Santas a coming...

Santa & Rudolph finger puppets

As it's getting near christmas shopping time we've popped on a few new things on to our site and to celebrate we're giving FREE WORLDWIDE POSTAGE to orders over £10 until Saturday 4th December!

Great for stocking fillers or something a bit different. Check out our new Santa & Rudolph finger puppets...

Get them www.dingdongdesigns.com!

Through the woods...

As i had a wee wander through Chatelherault Park (somewhere you'll find us very often) I thought this weeks show would be about a trip through the trees, all things tree and wood related...

Tunes of the unexpected

Artist of the week - Radiohead

Through the woods

1. Timber - Coldcut

2. In the trees -Faze Action

3. A Forest - The Cure

4. A wood tree - Ivor Cutler

5, Knock on Wood - Eddie Floyd

6. Wild Wood (Portishead mix) - Paul Weller

7. The Trees - Max Richter

Artist of the week

8. Fake Plastic Trees - Radiohead (The Bends)

9. Treefingers - Radiohead (Kid A)

10. Ragged Wood - Fleet foxes

11. Jonathon and the Oak Tree - Jeremy Warmsley

12. Norwegian Wood - The Beatles

13. The Trees - pulp
14. Stem/Long stem - DJ Shadow

www.radiocaley.com 

country shopping...

If your out near Lesmahagow way in Lanarkshire, you should pop into the Woodhead Studios for a nice gift or two! Lucy is selling beautiful landscape pictures taken by herslef as well as hand-made gifts including Ding Dong Designs! yay!

The studios are situated just behind Boghead on the way to Strathaven. For details click here.

Shiver me timbers...

Another week rolls in, boy it's a chilly one. So to warm your cockles here is this week's playlist of our radio show...

Tunes of the unexpected Week 3 – Cover versions

1. Express Yourself  - Leroy Sibbles (N.W.A. 1988
2. We can work it out – Stevie Wonder  [Grammy nomination 1972] (The Beatles – double a-side with daytripper)
3. Black Steel – Tricky (Public Enemy  - Black steel in the hour of chaos)
4. Enjoy the silence – Tori Amos (Depeche Mode)
5. At last I am free – Robert Wyatt (Chic)



Artist of the week - Nine Inch Nails

6. Be thankful for what you’ve got – Massive attack (William DeVaughn)

Artist of the week Nine Inch Nails

7. Hurt - Johnny Cash (Nine Inch Nails)
8. Gotta get closer Maxwell – (nine inch nails)

9. A minha menina – The Bees (Os Mutantes – Portuguese 1968)
10.  Me and my shadow – Mrs Mills (1927 Whispering Jack Smith)
11. Unbeliveable – The Big Ghana band (EMF)
12.  Mah Na Mah na – The muppets (Piero Umiliani) 
13.  Le Soleil de ma vie (you are the sunshine of my life) – Bridget Bardot & Sacha Distel (Stevie Wonder)
14.  Superstar - Sonic Youth (the Carpenters)
15. Respect – Norma Fraser (Otis Redding and then Aretha Franklin)

We're off doon the Barras this Saturday for Supermercado. It's the new market by the Made In the Shade gals. You can find it in the Barras Centre which is beside the antiques part of the market...

http://wearemadeintheshade.com/Supermercado-at-The-Barras%281886326%29.htm

It's the only Glasgow market we are doing up to Christmas this year, however we will be in Edinburgh too next month. Great chance to start the dreaded christmas shopping!!

Come and say hello!

Down the red carpet...

So this weeks Tales of the Unexpected took you to the movies! Our artist of the week was the magical Yann Tiersen.

Below is the tracklist of the show

 

Week 2 – Music from the movies

1.      Also Sprach Zarathustra -  (2001 Space Odyssey) 

2.      Heigh Ho – (Snow white & the seven Dwarfs, 1937)

3.      You make my dreams come true - Hall & Oates (500 days of summer)

4.      Love Man – Otis Redding (Dirty Dancing, 1987)

Yann Tiersen

5.      Just dropped in - Kenny Rogers (The Big Lebowski, 1988) 

 6.     In the musicals – Bjork (Dancer in the dark 2000)

7.      Whistle Stop – sung by Roger Miller   Disney (Robin Hood, 1973)

8.      Diary of a taxi driver – Bernard Herrman (Taxi Driver)

 9.     Summer 78 - Yann Tiersen (Good bye Lenin!, 2003)

10.   La Noyeer - Yann Tiersen (Amelie, 2001)

11.   Ding Dong the witch is dead

12.   How do you like your eggs in the morning? – Helen O’Connell & Dean Martin (Rich, Young & Pretty, 1951)

13.   La Lucertola – Ennio Morricone (Una Lucertola Con La Pelle Di Donna)

14.   Let’s hear it for the boys - Denise Williams (footloose, 1984) 

15.   Twisted Nerve – Bernard Hermann (Kill Bill)

16.   Betty & Zorg – Gabriel Yared (Betty Blue, 1987)

17.   Bare Necessities – (Jungle Book)

18.   Nobody does it better – Carly Simon (The spy who loved me)

The next show is Tuesday 9th November at 1pm www.radiocaley.com

M.i.n.i.m.a.l....

So trotted on down last weekend to the new Minimal Festival in Glasgow. This was the first weekend of a three year project bringing sound landscapes to Glasgow. With several concerts on throughout the weekend, I started off Friday night with Icebreaker's interpretation of Brian Eno's Apollo album brought to us in the fantastic backdrop of Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket venue.

We walked in to the hall with the sounds of an invisible orchestra playing (they were up on the balcony out of sight) and a room full of atmospheric fog. Eventually found a few seats together as this was one packed out show. Once settled the colourful Christmas lights dimmed down and the ensemble joined the stage. Three large screens lit up the stage with footage of the Apollo mission which absolutely made the performance.Especially the astronauts jumping about which looked animated.

Next day skipped back along to the Fruitmarket to catch the first of two performances. First one was Steve Reich's 'different trains', played by the Smith Quartet. Secondly, Philip Glass's 'Music with changing Parts'. This trance-like performance was amazing, close your eyes and it helped create your own visuals and took you away into your own wee world. Having seen Philip Glass himself in Glasgow many years ago it was great to hear one of his works played by a full ensemble of musicians.

After Friday nights treat, sadly both these performances lacked stimulating visuals - just shapes slightly merging. Think they lost a great opportunity there, but thankfully the music was so colourful you just had to use your own imagination.

The next installment of Minimal is in February, with Steve Reich's '18 musicans' played by the London Sinfonietta, should be interesting! For more info go to www.glasgowconcerthalls.com/minimal

Disco Fever!

Thanks to everyone who tuned in to Tuesdays show! The next one is on Tuesday 26th October at the new time of 1pm. The theme is Music from the Movies, so if you have an old fav or know a fab piece you think should be shared then pop a comment below or go to our facebook page Tunes of the Unexpected and name it!

So here is Week one's Disco tracklist...

Artist of the Week: Sylvester

Artist of the week: Sylvester

1. The Players Association – ‘going to the disco’ (1977)      
2.  Phyllis Hyman – ‘under your spell’ (1979)         
3.  Love Committee – ‘Just as long as I’ve got you’ (1978)   
4. Sylvester – ‘You make me feel mighty real’  (1978)   
5. Fatback – ‘(do the) Boogie Woogie (1979)    
6. SJNRL (white label)       
7. Norma Jean – ‘Sorcerer’               (1978)  
8. Sister Sledge – ‘Lost in music’   
9. Sylvester – ‘dance disco heat’   
10. Silver, Platinum & gold – ‘I got a thing’ (1976)

Thanks for listening!

Ding Dong on the airwaves...

Exciting news at Ding Dong Towers... We have our very own radio show! You can press that dial to Tunes Of The Unexpected every 2nd Tuesday (starting from tomorrow 12th October) at www.radiocaley.com at 3pm. There is also an iphone app for on the move!

Tunes of the Unexpected is a selection of fab tunes, some you'll have heard of, some you won't have put to a different theme each week. So I'll be starting off with pure disco (only from the 70's).

If you have some exciting news, events or anything else you would like plugged on the show please let me know and I'll see what I can do!

We have a facebook page to keep you all up to date.

Over and out!

Doon the Barras 'n' Briggait...

Have you heard what folks are up to at the Barras? No, not talking about the wheeling and a dealing in a fakery DVD kinda way but the all new Barras Centre?

This new venture is headed up by Camille Lorigo, a New Yorker who relocated to Scotland five years ago and runs Che Camille.  The centre will house around 15 shops with fashion designers, jewellers, and more.

Yesterday the Ding Dong gals popped along to have a wee peeky peek at the new Made in the Shade weekly market ventre Supermercado which is in the courtyard of the Barras Centre (situated beside the antiques part of the barras). As usual, a great selection of quality crafty types, as well as yummy cake stalls mmm mmm. 

Ding Dong Designs will be there on Saturday 30th October, this will be our only Glasgow market date before christmas so if your looking for something a little different for some pressies then get yourself down!

Once we had filled our pockets with goodies, we made our way down to the open day at the brand new Wasp studios The Briggait. What an amazing space for artists and creative types to have their own studios. A hive (mind the pun) of activity with a great community feel in a beautiful building. What more could you want?

The open day consisted of you having the opportunity to wander through floors full of artists studios, see their work and have a chat to them. Yan Wang and Katie Johnson were two artists that particularly stood out to me. But on one of the floors we were lucky enough to find Angharad McLaren behind her colourful loom. 

Angharad McLaren is a textile designer and I was in awe of her beautiful fabrics. The colour combinations, textures and patterns were truly amazing. I'm definately goin to get one of her scarfs.

Yan Wang's work was dream-like and romantic. In her studio your greeted with little clouds of cotton wool hanging from the ceiling. Her large painting, which I didnt get a note of you can see on her website. 

I really loved Katie Johnson's work. I thought the images were like ghosts trying to get through the canvas, just stunning.

Unfortunately we didnt get to go through the whole place as our car ticket was due up and the blue meanies around Glasgow are definately mean! They have regular open days at the Briggait if you fancy a little pop down!

took a trip to... La La Land

Not that I enjoy a wee nosey or anything but along comes a new boutique and well it would be rude not to have a peep! The ever busy Sarah Graham of Coveted Magazine treated us all to some bubbly, Aunty M's scrummy cakes and a little goodie bag at the opening night of her new shop La La Land. 

 Situated in the ever popular De Courcys Arcade off Byres Road in Glasgow's West End, La La Land is fabulous boutique stocking names such as Tatty Devine, Lazy Off and one of my favs Brat & Suzie (bought one of their t-shirts at the summer Bust Craftatular in London!).

Also bumped into Tatiana Ashakova from Esteem Makeover who styled and did make up for two of the new issue of the Coveted Magazine, along with Elaine Ford, the model on the cover.

Tatiana & Elaine

If your a magazine hoarder like me but are short of the pennies, why not pop down to her  fashion magazine swapshop on Thursday 21st October.

Phewee mrs!

Yesterday one half of Ding Dong (Josie) popped on her bike and Pedalled for Scotland!

Weird circle bike!

When I woke up in the morning, couldnt believe how nervous I was. But the the sun was certainly shining down on us. Pedal for Scotland is a charity ride starting at Glasgow, glides past Lanarkshire and ends in Edinburgh. 

There is such an array of different bikes including tadems, low riding cyles, tadem trikes, Penny Frathings (3 started at the same time as me) and this incredible bike that 7 people get one! Best way to discribe is they all sit in a circle but it goes straight! here is a picture of it.

cyclist with Penny Farthing

There was such a great atmosphere throughout the day. We managed to finish it in about under 5 hours. I really recommend anyone to give it a chance. 

I was riding in aid of SAMH charity, Scottish Association of Mental Health.This charity not only helps people suffering with mental health issues but also helps fight the stigma of mental health. If you have a little spare change I would love if you sponsored me. Every penny counts. my page is www.justgiving.com/josiemckay

 

an afternoon with Lady luck!

What a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon but at Lady Luck's Trade Secrets Talk & Jewellery Workshop! It was full of great insiders tips, secrets and you even got to make your own dolly necklace to boot. Thank goodness I remembered my trusty notepad. It was really interesting to see how she started and developed into the Lady Luck Rules OK brand, what she found worked and so what to avoid yourself!

She is doing one last talk in Edinburgh's Hannah Zakari shoppe on 7th November. 

Afterwards I popped into the Made In The Shade Maisonette to see the girls. (De Courcy's Arcade in Glasgow) If you haven't been down you really sure pop in. They have just redecorated and have a whole lot of goodies, including some Ding Dong things.

So a lovely gentleman got in touch one day and asked us to make puppets of his lovely girlfriend and himself as a pressie, we thought that was really sweet. (and we did enjoy making him a hairy chest! heehhe). A little while later we got another email out the blue to tell us that they have now moved in together and need puppets of their extended family... their wee cats! 

So when we got another email a matter of months down the line we were delighted to hear they were now getting married!! and they needed Ding Dong puppets for their cake toppers!! It was an absolute pleasure.

The bride email us this:

Ding Dong designs have been with us from the start, with Andy melting my heart by giving me customised finger puppets of the two of us on my first birthday with him. This was followed by further finger puppets on other special occasions so when we got married, what else would we do for the top of our wedding cake than customised bride and groom finger puppets......they were fab!! And adored by everyone. Thank you DIng Dong Designs! You may just have helped the guy get the girl... ;)

So here are a few pics of the most yummy looking cake ever!!! (if you look closely you can see their 2 original puppets along with their wee cats too on the bottom layer) 

mmm pumpkin pie?

so here at Ding Dong headquarters we're been growing our own and our little pumpkin seems to have ripened up already! It's pretty cute though as we usually get big massive ones. Any reciepe ideas greatly recieved. 


Here are some pics of it turning orange!

 

Hello!!

Hello! well this is my first EVER blog post. with so much happening over the summer there I thought it might be a nice idea to start a wee blog. so here we are.

For those who don't know anything about Ding Dong Designs, we are a two (wo)man band made up by me (Josie) and my wee mum (Freda). I'm a Graphic Designer by day and a keen crafter by moonlight, mum (as I'll call her, or Auntie Freda to you all) is a professional knitter. 

As you may have guessed, this is us, up the park!

Anyway, I hope to tiptap at the old keyboard about all our goings on, interesting (hopefully) happenings and general findings.

Over and Out