Savannah's Smiles Face Painting

A Move

2011-10-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted and so many things have happened!

In September, my husband took a job with Walmart corporate office in Bentonville, Arkansas and we had to figure out how to split up the business, since Rudi would be continuing in Picayune, and Savannah and I would be moving to Arkansas.

We started training a helper for Rudi in September. Madison is catching on quickly! Rudi and Madison will be continuing on as Savannah's Smiles Face Painting Team Two and are working every weekend at Haunted Trails in Picayune on Friday nights, and the BlueJack Ridge Corn Maze in Poplarville on Saturday and Sunday.

Savannah and I are now Savannah's Smiles Face Painting Team One and are working in Northwest Arkansas. We officially moved Oct. 9 and have already done 2 parties! It's a great area with very friendly people so I know we'll have a great time here :)

March and April Events

2011-05-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since I've last posted!

March and April was so busy with events. In March we painted at Tulane University in New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and then birthday parties in Alabama and Picayune. We also painted all day for the Navy Seabees in Biloxi, and attended LaFete, the face painting convention in New Orleans where we learned lots of cool, new stuff to do!

In April, we did the Picayune Street Fair in Picayune and had a super-duper weekend! Then we painted for a birthday party in Brandon, MS the next weekend. The next week we painted at the Hard Rock Casino in Biloxi at the Ben & Jerry's for their Free Cone Day. The next weekend we painted in Gulfport for another birthday party, and then in Picayune for a girl scout troop's Easter Egg Hunt.

Unfortunately, we've had to raise our prices just a bit due to the economy and rising gas prices, but we've tried to keep them reasonable for you!

Lots of Birthday Parties in January and February!

2011-02-19T15:04:00.000-08:00

What a cold, wet winter we're having! But it hasn't discouraged birthday parties at all, and we had a bunch during January.

The 15th turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day (what a surprise!) for Faith Miller's birthday in Jack Read Park. A gracious, fun, loving family and a joy to paint for.

Then on the 22nd we painted in Pearl River for my friend Lore's daughter's slumber party and did all neon paints because they were going to the bowling alley with black lights afterwards. The neon paints glow under black lights and looked absolutely awesome! It gave us a really good party package idea which we'll be telling you about in the near future!

On the 29th we drove into New Orleans to do a party for one of our very first clients, Aundra! This was our second party there. They're always a fun family to paint for and this party was no exception.

The birthday parties continued in February and on the 5th we were able to paint in Moss Point for Jermaine. The kids were so much fun! It was another gorgeous day, although a bit chilly, but we had fun anyway. Jermaine's mom was even kind enough to send me some photos afterwards and a sweet thank you card. Thanks so much, Laquana! I'll work on getting the pics scanned and uploaded :)

On the 12th we drove back to Moss Point for another birthday party, this time for Corben. We had a blast! All the boys wanted to be batman, and even some of the girls! But we mostly painted beautiful sparkly butterflies.

We had another gig the same day in Biloxi after Corben's birthday and had to rush over to the Mississippi Coast Coliseum to paint lots of frogs, turtles, rabbits and even an alligator for a costumed dance for a Mardi Gras ball. The kids were a hoot and really loved the glitter. We ended up bathing them in it from head to toe!

There are lots more parties scheduled... in March we'll be heading to Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as a face painting convention in New Orleans where we'll learn lots of great new designs for you.

December Face Painting

2011-01-04T20:28:00.000-08:00

The first weekend of December was busy with birthday parties! Savannah and I had two parties on Saturday and had a great time at both, then on Sunday we had a party at the bowling alley and had a blast! Always a good time with great friendly people :)

The Christmas at the Ranch event that we had scheduled for Dec. 17 & 18 was canceled by the organizers, but Rudi and I did paint all day at the Hard Rock Casino in Biloxi for their employee's Christmas party and had a wonderful time! We painted only Christmas designs and everyone was made up like Rudolph, Christmas trees, snowmen, holly, etc. The kids and parents all had a great time visiting with Santa, making crafts, getting their faces painted and eating.

We went out of town to visit family in Dallas for the Christmas and New Year's holidays, but we're back and ready for all the great events in January!

November Face Painting

2010-12-04T09:12:00.000-08:00

We were very busy in November! Beautiful weather for face painting :)

The first weekend of the month we were painting at the Picayune Fall Street Fair! Rudi was busy that weekend, so I was the only painter, and Savannah did glitter tattoos. We were swamped! The first day was unusually windy and cold and people mostly waited til noon to come out when it was a little warmer. I didn't stop from noon til 5pm to even take a sip of water! Sunday was warmer and less windy and we were steady busy all day.

The second weekend of the month was the last weekend of the Bluejack Ridge Corn Maze. We were so sad to see it end! We absolutely love this place- so friendly and laid-back. On the last day, we face painted the baby pot-bellied pigs, Pigahontas and John Smith, and dolled them up with feather boas and a pirate bandana. They were so cute! We even painted up Lilly, the goat :) Can't wait for next year!

The third weekend we were at a birthday party in New Orleans at the playground in City Park and had a blast! Extremely friendly crowd! Then on Sunday, we volunteered at our church's annual Harvest Sunday celebration and painted everyone as a special treat during the afternoon festivites. We even painted on the "grown-ups" who couldn't wait to get dolled up!

The last weekend of the month was, of course, Thanksgiving, and it was so nice to get away and visit family. It was my first weekend off from painting in 10 weeks! But now I can't wait for all of December's Christmas activities...

Hope to see ya'll at Christmas on the Ranch at the Rockin' R Ranch in Picayune with a country Santa, lighted carriage rides, face painting, etc. It's gonna be a blast! We'll also be at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino on Dec. 21 for a Children's Christmas Party. Fun, fun fun!!!

October Events

2010-11-12T10:51:00.000-08:00

October was a very busy month for us!

Every weekend in October we were painting at the BlueJack Ridge Corn Maze in Poplarville, MS. Rudi and I worked all day on Saturdays 10am-9pm and after church on Sundays from 2-7pm. I love this place! So relaxing and fun! They even made a video so that you can see for yourself all of the activities...along with the face painting! See for yourself! BlueJack Ridge Corn Maze
The staff is fantastic and friendly and the place is just amazing. We created lots of special designs just for the corn maze: a scarecrow, Indian designs, an Indian maiden with a feather headband, an Indian warrior's feather armband along with lots of farm animals: bulls, cows, horses, pigs, etc. We even created a 'scary' pumpkin so some of the staff could go into the maze and scare people at night ;)

On Fridays, Oct. 22 and 29, we worked at Rockin' R Ranch in Picayune with their Haunted Trails. It was their first year and it really rocked! We did lots of scary skulls and lots of cute pumpkins, along with the usual batman, spiderman and beautiful butterflies. We'll be back there in December for their Christmas festivities!

A very busy and fun month!

Lots of Face Painting in September

2010-09-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been a while since I posted! August was so hot this year that we didn't do much with the face painting... everyone would've just sweated it right off.

We got busier in September. On Friday the 17th we drove to Gulfport to the Seabees base. Savannah and I and face painted and glitter tattooed for a command picnic there. It was still soooo hot but they set up a canopy for us which helped quite a bit.

On Saturday, the 18th, I went (Savannah and Rudi were both busy) to a birthday party here in Picayune for a group of excited 3, 4 and 5 year olds! What a fun event that was! I had painted the twin boy and girl birthday kids at the Picayune Street Fair in April and they knew exactly what they wanted.

On Sunday, the 19th, I drove to Poplarville and met with Kristi Harris of the BlueJack Ridge Corn Maze and painted her kids for some pictures for the signs we're going to have made. We'll be painting there every weekend during the run of the corn maze from Oct. 2- Nov. 14. Kristi loved the special designs we came up with for the theme of the corn maze and was kind enough to give me a fantastic tour of the "town" they've built there! I can tell we're going to have lots of fun painting there!

On Saturday, the 25th, Rudi and I got up early, loaded up the van and drove to Biloxi to the Convention Center and set up the castle booth inside in the air conditioning... good thing, too, because it was extremely hot that day! We painted for 5 hours for a fundraiser for kids there and had such a good time. We painted just as many adults as kids! Everyone wanted fleur de lis because we're back in the middle of Saints fever here... felt like we painted 100 or more! I had found some new gold makeup and mixing powder and the gold looked like liquid gold. Wow! Didn't get home until after dark but it was some great practice for next week when we begin 11 hour days at the corn maze. Hope to see you there!

Family Reunion

2010-07-25T20:08:00.000-07:00

   I'll be describing our face painting adventures in this blog. Hopefully we'll entertain you!

   Yesterday we had a great event to paint at: a family reunion! We loaded the van and left Picayune around 8am and drove to a small town in Mississippi called Prentiss. We arrived around 9:45. After unloading and setting up we had plenty of time to paint each other's faces before the event began. In fact, the event got started about 30 minutes late so we had plenty of time to relax before beginning work. The temps were around 100 with the heat index so it was great to be able to work inside in the air conditioning.

   We finally got started around 11am and the kids came first, as usual. They were so excited! But they didn't push or shove or get upset. They were all very courteous and patient. We were only painting quick, easy designs so they weren't having to wait long. We knew coming in that we were going to have a lot of people to paint so we didn't bring any complicated, time-consuming designs. My apprentice painter, Rudi, got her wish and got plenty of practice in! As the grown-ups saw how much fun the kids were having, they slowly wandered over and had as much fun as the kids!

Our most popular design for the day was the swirly design... I think nearly every woman and teenage girl chose this design in different colors. We also did quite a few neon butterflies for the younger girls and batman for the boys.

We ended up painting for 3 hours, then packed up and drove home. A good day!