Behind The Scenes at the Natural Balance Rose Parade Float

Last night I attended a reception held at Fiesta Parade Floats in Irwindale, California. It was somewhat of an open house to view the Rose Parade Floats being decorated at their facility. My employer, Natural Balance Pet Foods has an incredible float in the Rose Parade, so I took all of these photos to give you a behind the scenes, advance sneak peek at what it looks like! Incidentally, if you want to learn more about the Rose Parade and our float, listen to my radio show on BlogTalkRadio, just click here.

Our company co-founder Dick Van Patten and I inspected the float, carefully checking the details- millions of seeds, flowers, gains, nuts, vegetables that are used to create the designs. We were both amazed and really proud of our float!

Saffron is used to decorate the crab legs...isn't it just beautiful? I spoke with the person who decorated the crab, and she was so proud that she beamed as she described it to me.

These photos really give you an idea of the size and scale of our float...as well as the depth of colors and beauty. The coral was much taller than me...so it must have stood 7 or 8 feet high I would guess.

Me "clowning around" among the clown fish that are "swimming" along the sides of our incredible Rose Parade Float! The white parts of the fish were decorated with grains of white rice.

I love Anthurium flowers, they remind me of being in Hawaii!

I like this photo a lot- the two big pink swags were covered in fresh roses and smelled divine. Actually it was like paradise just being next to the float, the flowers are all so fragrant. I've never seen anything so beautiful in all my life.
This next photo may be tough to figure out until you see the float in action, but it is the "car" that will bring the dogs back up to the top to have another run at surfing. It will move along a track, with the dogs and their surfboards!

The license plate on the model "Woodie" car on our float pretty much says it all: DOGS RULE! This car is at the very back, top section, behind where the waves will flow. It is really awesome to see it up so close.

This is an odd angle, but I took this photo to give you the perspective of the length of the float..it really is enormous. If you look closely you can see Dick Van Patten shaking hands with visitors. He was so proud of the float!

Another side view of the float, this one has different sizes of Angel fish..click on the photo to see the incredible details on the fish stripes. Remember there are no artificial colors or materials used.

Standing among the zillions of fresh roses, each in their own individual vial of water so they stay fresh until parade day. It smelled so wonderfully fragrant it made me smile. I have always liked roses anyway...maybe someday I'll plant a rose garden. Well that just about wraps up today's post. I hope these photos give you an idea of what goes into making these Rose Parade floats. You can watch the live cam of our float by clicking here. Don't forget to watch the parade Monday January 2nd, it starts at 8:00 AM (pacific). 

The Hallmark Channel will run a TV special about the making of The World's Longest and Heaviest Float, an hour before the parade starts, so check that out too! 

One addition- I took this photo from the live cam of our float. This is Tillman doing a practice surf this morning. The side walls will be clear on parade day so viewers will be able to see the dogs more easily. Cool huh?