The Journey Has Begun!!! Moby and Puddle's Enchanted Boutique is OPEN! xxx

Sunday 1st May 2016, I opened the door to Moby and Puddle's Enchanted Boutique to the public for the first time ever! I can't begin to explain just how nervous I was that so many of my lovely friends and family would see my work, or even worse, that no one would show up! I was bouncing with excitement and the first person through the door was my lovely Harrison running in with a balloon that he had only a few moments before run out of the shop with!

Harrison was followed by lots of familiar faces who had all come down on a Sunday morning to show their support. I was overwhelmed with the support and just hope that everyone who came knows just how much I appreciate it and how touched I was! I hope that they liked the yummy cakes too!

It was an absolute pleasure to see so many people in my little shop! My first ever sale was a framed mermaid ....

I could of literally jumped for joy at making a sale and lots came after that too!

We had the pleasure of the fantastic Lydia's Face Painting And Glitter Tattoos, painting the children who happily skipped through the door. The face painting was beautiful, both children and adults were amazed at the intricate designs! Perfect for our enchanted opening!

amazing detail by Lydia xxx

There was lots of green to keep my little dragon happy!

And I think almost everyone got the chance to play with the balloons! until they popped!!!

I can honestly say that I don't think that the opening could have gone any better at all! I got to meet some friends who have been part of my little online family, for the first time!

I got to see some old friends who made long journeys to show their support and local friends who braved the weather. Everyone seemed to love the selection of items available from the amazing UK artists (which I will be featuring on my blog soon) and by the end of the day I still had a massive smile on my face! And the cherry on the top was my baby sister bringing my a huge bunch of flowers to say congratulations! Thank you Kerry!

Thank you to everyone who made the opening day so special! I hope to see you all in the not too distant future! I am determined to make the Enchanted Boutique a big success! I have plenty of events already in the pipeline and I will be preparing for Plymouth's legendary pirate weekend soon too! If you are ever down this way please do come and visit, you won't be dissapointed that you did!

Love Sam xxx

3 sleeps until we open!!!

Well with only 3 sleeps left until the grand opening I thought you might like to see an update. Most of the stock is in and almost everything on my to do list is done!!! There are secret fairy doors to find and beautiful creations lurking everywhere! I am so happy with how it is looking at the moment and hope that I can continue to make it a fun place for people of all ages to visit! 

I am so proud that such amazing artists have trusted me with their wonderful creations and I feel sure that we have something for every believer! Here is a sneak peek of what you will find when you visit the Enchanted Boutique next time you are in Plymouth xxx

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So many goodies!

So much to look at!

Callie is my very own giant Cornling and is the Boutiques mascot!

Some crazy bees in the hive attracted by the delicious honey creations!

Clive the Koala is excited to meet everyone!

Fairies welcome and well behaved goblins too!

Cornlings are waiting to be discovered and look at all that loveliness behind them too xxx

SEE YOU SOON!

GRAND OPENING 1st MAY 2016 

xxx

Tregantle Beach Clean Art inspired by Smartie Lids On The Beach

In honour of Earth Day and because the sun was shining, my husband, daughter and I decided to head to one of our favourite places, the beach! We headed over to Cornwall and towards Whitsand Bay, we usually go to Sharrow but unfortunately the bad weather lately has made it too dangerous to reach. We decided to explore Tregantle instead. We are incredibly lucky to have so much natural beauty nearby!

We walked down the trail from car park to the beach and the scenery is absolutely stunning! The beach was quiet and the sea was calm. You couldn't wish for a more serene environment.

My little sand spryte (image by Webb Family Photography) xxx

I recently discovered (via #Lego) on Instagram, an artist named Michelle Costello who is also based in this part of the world, Smartie Lids On The Beach is an amazing project that helps to clean up the beaches.

I am not sure if it is because I never took the time to notice it on other beaches or if it is because I have not been to Tregantle before, but I noticed so much plastic washed up on the beach. It was literally scattered with all kinds of plastic that is harmful to the environment and the wildlife. Perhaps it is the influence of Smartie-Lids-On-The-Beach that has opened my eyes to the sheer amount of plastic that is just ignored and discarded on our beaches?

We literally found a rainbow of plastic just from a very short 10 min walk from the foot of the pathway to where we placed our blanket.

plastic rainbow?

 It was a real shame to see so much rubbish in one spot and we were feeling a little down about it, which is not at all what Earth Day should be about!!! SO we decided to make a little art with the discarded plastic ...

A Bird

A boat

A flower pot.

And of course you can't have Earth Day without thinking of the little ones that help Mother Nature with her work ....

A Sea Fairy

Please take a look at Michelle's wonderful work, I have added links to both instagram and facebook for you to click on. It is an eye opener and it is inspirational. We were just playing and of course we took all of the plastic, that we picked up, home to be recycled. Our little way of thanking the Earth for all that it gives us!


Happy Earth Day xxx

How To Make A Dragon Egg In Under 5 Mins

Grab a few sparkly bits

My Webblings have a St Georges Day project to do for next Friday and as I have been super busy getting the Enchanted Boutique ready so I needed a quick project that they could have fun with but wouldn't take a long time (or cost much, total cost was £5.00). The Webblings have decided they want to be dragons (the outfits will take longer than 5 minutes I am sure!!!) so they decided to make Dragon Eggs for their school projects. You can create these in under 5 mins but they need to dry overnight so don't start them just before the kids go to school!

I managed to get some plastic eggs (Frozen and Star Wars, other plastic egg varieties are available I am sure, haha) from the sweetie aisle and some glitter glue (paint would just flake off), star confetti and little pearl gems.

squeeeeeeeezzzzeeee!

Split the eggs in half and discard the contents (feel free to eat the sweets and wear the badge if you get one, as modeled by the lovely Harrison. Squeeze as much glitter glue on as you like and spread the glue around to cover the egg.

cover the egg but don't worry about the colour showing through!

Then the fun bit .... sparkles and stars!

They started with one at a time.

Harry wasn't keen on getting glue on his hands!

so he decided sprinkling was a better method!

Lilly was a little more delicate with her decorations so it took her a little longer but not much.

Then they added a second layer of glue so that all of the stars and gems would definetly stick in place. And they were ready to dry!

Very Proud Harrison Webbling

Very Proud Lilly Webbling

We left them to dry overnight and then peeled them off of the kitchen roll, did I mention some sort of table cover is essential? This is a messy activity and a disposable one would be best!!!

We put them together and hey presto! two beautiful Dragon eggs all ready for the St George's Day parade next Friday! Under 5 mins and around £5.00 including jelly beans!!!

Finished Dragon Eggs!

Very happy little lady with her sparkly pink egg!

The best bit about this project is that the Webblings got to do the whole things themselves too, it was short enough to keep Harrison's attention and sparkly enough to get Lilly really excited! Other than giving instructions I did nothing to help them with this project, they have a real sense of pride and ownership of their eggs that they wouldn't have had if I had made them for them! They are so pretty too. It is a bit messy but not too badly and doesn't take up lots of space.

If you decide to let your little ones make them please post a picture, I would love to see more!

Love Samantha xxx

We Got The Keys

We got the keys to our lovely little shop today and moved lots and lots of flat pack furniture in. It is overwhelmingly exciting and the start of a brand new chapter in our stories! The children love the whole space and they were as hyper as me and Mr Webb! We put a make do display together that will hopefully wet peoples appetites and show them a little of what will be on offer. We also left signs saying when we will be opening (1st May) so hopefully we will get lots of lovely visitors!

Me and Lilly with the keys to the door!

A small selection of the pretty tutu dresses that will be available.

My Opening Times frame is coming in handy to advertise the grand opening.

A selection of the mermaids that will also be for sale! 

The Cornlings have found a new home.

And of course we had to have a lovely ice cream from Edwards on the Barbican to celebrate!

Hoping to see lots of lovely people on the opening day but lots of work to do before then!!! 

xxx

Bye Bye Owls

For the last four years my logo has been these two lovely little owls, I am really emotionally attatched to them. I never dreamt that Moby and Puddle would one day become my full time job and that these little owls would come to mean such a lot to me.

However, I am starting a new chapter in my life and a new adventure for Moby and Puddle, so the decision has been made to rebrand my business and to have a logo that is more representative of my brand and my new shop too. I have sketched and sketched and sketched to get a design that I can get excited about and I have finally found designed one that I love ...

... I hope that you will love it as much as I do. It is hard to see them go but bye bye owls xxx

An Exciting New Adventure

I have very exciting news ...

On the 8th March I put a deposit on a real bricks and mortar shop. I have dreamt of having my own little shop for so long and with dwindling views on social media making my online sales drop, I think that a new adventure is exactly what Moby and Puddle needs. I aim to blog my journey as I go!

I was not looking for a shop really but a friend posted a link from gumtree on Facebook. I have been a big fan of The House That Jack Built since my first trip to the Barbican around 10 years ago. They have a walkway with a magic tree, a dragon, elves and a fountain etc, could you imagine a more perfect place for Moby and Puddle? I had to try and get the shop of my dreams.

We are not well off, I'm not sure you can be when you have two children and a Lego addicted husband but we scraped the deposit together, applied and I was delighted when I heard back from the landlady to talk about my work and my plans for the shop.

I have to say a massive thank you to Lizzie from Make@140 Vauxhall Street who I have had the pleasure of knowing for many years now thanks to my daughters love of buttons and our trips to the fantastic Funky Poppy. Lizzie encouraged me to go for the shop and not to hesitate if it was what I really wanted, she answered a tonne of questions for me and helped make the decision easier. Lizzie you are fantastic!

I visited the space and had a very warm welcome from the existing tenants Pinnacle Arts And Crafts who showed me around, gave me loads of helpful tips and information. I fell in love with the space and could already start imagining how it would look! I put the deposit down then and there.

I plan to exhibit not only my own creations but handmade whimsical and fantastic makes from artists all over the UK too. It will be a great little place to come and forget the darkness in the world if only for a little while. 

I will get the keys soon and start moving in, ready for the grand opening on 1st May 2016.

I am so excited and will have lots of updates in the weeks ahead including new branding for Moby and Puddle. I hope that you will enjoy the journey with me and that I see lots of you in my new shop too xxx

Hobbycraft Make & Bake Clay Review

I was given a packet of Hobbycraft Make and Bake Clay in a very beautiful bright pink colour. I am very much a Fimo girl but I thought that I would give it a try and see how it went. This is just a quick review of my own experience with it and my own opinions only. As I have already said the colour is absolutely gorgeous!

The packaging was a nightmare to get off, I rarely use more than a little bit of clay at one time and always rewrap in the original packaging before storing in bags, there was no way to open this plastic without ripping it unfortunately.

I ripped off a chunk and it was very crumbly considering how soft the clay was. It had a very playdoughy texture rather than polymer clay.

It has an oily feeling to it but this made it very easily mouldable and it needed very little conditioning to get it into a small ball.

It worked really great with cutters, they came out very clean cut around the edges. However it was more difficult to sculpt anything with my hands, it was very soft and picked up every little print.

I managed to combine the hearts into one and the clay blends really well, possibly because of the oily texture too. It is more shiny than matte and feels sticky to the touch even when left for a little while.

Putting a head pin into the unbaked clay was difficult, it went through the clay easily, maybe a little too easy though because it distorted the bottom of the heart where it was pushed in and I had to resculpt the shape a little.

I baked as per the instructions and this little heart charm is the end result. Once baked the clay still has a shine without having any varnish on it at all. It seems very hard and would be hard wearing too. I am impressed with the final result.

I don't think that I would be happy to use this full time for my orders because it is too soft to be able to sculpt any significant details into and I was not fond of the slippery, oily texture of the unbaked clay. However for little charms like this I think that it is a great price per packet and I would definitely buy it for my children to save my Fimo clay for my work. It comes out in a beautiful finish which is essentially the most important thing. I am now hoping that I can store it in my poly bags without it affecting the clay since the original packaging had to be binned.

I hope that this has been informative. If you would like to buy some Hobbycraft Make and Bake Clay follow this link ... Hobbycraft xxx