Decorating rugrats for fun and profit...
Hmm. Now WHY aren't my Twitters posting, I wonder? Gotta look into that...
Anyway. Yesterday I had a facepainting gig for one of the local Dillards stores. I'd gotten a call from a coworker's daughter who's some sort of kid's area manager there; turns out they were having a store-wide Children's Day with all sorts of festivities, and would I like to do facepainting for four hours in exchange for $50 of merchandise? Yes I would; work-clothes are always needed, and much as I deplore some of Dillards' policies towards their employees, I figured I was getting the better end of the bargain here-- $50 worth of stuff I wanted for four hours of something that I enjoy doing anyway.
And it was fun-- I had shy kids, loud kids, you name it; I painted a humongous amount of butterflies (mostly on cheeks but also a few full-face ones), pawprint-tracks, skull-and-crossbones (my very first client wanted half his face painted as a skull, much to his parents' horror; they agreed, though, and I did a decent job I think), spiders, flowers and vines, a few tribal-tattoo-looking things, a dogface, far too many Hello!Kittys, several catfaces, a handful of tigerfaces and one lionface. And oh yeah, a pig. ^__^ Took a few photos, too-- not enough, but a few. By the end of the four hours I was tired and multicolored and had, in the very few minutes of boredom (I was pretty busy) painted my own arms up to the elbows with designs. That was pretty inevitable; you sit there and you've been painting for HOURS and suddenly you're not, and you take a drink of soda... and your arms look way too bare all of a sudden and there's the brushes and the paints and... anyway, yes, self-decoration as entertainment! Quicker than tattoos and much cheaper!
So I got my $50 of merchandise-- MothergoddessOnnaPogostick, Dillards is overpriced-- and walked away fairly satisfied with the day's doings. Felt unusually tired, though... and it wasn't until a few hours later that I realized that I'd had very little to drink all day. Around here, even if you're indoors, that's a bad thing; the air's so dry you can dehydrate very easily. So yeah. I gulped down a ton of water and went to bed.
Not a bad day at all; I gave out a bunch of business cards, since I figured that face-painting's fun and the going rate is $15 per hour and, well, I've done it on and off for years now (almost always as a voluntary thing; this is only the second time I've been 'paid' for it) so I might as well see if there's anything in it as a sideline. Why not? I like kids; I like facepainting (especially fullface, though cheek or forehead or arm work is okay too) and the supplies cost is minimal. A lot of people took my cards when I mentioned that I do it at birthday parties too... The way I figure, the longest I'll be at a party is 3-4 hours; that's $45-$60 flat, right there. Parties will almost always be on weekends. Even one or two of these a month'd be a nice chunk of extra change, wouldn't it? And besides the money, it's fun. I *like* it, it's a huge moral-booster-- the kids sit there, still as they can manage; you talk to them and tell them they're being good, they're being great and not twitchy (and that reinforcement makes them be better about just that); and you paint something pretty or scary on them. And then you show them the mirror, and they GRIN and go "AWESOME" or don't say anything, they just smile; and they bounce off and show the new design to Mom & Dad or friends or whoever. They feel good and I feel good, and I get paid for this. ^_____^
I took an old dark-blue tshirt and spattered it with bright-colored paint; over it I wore an old long-sleeved denim shirt with the sleeves rolled up, covered with paper stickers of hologram-style stars. And I wore old jeans that were already paint-spattered. That plus some bright jewelry (my silver leaf necklace and some dragonfly earrings) and I figure I looked harmless and cheerful and all that; nobody minded all the piercings, and I got compliments on my tattoos. \o/ \o/ \o/
Good day, yes.
Today's a laundry day and a clean-the-apartment day. Soon as I get my new pondplants in, I'll write a post about the Digging Of The New Backyard Pond, but I want those in first so I can post pics.
Anyway. Yesterday I had a facepainting gig for one of the local Dillards stores. I'd gotten a call from a coworker's daughter who's some sort of kid's area manager there; turns out they were having a store-wide Children's Day with all sorts of festivities, and would I like to do facepainting for four hours in exchange for $50 of merchandise? Yes I would; work-clothes are always needed, and much as I deplore some of Dillards' policies towards their employees, I figured I was getting the better end of the bargain here-- $50 worth of stuff I wanted for four hours of something that I enjoy doing anyway.
And it was fun-- I had shy kids, loud kids, you name it; I painted a humongous amount of butterflies (mostly on cheeks but also a few full-face ones), pawprint-tracks, skull-and-crossbones (my very first client wanted half his face painted as a skull, much to his parents' horror; they agreed, though, and I did a decent job I think), spiders, flowers and vines, a few tribal-tattoo-looking things, a dogface, far too many Hello!Kittys, several catfaces, a handful of tigerfaces and one lionface. And oh yeah, a pig. ^__^ Took a few photos, too-- not enough, but a few. By the end of the four hours I was tired and multicolored and had, in the very few minutes of boredom (I was pretty busy) painted my own arms up to the elbows with designs. That was pretty inevitable; you sit there and you've been painting for HOURS and suddenly you're not, and you take a drink of soda... and your arms look way too bare all of a sudden and there's the brushes and the paints and... anyway, yes, self-decoration as entertainment! Quicker than tattoos and much cheaper!
So I got my $50 of merchandise-- MothergoddessOnnaPogostick, Dillards is overpriced-- and walked away fairly satisfied with the day's doings. Felt unusually tired, though... and it wasn't until a few hours later that I realized that I'd had very little to drink all day. Around here, even if you're indoors, that's a bad thing; the air's so dry you can dehydrate very easily. So yeah. I gulped down a ton of water and went to bed.
Not a bad day at all; I gave out a bunch of business cards, since I figured that face-painting's fun and the going rate is $15 per hour and, well, I've done it on and off for years now (almost always as a voluntary thing; this is only the second time I've been 'paid' for it) so I might as well see if there's anything in it as a sideline. Why not? I like kids; I like facepainting (especially fullface, though cheek or forehead or arm work is okay too) and the supplies cost is minimal. A lot of people took my cards when I mentioned that I do it at birthday parties too... The way I figure, the longest I'll be at a party is 3-4 hours; that's $45-$60 flat, right there. Parties will almost always be on weekends. Even one or two of these a month'd be a nice chunk of extra change, wouldn't it? And besides the money, it's fun. I *like* it, it's a huge moral-booster-- the kids sit there, still as they can manage; you talk to them and tell them they're being good, they're being great and not twitchy (and that reinforcement makes them be better about just that); and you paint something pretty or scary on them. And then you show them the mirror, and they GRIN and go "AWESOME" or don't say anything, they just smile; and they bounce off and show the new design to Mom & Dad or friends or whoever. They feel good and I feel good, and I get paid for this. ^_____^
I took an old dark-blue tshirt and spattered it with bright-colored paint; over it I wore an old long-sleeved denim shirt with the sleeves rolled up, covered with paper stickers of hologram-style stars. And I wore old jeans that were already paint-spattered. That plus some bright jewelry (my silver leaf necklace and some dragonfly earrings) and I figure I looked harmless and cheerful and all that; nobody minded all the piercings, and I got compliments on my tattoos. \o/ \o/ \o/
Good day, yes.
Today's a laundry day and a clean-the-apartment day. Soon as I get my new pondplants in, I'll write a post about the Digging Of The New Backyard Pond, but I want those in first so I can post pics.