If I win, you win!

I have entered the iZettle Elevator Pitch competition and if you help me win  by voting for me, I will give Doris away to one of you picked at random to say thank you for voting!

So all you have to do is follow this link ☞http://bit.ly/18y3XCn and click on the little love heart until it turns red. (you've got to be in the UK, on Facebook and be over 18) then like Ziggy Sawdust on Facebook and you're in!

I've slipped down to 8th place so I need your help! Every vote counts!

Thank you!

Before + After bonanza!

I am currently in the midst of redesigning my website! I am quite enjoying it but I am fearful of some technical hitches coming my way soon! 

I will let you know when it's set to go live when I have a better idea myself, but for now I thought I would share some 'Before + After' collages that I have put together to tell the stories of my furniture. Here they are:

'Grace' redesigned vintage telephone seat

'Mick' redesigned 1970s cocktail cabinet

'Twiggy' redesigned 1960s dressing table

'Marianne' redesigned 1960s dressing table

'George' upcycled free-standing display shelf!

'Marilyn' redesigned original 1950s dressing table

Vive La France!

I am not long back from a much needed, amazing 2 week holiday in France with my family.

We all had such a lovely time and, if it wasn't for this wonderful weather that we are getting at home just now, I would be wishing I was jetting back there again tomorrow!

 Although I did get stuck into some work while I was out there, it was such a luxury to have more than one day off... I had a whole 14!

France is such a beautiful country and we were staying in the heart of the Dordogne countryside. We visited an abundance of pretty towns and the Brocantes (junk shops) and Vide Greniers (car boot sales) were an absolute dream! And, I have never eaten so many Pain Au Chocolats in my life... so all in all it was a fabulous holiday!

Here's some of my favourite photos to sum up the trip:

‘George’ the freestanding drawer!

Last year, I acquired some lovely old furniture from a lady, after meeting her brother one day on a train to Aberdeen… (You can read the full story here!) One of the pieces she very kindly gave to me was this vintage chest of drawers. It was really beautiful piece and had been extremely well loved, but some panels were missing, others were falling off, the beading was chipped and broken and the drawers were very stiff and heavy.

I made the decision to use the chest of drawers in a new way, and create things from its different elements. I had already made a big ‘Z’ for Ziggy out of three of the drawers for my workshop wall, but just recently I had the idea to make a piece of furniture out of one of the remaining drawers.

I love mid-century furniture legs, so I ordered a reclaimed set, then got to work sanding, drilling, screwing, 

cleaning, priming and painting… and in the end, I got this! 

I was struggling to think of a name for this piece, but Fiona helped me when we were installing the Pop-up Shop. A Wham! record I own (…guilty pleasure!) soon became the soundtrack to all our hard work, so Fiona wanted to dedicate a piece George Michael. So meet George, the freestanding display shelf! 

We're Popping Up Soon!

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, I'm sure you will have already heard that I am putting together a Pop-up Shop in Edinburgh, with fellow creative business owner Fiona Purves from Paper Aeroplane, to celebrate our businesses first birthdays! And it is opening THIS WEEK!!

To paint a clear picture of what it's all about, I will give you the 'official' description :) 

Two Edinburgh based designers are bringing their products together and hosting a Pop-up Shop in the city, to celebrate their businesses first birthdays. 

Ziggy Sawdust's lovingly upcylcled vintage furniture and Paper Aeroplane's playful greetings cards and prints make the perfect pairing as they are both full of colour, fun, nostalgia and sentimentality. 

The amalgamation of the brands is set to create an alluring and endearing visual display. Think bold. Think quirky. Think mini installations of the designers’ products alongside flowers, balloons, garlands and other fun party paraphernalia.

We have also made a short promo video! 

It was filmed by Jess Connell and Nikki Godley, and the cute little tune was made especially for us by Fiona's boyfriend Tim!

We have been planning this Pop-up Shop since Fiona and I first met in February... we have really put our heads together to organise something (that we hope will be!) very special. 

It's funny to think that the two of us have only known each other since then. Fiona saw the video Future Positive made about me and Ziggy, and thought our products would work well together.... and things have just snowballed from there! Turns out it's not just our products that work well together, but we do too!

From the outset, Fiona and I were very conscious that we don't want our Pop-up shop to simply be our products in a space. We want it to be visually exciting, fun and we want to get people talking! And to be able to make this vision a reality, we launched a Kickstarter campaign to help us fund the project. At the time of writing this, our project has raised £1,163 and we still have 4 days to go!! So we are two very happy bunnies!

If you didn't know already, Kickstarter is a website which helps creative people launch creative projects... with the help and support from people who would like to see the idea succeed. If you've got a spare moment, have a wee read about what we'd like to achieve & watch our video, and if you can pledge a little something to help us reach our goal, not only will we be forever grateful, but we will also send you a pretty special reward to say thank-you! So it's a win, win!

Well, I think that's me got you all up to date with what the Pop-up Shop is all about! So if you are looking for something to do in Edinburgh this coming bank holiday weekend, it will be open to the public from Saturday 25th - Wednesday 29th of May. 

We would love to see you there! Fiona illustrated the beautiful map above ↑ to help you find us, and the address is:

First Birthday Pop-up Shop

Whitespace

11 Gayfield Square

Edinburgh

P.S You can also keep up to date with all our progress and see the Pop-up Shop come to life by Liking our collaborative Facebook page called Ziggy Aeroplane! ☞ www.facebook.com/ziggyaeroplane

I'm in i-on!

Very, very excited to be featured in i-on Magazine's Interior Design Special this month!

Kind words and a very nice photo of 'Mick' the cocktail cabinet and 'Elton' the Elephant... along with one of me coincidentally matching my furniture exactly!

We're on p.36-37 and you can have a wee read by clicking here ☞ http://ow.ly/kBrHh

This is my favourite quote from the piece:

‘“I saw men offloading Mick Jagger from a van into a junk yard, and I just knew I had to have him”, says Amy. Don’t worry, The Rolling Stones front man hasn’t been kidnapped, ‘Mick’ is an old cocktail cabinet. Saving old furniture from the dump isn’t just a hobby for the young designer, it’s a business.’

... If only it was the real Mick Jagger (circa 1965) that I'd kidnapped!

HowDo you Do!

Have you heard of HowDo? If not, now is the time to jump on the bandwagon! It's a free social media app which allows you to effortlessly make quick, spontaneous tutorials about anything you fancy.

I have often thought about doing video or blog tutorials, but I have always been put of by how long it would take. HowDo makes it so fun to capture ideas and share your way of doing things. You simply take a series of photographs highlighting the steps of what you are doing, and then record little sound bites to narrate the sequence.

 For my first tutorial, I decided to show you how to make a big, fluffy pom-pom!

I had the pleasure of meeting the very inspiring Nills and Sofia from HowDo at the Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire at the beginning of the month. They carried out a little interview with me and posted it onto their blog :)

You can read the full interview here!

So why not become a HowDo-er yourself? I've got a feeling that it's going to be the next big thing with bloggers and makers alike!