Business looking forward to first Valentine's Day

(Seguin) -- Not only has a new flower shop opened up in Seguin but it also appears to have already delivered its own Valentine’s Day gift to the community. Moss & Willow hopes that a building mural outside its location at 410 E. Gonzales St. will help spread its message of “Love” not only on this Valentine’s Day but all year long.

Owner Antoinette Mata says the mural designed by area Artist Jenkins2D was the finishing touch put on her new business -- a business that just opened two weeks ago.

“I was perplexed. I needed something to call attention to my building. I’m the new kid in town. I want bright and color and I wanted to just be able to give families somewhere to be able to take a cool picture and be like ‘hey, we are from Seguin.’ Not only do we want to bring in some of the attention that Burnt Bean is bringing to the community, but we also just want to give the community a cool area to brag to their friends,” said Mata.

She says not only is the mural fun and colorful, but it depicts all the great things that make up this community.

“So, the mural was thought of by the artist. These are trendy right now -- the post card murals. It’s akin to the vintage like 50s and 60s style but we also wanted to honor Seguin. We picked out all of the noticeable areas that we knew when we thought of Seguin. We also just spent some time seeing what the popular image when it comes to Seguin. We definitely wanted to pay homage to all of the important spots. We wanted to highlight Texas, blue bonnets, pecans, Indian paintbrushes. We are a flower company, so we wanted some flowers in there and of course, it’s a gift from us to the community. So, with all our love we just wanted to say ‘hey, Seguin, we are here, and we are ready to build memories with you,’” said Mata.

Being a resident of New Braunfels, Mata wanted to show her commitment to the community and is convinced that the road to Seguin was the right one.

“We have just had a lot of good, local experiences in Seguin. Unfortunately, in New Braunfels, the price hikes are just a little too much for us to start what we wanted to do in New Braunfels, and we just set our sights to the next and up and coming city which is Seguin. The projections for the city to double are very quickly so that inspired us to come into Seguin and kind of start laying down some roots to have something fun and fresh and different,” said Mata.

Now as far as her products and services, Mata says she couldn’t be more excited about launching her new business and partaking in her first Valentine’s Day holiday in Seguin. Mural, pg. 3

Playground, continued.

“saying the hardware, wood rot, loose screws –everything you could imagine being a 28-year-old playground - it’s like we just can’t redo all of it. He gave the recommendation to me that it is time for it to go and we also have a risk manager on staff now that is a new position through the HR department – we had her look at it as well and followed up with a recommendation of ‘this is something that is not safe for the public to use any longer,’” said Jones.

In addition to the years of wear and tear, the Kids Kingdom did not meet today’s current accessibility and safety standards.

Following the playscape’s total dirt removal, the pea

Mural, continued.

“We are collaborating with someone who is making us fresh chocolate dipped strawberries. She hand picks these berries. Picks only the finest quality chocolates which is (guitar). It’s a really nice chocolate and we’ve had compliments over it. We are just supporting local communities. Our friend is making them. They are gourmet. We also have really cute arrangements. They are fresh. They have orchards in them. We specialize in dried flowers, so we add a little bit of dried flowers into every arrangement. That way when the flowers have lasted their life span, people can pull out those dry flowers and keep them as a keepsake and it’s something we like doing. We add a little bit touch. It’s something that is going to last a little longer than what a typical arrangement is going to last,” said Mata.

And for those who are just now noticing the date on their calendars, well, Mata says they have nothing to worry about.

“It’s not too late. We are people who don’t say no. We do not say ‘no.’ We say bring it on. Our wholesalers are carrying flowers late. We will pick up flowers at all times of day. We have a cooler full of flowers and we have more flowers on the way, gravel surrounding the structure will also be removed and seeded for grass. so we have wraps. We are working with other businesses so we will have wraps at Amanda’s bakery Ohhh Donna’s (Sweets & Treats) and I think we are trying to set something up with the Sweet Shop to where we will have some bouquets available there so we will have different locations where people can go if they are not able to get to our shop. We will be around the city so they can pick up a bouquet that is pre-made. Those will start off at about $20 and go up to $80. We typically open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. We will probably get here a little early and we will stay here until we sell out,” said Mata.

Although there are currently no plans for that space, Jones says there is always the potential for something new.

“You never know the future. We could look at grants and come back. Kind of a new craze out there that a lot of cities especially large cities (are doing) – they are building fitness courts. To me, that would be a really good area that the kids can be playing on the playground in the area where the old wooden playscape was,” said Jones.

Meanwhile, the park area surrounding the playscape including disc golf holes 1-4 and 18 will be closed through Friday during the working hours of 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. The park space will be closed so workers can safely remove and dispose of the 28 year-old playground equipment.

Future visions for

Moss & Willow include an even larger plant bar and as Mata describes, “just a place for folks to hang out.” She hopes to also soon begin offering art classes, arrangement classes, wreath making and looks forward to collaborating with other businesses to host other fun activities for couples, friends or families.

Like Moss & Willow, other local floral shops and specialty shops also look to hold down the fort as they try to make sure that folks don’t go home empty handed this Valentine’s Day. Many of them too have hired extra hands and will be staying open a little later than usual.