The Future....

Well another year is done...it's bittersweet...it's fun to see the fruits of our labor and do the parade, but then there is this hollow feeling...onto another crafty venture I suppose. Questions race through my head...the hippos were a HUGE hit...even though we didn't make the Olympian they took 4 separate pics of us and I had a lady pull me to the side of the road to take a pic with me...I could definitely be lazy and do the hippo again next year...that's just not like me though...my inspiration is my kids, they'll tell me what crazy adventure we'll do next year...until then I bid you farewell but I'll keep the hippo blog name for next year...look for new posts in 7 or 8 months haha! :)

The Parade

Well we did it, survived another year here are the pics

what the load out looks like to get the hippos to the parade



parade pics

Hippo ballet


side view


The kiddos


Family pic


The Gazelles


Amelia being carried for the parade...she LOVED IT!


Amelia a future hippo dentist?


The Awesome HP Staff...I love my coworkers!

Today is the day.....

Last night I sutured on the legs to the pants, attached tails and started organizing the emergency child bag...today I fluffed tutus finished up the bag and loaded the van....fun times...t minus 3 hours until time to walk...yay...now if only the weather didn't have ADHD

finishing touches

Well, not much left to do (although I could keep touching up and touching up and if I knew at the start that I'd have this much time I would have done a bit more in the beginning...sigh...oh well....today Kyle and I made tails and I cut out the uvula...I am going to attach the feet to the pants tonight and I added a small panel of fabric in the cheeks as well...that is that as they say...weird but true...

Momma hippo head...DONE!

YAY, my masterpiece is done! Well, maybe...LOL...I think I'm going to bag the eyelash idea...I rather like her being realistic...I also am maybe going to add a panel of fabric to the side to lessen the PVC pipe on the lower jaw....well and I have to cut out a uvula to glue to my forehead...hahahaha

Gazelle=done!

9 masks DONE!! There will be 10 of them but my friend Crystal is crafty and making her own...I just finished these for friends and coworkers...

PRETTY MUCH DONE!! WHOOT!

Okay, so here's the to do list that's left, what's left is in bold....
1. paint preschool hippo's underside
2. touch up momma's grey shell and duct tape behind my head to cover the obvious pillows
3. waterproof preschool and momma
4. cut back excess lower jaw and drill and attach the two pieces
5. attach feet to the pants I'm going to wear
6. finish all the gazelle masks
7. maybe make three tails really fast
8. maybe add some shoulder padding
9. maybe add some eyelashes if time

Closer and closer and closer

Today I crossed some things off of my to do list...just the bolded is left. We had a beautiful day to do some varnishing outside so I worked on it while the kids were napping....I also got about 70% of the gazelle masks I'm making for coworkers done...whew! I'll get there....tomorrow is derby and Friday I'm on call (I'll still work on them though)

Okay, so here's the to do list that's left-
1. paint preschool hippo's underside
2. touch up momma's grey shell and duct tape behind my head to cover the obvious pillows
3. waterproof preschool and momma
4. cut back excess lower jaw and drill and attach the two pieces
5. attach feet to the pants I'm going to wear
6. finish all the gazelle masks (only 2 hours probably still needed here)
7. maybe make three tails really fast
8. maybe add some shoulder padding if time
9. maybe add some eyelashes if time

Painted!

Finished the detail painting on momma tonight...whoot! Pretty much almost done now...well I have to be or else!

Okay, so here's the to do list that's left-
1. paint preschool hippo's underside
2. touch up momma's grey shell and duct tape behind my head to cover the obvious pillows
3. waterproof preschool and momma
4. cut back excess lower jaw and drill and attach the two pieces
5. attach feet to the pants I'm going to wear
6. finish all the gazelle masks
7. maybe make three tails really fast
8. maybe add some shoulder padding if time
9. maybe add some eyelashes if time

not too much but still time is ticking down and the waterproofing will take a nice day to do...hopefully I'll get it done this next weekend so it can dry and be completely ready for the 24th!

here are pics of momma in all her glory and my little helper Eve....

freaking out just a bit

So today I realized that because of a doctor's meeting, derby, and being on call I really only have 7 nights left...ACK!!

Starting finishing touches

Pics of some of the finishing work

the rigging for the head....HELLO Duct Tape!!!

Preschool hippo with most of the detail painting done

Momma Hippo's lower jaw painted

Baby hippo=DONE

Got caught up on Lost and Models of the Runway last night long enough to stuff and sew on the eyes, ears and nostrils of Amelia's costume...here are some pics...oh and by the way she fell and hit her lip friday so although there is a hint of clear mucus there, that actually is a bruise not a booger..........





Also worked on the rigging of momma hippo to get her to stay at the right angle on my head...duct tape here I come!

Grey instead of newspaper colored....

it's official...the hippos have paint! YAY!!! Here's some pics!

before (in the daylight)


GREY!


Preschool hippo

Radio silent but keeping busy

Well, the last few days have mostly been filled with finishing up the paper mache and contemplating mounting options for putting this on my head...all that's left now is drying the mache, painting, and finishing touches! YAY!!

Here are the latest pics!

preschool hippo on momma hippo with bottom of top jaw showing


preschool hippo on momma hippo with nostrils showing


lower jaw

Finishing up paper mache on momma

Tonight I spent an hour finishing up some paper mache on momma, I mached the bottom part of the upper jaw and the lips. I still need to finish the nostrils and let her dry. The lower jaw and preschool hippo still have damp pulp so I have to wait a little longer before I finish those...once that is done then I'm off to painting land...but of course with more drying time we're probably looking at a few day standstill and taking it back up by next weekend....

and now for something completely different

Absolutely nothing to do with hippos...but I did work on it tonight for a few hours. Some of the other girls I work with are considering being Thompson's gazelles with small children being lions...cute right? Well I worked on the prototype of a mask for them tonight as well. I like it, I hope they do too...the other option is a half mask that I need more felt to complete where we'd paint their noses and mouths to make the complete face....

Baby hippo!

Random hippo fact- baby hippos are born underwater and can swim pretty much from birth.

Finally starting on Amelia's costume...hers is the easiest as it has no drying time involved...it also is clean enough to work on inside, while watching t.v. when the garage is FREEZING.

Basically it's felt cut and will be sewn onto a hooded sweatshirt....cute eh?

some finishing touches

Random hippo fact- at night hippos walk as far as 5 miles to graze on short grasses (the main portion of their diet)

Tonight was a rather slim work day on the hippo project. I went out to dinner with a good friend after the kids were in bed so alas, I fell behind...

tonight I placed the top tusks and the lips, and jowls.



I also started working on tissue paper mache of the pulped areas on the eyes, the nose and front of the lips is next...maybe tomorrow night!

Smile pretty

Hippo fact of the day- A hippo's lower canines or 'tusks' can grow more than a foot long!

I also worked on the 'bones' of the lower jaw tonight, adding tusks, some gum work and lip edge and some detail to the tongue. When this dries I will paper mache it, tissue paper it and paint it...well and drill some holes in it to attach it to the upper jaw...one step at a time though.....

I add the tusks, they are actually made from the rolls the tulle used in the tutu was on...recycling :)

I pulp the gums, lips, and tongue...

Preschool hippo-cont...

Random hippo fact- a hippo can hold their breath for about 5 minutes!

Almost done with preschool hippo...tonight I pulped the eyes and nostrils...all that's left is to do a tissue paper layer and paint it...WHOO HOO!!

Twinkle toes

My ingenious idea of using e-collars from work for hippo feet is well...ingenious...it's working just like I thought it would! I decided on 20 inch collars and here's how I made them more ballerina hippo-esque

First I painted the front part of the foot in pink.

Then I taped off some toes.

Finally painted over the whole thing in grey...I was a little disappointed in the grey paint it FLEW out of the can so I have some dribble marks...but it is what it is...I think they'll be pretty cute when they are on!

tutu much

Soooo, the last couple of days have been a bit light on the hippo work, the last two days I worked on paper mache on the preschool hippo head....




And tonight I made my adult sized tutu while watching Project Runway.....I have a feeling Tim Gunn would call my look 'too costumey'

It's the eye of the hippo....

it's the thrill of the fight....okay nevermind...

random hippo fact-a hippos eyes and nostrils are placed high on their heads so they can stay almost completely submerged but still keep an eye on danger and breathe

Tonight I spent some quality time with my hairdryer, trying to speed up the pulp drying speed on the lips and nostrils...I also fashioned some eyes...check it out...here's lookin' at you kid.....

Preschool hippo

Hippo fact for the day-Hippo calves weigh nearly 100 pounds at birth and can suckle on land or underwater by closing their ears and nostrils.

Well I got a good start on preschool hippo (my son Kyle's costume)...basically he will be wearing a hippo had and a grey sweatsuit. I hope to get him to wear some feet of some sort but we'll see how the time goes.

The hat will sit on top of his bike helmet.



This is the rough carving of the hat, I will paper mache and possible put a little pulp on it (trying to keep it as light as possible so trying to avoid too much of anything on it.



notice the bike helmet is in place so it will be pretty flush and hopefully minimally visible...not that a Lightening McQueen hippo would be a bad thing mind you.....