Face Painting and Balloon Twisting Blog

I first saw this a year ago… it is a pretty cool idea for when you can put out a tip jar.

Available from http://www.tipjar.net/

Mike showing his drink at Chick-Fil-A on Cow Appreciation Day

Each year, Chick-Fil-A holds a Cow Appreciation Day when they invite customers to dress up as cows and get free food. I like excuses to dress up in costumes and I like free food, so I always mark the date on my calendar. This year, it was today, Friday, July 13, 2012.

Over the years, I have purchased various accessories to wear on Cow Appreciation Day. I have a cow hat, cow bell, and even a kids cow towel. I even made a sign that says, “Eat More Chicken”. Usually, I will paint my face after work to look like a cow and head to Chick-Fil-A for dinner. I don’t think I have ever had someone ask me to do a cow face when face painting. The first year, I actually had a hard time finding good examples to copy.

In case you are also looking for some inspiration… There are a few face painting examples on YouTube.

Silly Farm’s Mama Clown doing a Cow Face Painting Design

Marvelous Masks Chicago Face Painter shows a Cow Face Painting Design

Snazaroo US has a gallery of Farm Animals that includes a few cow designs.

Legendary face-painter Brian Wolfe creating a snake face with an airbrush at the 2012 Midwest Haunters Convention in Columbus, Ohio.

Eddie Heyland from Balloon City USA takes you on a tour behind the scenes at the installation of the large and small sculptures for the World Balloon convention WBC.in Dallas, TX. 2012

Enjoy the FUN from 2012! Join them in 2013!!

January 9-12th 2013… and the 13th for Private Classes
The ONLY ONE in The USA! Not Just A Balloon Jam! A Super Balloon Jam! The Woodstock of Balloons! Come To Orlando…Come Twist with FRIENDS!! Their Goal is for the Balloon Community to have an Event where everyone can Share, Learn, Jam, and just have FUN!!! In a Warm Place!!! With BALLOONS!!!

http://www.TheFloridaSuperJam.com/

If you want to tell jokes to kids, tell clean jokes. Here are some summer related jokes related to the summer I recently collected from various sources.

Q. What is green and goes to a summer camp?
A. A Brussels’ scout.

Q. Why do melons have fancy weddings?
A. Because they cantaloupe.

Q. What do you call a country where the people drive only pink cars?
A. A pink carnation.

Q. What do you get if you cross a four-leaf clover with poison ivy?
A. A rash of good luck.

Q. What do you call it when worms take over the world?
A. Global Worming.

Q. Why are frogs always happy?
A. Because they eat whatever bugs them!

Q. What do you use to cut an ocean’s waves?
A. A sea-saw!

Q. Why is the little ant always confused?
A. Because all his uncles are ants.

If you have a website, you probably get email messages from people offering to help improve your website. I get regular emails telling me that my websites are not on top rankings for most of the keywords pertaining to my domain.

While this may be true, their help is unsolicited. I have a personal policy to NEVER do business with a company that I didn’t solicit. I understand enough about website rankings and keywords to be able to improve my own website. (It takes time to do it right.) If and when I was ever to decide that I need help with my websites, I will take the first step. I will review several companies and pick the one that I feel offers the best value and service. I will NOT just pick the first company that sends me an email offer for support.

I don’t take much notice of the offers of support, but I suppose that for some people they could serve as a nudge. Maybe it is worth seeing how your website ranks in the search results. If you can’t find your own website when looking for a generic term, maybe you do need help with your keywords. But, I suggest you do your homework and pick the company that you want to do business with.

Impressing the Celebrities by Making Balloons at Comicpalooza

Face Painting – Disney’s Hollywood Studios
The pattern was called “Music Mania”

Airbrush / Stencil Mermaid Design

I am finding inventory control to be a challenge. Last week, I had to restock my bag of balloons for my weekend balloon twisting events and couldn’t find a single bag of purple balloons. I had every other color, just no purple.

For items with a relatively long shelf life, like canned goods, I usually keep 8-10 cans in my cabinets. My cabinets have the space and I really don’t have to worry about the food going bad before I eat it. I always back fill my cabinets (put the newest items behind the older items) which helps make sure that something doesn’t sit in the cabinet too long.

When it comes to balloons, I keep one bag of each color in a storage system in my living room where I restock my balloon bag. I keep the balloons organized in rainbow order so I can quickly find the color I want and I can see what colors I need. I keep the rest of the balloons in the basement. I have another bin in the basement that has my balloons in rainbow order. When I need a specific color, I will take it from the bin. I keep any other remaining balloon in the shipping box it came in. When the bin in the basement starts to run low, I will find the colors in the shipping box and move them into the bin. I usually know that when the shipping box is empty that it is time to order more balloons.

When I order balloons, I do an inventory and count the number of bags available for each color. I then try to guess which colors will be popular in the coming months (I buy extra red, white and blue for the 4th of July; black and orange before Halloween; and green, red and white for Christmas). I seem to use a lot of red/pink/purple balloons for the girls, green for both plant stems and aliens, and black and white for penguins.

I feel that I should try to keep a closer tab on my balloon supply. Although I can usually get more balloons within a few business days, I prefer to make a few large balloon orders instead of several smaller orders. Since I know which color balloons I buy, it shouldn’t be too hard for me to make a listing of balloons and cross off the bags as I go. That would give me a visual indicator when my stock is running low and a way of seeing the ratio of balloons used by color.

I know that I have some of the same problems with my stock of face paints. I don’t go through the paint nearly as fast and it takes a lot less space to store.