Cherry Reds: Chapter One

There's a new smoothie/shake/ice cream/soup restaurant in the area:  Cherry Reds.  It's just a town over, and we found each other on, of all places, Facebook!  There's something to be said for Facebook, I suppose, and definitely something to be said for supporting small, local business, which Cherry Reds does as much as humanly possible.

The couple that owns the restaurant is really terrific, as are their three kids.  They've jumped right in to the neighborhood, setting out to form relationships with other small businesses in the area and working on becoming a local hangout and party venue.

On Friday night, I had the great pleasure of face painting there for a few hours!  Their daughters were the first up.

Even more fun, they convinced mom to get involved!

I had so much fun during the two hours I was there, I can't wait for my next time!

In the meantime, the Cherry Reds family and I are planning lots of other sorts of events too, so stay tuned!

Halloween 2010

Ah, Halloween, my favorite holiday.

We were so busy this year with so many things that we actually skipped our annual Holiday party and instead made other plans.

I did, however, face paint at my usual Halloween gig, the Bergen County Cabbage Night Festival.  I love this event, and it's great for the kids.

My first model of the day was this adorable girl who wanted something scary and settled on an alien.

She was hanging around as I set up my table, and was the only one around, but once I painted her I was swamped for even longer than my scheduled three hours.

Some more girls who were into the scary faces (my personal favorites) were this zombie, vampire, and witch.

Some weren't into face painting, but were sure into the theme.  A new design for me that was hugely popular this year was my haunted house scene.  I did some on hands, some on faces.

And my first vampire hand painting.  I'm used to turning people into vampires, more than drawing them.  Still, a fair representation, I think.

And of course I had my usual butterflies, tigers, puppies, and this cute cheetah.

Plus, my first ever rocket request, which I then duplicated on this young man's brother.

This next design was a heck of a compromise.  The model wanted a flower, just a simple flower.  Her mom was pushing for a mardi gras mask.  So I suggested a flowered mardi gras mask!

Then there were these three teens who were so cool.  The first one saw the length of my line and chose to keep things moving for me, even though she'd waited for nearly two hours herself.  She requested just a cat nose and whiskers.  The second dubbed herself a comic book geek and requested a superhero mask, which was voted by the three as the "best superhero mask she'd ever gotten" and "sick" (a good thing in teenspeak).  The third wanted nerd glasses, tape and all.

I was so crazy busy painting, that I actually handed them my phone to take photos of each other for me!  I love how they all got into character with their paintings.

While that afternoon I was a Renaissance wench,

later that night, my husband Eric and I went to Forest of Fear, a haunt organized by the same group that does the NY Renaissance Festival across the street from the Faire grounds.  For that, I went as a zombie Alice in Wonderland, and Eric wore this terrific mask we bought him in New Orleans, with a black velvet cloak.

Today, I went trick or treating wtih my sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.  My nephew, for his first Halloween, was Curious George, my brothe-in-law was the Man in the Yellow Hat, and my sister was the bunch of balloons in the sky.  I was a clown.

We do have one more Halloween event - we're going to Blaze at Van Cortlandt Manor next Saturday.  I'll let you know how it was!

A Beautiful Day for a Birthday

This past Saturday, I painted at a joint birthday for two siblings, one 4 and one 8, who shared a birthday. They actually have four other siblings!  (More power to their parents!)

The family was great, and there were a ton of people there, attending in the park in Newark.  As I pulled up and parked my car, the dad and grandma setting up accidentally let go the bunch of balloons that was supposed to decorate, but luckily they got caught in a tree, so they still decorated the party... you just had to look up to see them.

I set up my stuff, and almost immediately got to work.  Adults, kids, everyone was into it, so I had a lot of work to do.  Some of the kids even got painted multiple times, like this pink kitty with flowered arms.

We decided on flowered arms with a pink background when she wanted both kitten paws and flowers on her arms.  So I explained that the kitten was walking through the garden, and you could see the pink paws through the flowers.

The birthday boy, age 4, chose a red Spiderman, so one of the other boys in line after him responded with a request for a black Spiderman.

And more variations on a theme... a pink puppy that later led to a standard brown one.

And the birthday girl, age 8, who was actually first on my line, got a cheetah, inspiring her friend to do the same.  There were very few duplicates at this party, which made it more fun for me, but this one allowed me to get this great shot of these two sassy cheetahs, double trouble if I ever saw it.

That's the birthday girl there on the left.  It was so atypical, that I only had one single butterfly!

Flowers were a hit that day, from this little rose princess, who specified that she wanted three flowers.

To the birthday kids' great grandma, who asked for a single rose.

And yes, I said great grandma.  How cool is that?

There were also the arm flowers (and butterflies) I did on this two-year-old and the face of flowers on one of the adults in the bunch.

Other adults asked for cheek art depicting their favorite things, like this stiletto heel and this hat, which matched the hat she was wearing.

I love it when I get to take a request and run with it, like this heart princess, who just asked for a simple heart.  When I suggested the princess, and then showed her the finished product, she was ecstatic.

On the other end of the spectrum, a skull request from a young man who graciously waited on line while on crutches, pretty much without complaint.

He also had the dubious talent of being able to roll his eyes back in his head.  While it freaks me out, it does make for a really nifty photo!

And somewhere in the middle of the road, a tiger and a zebra - my first zebra request in years!

And just look at that blue sky behind them!  They got so lucky with the weather for a large outdoor party, it was great.