Halloween Rolls Around Again!

My favorite season is back!  On Tuesday, Eric and I went to a Halloween party hosted by LEAD, at a local BBQ place.  We had a blast. 

The party was a Halloween Hoedown theme, so Eric wore his everyday clothes - Wrangler jeans & plaid shirt, Justin cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat.  Yes, I met a country boy in Manhattan; don't ask me how.  Meanwhile, I wore one of my pairs of Wrangler jeans and my Abilene cowboy boots (he got to me, Eric did!), a torn t-shirt, one of my own old plaid flannel shirts, Eric's old ratty, tattered, cowboy hat, straw, pigtails and face paint... zombie cowgirl!  Because I can't get into a Halloween costume if face paint isn't involved.

And look what I got for my efforts!

Plus, I got to give the other attendees henna tattoos!  It was so much fun, and I loved going outside the box on some - like the house tattoo for the real estate agent!

Be sure to check back for more Halloween - I've got private appointments and parties!

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!

Zombie Land

I recently painted and did glitter tattoos at a 7th birthday party at Frank's Pizza in Oakland, NJ.  It was a fun place for a party, actually; the kids got to make their own personal pizzas in between getting their balloons from the twister the family hired and face painting and tattoos from me.

The birthday girl chose a leopard, and her little sister a lion cub.

They were so cute.  My little lion kept roaring, even through the singing of Happy Birthday!

I had a couple more cats, too, of both the wild and house variety.

This time, the odd faces out were the monkey, butterfly, and smilie.

Why?  Because even more popular than my cats were my zombies!  We had a whole zombie horde, all shuffling and moaning and groaning.  They were out-and-out hilarious.

 

Better watch out!

Another Halloween

So another Halloween has come and gone.  We decorated our little hearts out, hosted our annual party, and went to a party besides. 

The only disappointment was out utter lack of trick-or-treaters.  Where I live, houses are pretty far apart, plus we're on a main road with no sidewalks or street lights, so I knew it was unlikely anyone would bother, but I still hoped.  From 6:15 when I got home from the day job until the 10 p.m. town curfew, we had the lanterns lit & fog/lightening machines going.  Hopefully, at least people driving by enjoyed it.

I did get to have fun painting, though.  On Saturday the 26th, before our own Halloween party, I was back at the Woof Gang Bakery for their Howl-O-Ween party & dog costume contest.  Don't worry, I wasn't painting pets this time, just the people who brought them.  Yet again, I love this place and the people who comprise their customers.  What a great group!  Even though I never, even take gigs on the day of my own party, I couldn't say no to this one and am glad I went.  It was so much fun!

I loved these sisters who thought they'd challenge me with a pig, dinosaur, and cow.

 

I promise this boy was happy with his dog.  I think the flash got him.

 

This young lady asked for a "groovy skeleton," which turned out to be the Halloween costume she'd be sporting on Thursday.  Not having a visual made me nervous, but her sister was kind enough to let me know it had pink & purple, so this is what I came up with.  She loved it!  She loved it to the point of sitting back in her chair from excitement.  Score!

 

I did this rose on an employee, who loved it.  Glitter tats weren't a huge thing at this event, probably because everyone had Halloween on the brain.

 

 

My witch was really happy too, and I'd love to see what her mom did for her on Thursday, since her Halloween costume was witch too.

 

And as usual, the zombies were a hit.  You know I love it when they get into character.

And this past Saturday, we went to a party at friends' too.  I'd already done myself as a vampire on the 26th, so for the 1st, I was a zombie.

I scared everyone!  Woohoo!

Whole Lotta Paintin' Goin' On

I only had two gigs this weekend, but I think I may have painted enough faces in 4 and a half hours to rival the Tribeca Film Festival painting days!

On Saturday afternoon, I made my second annual appearance at the Glen Rock Newcomer's Association's kickoff party.  I was there for two hours, flying like the wind, but man, did I have fun.  I worked from a limited list of my fastest faces to keep things moving quickly and was assigned a couple of teens as line managers who did a phenomenal job making sure the kiddos had their choices made before hitting my chair.

I obviously didn't have time for photos, but did ask one of the girls to take two photos of faces I especially liked.  This was a slightly different take on my typical dragon and I thought it was cute.

Even more fun was my new "Zombie bite" face, inspired by Pashur, a master body artist out of Las Vegas.  It may just be my new favorite face.

How creepy is she?!  Those eyes!  Gotta say, I wouldn't want to meet up with that face in the middle of the forest.  Or city, for that matter.

That face was such a hit on Saturday, that I brought it out again on Sunday, when I painted for the very first time for the Heat & Sole Walk to benefit heart failure and transplant patients.  What an amazing group!

The funniest thing to me, and I regret not getting a photo of him, was an older boy who saw my zombie bite and just had to have one.  While I was painting him, he told me, "You painted my sister at a party at Bounce U a few weeks ago!" and showed me a photo on his phone of a pink kitty that was easily recognizable as one of mine.  Turns out this young man was at that birthday party, which was for a five-year-old girl and her friends, and was too old for face painting.... until he saw the cooler options he had this time around!  Ha!  I call that vindication, my friends.

This face also inspired an adult woman to have me "do something creepy" on her arm, and was happy with what I came up with.

To be honest, so was I.  Fun, right?  In case you can't tell, Halloween is my favorite holiday.

I had a lot of my regular fare too, including one boy who was really excited when I told him, in listing several options and ideas, "When I say I can do a bear, I mean panda, polar, or brown bear," and exclaimed happily, "Brown bear!"  So a brown bear he was.

Now I just hope they have me back next year!