Graduation Decoration Ideas

The business where inflation counts

Young entrepreneur quits the dry world of finance for something more whimsical and romantic

BEIJING - Confident, beautiful and romantically ambitious, balloon decorator Hu Xinying has much in common with her business.

The sweet-smiling, mellow-voiced 27-year-old typical Beijing girl always dresses like the chic models that appear in the top fashion magazines.

Using her talent in design and fashion, the young woman opened a balloon-decoration store, the first of its kind in the capital, in 2009, creating stunning balloon designs for weddings, birthday parties or other romantic occasions.

"There was something in my childhood that suggested that I would be working with balloons when I took out my old albums and they were full of photos of balloons," said Hu.

The girl still remembers that during her childhood her father frequently bought her balloons from gray-haired vendors who wheeled their bikes and trollies along streets, through residential communities and around parks.

"These balloons were of very poor quality and they easily burst," she said. "I cried every time it happened and asked my father to buy me a new one."

The seemingly ordinary graduate began work at an investment firm as a manager after taking a degree in international business and trade. She was not happy with this new chapter in her life, finding no pleasure in dry figures and charts.

Like the majority of urban young Chinese women, she kept to the same daily routines from office to home, with the occasional party with friends thrown in.

However, Hu possessed rebellious genes and didn't want her imagination left to waste away. "I was really tortured because I had a lot of ideas in my brain but no channel through which to release them," she said.

Many young Chinese people were roused by the scenes drawn by Taiwan's best-known illustrator, Jimmy Liao, in his cartoon books depicting the sadness of a girl living in a dusty and dense urban city who was immediately cheered up after being given a bright red balloon by a nice young man.

Once, on a whim, Hu decided to give a bunch of dazzling balloons to her best friend as a birthday gift, just as people do in the hit American soap operas Desperate Housewives and Sex and the City.

"However, I couldn't find any in the city and online most of the balloons were cheap, unevenly colored and devoid of wit and inventiveness," she said.

Graduation Decoration Ideas - News

The business where inflation counts

She also offers a while-you-wait balloon decoration service. Balloons are part of the culture in the US and European countries, appearing at nearly every festive occasion from weddings and birthday parties to graduation ceremonies and baby showers.

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Planning for the event began in November and the decorating crew started weekly workshops in March, but many of the volunteers took their work home with them. "Many volunteers made their decorations at their homes," Braverman said.

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There are so many more opportunities out there—holiday home decorating, making costumes for Halloween, planning graduation parties, etc. Honestly, you're only limited by your imagination. 12. Become a consultant or researcher.

Graduation Cupcake Decorating Ideas: Graduation Cupcake Tower ...

Enters a kindergarten graduation cupcake tower . In a style, such as groovy — pictured above, that will make the graduates shriek with delight, and parents, grandparents, siblings, relatives, and teachers lovingly smile, of course. And it will also be a fun-looking party decor item which will create a fun, happy party mood (when it comes to the little ones, mood is very important) suitable for the occasion.