Christmas Time is Here

Wow time has really gone by quickly. I can't believe it's only a week away until Christmas Eve! We haven't had much snow yet in Nova Scotia, but according to the weather we're getting a bucket dumped on us in a week! There might be a white Christmas after all.

The last few weeks have been fairly busy, and with the upcoming holidays I knew today would be a good time to sit down and make a post. I've got so many things to catch you up on!

First of all, we published the 4th issue of Tail Flip. An insane amount of work went into it, we published a little late and by the time it was finally there Sirena and I were exhausted! Be sure to check it out, there's some great content and I wrote some articles that I think you will enjoy.

I'm not sure if I did share it here or not... but if you missed it I had another newspaper feature and also my friend Jon Mullane published the Behind the Scenes look at the music video I was a part of!

I celebrated my birthday last month (November) and one of the things I woke up to as a lovely surprise was this amazing sculpture of me by the talented Claymermaid.blogspot.com click here for his FB page

I'm always being sent mermaid related artwork by the insanely talented mermaids in the community. Mermaid Stephanie has a passion for collecting and modifying mermaid Barbie dolls, and I was blown away (and so was my family) when she decided to do one of me! I think it's a very very close likeness and I can't get over the amount of detail!

Continuing on with the creative swing of things, and artist I have come to know for a few years now, Eddy Chang, did an amazing pencil drawing of me. I have modelled for Eddy a few times now.

As you can see, he's very talented at making things look photo-realistic with his pencil work! Here's a few of the images Eddy has drawn of me over the years:

Pretty amazing stuff! Be sure to check his website link at the top for more. I'm thrilled to know such talented individuals. Creativity is mind blowing, isn't it?







This past summer I took part in the Tall Ships Parade on the Halifax Waterfront. At the time, Sean (my partner) had injured his leg and wasn't able to attend. We didn't get any of our own photos. This past week a girl who'd been there uploaded this image of me with the Pirates of Halifax. I just have to share, because it's such a neat image.

Also, because I didn't really cover November, I didn't get to share with you some of the images I received back from Brian Larter Photography. Brian's wife Karen is the person who arranged for me to be in the Halifax Pride parade. As a thank-you to her I wanted to put her in my Mermaid Creation's Tail and do a photoshoot. She was a natural!

Also, speaking of the Halifax Pride Parade, video footage of it aired on EastLink TV this past month! Click here to view it (wont embed on the blog)

I've been working on a few crafty things these days too. I don't find it easy, my hands are clumsy, they lock up and hurt from time-to-time, but I've been pushing through. I up-cycled this second hand belt I received into a mermaid belt for my sister.

Oh yes, before I forget, Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas from FanPlastic Girl Gear, Raina the Halifax Mermaid, & Lee @ Gac Filters! Here's our Christmas card drawn by the ever-so-awesome David Ayala!

This past weekend my sister, nicknamed Mermaid Ama (Cherokee for "water") came with me to a mermaid party. She's interested in doing them from time to time and this one was a bit of a practice for her. Of course, her second time in the tail and her first party, the kid took off in that pool as a pure natural. She certainly showed up her sister! While we were there we met a spfx artist from Weta the group that does the spfx for the LOTR and Hobbit movie. That was pretty cool!

One of the really neat things about the party was that the parent bought all the girls their own mermaid tail-skirts from Fin Fun Mermaid Tails. Having two mers swim around with 10 little mers was really an amazing experience. Sean and I are brainstorming ways that we could offer fabric mermaid tails too. Neither one of us sews... so we're not sure how that'll work yet haha!

We put together a music video for the girls featuring the music of Sam Roberts (who gave me permission to use his music for vids, how cool is that?) 

Naturally, since we were spoiled enough to be able to swim in the DalPlex super deep pool, Mermaid Ama and I had to get some neat underwater photos...

We had a really great time but now we're both sick! Boo! Ama is finishing up her week at high school and then it'll be Christmas break. Hopefully she feels better soon. There are more mermaid gigs around the corner in her future. 

Coming up, I have a photo shoot this Saturday the 22nd with Mike McCarthy we are teaming up with a talented makeup artist to do our own homage to my favourite mermaid and biggest inspiration, Hannah Fraser! Check out the image below that is inspiring us, we're so stoaked to do our own version. And yes, Mertender Sean will totally be in the photos- it's my Christmas present hehe!

After that it's more parties, and an ever busy New Year with bookings coming in faster than I can manage. I'm hoping to do some sort of overhaul on both my email and my website to help streamline the process. 

One other big project that my fans on FB know about, is that I have decided to write a book. I know, it probably sounds a bit crazy but I decided to test the water with my FB fans and the response was overwhelming.

So what will the book be about? It's part auto-biography, and part "how-to" become a professional mermaid. You'd be surprised how much goes into it, and I think this will be a great solution for me as I am constantly thrown questions. I broke the book into 5 parts, and the 1st part that deals specifically with everything surrounding tails has been finished in 1st rough draft form. I've had a few professional friends hop on board to help me edit etc, and I think when it's all done I'll be selling it through an online publisher and in e-book format. I'm really excited but nervous. Writing is not my strongest point but I'm confident my editors will help me catch all those little a.d.h.d. mistakes I make!  I'm feeling very positive about it. It's not a money making venture (though any extra $ I receive would be seriously helpful), it's more about wanting to inspire people to follow their dreams and help them do it.  I'm also hoping it'll cut down on all the questions I receive on a daily basis haha. 

Well, I think this might very well be my last post of 2012. I am hoping to make a retrospective post and video that looks back at the 2012 year, but it may not happen until 2013 ;) I hope that you all have a wonderful, safe, and happy holiday surrounded by loved ones. I leave you with this funny little photo Sean and I took last year in my old tail... maybe we can re-do it this year?