Not every room needs a total make over for a party. Some hotel or function rooms are beautifully decorated and blend into your chosen colour theme with neutral colours on the walls, ceilings and curtains, but some need a little TLC to bring them to life and set the scene. One such party was Hannah Wilkinson’s 21st birthday party which was held at the Strawberry Bank Hotel in Meriden.  The hotel  rests in Meriden, West Midlands and has a very good reputation for delivering great food,service and decor as I should know as it was the chosen venue for my mothers 80th Birthday Party back in 2010.

The room has a very pink theme to it and needed a bit of a lift for Hannah’s 21st party as she had requested a black, silver and white affair…..

The main function room at the Strawberry Bank Hotel

…..and two hours later

Chair covers, balloons, illuminated table centrepieces and star cloth set the scene for an amazing night for Hannah

Even the Qualatex foil numbers got a bit of TLC (inspired by Luc Bertrand)

Happy Birthday Hannah, I hope you had a great time.

Does anyone remember me doing this job back in March

Well the official video is now out.

I have just done an interview live on the radio defending balloons and the environment. It was for a BBC local station, BBC Cumbria in the north of England, so than rattle on about the subject the link is below. The dialogue starts at about 4 minutes into the program after the news and continues for about one hour in between light music with phone  and comments. Try to listen to the entire program as I feel I gave honest information about the industry showing that is more green than people think.

Feel free to comment….

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00qvq8z

The Motor Sport season is again upon us and what better way the kick of the first even of the year than with Ferrari.

I have been dealing with the Ferrari Owners Club for the past 10 years and my main contact has been Peter Everingham, the club secretary but alas no more as this is Peter’s last season as he hangs up the keys and takes retirement but I’m quite sure he will be there in the background.

The event is held at Whittlebury Hall Hotel and once again all the stops were pulled out to make this years event even better…

A big room needs BIG balloons

Each centrepiece only took 6 minutes to make and each 3ft balloon was 60/40 filled with helium & air. Each balloon was also printed 4 sides with the Ferrari logo and club details

I have just delivered 7 centre pieces to Stoneleigh Abbey. It’s about a 15 minute drive from the office. I have lived in this area all my life yet I have never been to Stoneleigh Abbey and to say I was impressed was an understatement. The staff were unbelievable from the head gardener to the cooks. Each one took time to ask me if I need help and escorted me to the orangery where the Conference and Banqueting Manager even knew my name and once again asked if I need help. The atmosphere was calm, the venue was spotless and to top it all it was a perfect spring day.

Stoneleigh Abbey

The Orangery

Topiary Ball table centrepieces with silk rose heads and ivy. As night falls a quick flick of a switch and the entire piece will be illuminated with 25 white battery operated LEDs

Ready and waiting for the Bride and Groom

Back at the office now and chaos has been resumed.

“It’s important to be aware that there is a distinction between
pure, liquid helium and impure, gaseous helium.

BOC prioritises supplies of pure, liquid helium for critical
medical uses e.g. MRI scanners in hospitals, ensuring that they can
remain fully operational.

Helium for balloons is a different product – it is impure and
gaseous and recovered as a by-product of supplying liquid helium for the
MRI market – a market which makes up about half of the helium business
in the UK. Impure, gaseous helium cannot be used directly in medical MRI
scanners or in other applications that use super-conducting magnets.
Impure helium can also be recovered by the customer and reprocessed for
use in the balloon market, but historically this has only been viable
for large helium users.

BOC fully supports the recovery and reprocessing of helium to
ensure that every opportunity is taken to recycle and reuse this
important resource. A large proportion of impure recovered gas is
already reliquefied in the UK market to maximise the availability of
liquid helium. However, there is not sufficient capacity to reliquefy
all impure recovered helium. Considerable investment would be needed -
from both suppliers and users of helium – to see a meaningful increase
in reliquefied helium at this time. We are consistently reviewing new
opportunities with customers to help them conserve and reuse their
helium.

For the future, there is still plenty of helium on our planet,
however, much of it is in locations and environments that are not
currently financially viable to extract from. Increasing demand for
helium and continuing pressure on existing sources will force the market
price for helium to continue rising and when this happens it will become
economically viable to open up new sources. Making this investment will
mean that helium will continue to be available for many years to come.
Rising prices in the market will also drive an increase in investment in
the means by which customers can recover more of their own helium.”

The 3ft latex balloon printer is now in the building. This machine will print single side’ double side, all round and all over print in single colour.

It will also print 4ft and 5.5ft Chloroprene balloons.

The machine should be fully operational prior to Easter and we have already got orders lined up to print.

Price list to follow.

Lets get busy

Its a bit of a beast but we managed to get it in the building

Did you listen to radio the other day

Panic…. “Helium balloons should be banned”

A scientist thinks inflating a balloon with helium is using up the Earths helium resources, helium should be used for more important things like MRI scans.

Well, this is just not true. Balloon gas is a by-product of Grade A helium, it’s a dirty useless gas that if it wasn’t used by the party industry – it would be vented into the air.

When balloon & party companies pay for their balloon gas they are subsidising the Grade A helium and therefore reducing it’s cost.

So – balloon gas reduces the cost of an MRI scan.

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT

The latex balloon printing department is growing again, so watch this space….

The new baby should arrive in April

Today is the last day of “Will The Mad Fool Make It”. For the past 8 days we have kept him floating 45 ft about the crowds in the West Orchards Shopping Centre, Coventry raising money for Macmillan Cancer Relief.  We have been on site at 6am every morning to top up and add new balloons to make sure he has had maximum lift. During the course of the week there has been a 45ft banner that people have signed and left messages for “The Mad Fool” and today we sent him up for the last time with the banner attached to him.

And up he goes on the final day

Extra balloons needed to lift the banner

You have to take your hat off the “The Mad Fool”  (Stuart Kettell) as over the past few years he has taken on  different challenges which he has funded himself so that all the money raised goes to the charity. Why not leave him a message of congratulations here or on his Face Book site and if your feeling generous then make a donation here “Will The Mad Fool Make It. Every penny will go to Macmillan Cancer Relief. Well done Stuart, your one of life’s good guys. ( Total money raise so far by Stuart tops £35,000 over 6 years )