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