A Belated Recap of the Tribeca Film Festival

Yup, I did it again.  Of course I did!  April 2014 saw another Tribeca Film Festival Family Fair, and I was there face painting, this time without Eric managing my line.  I have to say, Tribeca has always supplied line managers who've mostly been able to hang out and socialize when Eric was with me, but they're really a good bunch and terrific at doing the job.  I was a little paranoid about it, since the crowd can get really overwhelming, so I made them instruction sheets.  They took the sheets to heart and followed everything to the letter, which was seriously impressive.

I was in the same spot as the last few years, so people knew where to find me and came looking.  Between that and the fact that they waited over an hour on line for me, I was really flattered.  But on to some of the photos...

My first hawk request!

And in writing this, I've realized I never posted about the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival!  So here are last year's photos too.

This pigeon hung out for quite a while on that stroller, watching me work.  Weird!

Face Painting for Fluffies

Some women who get together socially and like to raise funds for good causes hosted a very cool event recently at the Westside Village Tavern in Ridgefield Park, NJ.  It was to benefit the Bergen County Animal Shelter in Teterboro, NJ.

 
They had a live band and a small tricky tray, plus were taking donations and had adoptable dogs there.  Not long ago, 40 puppy mill  German shepherds were rescued from an animal hospital, and the shelter had taken their adoptions on.

Apparently, the women had contracted for a face painter, but that one canceled last minute.  They'd already advertised face painting, so they were pretty under the gun to find another.  Luckily, I'd had a gig cancel on me, and one of the organizers is friends with someone who knows me, so she put us in contact and I was able to help.

It was a great turnout, and I had a ton of fun with both kids and adults.  Plus, I got to try my first ever full-face eagle!

Franklin Lakes Cleanup/Beautification Day with the Environmental Commission

A while back, I became a commissioner on my town's Environmental Commission.  It's a great group, with a great mission and a bunch of great people.  They've been doing the cleanup day for a few years now, but this time we added "beautification" to the itinerary.  Our home base was the nature preserve in town.

As a brand new beekeeper, I want to encourage the planting of flowers whenever and wherever possible, so the participants also planted tulips and wildflower seeds.  Hence "beautification."  We handed out gloves, bags, and trash pickup equipment for people to use around the preserve and out on various streets around town.  Plus, we had a display teaching about xeriscape landscaping, which is the planting of flowers and plants that require very little water to flourish.

Of course, I offered my services as a face painter to draw families to the event, and had a great time painting the attendees, young and younger.

 

 

 

I was especially impressed with these three teens who showed up of their own volition without parents.  They run on the trails in the preserve and are just dedicated to keeping it nice.  Says some good things about the teen population!

Wizard of Oz

I had the opportunity this weekend to face paint at a birthday party with one of the most fun concepts ever!  And the four-year-old birthday girl's parents definitely pulled it off.

They rented the upstairs of a local movie theater on Saturday morning for a special showing of the Wizard of Oz!  There was a "yellow brick road" purchased from a party store leading into the theater where the movie was showing, and a full-sized Glinda.

I was there to do themed face painting, and even got to see some of the movie!  You may be wondering about that orange face on the left and how it relates... the very decisive young lady really wanted an orange tiger, so we compromised on a modified orange lion.  It worked, and she was happy, always my goal.

The birthday girl got Toto, which of course made that the popular face of the morning.

Cowardly lions were pretty popular too, and these cute siblings made their own pride!

I did have a couple of Wicked Witch of the Wests, which of course you know was fun for me.

And another compromise when my butterfly requester agreed to an "Over the Rainbow" butterfly.

And last, but not least, one of my Glindas realized that her bangs were covering her painting more than she liked, so she came on back for a rainbow.

But I never finished talking about the rest of the party carrying the theme!  There were Wicked Witch cupcakes all in a tower from a phenomenal local baker, Kara Kakes.  If you take a look at her Facebook page, you'll see some incredible other work she's done, but check out these in the meantime!

Are those not amazing?  And then for favors, there were Wizard of Oz themed bags of popcorn in blue with gingham bows and ruby red glitter marshmallow pops by another local food artist, Sally of Dipped Delicious.

How awesome are these?

Too cute!  Too delicious!  In fact, one girl who'd started in on her popcorn handed the bag to her dad so she could get painted, and admonished him, "Don't eat it!"  Apparently it was irresistible, though, because he did eat some while I was painting her.  Ha!  Take a look at the Dipped Delicious FB page to see other insanely delicious looking confections.

And if you wanted all three of us for your party?  I can contact them and help you 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!