Our "Paris" Poodle

From time to time, Lilah has to be groomed which we do at home.  She may not look as professional, but she's a country dog, so it fits the bill . . . which is considerably cheaper than taking her to be groomed.  In fact, after using the clippers for just two haircuts, I had already recouped the price of them versus taking her to the groomers.  Have I said how much I love, love, love that standard poodles don't shed?  Because I really do!  She does lose hair like humans do, but not in copious amounts and it isn't constantly plastered on my clothes right before I walk out the door.  The girls have a Barbie movie called "Barbie and the Fashion Fairytale" in which Barbie also has a standard poodle that she takes with her to visit her aunt in Paris.  So, when it came time for Lilah's trim, they requested that I clip in like a  "Paris" poodle.  I usually go basic, but the pom pom's on poodles legs are traditional and were used for helping them to retain heat around the joints while retrieving birds out of the water for their owners.  Yes, suprrisingly, standard poodles were traditionally hunting dogs and judging from Lilah's skills and many squirrel wounds, I would say that she hasn't lost that centuries' old tradition.  In fact, her speed, athleticism, and agility is a thing to behold.  Well, now that I have waxed poetic on the many virtues of the standard poodle, I'll post a few pics of the recent haircut and get off my soapbox.  :-)

Hands down, my favorite Mom product . . .

. . . is the original Shout Triple-Acting Stain Treatment in the spray bottle.  I now have outfits that have managed to make it through to #5 in pretty nice condition by using the Shout to get out the stains.  And my double-whammy for the really bad laundry situations is to put a scoop of OxiClean in with each load for good measure (I've been doing this for the past year or two and it, also, really seems to help).  I tried the OxiClean stain spray and, personally, found the results rather disappointing.  And once a stain doesn't come out the first washing, it is usually pretty impossible to get it out thereafter.

So, I stock up on my refill jug of the Shout and my big tub of OxiClean and figure that what I spend in laundry products is really very little in comparison with what I would be spending otherwise on new clothes for my kids.  Now here's to hoping that they all keep enjoying those hand-me-down's with gusto for a few years longer!