Loony Balloony's Balloony Blog

Quiet season seems to be coming to an end!

2012-02-26T10:34:00.006Z

Notoriously in my line of work the first few months of the year are really quiet. I suspect it has a lot to do with the traditional party season being before Christmas combined with the overspend means not many have enough energy to plan anything for a while.

It is usually the time of year that we all spend regaining our strength and working on the non-earning sides of our businesses that usually get horribly neglected when busy season is in full swing.

This year I have been doubly motivated to work on my advertising and marketing following the relocation and have finally recieved my lovely new, extremely colourful flyers. Now all I need to do is work out what to do with them!!! Maybe there is a "Dummies" book for small service based business marketing?! Actually that may be my next stop this lovely spring morning.

The jobs are also beginning to come in and last weekend I was installing an arch for a VIP weekend in Cambridge and some balloons for a birthday party last night. Next week I have a custom sculpture job and an arch for a conference to plan & install.

I also really need to source some stools that are bike seat high. Easy you may think but most are either too short or way too tall. Think I may have to have a go with a saw, which for those of you that know me well is not a clever idea as I have a tendency towards hurting myself!!! So if you don't hear from me for a while you know what I've done.

Anyway, I am now in the middle of a massive office sort out which is going to take me several more hours so I'd best stop procrastinating and get on with it.

Cupid Draw Back Your Bow!

2012-02-13T09:21:00.004Z

Having just moved and my flyers being on a tour of Royal Mail sorting offices (long story!) I have decided to write off Valentines Day this year as I just couldn't get organised enough in time.

However, I did attend one of my networking groups in Hitchin last week and made the bar a little something.

Hope you like him.

Oh my how I've neglected you!

2012-02-07T20:05:00.001Z

I have just been reminded that I've not posted in here for some time but in my defence I have been more than a little busy.

July, August and September were busy as always but my husband and I decided to relocate to Royston in July. So amongst all the jobs that I was happily adding colour to I also had to keep the house immaculate throughout the summer holidays with 2 little ones trying their best to undo all my hard work.

Finally in October we got an offer on the house and at the beginning of December our buyers announced they would like to move in before Christmas. Thereafter, followed a week of manic packing to move us and the business to Royston a mere two weeks before Christmas and not one but 2 jobs to prep for and do.

Having settled in nicely I finally managed to get a project I've been working on for ages FINISHED! I now have an online shop where anyone in the UK can buy and have delivered a balloon model. It is still a work in progress but I am really happy with it so far. I have some Lootles to add to that section as soon as my PC decides to stop playing silly wotsits on me.

Anyway the shop is at http://www.loonyballoony.co.uk/shop and some of the balloons available are below:

In addition to this I have also designed a new flyer so I can start to build up the business reputation again in Royston. What do you think?

This was sent off to the printers last week so I am just waiting on the printers to send me 5,000 leaflets before I decide on the best way of distributing them around town. Any tried and tested methods to targeting my ideal market would be most appreciated especially considering my alternative is door to door in icy snow!

Well that is it for me for now as I've not sorted any of my on the job photos since my last blog post back in July anyway so haven't got anything more to bore you with until next time.

Silly Season is upon us!

2011-07-20T19:55:00.000+01:00

Like most people in my profession things start to get crazy in the run up to the summer holiday's hence why I've neglected you all so badly for the last 6 weeks. Shockingly bad form of me but I've been off decorating Proms, entertaining at parties and making custom balloon sculptures.

This week again is really busy but I will leave the gossip about that until next week ... mainly so I can be sure all the recipients of my creations have actually recieved them as I would hate to ruin the surprise!

Okay so where did I leave you last? Ah that's right the beginning of June! I won't bore you with details of all the bookings I've done since but I will share a few photos with you.

Also thanks to a colleague (and friend) Roger I worked at possibly the most impressive venue ever - The Tower of London. Roger and I had been hired to decorate the biggest Marquee you have ever seen situated in the Moat of the Tower on one of the hottest days of the year so far. It was very hard work but fantastic fun. Here are the photo's I took ... I hope you enjoy them.

Well for the first time in a very long while I actually have a whole weekend off and I plan on enjoying it. However, another friend of mine has just sent me a balloon DVD as she's just discovered she has a latex allergy! Poor friend but lucky me.

A Prom-tastic Couple of Weeks

2011-06-01T11:08:00.000+01:00

When I left you last I promised that I would update you last week as to what the secret projects were but I am still waiting for photos!!

The weekend before last I had been booked for The Rugby 7's at Twickenham I made a fair few balloons and even got to walk around pitch side which was a treat. No photos unfortunately as I just didn't have time.

That weekend I also made the airplane (which I told you about last time) and I did some décor for a surprise baby shower. I didn't manage to get a photo of the floor standing piece I made but I am hoping to receive one soon as I have been assured Daddy-to-be took lots of photos. They were very well received and I had a personal thank you from Mummy-to-be.

I wasn't able to post last week either as I was too busy preparing for last weekends jobs. On Friday I decorated my first prom of the year for the 6th Formers at John Henry Newman (I know they probably don't call it 6th Form anymore but I'm old enough to have used the old system!! - Only just though). Again I recieved a thank you for the balloons which is always appreciated as it means I am doing my job well.

I was also booked for the 3rd year in a row for the Herts Show by Hertfordshire County Council to make my balloon creations. As usual the crowds were lovely and it was a brilliant weekend despite the weather! There was an official photographer in the HCC Marquee taking loads of photos but as of today they are not on HCC's Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/Hertsdirect) but I will let you all know when they are.

I have a quiet working weekend coming up and a house in disarray due to decorating so I am not sure if I will have anything to share with you next week. However, if you have any suggestions of something small I could try making I would love to hear them and I will post all those I try on here next week.

Planes, Trains & Funny Hats

2011-05-20T17:34:00.000+01:00

Well once again it has been manic here at Loony HQ - not that I'm complaining!

I have been informed that this weekend I will be the lone balloon modeller at Twickenham for the Rugby 7's. Scary thought considering how big the stadium is. Although seeing as I am working with 6 of my face painter friends I am hoping that I may finally get some nice photos of me working ... it's very difficult to get a nice photo of me whilst I am working as it would seem I pull some very strange faces! Anyway amongst working on other bits today (will tell you more in a second) I have made myself a nice delicate hat to wear. Do you think I will blend in with the crowds in this?

In addition to preparing for this weekend at the Rugby I've also had a couple of other projects that have kept me out of mischief. I can't let you know about one of them until after the weekend as it is still a surprise but I will do my best to share early next week.

The other project this week has been to make a Bi-Plane as a surprise 90th Birthday present for a gentleman who used to not only fly them in his younger days but also used to train other pilots too. Hopefully I will be getting a couple of photos of the Birthday boy with his balloon plane but in the meantime here it is before I delivered it today.

Well that's all for now as I've still got lots to do before tomorrow!

You're the Best Face Painter I have Ever Seen!

2011-05-11T15:02:00.000+01:00

I worked a lovely party at the weekend where I was supposed to be doing face painting and balloon modelling. In these situations I usually start with the face painting and move onto the balloons about 3/4 of the way through. However, at this party everyone was so impressed with my painting I was asked not to bother with the balloons because so many adults wanted to join in the fun!

I don't often take photos whilst working as I am too much of a perfectionist but I did take this one of a lovely little girl as I was particularly happy with the way it turned out.

It has inspired me to pick up the brushes a bit more often and have a play. It also has me looking forward to a face painting only party I have coming up this weekend a lot more too.

Blog Envy

2011-05-11T12:37:00.000+01:00

Well today I am ashamed to say I got blog envy! Sad but true.

A friend of mine spent hours working on her blog yesterday and to her credit it looks fabulous but it has made me realise I really need to up my game on here. So I am now off to (hopefully) create a lovely new blog to go with my lovely new website.

Oh that's right I've been so busy lately I've not updated my Balloony blog again! I'll do that now before I get side tracked.

Since I last left you I have buried myself away and got my basic new website up and running. If you are nosey you can take a peek here http://www.loonyballoony.co.uk.

I started thinking about designing this website back at the end of 2009 not long after I started doing the décor. Back then I was running two separate websites - one for face painting (The Face Factory) and one for the balloon twisting (Loony Balloony) and really wanted to condense the business into one name, with one website. Since I was now doing more balloon orientated services I decided to stick with Loony Balloony and drop The Face Factory.

However, my old Loony Balloony was very much geared to balloon entertainment and I felt it did not show off my skills as either a balloon decorator or as a face painter. In addition I also felt the old look of the website would either put off brides and businesses looking for event décor or at best convince them they had arrived at the wrong website.

I began work on the site and as I did my ideas grew and grew until they were out of control and it became the elephant in the room. However, after a meeting with Kerry Haynes, who is a consultant with Business Link, in April I decided to finally pull my finger out, strip the site back to the bare bones and get it launched!

There is still a lot of work to be done on the site so please do not think for one second it is the finished article. When I get time I will be tweaking and adding bits to make it better and better, however, in the meantime it is a significant improvement on the old site ... at least I hope you'll agree.

I've neglected you!

2011-04-25T12:44:00.000+01:00

Sorry folks but just had 2 glorious weeks in the Cornish sunshine without a balloon in sight.

Before I went I did make a bespoke Bride & Groom for a wedding reception on 2nd April and this is what they looked like.

Hope you like them.

The Missing Post

2011-03-28T11:35:00.000+01:00

As I explained in my last post the last 2 weeks have been a blur of bookings and preparations for yesterday's wedding fair. This post is basically a short and sweet one to show you all what I made for my 2 parties on 20th March. I always make a special balloon for the birthday child when I am booked to do balloons only so here are those models.

The first party was for a little boy who is Star Wars mad. Strangely enough I ended up making tons of Light Sabres for lots of little boys. Thank goodness for the little girls at the party as they actually did want something a little more girly.

My 2nd party of the day was a Disney princess party for the younger sister of a family I have worked for in the past. It was lovely to see them a few years on.

Silly thing was with my Ariel balloon is that the head should have been made out of a heart shaped balloon for a nicer shape. I made mine out of a 5" round thinking I didn't have any and then discovered a couple of days later that I have about 80 of them!! Never mind I may have another try once I recover from yesterday.

First Ever Wedding Fair

2011-03-28T10:47:00.000+01:00

Sorry about missing last week but I was so busy preparing for my 1st ever wedding fair I just didn't have time! I'll post what I should have last week after this one - a bit back to front but that is the way my head is today!!

I have been doing the balloon décor for a couple of years now but had been deliberately putting off venturing into the weddings market for 2 very good reasons. Firstly I wanted to build up my skills and confidence as your wedding day as a Bride is the biggest day of your life and the last thing I wanted was to go in a do a sub-standard job. I am sure naff balloons wouldn't ruin someone's reception but nonetheless I have no intentions of doing anything less than an excellent job for all my clients regardless of how big or small their booking is. The other reason is because I knew that once I ventured into the wedding market I would have to attend wedding fairs and "sell" myself and for anyone who knows me that is way outside my comfort zone.

Anyway I decided to bite the bullet and booked in to exhibit at the wedding fair yesterday held at the Mecure Hatfield Oak Hotel. I booked a while ago so around all my other jobs I've been preping for yesterday. Not easy when you don't really have any printed promo materials in place and you don't have a clear plan of what you need, what you are doing and what you need to do.

As I have been very busy booking wise lately (not complaining by the way) it has been fun fitting everything in but I managed it. I didn't, however, get the new website, even in it's paired down state, up in time but there just was not enough time unless I wanted to forgo sleep to finish it. Hopefully, that will happen this week but I do have a lot of housework to catch up on that has been neglected over the last few weeks.

In a bid to be organised I arranged to drop off some bits the night before so I took along Bessie the life-sized bride and a couple of columns I had made that day. The hotel were so impressed with Bessie that they offered her a room for the night! Here she is resting before her big day.

Bessie getting her beauty sleep!!

After helping my friend Roger of iGlobo based in Billericay (just in case anyone over that way needs a balloon artist at all) at his wedding fair 2 weeks ago, I roped him in to help me yesterday. We arrived around 8am at the hotel and set to work creating not only my stand but also some décor for the fair itself. Here's what we managed.

Our stand

Entrance way to our stand

Start of the Bridal Show

As you can see Bessie was rather popular and had her photograph taken a few times throughout the day.

Unfortunately, the turn out was not fantastic and my stand (although chosen by me out of 2 positions) was not in the best place. We were on the main route to the bedrooms and tucked round a corner a bit so I think we perhaps got missed by some of the brides who did make it. I am sure losing an hour's sleep had some effect on the turn out.

However, despite the lack of Brides I learned an awful lot and have not been deterred. I am already thinking about which fairs to attend after the summer.

Busy Busy Busy!

2011-03-14T15:56:00.000Z

This week has been nice for special orders as I haven't started doing them properly yet but I had 2 requests none the less. I also did some balloons for a birthday and my 1st wedding fair.

On Wednesday I was asked if I would be able to make a life-sized replica of a colleague who was leaving as a "replacement" for him. It is a bit of a running joke in that department that when someone leaves they get replaced by an inanimate object. The last guy to leave was replaced with a pot plant! Anyway after some very strenuous wrestling with the larger balloons I made this guy.

As you can see he was very well received and not allowed to fill his new post! He also later appeared on Facebook as a replacement profile picture.

The next one was a request for "a not too big Dolphin" for a friends birthday at the weekend. I adapted the shark I posted in the very first blog and made this guy. The client was delighted and I hope her friend was just as pleased.

Then my last job of the week was a present from me to my youngest brother for his 30th Birthday on Saturday. As he was in Paris for the weekend I didn't make him anything out of modelling balloons instead I opted for the big statement! Whilst he and his girlfriend were enjoying themselves I installed a 3ft tall "30" in his living room in plain view of all who walked past the window. Here is a picture from the inside:-

Then to top off an already busy week I helped a friend out with a wedding fair. I have personally avoided doing wedding fairs so far because selling myself and my services is about as much out of my comfort zone as you can get but having booked to do my first wedding show on the 27th March I was quite relieved when my friend Roger of iGlobo asked me to come along and help him out on Sunday. It was a really busy day and very hard work (surprisingly so) but I think we were a hit as we were twisting as well as showing what we can do as balloon decorators. Below are pictures of our stand and a lady from the Premier Inn stand modelling a hat made by Roger and a guy from the mobile bar the other side of us in a Guiness hat both Roger and I made for him. I am now getting excited for my wedding fair in 2 weeks time so if you are near Hatfield do pop in and see us!

Well that is my adventures over the last few days and I'm off now to catch up on all the other bits I've neglected recently and to start getting prepared for the wedding show on the 27th!!!

Early St Patrick's Day Booking

2011-03-10T15:11:00.000Z

A week ago last Monday I had an email asking if I was available to decorate a room for a Ceilidh that Saturday. As luck would have it I was able to fit them in around my existing bookings that weekend.

I also decided that as it was a very Irish theme (Shamrock printed balloons & gold weights) to make them a little Leprechaun to sit on the end of the bar.

I was delighted the following day to receive this email from the client:-

"Many, many thanks for your brilliant balloon decorating yesterday. The room looked fabulous. It was a lovely surprise to see the balloon man sat at the end of the bar- my 12yr old son decided to take him home along with the one of the door arches. As we live in a town house, it was like a task from the Crystal Maze trying to get it up 3 storeys to his bedroom however he said it was worth as he woke up this morning to a lovely balloon arch over his double bed..... Probably 'cool' to tell his friends :)

Once again a huge big Thank You! "

Here are a selection of photos I took. Sorry about the quality but I forgot the SD card for my better camera!!

I also made this special pink Mummy Cat & Kitten for my birthday girl for my Sunday party.

Just to give you an idea of size the kitten is a regular sized balloon animal and the Mummy Cat is about twice the size. My birthday girl was delighted with them.

Setting up a Make-shift Photo Studio is NOT Easy!

2011-02-26T22:10:00.000Z

What with it being half term here and looking after a relative's dog I've not had a huge amount of spare time to play. I did, however, manage to design and do the basic layout for my new wedding brochure which I am now frantically trying to finish before the end of the week. I will post pictures later on this week once it's finished but here is a little peek at one of the things to go in:-

I made this happy couple on Friday specifically for the brochure and will hopefully be making many more of them in the near future.

Anyway back on topic! I need to get some basic product shots that I can put on my website and have to hand when talking to people about what I do so that people can actually see what I am talking about (or perhaps it's just that I am not very good at explaining things!).

With the help of the lovely Yvonne White of White Gold Photography I was able to set up a make shift home studio with the aid of some blu-tac and a poster roll! Very Blue Peter, I know. Anyway this worked great until I needed to get a slightly different angle on a product but as the roll is 75cm wide I just couldn't manage it.

This has lead me and Hubby on a search for a non-reflective white backdrop to use that is wider than a poster roll. Eventually I found some bright blue vinyl table cloth that had a plain white background which has turned out to be perfect and nearly twice the width. The next problem was how to hang it?!

After trying and failing with brackets and bulldog clips we finally resorted to a length of wood and a staple gun which has resulted in this:-

Unfortunately, this all took so long to do today that I didn't get chance to actually make any more balloons that the ones in the photo. However, now it's all set up I have no excuse for tomorrow!

Special Order Balloon

2011-02-19T14:16:00.000Z

Most of this week I have been very boring and caught up on paperwork ... I even took a day off so didn't get much by way of playing or experimenting done!

However, my Hubby is going to a fancy dress party tonight for one of his work mate's 40th and the birthday boy is a big Elvis fan. Therefore, I decided to make him a large Elvis caricature complete with sideburns and blue suede shoes. I know I am mixing era's but for the sake of a balloon sculpture I decided to forgive myself.

This is what I managed and I do have to say thank you to a friend of mine Kevin for the inspiration (and some long forgotten explanations) to make this.

Hope you like him and if Hubby is able to get any photo's I will pop them up over the next day or 2.

What a week

2011-02-11T15:33:00.000Z

Well it certainly has been a busy week here at Loony Balloony HQ! I finally got my motivation back and have been doing all sorts.

A week or 2 back I ordered a DVD from America called Oodles of Lootles. Well it finally arrived on Tuesday morning and I went into overdrive and made a mini family of balloon people. A great DVD and a great skill to learn for both the twisting and the décor. Who wouldn't want a mini balloon version of their loved one as a surprise gift?

It certainly got me back into the swing of things as I've not really picked up my modelling balloons other than for work for a while now.

Here are the pictures I made from the DVD. Can you tell what the 3rd one does for a living?!

As for what else I have been up to this week you will have to wait and see ;0) Actually it isn't all that interesting as I've been working on more stuff for the upcoming Wedding Fair, getting my accounts up to date and getting a little more tidy so I can do a stock take!

Oh nearly forgot - my stilts arrived today! Only just managed to get them out of the box so far but they look good and have the kind of feet that flex as you walk. Hopefully I'll be able to get someone to help me adjust them for me and get practising but I do wonder how soon before I fall off though!!!!

Not even a week and I'm blogging again!

2011-02-04T10:06:00.000Z

Well as per every Thursday I had my playdate with Caroline. Although the plan was to do some face painting we actually spent all morning playing at being David Bailey (or for any youngsters Nigel Barker! - I am making myself sound old here aren't I?).

We had great fun playing with light tents, poster rolls and banqueting roll to try and get some good shots for me to use on a postcard I am putting together for this wedding fair. I have to confess I was getting very disheartened by the whole thing as I have spent every day since the weekend working on it so having someone else come in with enthusiasm was just what I needed.

We couldn't get Caroline's memory card working in my computer so I had to wait until this morning before I could see what the photos look like on a real screen but I am really pleased with them. See what you think! These are just a handful of the hundreds taken so I may be able to post more later.

Wow my first ever Blog post!

2011-01-31T13:21:00.000Z

As the title suggests I've never had a blog before so have never posted to one either. I hope not to bore you all to much but I would like to share with you my journey as I continue to grow and develop my business.

My New Year Resolution this year was to learn a new balloon model each week or experiment with new ideas for décor. I'm not doing too badly as so far - I have learnt 4 new models and have experimented with table top topiaries and real flowers.

Shark

Two weeks ago my friend Caroline attended a Care and Share Day put on by the lovely Graham Lee and the following day came for one of our "playdates". Caroline and I generally meet up once a week to play with new balloon models or practice a bit of face painting and on this week she came armed with a bin liner full of models she had collected the day before. Most I had seen before but a shark really caught my attention and I had to have a go.

This is my replica of the one Caroline brought with her but unfortunately I do not have a shot of the original nor do I know who made the original to give them credit.

Now all I need is a shark mad birthday child to make one for!

Stork, Love Camel and Valentiosaurus

Over Christmas I succumbed to the flu! I can't remember having been so poorly and being able to do so little. So whilst I was recouperating I decided to dig out one of my balloon CD's and have a go at some models as I rarely get time to indulge in playing with balloons for the sake of it! These are all made from Jeanine Von Essen's Holidays Themed CD-Rom.

Décor Topiary with Iris'

Last week I booked to do my very first Wedding Show. Now I am not a complete newbie on the Decor scene but I am very concious of the fact that I am not a sales person, hence why I have put off doing one for so long! It was only after speaking to Sarah Webb of Timeless Inspirations (www.timelessinspirations.co.uk) that I realised I don't need to be a salesperson, I just need to be passionate about what I do! Which I am!!

With that panic over it occurred to me that I don't have a promo literature so I set to work to design a postcard with a special 10% off code to give to the brides on the day.

My first few attempts were not great but I have got some lovely photos from the shoot. I would also like to thank Yvonne White of White Gold Images for her kind advice regarding setting up a DIY studio at home.

Here are a few of the shots I've taken:-

Well hopefully I've not bored you too much and you will be back to see what I am getting up to next week.

TTFN

Yvonne H

Loony Balloony