2013 Thank-Yous

It's that time of year again! With 2 days left in 2013, it's time to give shout outs and thank-yous to all the awesome people who helped make this fishy year, the fishiest!

Thank you to R.H. who once again made an awesome webcomic year. Our webcomic can be viewed here: http://mermaidcomics.tumblr.com/ and it's always a great laugh to see what he comes up with!

Thank You to ALL the awesome pools that have hosted us in 2013! Thank-you to the Dartmouth Sportsplex, The Spryfield Wave Pool, Cole Harbour Place, Bridgewater, Milford, Bible Hill, and all the others. Without you, us mermaids wouldn't have any business! We appreciate the hard work of all the lifeguards, staff, and patrons!

Thank-you to Dr. Devi and Dr. Nunes for hosting me at the MSVU Child and Youth Department. I enjoyed giving a lecture to the students!

Thank-you to MSVU for featuring me in part of their "Be Something Big" Campaign! http://www.msvu.ca/en/home/aboutus/mediacentre/news/mountgradmakingwaves.aspx

Thank you Thank you so much to Carolyn Turgeon for writing the foreword for my book, to Brandy Hoyt Photography for photographing the cover, to all the wonderful men and women who helped edit the book, to Lulu for publishing, and everyone who contributed something! Thank you to all the amazing people who bought it!

Thank-you to mermaid Sirena for once again being awesome and finishing up Tail Flip Magazine with me!

Thank-you to everyone who attended our family and friends yearly mermaid swim!

Thank-you to Terri who got us on This Hour Has 22 Minutes and for the awesome cast and staff! We had a blast doing the Halifax Harlem Shake!

Thank-you to Mermaid Ama, Mermaid Naida, Mermaid Mimi and Mermaid Nessie for joining the company and all your hard work! Thank you once again to merwrangler Sean for all his awesome hard work, love, care and devotion. Thank you to Merwrangler Derek for all his support and volunteering. This wouldn't be a company without you! 

Thanks to Eddy Chang for all his awesome drawings of me, and everyone who submits fanart!

Thanks to Anna from CKDU for interviewing Mermaid Ama and I

Thanks to Rob Stewart for making an amazing documentary and letting me meet you! Hah!

Thanks to Children's Wish Foundation for hosting Mermaid Mimi and I at the princess tea party!

Thanks to Serpentine Studios for hosting me at a very special theme party!

THANK YOU TO MERMAID RAVEN FOR MAKING ME AWESOME MERMAID TOPS AND FOR TAKING IN AND UPGRADING MY MERMAID TAIL I COULDNT DO THIS WITHOUT YOU, YOU ARE AN INSPIRATION TO ME

Thank you to the Discovery Centre and to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic for hosting the mermaids for World Ocean's Day. Thanks to everyone who came out!

Thank you to Derek and Missy of Shore Things for hosting us several times and helping to get our name out there!!!

Thanks to reddit for making me go viral... twice!

Thanks to everyone who came out to our mermaid meet and greet!

Thanks to my best friend for having me swim at her wedding!

Thanks to Jon Mullane for once again putting me (and Naida!) in a music video, and to RiverPoint Films for filming!

Thanks to the city and pirates of Mahone bay for once again hosting us at the Pirate Parade, and for all the people who came out!

Thank you to the Greater Halifax Program for mentoring me!

Thank you to Sarah for updating our logo!

Thank you to Terry N and Kathleen P for helping us with intense business development!

Thanks to Illonka who is working on a sequin tail for me!

Thanks to mermaid Syrena who got me in an article in Singapore!

Thank you to all the awesome people organizing and helping out with Merfest!

Thanks to the staff at mernetwork for all their hard work year round.

Thanks to our insurance agent for working super hard for us!

Thanks to mermaids magazine for publishing me, and to Carolyn Turgeon for setting it up!

Thanks to everyone at the entrepreneur forum!

Thanks Mermaid Stephanie for making me an awesome doll and Lorelei for giving it to me for my birthday!

Thanks to deviantART for featuring me on their website again!

THANK YOU TO ALL MY CLIENTS FOR HIRING US AND ENABLING US TO CONTINUE WORKING. THANKS TO ALL THE KIDS, THE DREAMERS, THE MERMAID LOVERS, AND THE FANS!

Thank you to everyone who touches our lives!

Mermaid Fitness

Well, I'm home sick as a dog this weekend and Monday, so I decided to work on this blog post I've been wanting to share for a while!

I often get asked what I do for a fitness routine to help me be swim as a mermaid! Before I get into it I want to give you these two disclaimers: 1. I am not a fitness professional and I don't replace one. Always consult a professional. 2. My experience may be very different than yours. I cope with mobility issues and chronic pain. Now that that's out of the way, let's get into it shall we?

First I want to give you a bit of my history....

I wasn't really fit as a kid or a teenager. I was sick a lot, really gangly (weighed no more than 100lbs which was underweight for my height). I had no tone, and a crazy metabolism that let me eat whatever I wanted. I never realized I had a fitness problem until I was diagnosed with several health conditions, and had my body accessed.

When my body was accessed, it was found I had a serious weakness on the left side of my body. Most people have a weakness but mine was severe. I had fine motor control problems that were troubling, and a very limited range of motion. I also had a lot of leg pain, dizziness, and chest/throat pain whenever I tried to do cardio. My balance was absolutely terrible. I also had scoliosis which was cause some muscle and skeletal strain on my body.

My fitness journey started out slow. My merwrangler Sean had been going to the gym since he was a teenager, so I decided to start going with him. I got myself a personal trainer and put her in contact with my  doctors. I was seeing a physical therapist, getting massage, and doing training every second day. It wasn't easy at first. I'd never been to a gym, I was very uncoordinated, and thanks to medication I really didn't see any results. But my doctor assured me it was helping.

Fast forward 6 years (I'm serious!) and things have changed for the better. I'm much stronger, coordinated, balanced, and toned. I lost 15lbs too. Medication had a lot to do with some of my symptoms and once I got healthy I really started noticing changes at the gym. Addressing my health conditions helped too.

So what do I do now, to stay in shape for my gigs and manage my chronic pain? Well, I do swim 2-3 times a week in my tail already with gigs. Every day I also do 20 crunches, and basic stretching before bed and when I wake up.

Every second day I go to the gym for at least an hour. Once in a while I go everyday. I work different muscle groups but I tend to do certain patterns. Cardio is really important to swimming. It builds up your stamina which in turn helps your breath hold! I start with cardio. I do 30 minutes or burn 500 calories. Whichever I get to first. It loosens up my joints, gets my blood flowing, and gives me a good kick of energy to use the other machines. I currently do most of my cardio on this type of machine:

I love it. It's not quite an elliptical. And I have tried all the other cardio machines and this one works the best with my chronic pain. It also burns the most calories for me. I can max it out on good days too which is cool. :) It's called an Adaptive Motion Trainer.

After my cardio, I move on to the machines. Now, mermaiding can be very hard on your hips and if you're female, your pelvic floor. The undulating motion moves things around, and it's easier than you'd think to displace your hip or pull a muscle in that general area. So I use these machines to work my hips, and they also help your pelvic floor:

You cant push yourself too hard. Or you will pull some muscles. I usually do two sets of 15. You don't want to strain to the point your legs are shaking. Keep it simple. Do both machines so you work the inside and outside of your hips.

I also do crunches but sometimes working the ab machines is good too. You use your abs a LOT when mermaid swimming and when posing. You want them to be strong! I find the follow machines the most effective:

I also do free weights. You dont necessarily need a lot of arm strength to be a mermaid because when swimming properly your arms don't do much of the work! But I like to keep mine toned, and also many of the machines work your pecks and back at the same time. In addition to free weights, I use these machines:

I do certain stretches suggested by my physical therapist. I use resistance bands, weight balls, and foam rollers to help. But I also do certain yoga poses that help with mermaid swimming. The ones I use frequently are:

I really believe that fitness is the key to preventing your own injury and body stress while swimming as a mermaid tail. I also wind down my workout sessions by lying on the mats working on my breath hold. I hope some of the ideas help you figure out your own workout routine that will help you move in your mermaid tail and prevent injury!

Meditation can also help you with your breath holding and is great for your health in general!

Fishmas!

Ohh it's December! ... You know what that means! Book Sale!

WANT 30% OFF MY BOOK? Lulu is having a limited time sale til Thursday at midnight! Use coupon code LULUVIP347345 and your book will arrive before Christmas too. If you've already got the book, you can get 18% off the Calendar using code FBC18 at checkout. But hurry hurry! Sale wont last long! http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/rainamermaid


....and now back to our regularly scheduled blogging! Hehe!

Let's see, I haven't done an official catch-up post since...  September 29th. Uh oh. I have a lot to fill you in on, ahhh! Okay let's see, we'll go oldest to newest! You ready?

October 

October was a fun and busy month! So busy I pretty much skipped Halloween. I did a lot of private events and parties. I've been posting a lot of behind the scenes from cool things I get to do.  

The majority of my time was spent doing private parties with Mermaid Naida. Mermaid Mimi was at the time doing a show (she's an actress!) so I didn't get to spend as much time with her. I did get to squeeze in one gig with her though ;)

I got to do a private swim at Oak Island Inn. A place most Nova Scotian's know is famous for pirates. According to legend, pirates buried treasure on Oak Island. Though no one has been able to find it yet. I did manage to find this pirate.

I also spoke at the Discovery Centre (a local science centre) over Halloween weekend about fins on types of fish. I even got to meet Wolverine. He was pretty cool, haha!

Of course, October brought with it Canadian Thanksgiving. Sean and I decided to keep the holiday free and spend it at a family cottage, taking in the last bit of warm sun!

My new tops from Merbellas have been a big hit with all the clients too! Kids love ocho-the octo-top

We also had some gifts arrive in the mail from the merman king himself in preparation for NCMerfest! Just in time because it's been freezing!

I managed to stick myself in front of the camera and get a few mermaidy self portraits too ;) gotta keep those creative juices flowing!

And of course, I got a little bit of video over the month too during our gigs. We don't often get to make planned videos. Most of our videos are from transition times at gigs and very brief. No time for anything elaborate. However, we're hoping to focus on more videowork in the future. :)

 I had a really cool experience happen I'd like to share. I went to my first ever entrepreneur faire. We are really ramping up business to a huge level (more on that later) and I've been working my butt off with my business mentors getting everything in line. I was invited to this networking faire to meet other people like me. I was really nervous, I was convinced I would be out of place and at first it seemed like I was. I was one of a handful of women. And I was certainly the youngest person present. I looked around at all these people in suits and felt out of place in my green dress. I wore a nametag with my business on it, and before I knew it I was getting stopped. But I wasnt being stopped because people wanted to know what it was I did.. I was being stopped because PEOPLE ALREADY KNEW ME AND WHAT I DID. I was totally floored. Totally. At least 5 people came up and knew exactly who I was, and one man (who is also a fan and a supporter on my page) even had a photo he'd taken with me from the summer on his phone. It was so validating!!!

October really was a whirlwind of busy. I am sure there is more I just can't remember it all. LOL. I also met the awesome local mermaid who just moved back here, Mermaid Fare. She and I will be collaborating in the future and she's just cute as a button!

November

November was crazy and awesome, it was my birthday month and mers around the world helped me celebrate! There was just so much going on I am sure I will miss things and kick myself later, but for now I'll try and sum it all up!

I received an amazing gift from Mermaid Lorelei, it's the Barbie version of me crafted by Mermaid Stephanie Works can't even describe how amazing this doll is and how much detail has gone into it. I will do a video late to show you, it's insane! Thanks to both amazing ladies, wonderful supporters in my life. I had a rough day too and came home to such a lovely early birthday gift

We had an awesome mermaid meet up with Mermaid Saphina and Naida and I! Saphina was down for the Hal-Con convention. Here's some video of our silly fun (though youtube removed some music)

Our new t-shirts arrived for all the staff in the mail with our brand spanking new sparkly logo (thanks to Sarah Barker) and Seanny couldn't wait to wear his. Can you tell I had a little bit of fun making it?

The girls and I all got together for a fancy dinner and then karaoke to celebrate my birthday. My boyfriend snapped this camera phone pic of us, sorry for the red eye haha. But it was great :) I love these ladies. They make being a mermaid a million times better! <3

During my birthday I did a gig, and the little girl it was for sang me happy birthday. You can see a clip on the Halifax Mermaid's Facebook page. That's the other thing, we now have a Halifax Mermaid's Facebook Page for all our joint work together :) Be sure to like it if you haven't already.


Our website also received a HUGE very much needed facelift. You can see it at www.halifaxmermaids.com or www.halifaxmermaids.ca :) Here's a photo of the two happy birthday girls.

Just before my birthday, we also had an image go viral on DeviantART thanks to a site wide feature they gave us! It's a beautiful photo from Sean and I am so thankful. It netted me nearly 1000 new facebook fans!

We also had a great time with my ask me anything on reddit. The people on reddit have been so awesome to me and have been a driving force behind my internet fame! An ama= ask me anything. And people sure did! Keep in mind this is the internet, so if you read it, not everything is appropriate ;) I tried to have fun with the trolls. But for the most part the comments and questions were spot on. I also got heaps of new fans because of this so THANK YOU REDDITORS. Be sure to read the funny stuff here.
 

Sean also captured this great photo of me where I look super happy at a gig I just have to share.

We also got back some older photos! Here's a couple we got from my besties wedding I did back in the summer. I realized I have lost a whopping 15lbs since these photos! whoa!

The Music video Naida and I were in will be released soon. And in the meantime the rockstar sent us a few shots from the set to share! Just reminding you all, I really DO play guitar hehe.

Lots more private parties happened too which was awesome :) We've quadrupled our bookings since this time last year! And tripled our mermaids! hehe.

UPCOMING


Okay, lots of things upcoming! First off I submitted an article 3 years ago to a magazine- a version of my post you all saw on Annette Kellerman! Well they finally got around to publishing and it will ne available this month!The article turned out really well and the photo they chose to publish just looks amazing. I'm really happy with it, thanks to Carolyn Turgeon for all her awesome help. If you're interested in buying it, it can be found here: https://www.faeriemagazine.com/Product/5d7ca0

NCMerfest is just around the corner! I am an official sponsor and am donating some time to run workshops (one on working with kids, the other on starting your own mermaid business), sponsoring a child to become a mermaid, and walking in a fashion show. I am really excited because it's just around the corner! For more information if you think you'll be interested in attending go to www.ncmerfest.com

Merwrangler Sean and I have been working on a top secret project with the aid of a few other professionals (Thanks Terry and Kathleen!) for the entire month of November. It will be a game changer, and I am so proud of our hard work. I can't wait to tell you.

In the meantime you may notice my company is expanding! From Raina the Halifax Mermaids now to Halifax Mermaids, to also Atlantic Mermaids, and Canadian Mermaids! We will be touring in the near future and training other mermaids all over Canada and we aim to be the premier Canadian booking agency for mermaids. My hope is that I can train fellow Canadian mermaids so they can make some decent money with their skills, land some big gigs, and enrich their own mermaiding personas. It will also allow for so much more collaboration and hopefully better tails all around. Every other type of performer has their own booking agencies they can go to, but not mermaids yet! We're excited to be one of the first (there are several in the world but we are the first in Canada). So, you can also visit our website at www.canadianmermaids.com and .ca and we will soon be reaching out to other Canadian mermaids! <3  I will give you lots more information on these developments later, as they will go hand in hand with our super secret project :)

Thanks for sticking with me folks! Here's to a great December and January! I hope your holidays are safe and filled with family and love and joy. I hope to see many of you at NCMerfest! Best fishes!