Senior Portraits!

 Wooo! So, you remember the photographer I met at church, who owns her own business and wanted a makeup artist for her seniors?

Voila.

I have successfully done 3 makeups last week, with another one already booked for this week. It's great! I'll be putting these pictures on my website, but I wanted you to get a sneak peek because it might not be up for a while.

The girls were soo fun and so cute. I have to say, I am super impressed by the teens I have met thus far in SLO. They're so.... level headed. Real, and still fun and goofy. The girls were actually really worried that by getting their makeup done, they would look fake.
I had never heard a Utah girl be worried that she would look too done up and unnatural, but so far that's been almost everyone's main focus. They all just want to be real, and I admire that a lot.

Granted, it helps that the lovely California weather helps with skin problems and acne quite a bit. However, I know that that doesn't account for 100% of it.
There's just something in the water.....

Update on Harry Potter events:
I went back for the "2nd wave" of HP Mania at the Fremont Theater, per the manager's request. It wasn't nearly as crowded as the first night-- on Thursday, the line stretched around 3 sides of the building, and on Friday [gotta get down on Friiiidaaay.... =D ] the people were in the theater before I got there, and trickled in even a little bit after the movie started. There were a few in medium-squee costumes, but on the whole, they were more toned down. The employees said they were actually quite surprised at how few people there were in attendance, compared to last years' numbers.
Anyway, I offered the free facepainting again, set up in my little corner on my little table with my little charming broken chair. (I am normally not one for dinky places, but this theater isn't run-down...it's just... quaint. Very charming.) The theme of Thursday night seemed to be "Get cards and put it on Facebook, advertise advertise advertise", but Friday night was, "Wander over, get a cool painting, and tip Marie really well."

People are COOL. I had set out no tip jar of any kind, didn't suggest anything, told everyone from the get-go that it was totally free... and people were lavishing their little monetary gifts on the newcomer. And it wasn't in a showy way, it was simply, "Hey, thank you, this is cool. This is for you."
[The generous feel is there at church as well. When one sister stood up with a clipboard, only half-full of volunteers to make food for a Soup Kitchen-type event, she said, "Hey, we need some spots filled. Can anyone help?" There was an immediate chorus of, "I can do that." "I can bring this." "I'll do double vegetables."  Something in the water!!] 
I didn't notice until the end, but one person even tipped me with a $20 bill. (Most of the other tips were just $1 bills, but, holy cow!) I wasn't even doing super intricate faces, just 3-line Scar zigzags and some Deatheater marks. I love people :) :) :)