So Busy that the Sky is Falling!

I painted with a friend on Friday evening at a country club's father/daughter dance.  It was princess themed, and really fun.  The girls were in amazing dresses, some with their hair professionally done, and the club provided princess tiaras and us to do princess faces.

With just 2 painters, 3 hours, and 120 girls, there was no time for photo-taking, unfortunately.

But since I have to give you some sort of photos, I'll tell you about my play!

I'm appearing in December in the children's show Poultry in Motion, at the Studio Playhouse in Montclair.

It's a take on the classic Chicken Little, and I get to be Henny Penny!  The director has potentially chosen to do traditional stage makeup for the characters, except for Foxy Loxy, who I may get to paint.  So I worked up a sample face, based on a fox photo I found online.

Because she was the only one getting painted, the director asked me to tone it down.  So I tried this.

We'll see if he goes for it.  I hope he does!

Boy's Glitter Tat Birthday

Last weekend I was hired to do glitter tattoos at a boy's bounce house birthday.  Glitter tats are perfect for bounce house party places, since they won't rub off on the houses, minimizing cleanup for the employees.  Plus, kids get sweaty when bouncing, and the tats don't just sweat off, always a plus.  Some of my designs...

Once the birthay boy chose that one, it was pretty popular!

I thought this was a nifty way of getting over a fear of witches.

Another popular one was this great tribal dragon.

The kids had a blast, and I got to have fun with them.  A great way to spend an afternoon!

Halloween My Way

And Mother Nature's.

Those of you in NJ know that the Halloween weather was weird this year.  Snow.  Crazy, big, heavy snow that came down on trees still laden with green leaves, taking many of them - and power lines with them - down.  Thankfully, we didn't have any issues here, but it was weird.

We decorated the yard.

And then the snow.

Snow just does not go with the Halloween motif.  It just doesn't.  We did get to go to a party on Saturday night, despite the weather, and Eric wore a cape I made him with the mask he got in New Orleans.

On Halloween night, I was Hermione, and Meg joined me as a witch too!

On Sunday, a friend from work borrowed my clown costume for a party to which she was invited and I did her face.  She was adorable!  And won best costume!

And then Halloween finished with a bang last night, when we went to a friend's annual bonfire on a blueberry farm.  He lit the way with luminaries.

There was music and food and an awesome fire.

Another Halloween gone by.  Can't wait for next year!

They say you can't go home again...

... but I did.

From 1979 to 1982, I attended my 4th, 5th, and 6th grade classes at the Warren Point School in Fair Lawn, NJ.

Then I went on to junior high and Fair Lawn High School... and from there to college and law school.  I really only went back to Warren Point to pick up my sister when she was a student there.

Until yesterday.

About a month ago, I got an email from a woman who was on a Fair Lawn school PTA, looking for a face painter to work at their "welcome back to school" carnival.  When she told me the town, I had a feeling... so I asked which school... and it was mine!  I was inordinately excited about going back to my old stomping grounds.

I mean, I used to play handball on that same blacktop!

There were some changes.  A new wing, for instance, and the seesaws and swings were gone (what have they done with seesaws?) and this was in its place.

OK, so that's pretty cool, even if my seesaws are gone.

The best thing was being able to tell the kids that I was a student there too... about a thousand years ago.  And, of course, to paint them.  I think I did about 8,000 butterflies and 7,000 tigers in the four hours I was there.

I did so many of those two designs that I think at first the kids thought that was all I was offering!  It just so happened those were the first two requested and it stuck.  There's always the "hot" design at any event that just gets a million requests.  I did finally hear someone farther back on the line mention the word "bear," though, so I took the opportunity to suggest a brown bear or panda.  It resulted in two pandas, one "real" and one green.



I also ended up with a lot of puppies because at the end when I had to cut the line, I gave a choice of "butterflies, snakes, or puppies, that's it!"  I didn't get any photos of those, though, because I was racing by then.  I did get some randoms throughout the afternoon...

(Yay, Fair Lawn!)

I only kinda wish Mrs. Sandler (my grammar school art teacher) was still teaching there and had been at the event.  How funny would that be?

Normally, when I cut a line, that's that.  I don't take any "just one more"s because it's just not fair to the kids I've already turned away.  Yesterday was no exception... almost.

As I was painting the second-to-last customer, a little girl came up and asked me, "May I please have a face painting?"  I told her I couldn't do it, and explained why, but thanked her for asking so politely and saying "please."  She was with her mom watching me as I got to the last customer, a little boy who was the brother of the girl I'd been painting a minute before.  When it was time for him to get in my chair, he chickened out.  His mom asked me to take the polite girl in his stead, since I now had room for one more and she'd asked so nicely.  It was the one time I've made an exception, but I loved being able to teach her that being polite gets her places.

And the PTA took photos too!

Wow.

Several years ago, when I was a much newer face painter, I hired by the mom to work at a birthday party at Anna's Chocolates in Tappan, NY.  It was a great place, where the kids got to make their own chocolate candies and lollipops as part of the party.  I remember the party well, as I was impressed with the shop and wanted to maybe have one of my own birthday parties there... and also because it was a crazy situation where I was hired for "10" kids and 25 showed up.  I had one hour in which to paint 'em, so I really had to race.

And then it left my mind.

Fast forward to last month, when I got a call from a woman named Anna.  Of Anna's chocolates.  It was now 4 years later, Anna no longer had the chocolate shop, but she did have a daughter turning 3.  And the daughter wanted a face painter.

She hadn't kept my card.

She wracked her brain for a day, thinking about it, and actually remembered my name and found me online.  Crazy, no?  Crazy, I tell you.  Wow.  I honestly don't know whether to be more flattered or impressed.  I'm kind of both.

So last weekend, I did face painting and glitter tattoos and face painting at the kiddo's party.  No photos, sorry.  It was fun, though, very nice kids.  And the great idea of having two pinatas, one princess one and one pirate.  Very cool.

Picnic!

Every summer, the community theater to which I belong, Bergen County Players, hosts a picnic for the members, friends, and family, and every year Eric and I go.  Since it's something I can offer to my fellow theater people, I bring the face paints and glitter tats.

I'm generally a hit.  This year didn't get off to an auspicious start, though, when I asked a little girl I didn't know if she wanted to be painted.  She said yes, her mother said yes.  She wanted a butterfly, and pink was her color of choice... but as soon as the sponge reached her face, she got really upset.  Glitter, which she'd already asked for before I started, just added to her misery.  Looking in the mirror was even worse, and she didn't stop crying until we washed her face off.  I'm glad Snazaroo, which I was using, will come off with just a paper towel and a little water.  I felt so bad!  Face painting's supposed to be fun, after all.

When her mom tried getting painted to show her it was ok, she got upset all over again... and then again when her brother got a glitter tattoo on each arm.  She's very protective of her family, it seems.

After that, though, hilarity ensued.

First, what I did.

What you're seeing there are my first ever beagle and squirrel!  I love getting challenges!  The fish was just something out of my head, an "artist's choice," but Eric told me I'd done a pineapple fish.  Behold...

Weird, right?  I'd never heard of or seen this fish before!  Hmm...

While I was working, though, my young friend Messalina (isn't that a great name?) asked to use my paints and join me.  I never let anyone do that, but it is tradition that Messalina paints me, so I let her paint our friend Kenny, who was oddly agreeable yesterday.  I do note that he's never let me paint him and plan to remedy that, especially since he has such a terrific canvas.

I think I should hire her!