Saturday 24th of September saw the first Wine Rack in our area to be launched in their new store colours - under the 'Project Blue' scheme. The Ascot branch has been repainted, redecorated and re-launched and looked absolutely fantastic in it's new livery. The store held a wine tasting on Saturday to celebrate its new look with a guest appearance by the renowned wine expert Oz Clarke.

We turned up to add a bit more colour to the day with a few balloons decorating the shop inside and out and took the opportunity to sample a few of the delicious wines they had on offer (purely in the name of market research of course). Over time all the Wine Rack stores will adopt the new colour scheme so keep an eye on your local branch - you won't be able to miss it. By the way if you're partial to a glass or two of vino then it's well worth a visit to Wine Rack, or Threshers to take advantage of a great offer that they are currently running, and which looks set to go on for quite a while - buy two bottles, get a third free - on anything. You can mix and match, buy wine, buy champagne the offer applies to everything from cheap and cheerful table wine right up to Vintage Champagne and has fuelled many a nights’ entertainment in the Number 81 household!

We'd like to say thank you to Rachel and Oli Pepper who's wedding we decorated in May this year for this lovely letter we received, it would seem that the wedding guests found another use for the balloons the morning after the wedding.

Dear Alison and Cathy

I am so sorry it has taken us this long to write and thank you for the beautiful balloons you provided for our wedding at Silchester House on 28th May.

Without them I don't believe our guests would have had nearly as much fun as they did!

The next morning we set off for our honeymoon camping in the Scottish Highlands and as you can see from the enclosed photo, many of the balloons came with us!!

Thanks again for your massive contribution to our special day! We shall take every opportunity to recommend you to others

Rachel and Oli Pepper x

Well, the car worked but it took four attempts, so, with a little help, we thought we'd try something a little bigger. Unfortunately we can't tell you who helped us as his employers may feel that this was an inappropriate use for their 18-wheel truck!

But so far... The truck is winning; it only took two goes to do our feline fiend some serious damage, so much so that we feel the 'after' pictures may be a little too distressing for public viewing.

So what else can we do to them?

Send your suggestion to jade@postalgifts.com and if we like it we'll send you one free of charge. All we ask is photographic evidence of the deed being done.

Got any ideas?

(For the original post, and the full story please click here)

August Bank Holiday weekend saw the return of the ever popular Odiham Jazz Party and Picnic, in Odiham – North Hampshire. This annual event plays a large part in the fundraising activities of the Neurofibromatosis Association.

Neurofibromatosis is a genetic disorder of the nerve tissue, which can occur in ANY family. It is progressive, unpredictable and no two cases are the same. There are two types of Neurofibromatosis, NF1 and NF2 and, at the moment, there is no cure. It has many devastating effects and it can cause premature death. There are over 25,000 people in the UK living with neurofibromatosis. All proceeds from the Jazz Party and Weekend went towards providing support for those in Hampshire and the surrounding areas. For more information visit www.nfauk.org.

Held in the fabulous setting of the Odiham Chalk Pit, by kind invitation of Ted & Eileen Pither and family, the Seventh Jazz Party & Picnic was extended by one day with a Lunchtime Jazz ’n’ Barbecue on the Sunday. In spite of the torrential rain a few days before, the Chalk Pit looked a picture with the sun shining throughout the weekend and everyone had a great time, with picnics and one or two glasses of wine to lubricate the evening.

81 red balloons supplied the balloon decorations, the general and chalk face lighting was provided by RAF Odiham, stage lighting was donated by David Eden and yards of bunting and numerous candles all helped to create the party atmosphere for about 800 people over the two days. Saturday evening was bought to an end with a spectacular firework display, supplied by FAB Fireworks.

Saturday was a mix of bop and modern Jazz featuring top British Jazz stars, The Richard Shepherd Quartet with special guests, Alan Barnes, Mark Nightingale, Steve Waterman and Jacqui Dankworth.

Sunday’s Barbeque was a new addition to the event and featured mainstream and traditional jazz from the popular Phil Brown Swingtet.

As well as being a great weekend with good music, picnics, and just a few glasses of wine the event raised £15,000 for the Neurofibromatosis Association an increase of £4000 on last year.

The balloons were supplied by The Neurofibromatosis Association and 81 red balloons donated our time and labour free of charge in support of the charity.

P.s A big thank you to Garrett for letting us use his pics :)

Well we've finally finished the new website. we've put up all the shelves, given everything a lick of paint and oiled all the rusty hinges and we think we're ready to go!

So we'd like to welcome you to the new look 81 Red Balloons website. We hope you like it!

We became Balloon Decorators because it's fun, we really enjoy what we do and even if you don't need our decorating services (yet!) we hope you enjoy coming back to our site to see what we've been up to, and joining in with some of the fun stuff we've got lined up for the future.

We've posted a few articles over the last couple of months to warm us up with the whole blog thing and fill in a bit of background for anyone who hasn't got to know us yet, so take a scroll through the archives and check it out :)

Everythings been posted in date order which means that you'll always see the most recent entries on the home page so the further back you go, the more you'll know. :)

Thanks for coming to www.81redballoons.co.uk and we hope you have as much fun reading about our antics as we had doing them!

Welcome to our world - The 81 Red Balloons team :)