Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 23:03:32 -0500
From: B & E Glenday <glenday@sympatico.ca>
To: Balloon List <balloon@balloonhq.com>
Subject: St Patrick's Day

The top o' the mornin' to you all....
(okay, so it's 10:30 p.m., it's the only phrase that translates well in
print to an Irish accent.)

    I am still recovering from an absolutely awesome St Patrick's Day
celebration at our local pub. Our area has many Irish, so it's a rather
big deal in our town. I attended the party with friends as guests, but
brought a pocketful of balloons and my green and black face
paints....you can guess who was the life of the party. Pretty soon wait
staff were decked in shamrock hats ( a basic helmut in black with a 3
leafed "clover" on top, form the middle leaf into a bit of a heart shape
for detail) and tables were festooned with leprechauns holding a 'pot of
gold' (did this by making a basic seated human figure with a tulip twist
+ 2 pinch twist hat, and a bubble between the arms to decorate as the
pot of gold with the face paint- which works really well, by the way~
once the paint is dry it sticks and only smudges off if you get it
wet!). I had to explain the leprechaun a bit, but I came up with it at
the last minute, so I didn't have much time to refine it.
    The only down side was that since this was last minute, I didn't
have any solid bags of balloons (figure green would be the most popular)
so I just grabbed a mixed bag. There were exactly 4 green balloons in
the whole bag of 100! (Guess I don't have the luck of the Irish! ;-).  I
ended up making some hats with the 'rare purple shamrock...very lucky'
and folks thought that was pretty funny!
     I know I took a bit of a calcuated risk in showing up and twisting
(rather casually from my table mostly, and only for those who approached
me. I didn't go up to anyone or accepted any offers of money - just one
badly needed beverage ;-)  I think my experiment worked though, because
the owner approached me (all smiles) and asked for something "really
good" and requested a business card! (I made him a parrot which sat on
his shoulder all night, and we all called him "Capt'n" from then on!). I
would normally approach an establishment in person and/or with a letter
of introduction etc. Something more formal is more my style, however, I
think it had worked out well, and from what I understand from previous
conversations on this list, this approach has worked for others. I will
follow up with the owner this week and suggest that he book me in the
future for the big party events: New Year's, St. Patricks, Grey Cup
(football) party, etc etc.... I'll let you know if the marketing
strategy worked! Thanks to all of you who gave me the confidence, the
inspiration and the know-how to persue this new adventure in twisting
(for me, since I've never twisted in a restaurant before!).

Elizabeth