I love being a shoppe keeper!

Chipfork made me this amazing picture- it's me measuring out strawberry bon-bons in the Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe. I totally LOVE this! It makes me think of my Grandma's family for some reason- I think it might be because they all had orange skin and blue hair too...

Tomorrow

The weather looks like it's all set to be lovely again this weekend, so we are looking forward to another couple of days lounging around, catching the last remaining rays of summer sun and eating lots of sweets...oh no! I mean we are looking forward to opening the Shoppe up and serving YOU with art, sweets and our charming company.

Last weekend Katy did an excellent job of being a guest Shoppe Keeper, tomorrow the honour falls to Johanna, creator of the 'Unusual Horses' print (a snip at £19). There's still space for a few extra guest Shoppe Keepers if anyone's interested:

Sat 26th: Johanna
Sun 27th: maybe Katy

Sat 3rd: Elaine
Sun 4th: Jason

Sat 10th: Elaine
Sun 11th: Jason

Please remember that the Shoppe relies on the volunteers who run The Friends of The Old Pier Society shop, which is located upstairs from us- if they can't find a volunteer to open up for them, or if the weather is considered too bad to bother opening up, then sadly we can't open up either. If possible try and call ahead if you are making a long journey, or if you think you will arrive late- we can try and hold off closing time as long as possible, but when Jodie and David from Peskimo visited last weekend they only had time to grab a few charms and some balloons before we had to lock up.

Shoppe online!

We've started to put some of the Shoppe online, and today we got our first order- which is pretty good going considering I forgot to mention it here. At the moment we've only got a few of the shoppe items listed, but hopefully we'll get everything else added soon- so keep checking back. Prices are listed in £, but paypal handles currency conversion so you can order from anywhere in the world- and indeed we will ship to anywhere in the world, even under sea.

Here ye go: http://themythicalbeastsweetshoppe.bigcartel.com/

Question: How do mermaids see things?

Answer: With their fish eyes.

Thanks Katy

Ballooooooons!

Because The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe can be a little hard to find we decided today to go all out on the balloons, in an attempt to lure people in- it seemed to work as we sold twice as much today as we did last weekend!

Of course there are my lovingly hand made arrows pointing the way as well



Someone very tall had to put these up



heart shaped balloons to give away to small children (and 27 year old men)

balloons inside the shoppe as well as outside

Your shoppe keepers for today are...

We had such a good time at the weekend, but oh boy did it leave us pooped! I slept for 24 hours solid on Monday (might have something to do with only eating sweets all day on Sunday). I know several of you have offered to help out as Shoppe keepers over the next four weekends so I thought i'd try and draw up a rota for you to add your names to...

To recap last weekend we had shop keepers Chipfork, Grrim Rita and me

Me and Chipfork (aka Si) will be keeping shoppe most weekends, but would LOVE to have some helpers so we can nip off for lunch etc (and not overdose on sweets again) I've penciled in some dates that people have suggested they might be able to do- let me know if these have changed at all, or if you want to confirm a definite shift in the Shoppe.

Sat 19th: Katy!
Sun 20th: maybe Katy?

Sat 26th: Johanna!
Sun 27th: maybe Katy?

Sat 3rd: Elaine!
Sun 4th: Jason!

Sat 10th: Elaine!
Sun 11th: Jason!

When it's gone it's gone

Sundays celebrity shoppe keeper Grrim Ritta of The London Rollergirls is no slouch. She got down to the sweet shoppe on our opening weekend and snabbed the last of the small blue t-shirts from the American version of the show. We've still got other t-shirts and we wont run out of sweets, but a lot of the artists stuff we have is in small limited editions and when they're gone they're gone. And some of them will leave a gap on the wall where they were! We're still open for the next four weekends but they'll be over before you know it. This weekend the weather will be amazing again but who knows after that...Well, you get what I'm trying to say. Come along this weekend. It might be you're last chance for a day at the seaside before winter.

new piccies of the shoppe

First weekend of the shoppe

Here's the shoppe. We're downstairs in the little black and white building on the left. Upstairs is where the Friends of the Old Pier Society hang out with info on the Birnbeck pier for everyone who wants to know.

I was worried about being on my own in the shoppe on our first day open. But of course I shouldn't have been worried and I wasn't on my own. I had people to help deliver me and the sweets and label them. People to help with flyers and helping people find the shoppe. The people from the Friends of the Old Pier Society who have been so helpful all along. So thanks to everyone who helped me out. We also had some great customers too!

Lifeboats!

On sunday we had one of the RNLI men as a customer. Even though they were busy all day with their fund raising swim they still had time to pop in and buy some sweets!

There are two people swimming in this picture- can you see them? I can't!

There are a lot of dangerous currents around Weston-super-mare but these are the people who save lives when things go wrong.

If you walk along the sea front to get to us you walk past their souvenir shop, so stop off on the way if you want to help them continue the awesome work they do.

Lots to see in Weston this Saturday

As well as it being the opening day for The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe (your shop keepers for the day will be Chipfork and Beth) there are a lot of other exciting things happening in Weston on Saturday 12th, some as part of Weston Arts Festival, some completely unrelated. Here's what's what:

Weston Arts Festival Arts Trail- Starting at Uphill Quarry and finishing at The Old Town Quarry.

Ian Shipton Open Studio at 42 Clevedon Rd (turn off the seafront directly opposite the old Tropicana) 10-6pm

Weston-super-Mare Paint Jam- various locations around town, but most excitingly at the Tropicana (seafront)

Art in the Quarry at Uphill, featuring site specific work, live music from Badgertrap, help for the love lorn from cantfindamatch.com, sweets from Tizzy Treatz, films projected on the rock face , information about the wildlife, walks and local history of Uphill and an Ice Cream van. You are encouraged to bring a picnic to share with us as we join in on some collaborative patchworking.

Frou Frou exhibition of contemporary embroidery from Joetta Maue, Karen Ruane, Lou Trigg and Cathy Cullis will be opening it's doors as well. Frou Frou is a lovely clothing boutique and the artwork fits in so perfectly there- I suggest you go and buy some art AND some clothes.

And friend of the Sweet Shoppe Becky has organised an event at her house for the evening called 'Don't Snore, just Draw' for more info you can contact her via a comment here.

The sweet shoppe commeth

This afternoon I went and picked up the sweets for the Shoppe from Tizzy Treatz, and ooh how lovely they looked in the back of my friend's car. Actually just thinking about them all is making me hungry so who knows what writing out this list will do to me...

There will be:
American Hard Gums, Aniseed Balls, Army and Navy, Barley Sugar, Apple Bonbons, Lemon Bonbons, Strawberry Bonbons, Toffee Bonbons, Butterscotch, Chocolate Eclairs, Chocolate Limes, Chocolate Peanuts, Chocolate Raisins, Cough Candy, Dew Drops, Fruit Pastilles, Humbugs, Jelly Babies, Jelly Beans, Kola Cubes, Liquorice Allsorts, Liquorice Toffees, Midget Gems, Mint Imperials, Pear Drops, Pineapple Cubes, Rhubarb and Custard, Sherbet Lemons, Sweet Peanuts and Flying Saucers!

Sweets range from 2p each for Flying Saucers to 80p for 100gms of Sweet Peanuts. Now i've got to make labels for all of them so we can remember which is which, and maybe a little tasting session might have to happen...well it is my birthday after all!

Directions by bus

The number 1 bus goes between w-s-m train station and Sand Bay. It stops very close to 'Pier View'- ask for 'Birnbeck Pier' as your destination. A day ticket that can be used on all buses in Weston costs £2.50 at the moment.

TO THE SHOPPE:

Railway Station [KK] 17 and 47 mins past the hour
Regent Street [S] 24 and 54 mins past the hour
Grand Pier [P] 28 and 58 mins past the hour
Birnbeck Pier 3 and 33 mins past the hour

RETURN:

Birnbeck Pier 3 and 33 mins past the hour
Regent Street [N] 10 and 40 mins past the hour
Railway Station [KK] 14 and 44 mins past the hour

DUE TO ROADWORKS ON THE SEAFRONT SOME OF THE BUSES ARE BEING REDIRECTED AND ARE NOT STOPPING NEAR THE GRAND PIER- BEST CHECK AT THE TRAIN STATION

Full Timetable here

Maps

The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe (UK) is located in the ground floor of 'Pier View', the black and white building at the land end of Birnbeck Pier, Birnbeck Road, Weston-super-Mare.

We were a little concerned that the location the sweet shoppe is a little out of the way. Although it is a perfect little spot. We thought we would do our best to help those unfamiliar to find there way there. That's why i made that film too. Here's the map from the flyer. It imagines you've found your way to the Weston sea front. that's twisted metal on the grand pier, I was short on time.


Since then I've put the route we took in the film onto this MAP
theres also this MAP with loads of other things happening as part of Weston arts festival.

About

A collaboration between American artist Edith Abeyta, Weston resident Camilla Stacey,The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe plays host to work from 20 artists all on a 'Mythical Beast' theme, also for sale will be over 40 kinds of sweets provided by local business Tizzy Treatz. Thanks to the Friends of the Old Pier for the use of the downstairs gallery, next to Birnbeck Pier.

Last year Edith Abeyta created The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe at Angels Gate Arts Center. See more of that here.

A bumper box of goodies from Sweet Shoppe founder Edith Abeyta

I'm too tired to write anything tonight, but I couldn't wait to show you what arrived in the post today- the last piece of the sweet shoppe puzzle- a huge package of Unicorn related goodness from Edith Abeyta, featuring some of the artwork me and Jason designed for last year's event.

Getting to the Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe by foot from the train station

I'm sure Simon will give you more details about this film he made of how to get to the Sweet Shoppe. There will be maps and things soon- but in the meantime watch this!

Lost in the Forest

These lovely handmade artists books arrived today from Lost in the Forest, each book comes complete with a necklace that features a genuine mermaid's tear! (Or more accurately a genuine vintage opal like charm)

Custom Made UK

It's not every sweet shop that you visit that sells Yeti's by the quarter, but this is The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe we're talking about and these yeti brooches from Custom Made UK look pretty comfortable being weighed out (just please don't eat them!).

Laura Donald brings us The Hulder

Laura explains:

The hulder is a mythical creature found in Scandinavian fairytales. The daughter of trolls, she is incredibly beautiful but cannot hide the giveaway cow's tail. Men can enjoy a very pleasant evening with her but, if they say a single word, will be held captive in her underground lair forever.

Better keep our mouths shut then about the fact that a package of prints has just arrived ready for inclusion in The Mythical Beast Sweet Shoppe (not quite an underground lair, but nearly)