Dog Christmas Gifts for Under £50

Here are my top 5 picks for Doggie Christmas Presents for £50.00 and under.

Information about how and where to buy these products can be found in the links below.

Happy Shopping!

Hayley x

1. Christmas Hamper from Doggielicious - £49.90

2. Wizard of Oz Swarovski Dog Collar from UrbanPup - £34.95

3. Hand knitted Moustache Jumper from Willie Ratbag - £32.00

4. Union Jack Harness from Mutts and Hounds - £42.00

5. Deluxe Christmas Gift Set from Poodles and Pompadours - £50.00

 

 

Dog Christmas Gifts for Under £25

Here are my top 5 picks for Doggie Christmas Presents for £25.00 and under.

Information about how and where to buy these products can be found in the links below.

Happy Shopping!

Hayley x

1. Personalised Christmas Treat Box from Alpha and Ruby's - £12.50

2. Herbal Dog Tea from Woof and Brew - £3.99

3. Mucky Pup Nose and Paw Balm from Pet's Pyjamas - £5.95

4. Monthly Pet Subscription Box from Poochpack - £24.95

5. Handmade Christmas Neckerchief from Poodles and Pompadours - £12.00

 

 

Christmas Gift Ideas for Dog Lovers

When I came up with the idea to do a series of Christmas Gift Guides for my blog, I knew I wanted to champion small businesses in the UK, and so for my first Christmas gift guide for Dog Lovers I have decided to focus solely on products sold on notonthehighstreet.com (NOTHS).

NOTHS is an online marketplace packed full of UK based independent designers and small businesses. They sell a huge range of goods that are all made in the UK and since I have made a pledge this year to promise that all of the gifts I will be giving are either handmade by me, handmade in the UK or sourced second hand or from charity shops, I thought this would be a good place to start.

"We're passionate about hand-picking the best creative small businesses to sell on our marketplace, making it simple for you to find inspired, personalised, stylish or unique things.

We don’t sell one particular style. We choose sellers who offer great design and the best quality products, many of which can be customised to suit you. It’s easy to find (or create) the look or style that works for you.

Support British creative talent

Everything you buy from our site comes directly from one of the artists, designers and curators who make up our collection of sellers. By shopping with us you’re doing business with diverse, talented independent sellers who care about quality, innovation and style as much as you do, as well as supporting the future and growth of creative talent."

http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/

 

Here are my 22 Gift Ideas for Dog Lovers. Information of how and where to buy these products can be found by clicking on the linked item number below.

Links to the products - 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

Custom Pet Portraits by www.studio-legohead.com

 

As you will see, I have also included one final item in my Christmas Gift Guide for Dog Lovers that is not from notonthehighstreet.com.

These custom pet portraits are by the wonderful illustrator and textil artist Jo Chambers.

Jo is a British artist based in Bath and her gorgeous pet portraits have been on the top of my wish list for some time now.

To see more of Jo's artwork you can visit the Studio Legohead Facebook Page.

Happy Shopping!

Hayley x

P.S incase you're wondering about the slippers - they are for keeping your feet toasty warm after a long, cold and probably wet dog walk.

 

Events: Holyport Christmas Shopping Evening

Our first Christmas event! How exciting.

I'll be having a stall at Holyport School for their Christmas Shopping Evening on Thursday November 21st 2013.

I'll be sharing my stall with my mum who will be selling her handmade jewellery for the first time ever!

Pop down for some festive fun and nibbles. See you there!

Hayley x

 

Christmas Deliveries

CHRISTMAS DELIVERY DATES:

As Christmas is our busiest time of year, and all of our products are handmade to order, please allow 3 - 5 days after placing your order for your items to be handmade and dispatched.

 

UK Delivery:

Last Day You Can Order for Christmas Delivery: Monday 16 December.

Orders placed on this date will be posted on: Friday 20 December before midday.

International Delivery:

Last Day You Can Order for Christmas Delivery: Monday 9 December.Orders placed on this date will be posted on: Friday 13 December before midday.

*All UK orders will be sent via Royal Mail Recorded Delivery and tracking information can be provided on request.

*All International Orders will be sent via Royal Mail International Air Mail.

 

Berkshire Small Business Needs Votes for 4G MakeOver

We need you!

Please vote for us to win a 4G makeover from Vodafone!

I've entered a competition to win a 4G makeover for my business. The photo with the most votes wins. Can you help?

To vote, please click on the link below to be taken to the competition page.

http://promoshq.wildfireapp.com/website/6/contests/330267/voteable_entries/68914640#

Please vote for me, and if you are feeling extra generous you could send this link to your friends and family/colleagues/dog walker/postman and ask them to vote too!

Thanks in advance.

Hayley x

Poodles and Pompadours

www.poodlesandpompadours.com

Like Us - www.facebook.com/poodlesandpompadours

Tweet Us - www.twitter.com/PoodlePompadour

 

The New Girl

Whilst I love animals of all shapes and sizes, I have realised that my blog is a bit of a dog Fest. Luckily for you cat lovers, we have a new regular guest blogger, my best friend of 20 years, Cat Clark. She'll be blogging about her life with her two cute kitties, Louie and Marie and their adventures together.

Be nice to her, this is her first ever blog post :)

Hayley xxx

***********************************

Black and White Cats

Having worked around YouTube the past couple of years it has come apparent to me that the world is obsessed with cats. The internet is abundant with cat videos and photos whether itbe a cat dressed as a shark sat on a vacuum cleaner or the grumpiest looking cat in the world. As a person with a huge affection for cats I love it.

I often get hilarious snaps of the two of them and have finally decided it is time to share them with you. As I do not have a blog my best friend Hayley said I could use Poodle and Pompadours to showcase these photos. I would therefore I would like to introduce you to Louie and Marie. (L&M for short)

Louie and Marie were born on 12th February 2012. They are the result of their mother’s owner not being spayed. I must add that whilst I am eternally grateful for them I believe it is extremely important to get a female cat spayed when they have access to the outside world.

I was originally looking for one kitten from Battersea Cats and Dogs but then my friend told me about someone he knew with kittens they needed to rehome. Surprisingly they were only two in this litter and so when I went to visit them I couldn't bear to separate them.

Marie didn’t quite get the hang of sleeping in the bed.

I have had cats before but nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to live with -two hyper active, arm scratching, leg climbing, 4am meowing, poopy, hungry kittens.

It took a couple of weeks to get used to the madness but I fell in love with them the moment I met them... Maybe slightly longer for my boyfriend.

Twins. Louie is on the left. He as a white pantaloon on his right back leg and I white blotch on his lip. Apart from that it is pretty hard to tell them apart.

Marie and Louie are now a year and a half years and whilst they can’t fit under the kitchen cabinets any more or climb out a window open just a centimetre they still are both endearing and amusing. I am so glad I have the two of them because some of their best times are when they interact with each other. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I love spending my life with them.

 

 

Bambi and Bear Review: ScruffyChops Natural Mineral Dog Shampoo

 

The lovely people at ScruffyChops were kind enough to send me a free sample of their natural mineral pet shampoo and conditioners to test out and after opening the package, I couldn't wait to get Bear in the bath tub to try out these gorgeous smelling products.

ScruffyChops are a natural mineral pet shampoo creators. All of their products are created to focus on looking after your dog's skin and can help to soothe dryness and itching.

Some of their qualities include • Natural Ingredients • Certified organic ingredients • pH balanced for dogs • Dead Sea Minerals • Oatmeal • Aloe Vera • Vitamin E • Pro vitamin B5 • Sulfate free formula • Reduced plastic packaging • Cruelty free & much more...

The first thing I noticed was the packaging. Most pet shampoos, like human shampoos, come in bottles which means that towards the end your left awkwardly unscrewing the lid, shaking, tapping and leaving the bottle upside down to get the remaining drops of the product out which can be very difficult if you also have a wriggly pet in the bath. ScruffyChops have a plastic squeezey packaging which means less waste as you can squeeze the last few drops out easily.

I usually rate pet shampoos on the 4 S's:

Scent - Does it smell good?

Soap - Does it clean and lather well?

Soft - Does it leave the hair feeling soft and silky?

Shine - Is the hair left looking shiny and healthy after use?

I brushed Bear before putting him in the bath to remove excess dead hair, knots and dirt, and then got to the fun bit!

 

Scent

I was sent Rhubarking Bad Shampoo and Muddy Marvelous Conditioner.

The Rhubard and Custard shampoo was by far my favourite and smells absolutely delicious. I couldn't stop sniffing it as it reminded me of the Rhubard and custard sweets that I used to get as a child. The Muddy Marvelous conditioner is a Dead Sea mud mineral conditioner and smells heavenly. I was pretty surprised when I used it as it actually smells like an expensive skin or hair mask that you would use for humans!

Soap

One of my main bug bears about a lot of pet shampoos is that they usually don't lather well enough to get a good clean of the dogs coat and skin. This was definitely not the case with ScruffyChops and I actually ended up using too much shampoo as it lathers so well. Usually I find that I have to use a lot of shampoo as even though Bear is small, he has a very thick coat, but I only had to use a tiny amount of this to get a good lather.

The same has to be said for the conditioner. Although (obviously,) this doesn't lather as it's not supposed to, you only have to use a small amount to get a good coverage on the coat.

Soft

The condition of Bear's coat after using these products is absolutely beautiful. He has soft hair anyway and it's always been kept in good condition, but it was softer than normal and had a lovely shine to it. I'm writing this the day after bathing him and his hair is still just as soft, shiny and smells delicious.

As he has a long, thick coat I tend to always use conditioner to prevent it from knots and tangles but I have to say this is the best conditioner I have used so far. It feels really luxurious and rivals some of the best human conditioners that I use on my own hair. If ScruffyChops had a human version I would buy it fir myself!

Shine

Bear's coat looks super shiny after his bath. As he has a black coat, his hair can sometimes look a little dull and the colours muted, but the shampoo and conditioner really seem to have brought some extra shine lustre to his coat.

I think the fact that these products are natural mineral shampoos really adds to the extra soft and shiny finish that they give as the minerals will help to nourish the natural oils in the dogs skin which will make the coat look really healthy.

 

 

The shampoo is priced at £5.99 and the conditioner is £6.99 which I think is really great value fir money for such an effective product. The great thing about these having such a good lather is that you use less product so you get more for your money, and their won't be any wasted product at the bottom of the bottle!

 

Thanks ScruffyChops for sending me these lovely gifts. I'll be heading over to your website when these eventually run out to try your other scents.

www.scruffychops.com

Hayley xxx

 

Bear says: "I loved my bath time with ScruffyChops shampoo. My coat is looking and smelling great! Maybe now I can compete with the Pug at the park for the ladies' attention."

 

Why We Will No Longer Sell on Etsy

I have taken the decision to stop selling on Etsy due to their recent policy changes.

I have been selling on Etsy for the last 4 years, and until today it has been the main sales platform for my small business. I liked that they championed small businesses and handmade goods. They have lots of useful resources to help you succeed as a handmade business and I really thought that they were a company with a worthwhile mission.

Don't get me wrong, Etsy hasn't been without it's problems. As the website grew, more and more non-handmade items started to appear in the search results. Mass produced items from China started to pop over everywhere, but Etsy assured us that they were bating against this and would always champion handmade goods over any other.

The term "handmade" in itself brought on its own challenges for Etsy. As the site got more popular that were faced with how to determine what "handmade" actually meant.

To me a handmade item doesn't have to be made from 100% handmade materials. A necklace can still be handmade if your using jump rings brought from a jewellery supply store, but I know some people would argue against this.

Handmade to me means being involved 100% in the process of designing and making the product from start to finish - with your own hands. Yes, I agree that as a small handmade business you can have more than one person in your shop making your items, but you should be working as a team. You should know the other person/people. Have a close relationship with them, understand their values and how they make or contribute to making the items that you sell. You should be able to work with others in order to expand your business, but the ethos behind the handmade movement should still very much remain a part of your companies core values.

For me, these other people/person that you choose to work with should not be a part of a huge factory or a company that is mass producing your items in China. To me, that's not what handmade really means.

Unfortunately though, Etsy have now chosen to disagree. They have changed their policies to enable mass produced goods from factories to be sold as handmade goods on their website.

"Etsy's new policies allow you to partner with manufacturers to produce your designs. A manufacturer is any outside business that helps make your items. For example, you can work with a foundry that casts jewelry you've designed, a studio that fires pottery you've thrown, or a factory that cuts and sews clothing you've created."

On the surface, this actually seems like a good idea to enable small businesses to grow, something which I am definitely not against, but what annoys me is that if you do a quick search of Etsy you will see that it's now just a free-for-all of mass-produced factory items selling for mere pennies and cents.

To me, the new policies just seem like complete u-turn from just a few years ago.

Etsy's mission statement from 2011 reads: "Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.
Our vision is to build a new economy and present a better choice:
Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade."

Buy, Sell and Live Handmade. This was the core of what Etsy was all about.

Etsy's new mission statement reads:

"Etsy is a marketplace where people around the world connect to buy and sell unique goods. Our mission is to re-imagine commerce in ways that build a more fulfilling and lasting world."

To me, this mission statement could be from any online retailer out there.  There is absolutely no mention of HANDMADE or even anything similar. I feel as though Etsy as a business are taking a step back from the handmade community and going in a different direction and this is the reason why I have chosen to not sell with them anymore.

I joined Etsy originally to be a part of the handmade community. If they don't want to be a part of that then I don't want to be a part of them.

My shop will remain open until December 23rd at midnight in order for me to finish the holiday season and complete any remaining orders fulfilments and admin tasks.

I will continue to sell on Folksy who are a handmade marketplace for the UK. You can find my Folksy shop at: http://folksy.com/shops/poodlesandpompadours

I have also spent the day updating my website and we now have a fully integrated online shop that is histed by Shopify.

You can buy all of our handmade products online at www.shop.poodlesandpompadours.com

See you over there!

Hayley xo

  *UPDATE: After some comments from other exFolksy users, I will be reviewing Folksy policies too and will decide the outcome of my Folksy shop in the near future. I will keep you updated."

Keep Pets Safe. During Fireworks and Bonfire Season

PDSA’s Animal Wellbeing Report revealed that over 9 million cats and dogs suffer fear and anxiety due to fireworks. The leading veterinary charity is advising owners to take steps to help their pets on Bonfire night.

PDSA Senior Veterinary Surgeon, Sean Wensley, says: “Many people don’t seek help for their pets’ fears, perhaps believing nothing can be done. But with a little preparation, owners can make a big difference in minimising the anxiety that many pets suffer during the fireworks season.”

To help owners, PDSA has produced a ‘pet firework guide’ to ensure pets stay safe and calm when fireworks are going off over the coming weeks.

Preparation

• Make a cosy den for your pet with blankets, pillows and cushions. For dogs this could be behind a sofa or inside a wardrobe, while cats feel more secure when high up, so a cat bed safely placed on an accessible shelf or cupboard may be better.
• Reward your pet when they spend time in the den to help build a positive association, so it will then be a reassuring place to hide if they get scared.
• Start using pheromones near to the den – calming scents available as plug-ins or sprays that we can’t smell, but that can help to reduce anxiety in pets.
• Get your pet microchipped, so if they do panic and manage to run away, you are much more likely to be reunited.

On the night

• Never take your pet to a fireworks display, and walk dogs early before fireworks start.
• Bring in any outdoor pets such as rabbits and guinea pigs and give them extra bedding to hide in so they feel safe.
• Keep all doors, windows, cat flaps and curtains closed, and play music with a repetitive beat to help mask the noises.
• If your pet gets scared, act normally and ignore the fireworks and any fearful behaviour. Even though it is tempting to reassure them, this will just reinforce their fear and teach them that it is the appropriate response.
• Allow your pet to hide in the den, or somewhere else if they prefer, but don’t try to coax them out. This is a place they feel safe and allows them to take control of the situation.
• Don’t pick up or restrain a cat that is scared, as cats prefer to control how they cope.

Owners should be aware of signs of stress. Dogs may tremble, pace, pant and become ‘clingy’, while cats may try to hide behind furniture, or attempt to run away. Both dogs and cats may refuse to eat and may soil the house because of firework-related stress. Rabbits may freeze and remain motionless, or may panic and try to escape their hutches.

Sean continues: “It is worth imagining what Bonfire Night must be like for our pets – we know why there are lots of loud bangs outside, but our pets don’t, which is very distressing for them. Many of our pets have very acute hearing, so the range of sounds adding to their anxiety may also be greater than we can appreciate.”

If your pet is very fearful, ask your vet about long-term behavioural therapy. This can take weeks or months, but with time and patience it teaches noise-phobic pets that loud noises are nothing to be scared of. These evidence-based behavioural techniques can achieve excellent results to improve your pet’s quality of life.

For further information and to download a free copy of PDSA’s Fireworks and Your Pet leaflet visit www.pdsa.org.uk/fireworks.