Some new projects + my new friend Patricia

I have my hands on a few more pieces to work some magic on! But what makes these items extra special is the story thats behind how they became mine...


I'll introduce you to them first and I'll tell the story afterwards!


First in my new batch of rescued furniture is this 1950s kidney bean shaped dressing table:

 

                         

Next, we've got this 1930s well-loved chest of drawers:

Followed by this little 1950s kitchen chair which is authentically 'Shabby Chic'!!

So now for their story and how they became mine...

One sunny April morning, I was on the train, on my way to work in Aberdeen for the day. It was just a few days before I had to pitch my business idea for Ziggy Sawdust to the Prince's Scottish Youth Business Trust so I took the oppertunity to use my travel time to scribble down all my ideas for the pitch and prepare myself for any questions that I might get asked.

The man across from me was curious about what I was writing and he asked me if I was writing a story... I told him that yes, I was writing a story of sorts... a story about how I came up with my business idea and how I hope it's story will continue.

We got chatting all about Ziggy Sawdust, about photography, about family, about art-deco architecture...! We chatted the whole way up to Aberdeen!

The man's name was David and he told me about his sister Patricia, who was due to get her bedroom re-decorated and had a few pieces of furniture that she wanted to get rid off... and it turns out she lives just around the corner from me! He told me how the pieces of furniture had sentimental value and had been passed down from relatives, but Patricia just didn't have the room for them anymore... David was very interested in my ideas for Ziggy Sawdust so he took down my name and number and promised that he would pass on my details to his sister.

A few weeks later my telephone rang and it was Patricia! We both had a laugh at how surreal the situation was... I met her brother on a train and now she might be giving me some furniture! I was delighted to hear from her, the pieces of furniture sounded really lovely.

I went along to Patricia's house a few days later to take a look at the furniture and David happened to be visiting, so he was there too. It was lovely to see him again and I was so grateful that he organised the whole thing. It's amazing where a chat on a train can lead!! 

The kidney bean dresser belonged to David and Patricia's mother and it has lots of nostalgia attached to it.

At the moment is has got a frilly curtain around it and a glass top:

It is a little dated but it has got lots of potential!

I am looking forward to playing with colour and fabric to help bring this piece up to date... 

I love how much history this piece has... I really want to do Patricia proud with it's make-over!

She was also sad to see her chest of drawers go... Their deep drawers are a perfect size and it has been a fixture in her home for many years. 

I love them, but sadly the are not in a resellable condition...

The back panel is missing, top surface is quite badly chipped, the drawers are pretty stiff and one of it's feet fell of in transit! It is definitely not a hopeless case (it's been around for 80 years after all!!) but it the restoration would be a huge project in its self and I would worry that it wouldn't last for years to come.

So, I have instead decided that I will work with the drawers individually. They have lots of character... I love their little lock details!

You may be wondering what on earth I am going to do with loose drawers (...no pun intended!!) but just trust me, I'm a furniture doctor! They will not be drawers once I am finished with them... they will be pieces of furniture in their own right!

I've already started to have a play with them and have popped in some Anthropologie drawer handles to get a feel for how they can be spruced up...

I absolutely love Anthropologie drawer handles and have a bag full of them (30 to be exact!)... 

Only the best for Ziggy Sawdust!!

And my ideas for this little chair? It almost looks as though it has been made to look aged and well loved... but it really has been well loved for years and years! I've got a few ideas up my sleeve to transform this into a lovely chair to accompany the dresser.

I still can't believe that these all ended up in my hands after speaking to a friendly gentleman on a train. I am still in touch with Patricia and she is such a lovely lady- she even came along to the Funk Fair to see my stall! It's amazing where a little conversation can lead... you never know whats around the corner!

My Weekend Treasure Hunt

I spent last weekend in a log cabin in the middle of the Scottish countryside, with my family.


We were staying near a lovely little town called Dunkeld and I just could not resist going for a rummage (and spending a small fortune!) in the unusual shops that the town had to offer.


Here's me braving the coldest May in history, discovering an Antique shop!

I came across another shop called The Little Curio Shop on Dunkeld High Street... and I fell in love with it! The shop was full of unusual pieces from 1950s picnic sets to antique dressers to vintage cake stands. But this really caught my eye:

She's a little lamp stand from the 1920s/1930s...

I'm reading The Great Gatsby at the moment and I can just picture something like this on Miss Daisy's side table!

I'd love to incorporate this pretty lamp stand into a Ziggy Sawdust creation... I'm thinking of keeping her as she is but play with the lamp + shade colours + designs... 

How about mixing colours like these with her pretty rose pink??

image found here

But the shopping didn't stop there!

I rumaged and raked in piles of old records and came out with this lot to transform into retro record clocks:

I found everything from Simple Minds to Elvis, from Michael Jackson to Tears for Fears.

My Favourite discs have to be Wham!'s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go with it's lilac sticker:

And Roxy Music's Fifth Album Siren which has Jerry Hall as a mermaid on the sticker!

I better get making... soon I'll have more retro record clocks than you can shake a stick at!

Eggstra! Eggstra! read all about it:

Easter has been and gone but I've still got a few pictures that I would like to share!

I have been very busy working on my Ziggy Sawdust creations and things are starting to take shape... a few more days of hard work and they will be ready to make their camera debut!

But in the meantime, here's a little insight into my fun, family easter weekend:

Every year my family get together in Edinburgh to roll eggs, catch up and eat some good food. I have plenty of childhood memories of my sister and I sitting at the kitchen table with our paint sets, decorating every egg that my mum could find in the fridge! As we got older, this routine started to fall by the wayside and there was a few sad years where we ended up rolling undecorated boiled eggs... but this year I took matters into my own hands! I dug out some bright nail varnishes, glitter and made use of my treasured Japanese Washi Tapes to bring back family egg decorating with a vengeance!!

When I went to get started, I found that one of the eggs had been decorated by the hen that laid it! Sadly, as I only had 6 eggs to play with, I had to pull the feather off to give it a more glamourous make-over... but here's how it turned out! :

Then I got cracking with the Washi Tapes:

... and then used a nail art pen to make this one look like it was from a little speckled hen

 

Cluck! Cluck!

And here's how they all looked together:

The religious tradition of rolling eggs down a hill has become slightly skewed in my family, and instead eggs get thrown down the hill and directed at those who choose not to participate! 

(All in the name of fun of course- there have been no A&E visits... yet!) 

Here's an action shot:

Can you spot the flying egg?!

We normally throw eggs up and down until they smash but the Washi Tape seemed to make my eggs invincible!

With half my eggs still intact, I guess I won the game... yippee!