploma. That's a minimum of £12 per day that I need to ensure that I reach my goal.

If I reach my funding goal I will receive the £360 and can go on to complete by course and expand Poodles and Pompadours further by finally being able to offer our grooming services. It's my dream to one day own a premises in which I can have my rockabilly pet boutique and grooming salon combined, and completing this course is the first step to making this happen.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I suffer from a really nasty and horrible illness called Anxiety & Panic Disorder. I have previously been housebound by this illness and at the moment I'm doing all that I can do beat it. Completing this course would be another building block for me to get my self confidence back, and as I am unable to work a "normal" job, it will also provide me with extra income to pay my bills and expand my small business to where I want to take it.

I can't do that without your help.

I'm not asking for charity. Each person that pledges only towards my project will get something in return. These are called "Rewards" and they are there to make sure that everyone get's something out of this process. It's not all about me, it's about being involved in a community, and you being involved in a brand that will hopefully one day become worldwide.

I'll write more about the Reward that I'm offering tomorrow, and I'll also be blogging the link to our project later on in the month.

So what can you do to help? Well, please share this blog post with as many people as you can. Tell them about us, our project and our small little doggie business and then come back tomorrow and read all about what you could get if you help us to reach our target.

Want to find out more about how Crowdfunder works? Click here.

Thanks in advance, and I look forward to talking to you tomorrow.

Hayley xo

**UPDATE: Click here to read about our Rewards**

 

It's all in the name... Name our pinup girl and poodle!

I've just realised that the vintage vixen and her poodle from our logo do not have names! How can this be!? Comment below the picture on our facebook page to suggest some names for them both and I'll pick the best one as the winner.

 

You'll get to name our gorgeous pinup girl & poodle AND I'll send you one of our handpainted treat jars! Get naming! Hayley Xo

www.facebook.com/poodlesandpompadours

 

My first ever OOTD post: Grocery Shopping & Dog Walks

So, I've never actually done one of these before and I have to admit I'm a little nervous. I had planned to show you some Outfit of The Day posts whilst I was on holiday in Paris, but I kind of chickened out.

I'm starting with something super casual and simple today to get into the swing of things and hopefully I'll feel more comfortable posting these more often.

I was just grocery shopping and walking the dogs today so I dressed in simple back leggings (Primark), a temporary Poodles and Pompadours Tee (which is actually just a Sainsburys Tu white tshirt that I printed my logo on to), a simple dusky rosé cardigan that was a hand-me-down from my Mum a few years ago, New Look black cut out peep-toe flats and my new handbag which I picked up from a little market stall in town this week.

I'm also wearing a minty blue and lilac/pink orchid hair flower that I made myself when I was bored yesterday.

My glasses are from Specspost and my pink lipstick is from Models Own. I'm hoping to get some of the new pinks from Rockalilly when they come out (hope I haven't missed that!) so I'll review them when they arrive. I'm usually a red lipstick person but I do love a subtler pink every now and again.

Phew! I did it!

Hayley xo

 

Your Pet could become a star with our #PPPOTM Pet Picture Competiton!

Does your pet have what it takes to be a star?

Send us your cutest pet pictures every month and they could win our very special Pet of The Month competition! Your fluffy baby, if chosen, will be featured in a special blog post on our website.

Make sure to include #PPPOTM in your tweet otherwise your entry will not be included. You can also add them to our Facebook Page if you like us at www.facebook.com/poodlesandpompadours but please note you must LIKE our page and be a fan to have your picture included in the competition.

 

Get tweeting!

Hayley xo

 

Bambi & Bear's Review: Precious Pets Luxury Dog Shampoo

Hello everyone!

Hope you are all OK and enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend. I've been meaning to blog about this for a while now but as usual I just hadn't got around to it. A few weeks ago the lovely people at Precious Pets sent me some samples of their luxury dog shampoo to review. They launched their company at Crufts this year and they create naturally derived luxury dog shampoo.

I bathed Bambi and Bear this weekend after a lovely long walk in the woods and decided to try it out. Usually I use Pet Head "Fears for Tears" Green Apple & Kiwi Tearless Shampoo and Furtastic Blueberry Muffin Creme Rinse Conditioner for Curly and Long Coats. I've been a Pet Head fan for some time now so I was interested to see how these new luxury shampoos would compare.

Bambi has bathed in Country Garden which smelled of lovely flowers and lavender, and Bear was bathed in Vanilla Dreams which as you can probably guess was a gorgeous vanilla scent.

Both shampoos felt lovely, lathered really well and made the dog's coats feel super soft. I would recommend using a conditioner with them though. Normally I always use comditiomer as I have long haired dogs and it helps to prevent matting, but decided against it for the purpose of this review and did find that their coats were a little more prone to knots when I was brushing them straight after the bath. Precious Pets are releasing a range of conditioners but I'm not sure when these will be available to buy. I'll let you know as soon as they are available and I'll do a review of the conditioners as soon as I can.

You can see my Vine videos of Bambi and Bear enjoying their Precious Pets bath time below...

And here's them after a good brushing...

Look how fluffy they look! Their coats were so soft and shiny, and I've now developed a weird habit of smelling them all the time because they smell so delicous. A little bit awkward when you're out in public and caught sniffing your dog. Lol!

I would definitely use these shampoos again and would recommend them to anyone else. At £19.99 for a bottle I think they are reasonably priced as they only use great quality ingredients that you would also find in human quality shampoo. I would always be prepared to pay more for higher quality products, especially when it comes to my animals.

Here's what they say on their website about their products:

"Welcome to Precious Pets. We are a small family run company, with big ambitions, produced entirely in the UK.

Our dog shampoo is made of the highest quality ingredients that would usually be found in premium natural human skin care products. It is extra gentle on your dog’s skin, to ensure that no skin irritation should occur.

Ingredients include extracts and derivatives of Coconut Oil, Aloe Vera, Chamomile, Oat Meal and Vitamin B5.

Our shampoo is kind to the skin and enhances the natural qualities of all coat types, leaving it glossy and healthy, without stripping the natural oils. It is low-lather, meaning you need to use less of it on the coat and it washes in and out quicker than high-lather synthetic shampoos."

Bambi and Bear loved their bath with Precious Pets Luxury Dog Shampoo. Their coats are shiny and soft, and they can't wait for their next bath time. Extra Brownie Points for being produced entirely in the UK too!

If you want to find out more about the company, and order any of their shampoos online you can do so by visiting the website at http://thepreciouspetscompany.co.uk/ or find them on Facebook and Twitter.

 

P.S If any of you have any pictures of your pets taking a bath, I'd love to see! Leave a link to your blog post in the comments below or you can email them to me at woof(at)poodlesandpompadours(dot)com.

Hayley xo

 

Poodles and Pompadours win Ingenious Britain's Small Business of The Month

Hooray!

I've been waiting to blog about this until my interview was up on their website, and it is now.

Poodles and Pompadours won Small Business of The Month for April. What a great little boost that was!

We get a shiny new badge and a little interview over on the website which you can read here.

If you're a small business owner and you would like to enter to become next month's #SBOTM then follow Ingenious Britain on Twitter @ingeniousbrit and keep an eye out for their call for new entrants by following the #SBOTM hashtag.