Today I took the day off from working in the pottery studio which is almost always where you will find me If I can get in there. I decided a little cultural adventure was long overdue. I packed up the girls along with a laundry bag stuffed with old tights, fuzzy bath mats and any odd piece of clothing or fabric I didn't need anymore. We also packed up a laundry basket full of sculpture materials like broken toys, cardboard tubes and anything else odd. Why did we need such provisions....for "The Parade of Peculiar Pets" costume making street party of course. Karma was a big help...Ha! Lucky I knew the people in charge and they were friendly artists...they just laughed and let her at it. She is at this stage where she wants to help so badly. It's been great for clean up time at home but here it was chaos unleashed. She wanted to paint and draw and use the hot glue gun...yikes
Wouldn't you know it Karma headed straight for the wigs. She has also been wearing anything she can as a hat like a bowl lately.
If you have read my blog before you would know that this family has a proclivity to play dress up with wigs. This one is definitely one of the best pics yet.
Cammy however did not want anything to do with this wig!
Cammy jumped right on the stuff she wanted to use to make her costume. She saw some cheetah printed fuzzy fabric and instantly started making a cheetah mask to go with it. She did it all herself. Along with being an author she says she wants to be a fashion designer. She spends hours drawing dresses. Just today she asked me "If I design like two paper dolls with maybe four dresses to go with each of them and box them up could I sell them at your art show for five dollars?" Absolutely! I said.
Look at this beautiful Indonesian eagle kite. Cammy is so excited they said she could fly this one in the parade.
This enormous dragon kite is going to lead the parade procession and spans at least 15 feet wide and I have no idea how long?.
It was by far the most impressive and massive kite I have ever seen. Gorgeous!
Then there is me, a snail. It still needs a little work. There was no wire for the antennae but you get the overall concept at least. I just rolled up Karma's old crib bumper since we weren't using it and voila a snail shell. I actually let one of the local newspapers take a picture of me like this....oh well all you can do is laugh!
This past weekend was the parade that we had been awaiting for weeks. The Grand Procession of Peculiar Pets and People. Cammy and Karma and I all marched in the parade in full costume. In the weeks leading up to the parade several costume making parties were hosted around the city to encourage people to come out and get creative making their own peculiar pet costumes. All the materials were donated and supplied and people were encouraged to donate anything they might not want for others to use. A local artist here in Wilmington, NC named Dixon Settler was one of the lead coordinators of the event which took place on the same day as the Arts and Antiques walk downtown. It was a busy day for us....I was set up at the festival selling my pottery, my husband Mark had to play music on the kids stage for a while and we marched in the parade. Whew! But it was a whole lot of fun!!! The image above was the giant dragon kite that led the procession. It took at least six people to carry the kite through the street. What followed was quite a site.
There were pets of all kinds...cute and adorable butterflies.
Unidentified creatures from who knows where.
Jellyfish on stilts.
Menacing furry infants
Bald bunnies!
Sweaty suspicious looking ducks
This little elephant was my favorite (besides my daughter) how cute is this!
Dragonflies on stilts eating giant worms
Here is Cammy in her cheetah costume that she made herself.....by the end of the parade she was saying that her face was melting off.
