Search This Blog

Friday, June 20, 2008

Talladega Superspeedway

I can't believe that I never put an update for the Talladega Race we painted in April. I posted the pictures at our My Space site and you can also see more photos at our main website of http://www.starshinefaces.com/.

We were hired to paint in the KidsZone and let me tell you, I had a blast. I had never been the race before and I was AMAZED at the number people who were there. I was also impressed with how the KidsZone area was set up. In order to enter the area you had to have a child with you and the entrance area was watched by not only a KidsZone volunteer, but I also saw a police officer who would keep an eye on the area as well. There were bathrooms just for our area which was great for the kids and their parents.

We painted all kinds of different designs. The tire track, flames of all kinds, and of course the car numbers in various designs were our most popular. We had a few butterflies, lions, tigers, and fairies, as well. We even painted one Ricky Bobby Wonder Bread design :) With two painters, we didn't have a long line at any one time which suprised me considering the number of people who attended the race. We painted a lot of parents as well. On Sunday we let the parents know that we would paint s if there weren't any kids in line. That worked out really well.

Shanda and I had a great time and lots of fun being creative with smaller designs. I hope that the KidsZone coordinators were pleased with our work and enjoyed being painted as much as we enjoyed painting them. We will let you know if we are invited back so you can look for us.

Riverfest in Gadsden

Wow! Riverfest was hot and wet, just like I remember it from last year and the year before. I decided to have a vendor booth this year hoping that it would work out as well as or better than two years ago when I shared a booth with another painter from Birmingham. We had tons of fun and painted more teens than I thought we would, but we won't be back at Riverfest as a vendor.

In order to make back our costs we have to paint a lot of faces and there just weren't a lot of faces that wanted painting. We offered glitter tattoos and crazy hair and both went over well. The Glitter Tattoos looked great in the sun and of course didn't wash off in the rain shower of Friday night. We had a lot of people stop by the booth AFTER they had gotten an airbrushed tattoo from another vendor and told us they wished they had gotten a Glitter Tattoo instead. The Crazy Hair was so much fun we have decided to add it as a stand alone birthday party package or an upgrade to a facepaint package.

If we are hired to allow free facepainting in the children's area or by another booth to draw attention, then we will return to Riverfest. We had a great time with the people that we painted (we will post pictures ASAP - we have some great ones), but the event just doesn't work out financially for us to continue.

Library Shows

Thank you to everyone who has come out to see us at the various library shows we have already particpated in this year. It has been tons of fun. Here is an updated list of where we will be going. Some of these events are public events and some are for school programs that are not open to the public. Not all of them will have facepainting available for all the children. Those programs who hired an extra painter to paint all the children have a note next to them. We look forward to seeing you there.

June 23 Cahaba Heights school program 9AM
June 24 West Elementary school program 9 AM
Central Elementary School Program 1PM
June 26 Lincoln Public Library (painting for everyone) 10 AM
June 27 Gadsden Public Library 10 AM (show only)
Ragland Public Library 1PM (painting for everyone)
July 15 Montevallo, AL Library show 2PM (painting for everyone)
July 17 North Shelby Library Henna Presentation for Teens (tentative - by reservation through the library only)
October 29 Emmet O'Neil Public Library, Mountain Brook, AL (sign up at the library)

Here are some other places we will be painting, but not telling stories at. These are tentative as we do not have a contract in, yet, so check back for confirmation on these events:

June 28 Community block party in Southside, AL - post VBS event for a local church
July 19-20 Porsche 250 at Barber Motor Speedway - Kids areas

We have dates open for parties and festivals as well, so if you are interested in hiring us to help bring fun and color to your event we look forward to hearing from you. Thank you so much for your support of Starshine Faces.

Kristin