Outdoor Poodle Decor: Topiary, Statues, Door Knockers, and Planters

Two years ago I made plans to get topiary for my balcony. You know the attractive, classy swirly ones that are pretty expensive but add a hint of fanciness to your entrance. Well, during my search  I also ran across outdoor animal topiary and purchased two mini ones. Funny enough, the wind blew them both away, lol, and since then I've considered getting two matching poodle topiary figures to "guard" the door. 

Topiary might not be your thing, but you can still add some poodle to your curb appeal by styling your outdoors / yard with one of the items below:

1. Poodle Door Knocker, Brass

2. Poodle Topiary Filled with Sphagnum Moss

3. Poodle Garden Statue (Cast Stone)

4. Poodle Planter, Black or White

5. Poodle Dog Knocker, Bronze

6. Outdoor Poodle Statue, Stone

If you want a moss filled wire-framed poodle that gives your garden the added touch of having poodle topiary  check out one of the below:

1. 17inch Poodle Moss, $82.99, Here.  (same items can also be purchased from their sister site, Garden.com, which usually has more sales, Here.)

2. 17inch Poodle Frame (no moss), $75.95, w/ lights $77.95 , w/ moss 84.95, Here.

The 32 inch standard poodles w/moss  from both websites are about $200. You can use the same links above. The 32 inch really make a statement because of the size.

If you want more of a continental clip in the topiary, 18inch w/ moss, $119.95, Here. 

 

mesh wire frame for topiary; miniature moss poodle topiary

Parti Poodle Puppy Doll

So I ran across this adorable little hand-made parti poodle doll. I want to believe it was partially Huxtable inspired, lol... it looks like Huxtable as a young pup after he's gotten his hair washed and blown ;-).  Brown face, all white on front, brown on the sides, white legs, and brown tail :-) Adorable!

 

 

Would love for them to send me one, but if you want one you can get it HERE. 

Dancing Poodle: Huxtable Partying

Huxtable doing the Tootsie Roll :-)

Here are the photos still by still of his little french circus dog trick :-)

The dancing poodle Huxtable, he's truly a "party" poodle!

Huxtable the Poodle

Dog Carrier Review: Bark N Bag Monaco Tote

Huxtable tucked away laying in his "Hermes Birkin" inspired Monaco Bag

Huxtable is literally my co-pilot. He's my right hand man and since he only weighs 6-7 pounds and  is well-behaved there really is no reason why he can't come with me almost every where I go. 

As a 3.5lb puppy he fit my medium sized Louis Speedy with room to spare, at 5.5lb he fit perfectly, and now at 6/7lbs he can still ride along when needed, but his head definitely sticks out and his long lean poodle body can't quite "lay" in there like it used to.  I eventually moved him up to my larger LV Trevi (brown damier), but he (and I ) were putting too much wear on it so had to forgo that. 

Hux at about 4 months; Hux at about 1 year 2 months

So, for the past 6 months or so I've been planning to either get the LV dog carrier, sweet talk the BF into getting me a Birkin that I could use for both Hux and I -or- just purchase a carryall tote of whatever brand (LV, Michael Kors, Coach, etc) and just put a piece of cloth/fabric covered cardboard at the bottom to give him better balance and support. But I've been putting it off... and Huxtable has just been placed in whatever large purse I could get my hands on. 

You can imagine my happiness of running across an attractive stylish dog bag that looks JUST like a purse. Now I'll admit that I would like the purse even better if it was solid colored and didn't have tooled leather etchings on the front, but it's still an attractive bag all the same. 

 

The dog tote I discovered at TJMaxx HomeGoods

Huxtable fits in this bag perfectly! He can lay down, sit, and actually stand on all fours. I've been using it for a few days now and so far so good. I don't know how straps will hold up over time, but I'm hoping they can sustain his almost 7lb body for years to come. 

I've been thinking about changing my wardrobe to all black or maybe black and white for the summer (it's a minimalist creative type thing I may do), so I'll need a large black purse for my co-pilot Huxtable. I decided to search for the brand of my HomeGoods dog purse and low and behold they make this style dog tote in many different colors.... including black. 

The different shades of Bark-N-Bag

Bark'N'Bag is an affordable line of stylish dog carriers. All of their carriers are "inspired" by  many of the designer brands... this isn't on their website, but it's apparent in their design. And, I must day, I love them for it! I can't believe it's taken this long for someone to create a stylish affordable line of dog bags. I was actually make preliminary plans to create a line myself, but I can place that on the back burner now that I've discovered Bark'N'Bag.

DETAILED REVIEW:  So far my Bark-N-Bag seems right on par, if not better, for the price. It's a medium to light weight low sheen "leather". The mesh on the side is simple thick black mesh with large enough holes for your dog to breath, but not large enough for him to really tear, get his nose into, or even get his nails through. It zips on top, then snaps on the side-- allowing you more than enough room to comfortably get your pooch in. Pretty simple hardware on the front in keeping with the " Hermès Birkin" look. The bag is able to stand on its own because of the 4 bottom feet, but does have a slight lean because of the pliable "leather" and side panels-- this could be fixed by stuffing the bags with tissue during shipping to maintain the shape. There is one zipped pocket on the inside, so you could store small things (credit card/id/lip gloss/doggie poo bags/tissue). Overall the bag has a good weight, great style, quality construction from what I can tell, and could easily retail for $150. As long as your dog is 8lbs and under this bag should last awhile, if your pooch is pushing 15lbs then it might not stand the test of time. I'll definitely do an updated review within the coming months. 

FYI: "Bark 'N' Bag" is supposedly a play on the name "Birkin Bag", like, Birk-in-Bag hence the style of their main Monaco dog tote. 

Get the Monaco Pet Carrier Tote, HERE.

Get one of the other Bark'N'Bag styles and colors, HERE.

Huxtable at a French Cafe

Huxtable, the toy parti poodle

Huxtable looking up at me wondering why he couldn't indulge in the goodness mom and dad were eating, lol. But not to worry, I always bring him something when we go out to brunch on Sundays. Usually I'll bring a bone of some sort, this time I brought a few morsels of his food and a greenie :-)

More photos to come

Toy Parti Poodle

Toy Poodle

Poodles in Home Decor

Poodles will always be in trend ;-)

In my last post I discussed my ceramic poodle HomeGoods find. I am redecorating one of my rooms and will be using poodles as accents. The ones I purchased really are perfect, hmm... I might even paint them to match Huxtable's parti poodle markings. 

Animals in general have always been used to add style to a room when it comes to interior decorating. Over the past few years we have all seen the ever so popular deer heads, antlers, and many of the wild and gorgeous African animals (gazelles, antelope, rhinos, etc) being used in every type of decor style you can think of. More recently, many designers, like Jonathan Adler, and people of the posh stylish and dog-loving variety have been using solid colored ceramic dog figurines to add a pop of whimsy or character to a room.  You can see a few examples below: 

Huxtable's Pinterest Page is filled with more examples, check out some of his boards below:

- Poodles. Poodles. Poodles

- Dogs Art

- Dog Paintings in Home Decor

Dog paintings are a tradition that date back to the beginning of time, but dog figurines have had their rightful place in art history as well. Nearly all of old Hollywood owned a poodle and many many MANY poodle figurines were made of both the American and foreign variety. I think there will continue to be a gradual resurgence of dog figurines for home decor over the next decade or so. But instead of the heavy multi-colored pieces of the 50s, they will be modern yet classic-chic monochrome pieces.... like the poodle pair I was so lucky to find. 

Sidenote: When dog/pet figures first re-hit the interior style seen a few years ago in 2010 they were on a large scale and were moreso floor pieces or quite frankly statues. Now they're becoming smaller which are perfect for bookcases, dressers, and/or console decor. 

Want the look? Get poodle pieces for your home decor below:

1.) White Ceramic Poodle Comes in Two Sizes, 18 inches ($44), here.  -and- 13 inches ($29), here. 

2.) Urban Trends Antique White Poodle ($53), here. 

3.) White/Black Poodle Lamps ($225), here

4.) Abigail Ahern Poodle Lamp (£195.00), here. 

Take it a Step Further: Purchase a can of spray paint to personalize one of the above ceramic poodles to match your space. I plan to either leave mine as is, paint parts of it brown to match Huxtable, or spray paint them yellow, gold, or silver to add a pop of color to my decor. Rustoluem is one of the more popular spray paint brands that gets high reviews, you can check out a wide selection of their spray paint colors as well as get low pricing and free shipping, HERE.  

Check out the Metallics (copper, brass, silver, and gold), HERE.

TJ Maxx HomeGoods Happy: Poodle Decor & Dog Accessory Finds

I've been redecorating my front room area-- I went from a classic/traditional ivy/preppy native-inspired type den to a softer luxe peachy feminine oasis. Parts of the room are finished and all the main pieces are there (sofa, tables, chairs, large rug, etc), but I'm still in the process of switching out the accessories and adding those last touches.  With my last decor style my bookcases were filled with items like-- vintage trophy, basketball, great grand father's first camera, vintage college paraphernalia, etc. But now with my more airy, soft and feminine decor I have to switch it up. One of the things I knew I wanted to put on my bookcase were poodles. I was able to order a bronze vintage poodle from online, and I found a ceramic one that matched perfectly, but it broke in the mail :-(. So I've been on the lookout for items to stylishly fill my shelves ever since. 

Well on a recent trip to HomeGoods some of my prayers were answered. I went in search for pillows, but ended up with 2, technically 3 good unexpected finds.  Next to the pillow aisle was a pet aisle. Not only was it filled with bowls and beds, but also a few handsome in-trend pet decor items. As my eyes glanced up and down the shelves I spotted not one, but two matching white ceramic poodles! They sat their poised and ready for the taking! I honestly felt like they would perhaps be too tall for my bookcase, but I couldn't pass them up. I also ended up finding a purse dog carrier, something I rarely ever see in Ross or TJ Maxx. It looked just like a regular purse and was the exact color of the purse I was wearing so I knew it was meant for me. 

Huxtable is in the bag above, he fits perfectly

Long story short-- I went in for pillows to match my new sofa and came out with two ceramic poodles and a stylish cognac colored bag for Huxtable. Did I mention Huxtable was in the store with me too? Well, he was and I'm thinking he might have been my good luck charm. As usual he caught the attention of many, and I had about five 5-minute conversations that took what should have been a 30 minute shopping trip to an hour... but it was okay especially because of our great finds.

Like the commercial, I certainly walked away HomeGoods Happy :-)

Two more posts about the items above to follow.

American Apparel Dog Clothes: Hoodies and Shirts for Pets

Huxtable, the hipster poodle 

I lucked up and got a Groupon for American Apparel. I believe it was $20 for $40 worth of items or something of the like. When I saw the deal I immediately purchased it because I had been eyeing a few of their dog items for Huxtable. 

Ater searching American Apparel's website, seeing the instock and out of stock items, I finally decided to purchase 2 hoodies and 2 shirts.

 The Package

The Goods 

- Gray American Apparel Dog Hoodie

- Navy American Apparel Dog Hoodie

- Navy Blue and Red American Apparel Dog Jersey/ Raglan/ Baseball Tee

- Black and Red American Apparel Ringer/ Rib T-shirt

 

The Rockstar Dog

 

Huxtable's Review: I love my american apparel clothes, they're so comfy! I love to snuggle up in my hoodie during cold fall and winter days. 

Huxtable's Mom Review: My little poodle has alot of dog clothing, and the pet clothing from American Apparel are amongst my favorite. The material for both hoodies and shirts are very soft, they fit well, easy to put on, and they are great basics that easily coordinate with a dog's wardrobe, lol. But best of all, Huxtable seems to really like AA jackets and tees. He'll curl up tight sometimes in a ball, then cock his head forward to put the hoodie up... poodles, lol, they're so smart.

Size: Huxtable was about 6lbs pounds in the photos above, he's about 7lbs now. While toy poodles usually wear smalls, I decided to get him a medium so that he would be comfortable fur and all. They fit perfectly! Poodles are slim, but they have long bodies so it's important to compensate for that by maybe going up one size, especially if they are very fluffy and furry.

When fur filled and wearing a continental clip, AA pet size medium fit best. After Huxtable got his short clip, a small would have definitely worked better. So make the decision based off the predominate clip/cut your pooch sports. 

You can get your dog American Apparel Pet Clothing, Here -or- Here. 

"Mom said she put my hair like this too keep it out my face and to keep my ears  from being chewed on while I ate my bone, but I hope she stops because it's embarrassing"...