Full Time Mermaid

[AniaR]

Happy to announce that today marks my dive into full time mermaid living :) I have been full time once before for a period of 6 months, but it was unplanned and came out of necessity when a summer job decided not to renew me due to budget issues in the fall. I was unprepared to be unemployed and there was (and still is) an unemployment crisis in my particular field (education). I relied totally on gigs and while I had many they were not enough to sustain a life given my school debt and health expenses. so after 6 months I took a job that I honestly hated, made the best of it, and worked for a year and a half. During that time I paid off one student loan, and about 15,000$ in debt that I had incurred through the previous 7 years of being a student and having to need expensive medical care.

Sean and I have been carefully planning so I could leave my job to do what I love. I know a lot of people dream of doing it, but I think some of the pro mermaids out there make it look easier than it is because you don't see all the behind the scenes. No one just makes money from bookings and gigs I promise you, I've asked them all ;) So we started a board of directors, got financial advising, created a kick ass business plan, upped our insurance (meaning I can now and am now taking on bigger well paying gigs) saved saved saved money for emergency purposes and to have a 'cushion', created new income streams through the company (youtube, selling items through a store, creative book sales, workshops, kits etc), started going to small business and entrepreneur workshops and groups, having grant money coming in, and investors! Things have EXPLODED. But they started exploding before I left my job, so I was considerably burnt out. it became like working two full time jobs. I had zero time for myself, and as many people saw - I started getting sick.

I don't expect to do this forever, but I am very excited to do it for now. :) We had a lucky break in that a children's magazine did an interview with us and the magazine was given out to every single kid in the school board. I've had what would be considered as bigger media coverage before (covers of the paper, high profile magazines, TV, music videos, radio, etc) but because this was given to our demographic for gigs, for free... the requests are more than I can handle. I am planning to audition another mermaid this summer and can't seem to get money for tails fast enough! (July can't come quick enough). In the past year I've gone from Just me and occasionally hiring my sister (who no longer works for us) and occasionally teaming up with Mimi, to employing 4 other mermaids sustainably, with a 5th hopefully on the way, along with my assistant Sean (who yes, gets paid!).

My second book that is coming out is clearly documenting my life between the first book, and right now. (That's where it'll end). I go into detail how I got this far, specifics of what I've done to prepare, pay off debt, and get ready, along with the ups and downs of gigs, mermaid life, and coping with chronic illness while trying to run my own business. The book ends here. But from here on it, I'll be doing my best to post regular updates of how things go, challenges I face, success stories and other fun stuff both here, and through my youtube series.

So yay! Already before I was even done my last day of work I got a TV show request for the whole company (local TV show wants to do a special on us, fun!) and landed a few summer contracts. I'm only a bit anxious about my health expenses. We're not insured (though if I can sustain my level of income I will be able to apply for insurance), and my meds cost 250$, physio costs 190$ a session (very specialized and seriously needed) and I have a few invasive tests coming up. Of course, bad things have already thrown a wrench into some of my plans. One of my mermaids lives farther away and would normally drive to us and then we'd take her to gigs and back, and of course her car just died lol so she's stuck bussing to us and our transit system is notoriously unreliable. So that little factoid keeps me up at night knowing how time sensitive certain gigs are. LOL. And Mermaid Mimi's tail is totally dying and we haven't been able to find a sufficient in between tail to purchase (the company cant afford to front 3k+ for a new custom, and she's getting married this summer and also can't afford at the time being) because Mimi is an amazon and super tall. The tails we've added to our collection just are too small and can't be modified. So she's doing a lot of dry gigs so her tail doesnt fall apart. I'm really hoping when grant money comes in July I can just get either a good used tail, a 1000$ in between tail, or purchase her the materials to make her own real latex one. But June is still super busy... so trying to get through that will be.. fun.

I found out I qualify for a pro mac makeup account which is cool, because it gets you 30% off all their stuff, along with exclusive performing makeup not available to the public. I usually use sephora (MUFE) and mermaid minerals, but I have yet to find a lip stain or lipstick to work beyond mac, and they also have a new line of underwater stuff coming out. so yeah, 30% off makeup? Great! In order to apply you need to have an established business as a performer, some work under your belt, and business identification.

I am really looking forward to a summer with Seanny too. He is working for me along with doing contract work from home. It's exciting as a couple to have adventures too.

I'll also be posting more updates on the Halifax Mermaid Blog: http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog

And you can follow my journey on my facebook PROFILE: https://www.facebook.com/raina.mer.5

That's about it for now! :D I'll keep you all posted! woot woot. Yay for full time mermaid status!

[Mermaid Miel]

Yay!!
Mum saw your post on Facebook about this (reading over my shoulder) and was curious. "I thought she already was a mermaid?" lol.
I'm really excited for you! :D

And thank you for (again, in true Raina fashion.) educating us about the insane amount of work needed behind the scenes to make the transition from part-time professional mermaid to Full-time professional mermaid.

[Fifi Tigg]

Congrats Raina! I wish you all the success :mermaid kiss:

[Mermaid Adriel]

Congratulations! :D

[PearlieMae]

Congratulations, Raina! All the best of luck in your new professional life!

[MermanOliver]

Congratulations! Hope everything works out well for all of you. Good luck for the future!

[MerEmma]

Congratulations! What a dream--sounds amazing and I'm so happy for you. I look forward to hearing about more of your adventures as a full time mermaid too! :D

For Mermaid Mimi, you could always buy a tail from Jazz as I'm sure you're aware. Right price range for an amazing quality tail I'm sure.

[Echidna]

Great news!
I didn't know it was possible at all, thought even the most famous mermaids had other jobs besides mermaiding.
happy for you, and hoping it works out well!

[Mermaid Galene]

Congratulations, Raina! Your future looks bright.

[Mermaid Clara]

congratulations Raina! best of luck to you!

[Rivertee]

AMAZING!!! Super Congrats please keep us updated on how things go ^.^

[AniaR]

Day 1 has been amazing!

We were super busy with a big gig that went over really well. When I was done I crashed pretty hard, got some food, and did some company shopping (got some bubble machines for dry events, gear for displaying our merch, makeup etc) and have been working on the client photos.

I am realllllly looking forward to tomorrow (which is actually today, haha by the time I'm typing) it is the first day in a month that I have 'off' meaning no work, or gigs. I am running to the store where we sell our stuff to drop more merch off, we also did some mermaid photos for a poorer family for free that we're dropping off, and hopefully I'll be picking up some footage I shot last month. Back to super busy on Monday. And we're finally having warm weather! So I'm going to dance in it.

I just feel so happy :)

here's a snapshot of me swimming up through a bubble ring

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t1.0-9/10351102_858410187527059_5032789051310004595_n.jpg

Naida and I snapped a chilly pic at the end of our swim portion

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10382641_10154262997810425_964813419541866121_n.jp g

Red eyes= bad chlorine!

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t1.0-9/10369736_761516583879800_8124229308212290443_n.jpg

The pool was L shaped and there was this neat beam of light Naida kept trying to get shots in before the kids arrived

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t1.0-9/10261968_761513177213474_7587743933134532582_n.jpg

https://24.media.tumblr.com/e31e4e000bbb6314999780b1997d9415/tumblr_n6h4br0Kno1r0wgkuo1_500.jpg

It wans't very deep or wide and my tail is so big I couldnt fit n much for underwater photos

https://24.media.tumblr.com/53dac1c785381b27667fa279811f5a31/tumblr_n6gw9b5V0S1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

annnd just a few youtube clips of us goofing around because there wasn't much space or time


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwQBuY-04s8

[Winged Mermaid]

SO happy for you! You're free at last, free at last!! I just know huge and awesome things will be coming your way now that you're devoting all your passion to mermaiding full time <3

[AniaR]

So Day 2- my supposed to be day of rest, didn't go as planned, LOL

We got up to take my merch to the store annnnd the car died. LOL it was a heart attack moment for sure, eep! All of a sudden all those gigs seemed a whole lot scarier without a set of wheels. After a few hours my dad was able to come and jump start us. Thankfully all it was was a door didnt shut all the way, so a light was left on. A jump start did it! We dropped our stuff off at Shore Things (the store where I am selling stuff) and picked up some footage from the guys who did the Dream Your Way project, and talked plans for another collaboration. Just been working on client photos now, woot.

Here are some behind the scenes stills and video from the footage:

https://24.media.tumblr.com/e3418a8209032670d7db688a94e186ef/tumblr_n6iln7j7lL1r0wgkuo8_500.png

https://24.media.tumblr.com/65db5439a3600acdfbdfbdffc3d5edfa/tumblr_n6iln7j7lL1r0wgkuo2_1280.png

https://31.media.tumblr.com/72fafd85e881e70ca06933f4a6fc67c2/tumblr_n6iln7j7lL1r0wgkuo3_1280.png

https://24.media.tumblr.com/b09bce0ddef98ed094c5a46deb4a6d06/tumblr_n6iln7j7lL1r0wgkuo6_1280.png

https://31.media.tumblr.com/d265e02aa494366e4ee5269c443861b8/tumblr_n6iln7j7lL1r0wgkuo7_1280.png

https://24.media.tumblr.com/709d483754e53561d9861627552e38a0/tumblr_n6iln7j7lL1r0wgkuo5_1280.png

https://24.media.tumblr.com/dc3e4bca9099a5e2ec92c633647fa1be/tumblr_n6iln7j7lL1r0wgkuo4_1280.png

https://31.media.tumblr.com/ed44eef7e3ac5eff4cf4acbc3e34c89c/tumblr_n6iln7j7lL1r0wgkuo9_1280.png

https://24.media.tumblr.com/45e71f4e84873628b91dd9b3d82749ce/tumblr_n6iln7j7lL1r0wgkuo10_1280.png

https://24.media.tumblr.com/c3261bd8a459a7b24af3c42089a50323/tumblr_n6iln7j7lL1r0wgkuo1_1280.png

https://24.media.tumblr.com/dd6a3c79b797beb4239c39cb3ee4cca2/tumblr_n6il0jxytt1r0wgkuo1_500.jpg

https://24.media.tumblr.com/a10505d5e08ea66a335f9636d02faef3/tumblr_n6ikzfOM0Y1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://24.media.tumblr.com/fc69fae6766ea0437f009e3668336835/tumblr_n6ikuajjUK1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8K6SD5yRpg


Seanny got us another bubble machine as mentioned lol

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10440676_10154268065385425_2733959486906973378_n.j pg

I be creepin

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/10325551_10154268070205425_7212175809604938571_n.j pg

Happy self employed people

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/1908333_10154268066030425_2203953445455685930_n.jp g

Also, my boobs look funny with an octotop under my clothes

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/t1.0-9/10336805_10154268072940425_5070033080917485229_n.j pg

[AniaR]

I got all the good clips into a montage! :)


http://youtu.be/vq-XbgW6dmc

[PearlieMae]

Love it! Seanny looks so awkward compared to your smooth swimming.

I read somewhere, I forget where, that a mer uses leg warmers around their ankles to smooth the look...have you tried that yourself?

[AniaR]

Actually this video isn't seanny it was one of the camera guys

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[Mermaid Kassandra]

Congratulations Raina!!! I'm so happy for you :)

[Mermaid Adriel]

YOU'RE FABULOUS, RAINA! *w*

[AniaR]

I've got about 20 minutes before I have to get ready for my next gig, so I thought I'd check in about my first week! It was crazy busy and happy and stressful all at the same time! lol. Making this sort of lea certainly makes it hard to sleep at night. Cant shut off your brain from anxiety or creative ideas. It's fun to do something you love but I'm also realizing how it changes how you view it too. Instead of being this fun thing I do on the side for extra money it's not my bread and butter and EVERY decision seems like it could change the future of your company. Very easy to over think!

I spent the week editing client photos, updating the website, trying to streamline the email, working on my book, did a few interviews for larger contracts, and being in pain. Back in March at a gig I injured my leg trying to take my foot out of my tail. I thought I had the foot strap off, so I pulled as hard as I could (had a foot cramp and wanted my leg out of there) and the foot strap slipped back on and I'm sure I tore a muscle or something. It was horrible pain. Well, Monday I went to the gym (obviously months later) and was doing my usual workout when that same terrible pain came back. Sometimes because I have a curve in my spine, what seems like leg pain is actually nerve pain and a back adjustment fixes it. So I did the stupidest thing and kept going around like normal because usually a range of motion or back crack would stop it. but I know now 5 days later it must be my actual leg and man, it has NOT stopped hurting since. :( literally 24/7.

The start of the week I was happy go lucky Raina all energetic, now it's Sunday and I couldn't be more tired. I haven't slept more than 6 hours a night every night since Tuesday, and my leg has been throbbing the entire time. I have a doc app tomorrow thankfully but I still got a gig to do. Sadly, everyone is booked and I really can't afford to have someone fill in. I was more expecting to have to worry about being SICK as a professional mermaid since I have a weakened immune system. Not have an injury. I'm pretty worried doc will tell me no mer swimming but I guess I'll have to see.

I went to a government meeting about crowd funding. In Canada and America new laws are coming out to protect both those who crowdfund and those who pay into crowdfunding. Nova Scotia is actually going to be one of the first places in North America to set up Government portals for crowdfunding and enforce rules on both sides. Think kickstarter but on a much much bigger scale. We found out how the people funding will have to be more accountable and how they'll be able to attract big time investors. This isn't the sort of here's a reward thanks for the donation crowdfunding, but the here's stock in my company or I will appear at this event crowd funding and you get a nova scotia tax credit or incentive for locally investing in me type thing. It was really informative. I didn't think I'd be doing any crowdfunding ever again for my company especially after how it seems to be received in the community. But this would be local money only and on a whole different level. So we'll have to see... it goes into affect at the end of the year. I also met other entrepreneurs at the meeting and networked which was cool.

Mermaid Nessie and I did World Ocean's Day (celebrated early) and this was my 5th year volunteering. It went really well except for my pain annnd ugh this other group had this super cool flying shark BUT they'd wait until I had 50 kids sitting down and listening quietly to my presentation and then fly it over and disrupt everything. Totally trolled us, every single time. So the kids would then jump up and walk all over our tails and freak out trying to get the shark. *sigh* We met and networked with many other activist groups and ocean groups though so that was cool, and the museum was super thankful for us because they had about 300 kids come through and we were the only thing specifically geared to kids. Everything else came off sort of trade-showy.

Saturday I did a Spirit Fair in the morning, it was like an expo for alternative living and healing. And then I had a gig in the evening for 2 hours with Mermaid Naida and Now I'm off to another one that's a bit of a drive away.

This week is shaping up nicely but I've been feeling super stressed and tired so I'm making myself take a day to myself to do nothing. When you're relying on self employed income you feel super guilty taking any time off. But I'm already feeling burnt out and I don't think I took any time at all to take a break from my previous job. For anyone wanting to follow in my fins I suggest scheduling a vacation LOL

Here's a little clip of Nessie and I with some lobsters:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OluLFp9u1Mk

Here's an instagram video of that shark that was flying around, and you can see more on my instagram account: http://instagram.com/p/o5_6YzQP8G/

Here's my photo album of World Ocean's Day: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.764643936900398.1073741836.644749652223161&type=1

And a few high lights:

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10440703_764644040233721_290650279902705719_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t1.0-9/10410806_764644553567003_2307702028011285686_n.jpg

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10304343_764644673566991_1528255227272517071_n.jpg ?oh=566b094aecbf2628867c8153de42791c&oe=53ED359C

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t1.0-9/10376156_764660743565384_3483983884334395801_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t1.0-9/10413379_764661153565343_466572691308992582_n.jpg



Also if you didn't see the funny/cheesy photo Sean grabbed with our tablet:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/10390119_862643007103777_6970697497227661473_n.jpg

Here I am getting a henna tattoo at the spirit expo

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/10436666_765057516859040_2464157590011229237_n.jpg


Also I dropped off some things at the Store where I sell, and I got some photos with some of the mermaidy merch I loved

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10455853_765057350192390_7115358089280339262_n.jpg

And two pics of Naida and I taken at our gig last night

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t31.0-8/1961912_765201140178011_8921397403839183212_o.jpg

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t31.0-8/10329966_765201900177935_8951027278251380024_o.jpg



This week, I'm off to a specialist doc app about pain, I am interviewing another mermaid, hitting the dentist for a filling, giving a presentation at a local high school, giving my workshop on Saturday, going to the season opener for my store where I sell things, upgrading my first aid (sean will be getting his lifeguarding soon!), and doing another party with Naida. I'll also try and work on my book as much as I can and then the usual admin stuff. I'll have all the photos and video to edit from this weekend too for the clients :) Hopefully my leg feels better and I sleep better.

My tail is also in a pretty bad spot :( a part of the dorsal just will not stay fixed. I've tried all the stuff smoothon suggests and I even sewed it! it's right behind my knee. Another mermaid broke it at merfest and I have just never been able to fix it. I don't see any sense in sending it to Raven, that's like 700$ in shipping back and forth, custom fees, and loads of time I can't afford when I have another tail coming. It's just really frustrating. I'm also really having a hard time with mold because of the increase in gigs. I've started treating my tail in the car ride home on the way back from longer gigs but my usual routine just isn't enough to keep up.

I think my splash tail may be heading for retirement. :( she looks good on the outside but after 2.5 years and being cast extra thin (which was my choice) and I think it's probably the silicone tail used most in the mermaid community besides maybe mermaid linden (who has access to her artist and regularly gets touched up) so she's had a good run. I plan on giving her a good touch up overhaul when the new tail gets here, but she may become my "beater" tail I use for rougher gigs and photo shoots We'll have to see.

[Mermaid Danielle]

I'm so happy for you! Sorry about your tail though. :( I'm glad it's worked so well for you though. The fact that it's lasted this long with everything you've used it for is a testament to both Raven's craftsmanship and your maintenance of it. I can't wait to hear more from you about everything your doing. You are a HUGE inspiration!

Best wishes!

[AniaR]

woo crazy few days.

If you didn't see my update yesterday on FB just wanted to share:

Today I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. For anyone who follows my statuses about coping with my other illnesses (IC and Endo) it probably doesn't come as a surprise (and I'm fine, nothing has changed for me I just have an additional name for what I cope with). What did come as a surprise for me though?? When I met with the rhuematologist today and he asked me what my job was? I did that whole hesitate and wonder how to explain it thing. I eventually just blurted it out and he said "Oh, I saw you on the cover of The Coast a few years ago and read the article. What a cool job!" LOL!!! Thank goodness for local media coverage. Makes explaining what I do a lot easier. Usually when I explain it the first thing people say is, "I don't get it... can you walk?" — at Halifax Mermaids (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Halifax-Mermaids/644749652223161?ref=stream)

it was funny. I'm not too worried about Fibro, like I said, nothing has really changed for me. I am trying Lyrica and we'll see what happens. It would be nice if my chronic pain went down but for now I am used to it.

Today I went to a high school and gave a small business workshop similar to the ones I do online and at merfest. It was so much fun. The special needs kids (different class) made me a thank you gift- an ocean wreath for my door. so awesome. I even got a resume from a girl who wants to collaborate and make birthday cakes. woot woot

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10382118_766640006700791_5525413067520239333_o.jpg

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t31.0-8/10333320_766640130034112_4993013696433226702_o.jpg

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10402605_766640136700778_3400774741191500167_n.jpg

Also
Hope For Wildlife, a local rescue center that also has a TV show, shared a pic of me and one of their volunteers
https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10452356_808991335792048_5956137703229099951_n.jpg

It actually got me about 50 new likes which was cool, the photo on their page got just under 500! nice to know their FB page is so active.

[AniaR]

This week has been insane and something huge happened and I cant talk about it yet *publicly* but it's driving me bonkers hahaha I messaged a few select people. I am going insane trying to keep it in so to keep my idle hands busy I made a new blog post: http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog/life-is-busy-and-fishy

Busy weekend ahead woo woo. CANT WAIT FOR THE WORKSHOP EEE

[Aziara]

Gah, Fibro... Hang in there Raina, they'll be bad times and good times. It can only get better from here!

[AniaR]

So the past few days have been insane. INSANE. that good thing I am sitting on? Im having a meeting on Monday and I am practically bursting because I wanna tell people gah!!!

Im really really having trouble with my leg to the point I am limping and cant walk easily. the doctor cleared me for swimming but man I am sitting here at 11:30pm worried about my gig tomorrow. I ran two different workshops today, one was online and went well. both went well actually haha. but Im tired from all the business.

I also had a bit of real life crazy to tell you about. Picture this. I get this amazing life changing phone call could change everything for me, could even change things for other mermaids. I'm going through the roller coaster of emotions with that and Im walking around in a daze. Less than 24 hours later, I get a call, hey by the way, your abusive mom you're estranged from? She's dying of pancreatic cancer and you have to adopt your niece who she's been raising like right now cuz your mom is dying!!! Um talk about nuts. I have spoken several times in many formats about how awful my experience was with my mom. I cut her out of my life 4 years ago because she's so insane and abusive. So here I am on the cusp of my mermaid business and life getting so good and this happens. At first Im thinking, okay, I can do this. I can be the bigger person. I'll go sit with her and hold her hand and be kind even though she was awful. And holy shit be responsible for a 6 year old I dont know how I'll make that work but I will. And my whole family was up in arms and so much drama and I had to wonder if it was real. My mom has lied about being terminal before. So I phoned the hospital and she was indeed in there. But they couldnt tell me anymore because I wasn't her next of kin. So hours and hours later after everyone is all upset we finally find out, she's in for minor surgery -_- THIS IS THE LEVEL OF INSANE THIS WOMAN IS. SHE FAKES DYING AND CONVINCES A GOOD TWENTY PEOPLE. Including my dad and stepmom and aunt. So holy shit. that was a bit of an up and down and just super validation WHY SHE'S NOT IN MY LIFE. total crazy person.

Anyway tomorrow I'm busy with father's day stuff, and a gig. then this week I have my important meeting and a huge amount of health stuff and then a crazy insane weekend of 6 gigs in 2 days. ahh.

I will admit I am really really struggling with my health both in pain levels and financial levels. I have had to spend all the money I delegated for this month on my health and it's looking like this will be the trend. I am totally not looking for handouts, it drives me nuts when people do that and I am not starving or poor. but I do need help to be able to afford effective treatment and it becomes a spiral when I cant work because of pain. I am hoping you'll take a look at this tumblr post I made about all the things I sell and ways to help me earn money without spending any of yours, and read it and share it around. Even if you can't buy something or do anything, sharing is caring. I wanna appeal to you guys. I spend a lot of my time and my money trying to help the mercommunity, whether it's on a grand scale like mernetwork or an individual scale. I also paid 2k out of my own pocket to travel to merfest and give workshops I wasnt paid for so I could teach people in the community. I really do try to help people. In the past I have donated money to several of your fundraising efforts because I believed in paying it forward. It would really help me if you could at least read and share. Thanks <3 http://rainamermaid.tumblr.com/post/88816605180/hey-folks-you-may-know-i-am-dealing-with-quite-a

[AniaR]

So today was mostly good. Sean and I visited with his Dad this morning for Father's day then we had a mermaid booking. Between the booking and some thoughtful mernetwork members, I earned enough to pay for my chiro massage and part of dentist this week. <3 <3 <3 I am so thankful. I promise to pay that forward either by helping others, or financially when I am in a better place to do so. I Only did the one booking because my leg has just been so bad but I am hoping this week will fix me right up since the weekend will be so crazy.

The gig was fun, I'll post pics later, but man our tails are dying. I had posted earlier about my splash tail. well my mermaid creations tail fin totally split in two pieces and the seam right open during the gig thankfully at the end ugh. Im actually going to post a thread later to see if I can get some help for repairing it, it's pretty bad.All the tails are dying. My new one cant come fast enough and business money we *may* get (which btw can't be spent on anything personal, just business) is just so up in the air at this point. I hope I can get used tails that will fit these girls.

I have a huge meeting on Monday and Im hoping after it I can tell you this big thing Im sitting on because it's killing me keeping it in haha

I just saw the little boy who is non verbal non motor whose party I did over a year ago. He remembered me right away and pressed his head to mine and hugged me and let me give him kisses and yup I teared up. You never know the difference you make!! It was a beautiful little moment.

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Oh geeze! Your poor tails!

I'm glad the rest of your day went well enough.

[Mermaid Pickles]

My mom says (she has fibro too) to look up how to use magnets for it. She says yoga helps, and not do too much or too little. I just wanted to say. She says nikken magnets are good for spot treatment of the fibro. She says reducing stress, moderating activity, getting enough rest, and balanced living help. This is all coming from my mom. She's had fibro since before I was born. I just thought it might help to know how someone else deals with it.

[AniaR]

Yep thanks for the ideas. I've really had this at least a decade so I am pretty good at managing it I just didnt have the name. It's only been a pain the last few weeks because I pinched a nerve. ugh!

Update time!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/10479061_867399399961471_7484619007976509137_n.jpg

I had my super awesome important meeting today for the super awesome thing. We're going ahead with phase 2. Hopefully I can tell you all soon!

I spent the morning working on my book and answering emails. We had a heart attack when my DNS went down and none of my sites worked or my email. We fired off a call to the host and they fixed it right away. It was only down for an hour but it did disrupt my client emailing.

Then I had my important meeting, and then we went to visit my awesome Nanny in her senior's home where she took me around and told all the deaf 80 year olds that I am a mermaid and her grand daughter. Pretty hilarious, honestly.

I haven't had much time to put any of our gig photos online, and I've been sort of wondering what is the point because Facebook has been so lame. I am sharing more on tumblr etc.

These came in the mail!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/10488205_867929229908488_3078921216998385360_n.jpg

I'll be testing them out soon and letting you know my thoughts!

We recently after much though upped our prices modestly. I haven't been able to secure my same party favours and had to go for more expensive ones, I also had given my mermaids a raise and way paying it out of pocket for a while so I upped to compensate for that along with our insurance. I feel like things are a bit more reasonable for me now, and I changed the price of some of our ad ons based on how expensive or how much work they take. It hasnt stopped the gigs from rolling in, so that's good.

I also thought I'd share that we changed our update form to try and defer some of the spam we get. I am hoping it helps or at least slows things down haha http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/contact-us.html

I also wanted to show that we're now using google forms for our photo release and I think it's really awesome way to do that stuff https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13vhSMdKexPMpL3DDmEKfsCHx8Yjdc9OEwQrX8N2huZk/viewform

People often ask me what I use on my skin to cope with chlorine, Linden suggested this to me, I use it like crazy

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t1.0-9/10269545_10154328084120425_2801679287047012301_n.j pg

Raven's awesome mom who is also like a mer-mom to me send me this in the mail and it's so cool!!!!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t1.0-9/10341440_10154327307365425_7052842376412147876_n.j pg

Also in honour of Father's day I thought you'd get a kick out of seeing a photo of my dad and I from 1989
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t31.0-8/255797_10150668355165425_4320182_o.jpg

I've been doing massive repairs on my tail. I really feel my tail would have lasted longer for me if I hadn't gotten it cast so thin (though, I needed to do that at the time) and had I done a better job of keeping mold out when I first got it. I know my next one will last much longer :)

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Merwrangler Sean has been hanging out with my friend's son who was just born, the two have hit it off well. I share this photo just for the squee

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Hee's an up close look at that wreath I was given, made by the special needs students

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I cant remember if I said anything here or not but someone broke into my paypal and used it to buy online games -_- sigh what a racket. Waiting on paypal for a response.


This week I gotta repair Naida's tail blow out and track down my resources for the multicultural festival and buy handouts and just get organized for the insane weekend ahead. We've got A funeral to go to, and many doc apps, and I have another meeting to register more names for our business. (Canadian Mermaids, Atlantic Mermaids, -> as part of Halifax Mermaids) we've got it all reserved just gotta follow through (works diff in Canada) Also gotta check in with the funding people and see what's up

I leave you with cute gig photos, unedited (no photoshop) Just candids

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[AniaR]

forgot two things:

1) I purchased targeted advertising for my page and decided to test it out. Over the past 3 days I've gotten about 300-400 new fans and *so far* none have seemed spammy, though Im sure I'll lose some in the end. I also noticed that activity on my page has gone up, but it seems to be on the more popular existing posts as opposed to the new ones. I'll keep ya posted how it goes. There;s not much I endorse as far as spending your money on advertising because I've never found it worked. I couldnt narrow this down to Nova Scotia but I could narrow it down to canada so we'll see

2) Also we had another publication

https://31.media.tumblr.com/e725730187562bb316e5bb387f0de590/tumblr_n79omi3W531r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

A fan took this photo, so I;ll have to get a better one when I get my copy

[Maethor]

3 things:
1-congrats on your secret, important meeting!
2- those kids are all adorable!
3- good luck with everything! :)

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[Cordelia]

I read most of this in one go. phew! What a busy few weeks! Here's to hoping your leg starts healing soon, and your new tail arrives! Also, I am captioning the second baby pic: "A mer- what?" :D Too cute!

[Arella]

I'm dying to know what the big secret it :D glad to see everything working out!

[AniaR]

Thanks everyone, heads up the advertising I bought was sort of a 50\50 thing. About half the fans I got were legit and I did start getting more activity, then I think they spammed me the rest cuz Edward Cullen and little Annie were liking my stuff.I had high hopes because the seller had amazing reviews. So between me and Facebook I suspect you'll see my fan number drop dramatically over the next week. No way in hell such a leap was legit though granted the ad said " you could gain up to 500 new fans" . anyway I'll keep ya posted. I think everyone and their dog has jumped on click farms even fb ads :(

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

edit: believe it or not, most of the fans actually seem legit. o_O I deleted some of the more obvious ones, and went through but my city didn't change, still says Halifax!

[AniaR]

Hands down the best reaction face I have ever gotten for my octopus bra. You can't see my bra in the pic but the joke that has started after several birthday parties is that the kids call it the "octo-booby". This is the best reaction ever!! — at Halifax Mermaids (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Halifax-Mermaids/644749652223161?ref=stream)

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t1.0-9/10463041_868756126492465_8533153188177736539_n.jpg

Mermaid Naida (https://www.facebook.com/MermaidNaidaHFXMermaid) signs the cast of a little girl

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/10453450_770807012950757_5428424222900881278_n.jpg

Also that interview Mermaid Mimi gave can be read here: http://halifaxmag.com/cityscape/rise-of-the-mermaids/

[PearlieMae]

HAHAHAHA! That is PRICELESS!

[Mermaid Galene]

What an expression! Priceless and precious!

[Mermaid Amelia]

Love that girls face haha!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AniaR]

what a crazy days and a bunch of crazy messups ahhh.

So Yesterday I had a meeting about getting braces which is exciting, I finally hit the gym again now that my leg is better, and got back to yoga. But I had the worst sleep ever and woke up every 30 minutes.

Today i had to get up early for a military gig, and I was NOT in a good mood. Super grumpy. but when I got there the gig was so amazing and I saw about 2000 kids (Im serious, we went through all the handouts I have ever collected lol) and it went off soooo well.

When I got home I knew things were about to get stressful as I have 4 more gigs to fit in this weekend all with great time constraint. Meanwhile, I have my other mermaids out doing gigs for me too. So I check my email and Im going through my one for the party tomorrow and the client suddenly starts talking like the gig is Sunday at the same time as another gig I have. Just randomly switches. So I go through all the emails and sure enough, she switched the date but didnt actually tell me. Ahhh so many emails and a crazy phone call later and thankfully Mermaid Nessie is able to take her party for her on Sunday while I'm on another. Which means tomorrow I only have to deal with one festival and no rushing to the next gig yay!

We decided since all 4 mermaids are going to be on the same side of the harbour that after the different events wrap up we'll be off to get a photoshoot with all 4 of us! woo. never happened yet. Most we've had is 3.

At my gig today big heavy hail started to come down... lol I needed an umbrella. Pics!

Me and a girl whose Mom did some of my photos before, and she's been to several parties.

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^add spiderman to my list of marvel characters I've gotten photos with in tail hahaha

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everyone kept hiding under tents whenever the rain/hail came down

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Also. There was a petting zoo.

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[AniaR]

Swinging by with another update!

Saturday I was at the multicultural festival for the 5th year in a row for my company. Loads of fun. I gave a workshop on mermaid myths from around the world, then I spoke about ecology, and then I handed out treasures.

I've been a little self conscious, I had to do some work on my tail which resulted in it getting much tighter in certain spaces like the waist. I ended up with a bit of a muffin top this first day. :/ too bad. But everything else was fine. The first day went by really quick. Here are some photos:

INtroducing myself and the program

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/t1.0-9/10420763_772695982761860_118231023881070543_n.jpg


The kids starting to come in. We ended up with a lot more.
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After that we got myself, Naida, Nessie, and Mimi together for the first time EVER. While I was at multifest Nessie and Mimi had been doing the second military family day. We all met up at Mimi's fiance's house, which is right on the ocean. And we got in it for a photoshoot. Lemme tell you IT WAS FREAKING FREEZING. It was 12 degrees C in the water, and Only 18 degrees C in the air. I lowered my belly in to swim and it knocked the wind out of me. Mimi swam all over but I couldnt last too freaking cold. We also got in a boat, and Sean got in the boat to get footage of us. We also did a kiss the girl style photo. Haha sadly when we got home we realized seaweed got inside the camera when Sean changed lenses a few times. LOL so I had to edit out seaweed that was in the middle of the air out of focus on a few pics, and it shows up in video. Hilarious.

Photos from photoshoot:

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rKSPOvW3Ko


So that went really well and by the time I got home I was exhausted. I stayed up late enough to clean all my gear, treat my hair, and edit a few photos, then I passed out. Got up bright and early this morning for day 2 of the multifest. It was much better and more kids. They gave me a scooter to drive around on! Hahaha super cute and fun.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/10404160_773128622718596_2301954991459829561_n.jpg

Behind the scenes back stage

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I met a little girl who has seen me every year there for the past few years and her dad told me how much she runs the house about littering and recycling! Haha it's working!

After this I had to go to a swimming gig. I didnt get any photos it was pretty fast. but a little boy was there who had been at 2 events this weekend and when he came in the pool he was like "are there 2 of you? You're everywhere!"


This week is a little more laid back. I'm trying to get the rest of the book typed up while a friend edits the first 1/3rd. I start pelvic floor physio therapy on Tuesday which will be not fun. We have a business meeting with our head of our board of directors. I'm going to keep working on these photos and then I have to do business paperwork and file the past 2 months expenses cuz I havent had time to. LOL

It's almost July. There are 3 tails left ahead of mine in Raven's queue. We find out about our grant money. annnd Im going to see Lady Gaga in Montreal on July 2nd. It's going to be a good month!!!

[AniaR]

Here's a clip telling mermaid myths at multifest


http://youtu.be/5jB8UAfQWKo

[AniaR]

Just filed paper work to expand the business and own Canadian Mermaids country wide. That way Atlantic Mermaids and Halifax mermaids will be divisions. While filing we got to see all the other businesses using mermaid in their name ( Canada wide) and we are the only actual mermaids. Neat :)

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[Mermaid Lorelei]

That's awesome. Kind of cool to be the only ones.

[Mermaid Galene]

Congrats, Raina!

[AniaR]

well at least country wide none of the other mermaids are registered. I am waiting to see the list for each province, but I wouldnt be surprised if most of the other canadian mermaids aren't actually registered businesses. (which works out if they wanna eventually work for me haha)

[AniaR]

woowhoo everything went through! announcement:

Proud to announce Sean and I are the official registered owners of Canadian Mermaids!! This is the country wide version of our company of which Atlantic Mermaids and Halifax Mermaids are divisions ( with more coming as we expand). It is our goal to recreate the success of Halifax Mermaids across the country by mentoring other Canadian mermaids and enabling them to entertain and educate others. As a mermaid agency we hope to book mermaids across our home and native land and continue to raise the bar in mermaid entertainment and creative environmental education. It has been an awesome journey so far and I'd like to thank Terry Norman of our board of directors for helping to facilitate this process. Thank you to our current mermaids Mimi, Nessie, and Naida for helping build this opportunity and for all their hard work spreading joy and education and for their valuable input that has seen Halifax Mermaids grow in leaps and bounds. Thank you to all our business mentors too. This is going to be a Splash!!

[Josephine Boone]

Congratulations!

[Mermaid Galene]

Very exciting! Congrats, Raina!

[AniaR]

*sigh* I have a huge day today and I got all of 3 hours of sleep. Not for lack of trying. #1 we're having an issue with heat. We get two hot months out of a whole year so no one buys air conditioners, it's a waste of money when we have to spend so much money on heat 10 months of the year. But that usually means a few days out of the year where it's just too hot no matter how many fans get going. Last night was awful. I tried keeping my window open but we live right by the highway and between the noise and the second hand cig smoke it just couldnt work. so I did my best with 3 fans but my sciatic nerve pain hit an all time high (have no idea what triggered it) and no matter how I moved my leg hurt from the heel all the way to my lower back it was awful. I took a bit of a freak out at 2:30am because I was so tired :( last time I checked my clock in vain was 5am and I got up for good at 8am. We have a huuuuuge day ahead of us. multiple gigs, travelling all over, and then I am fitting in family time in the evening for an early Canada Day celebration. (I've had to miss the last few family things due to bookings so I reallllly gotta try and make this one). I already feel so sick from not sleeping :(

Sometimes I think I have the stupidest business model ever. Hey, let's take that lady who gets chronic pain and cant sleep very well and make her move around a lot, and let's make the whole business depend on how well she can move! lol.

I've got Sean with me, and I know he'll be extra supportive. I also tend to get an adrenaline boost. Im sure during my second gig since it's in the ocean I'll get more than an adrenaline boost hahah it's usually not to warm this time of year. Fins crossed I can tolerate it because last weekend was so cold my hands physically hurt. I always think when I say yes to these types of gigs it'll be warm enough and it never is lol

#mermaid problems

but I am thankful for work, and on Monday I will get my back cracked, and if I'm lucky the pain will go away. I learned that I likely have endo tissue right on my nerve and that's why it keeps flaring up :( I had to stop the lyrica because I felt it did nothing and the side effects were insane, plus I just couldn't afford it on top of everything else.

Yesterday Mermaid Nessie graduated so I am sitting here waiting for her to arrive so I can give her a cute mermaid gift, and I've got one for Mermaid Naida whose birthday is on Tuesday too. The girls plus Mimi will be doing a gig without me on Tuesday while I travel to montreal

[AniaR]

Also this image of mine went viral: http://imgur.com/0pc56WX

It's showing up all over:

http://cruisingoutpost.com/2014/06/mid-week-broadside-3/

https://redditjs.com/r/pics/comments/28tkn5/how_a_fish_out_of_water_gets_around_on_land/

http://9gag.com/gag/a2NeY8w#comment (gotta love all the nasty comments)

http://izismile.com/2014/06/23/daily_picdump_100_pics-65.html

http://ramblingbog.wordpress.com/2014/06/23/how-a-fish-out-of-water-gets-around-on-land/

[Aziara]

http://maxiocio.net/ytdetail.php?id=NUhs_1puHk0 You could make one of these super cheap redneck AC units- all you need is a 5 gallon bucket with a lid, a fan, a box cutter, a drill, and a few 2 liter bottles with frozen water in them. It would probably cool at least the bedroom if you close up the room.

[Ariel-Starfish]

Those comments! :angry:

[AniaR]

Okay so recap for the last few days.

Friday I did a daycare surprise visit. A woman who saw me at Multifest ended up knowing Sean's Dad and Stepmom, and invited me to visit her daughter's daycare. She is from Germany and is going back there today, so they wanted it to be a surprise visit as as a present to the daycare. I don't have any pics because of privacy reasons but it was really fun. I keep daycare bookings short. 30-45 minutes because it's really hard for kids to sit that young for that long no matter how engaged they are. I had the support of about 5 staff. And indeed, even though the kids were interested, they were standing up to go to the bathroom, one little one tried to strip haha, yelling out loads of questions, sitting nicely and then randomly jumping up and down haha. Merwrangler Sean was with me. I have a lot of experiences with daycare, but he doesnt with that age group. One of the things he learned: if you give the kids a choice, they'll make the one you don't want! Hahaha.

Anyway it was all pretty cute and fun.

As I mentioned earlier Friday night was an awful sleep but I made it through. While I was typing my post yesterday Sean was picking up Nessie to drop her off at a booking. Then he and I drove 100kms out of the city to our first booking. Just an outdoor pool party. When we got there, we took my tail out and ahhh the dorsal fin had totally snapped off at the knees, and was ripped off all the way up about 8 inches!!! Some might recall my dorsal fin had always been fine until at merfest a careless mermaid literally threw herself across my tail and her body weight pulled it at a funny angle and it started to rip off. I'd had it for a year at that point and never had any problems. But because the rip is right behind the knee- it's not a weak spot for whenever I bend!

So heart attack mode for sure. But there was nothing at the moment we could do, I just had to do the gig. I was fully in the water for most of it and the kids were little, so no one even noticed. When we finished we had to drive another 30minutes to get to the next booking. So we pulled into a hardware store and Sean ran and bought fishing line and needles. Obviously no form of silicone or glue would work to keep it together or at least prevent more damage for the next gig, but we had to do something. So Sean, in the blistering heat, pulled out the tail in a parkinglot and went to work trying to sew it! It was very difficult and he had to use pliers to get the needle through, and the needles kept snapping. But eventually he got the whole thing sewed back on and gosh darn it if he did it so well you could only tell if you knew beforehand.

We arrived to our next gig with barely enough time though because of how long it took. These kids were on a lake and the clients had paid to have me swim for 2 hours. That's a long time of constant swimming for a small groups of kids, lol. So I hopped off a dock way up the lake and started swimming to them. It took about 5 minutes which doesn't sound long but 1) I couldnt really safely put my head under because there were many large rocks and the water was black. Meaning not able to see a darn thing. Then 2. a speed boat went by and combined with the wind the waves got to be huge, and I didn't want to get slammed across rocks. so I took my time and paced myself but it was a wee bit intense. The lake would go from deep enough that I couldnt touch anything, to my tail scraping bottom suddenly. Eventually I got there and put on a little act about finding the party, haha but I was pretty tired.

The beach was really rocky, and it tore up my arms and parts of my tail. I work so hard to be careful with my tail, but she's just about 3 years old, super thin, and at the end of her lifespan. I dont think there's any other silicone tail out there that has been used for as long and as for frequently aside from Linden's (and her artists lives nearby and was able to do touch up frequently). Im sad to know I'll have to retire her soon, but wont miss the stress LOL.

The gig was fine but it was really long. I don't normally book that much swimming in those situations. Informal stuff I don't mind because you don't have to be "on" all the time, but stuff like this where you have to be constantly entertaining is tricky. I was giving rides, pushing them around on floaties, swimming constantly, and I was exhausted to start. but I got through. The kids were really sweet and appreciative and well behaved. When I was done Sean hauled me up a huge hill to the client's ice cream store where I was given free ice cream haha. We also swam near a few boats (small) to freak people out hahaha.

After that we grabbed Nessie from her gig, all came home and got washed and changed, then we went off for family time which was much needed. I got home last night and Sean created the perfect cross breeze in my room. We googled sleep positions for sciatica and I piled the pillows up and got myself in a good way. Downloaded a white noise ap to block out the traffic, and I got a good solid 10 hours so I feel much better today. Leg is still in a lot of pain, but I've got Chiro on Monday :)

Picture time!

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See: he did such a good job you couldnt even tell!
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New gym shirt ;)

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[Cordelia]

Yay! Prince Charming to the rescue. :D Glad everything worked out okay. Also, totally cute Ariel shirt!

[AniaR]

Updates!

Got a new article in the paper but dont have a digital copy :/

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Canada Day

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My image went viral on Lady Gaga's fan site!!

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Got this wicked shirt from Lady Gaga

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The Queen

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[Mermaid Ellowyn]

How exciting! It looks like you had a blast. I love the baby mers on their laps, too, how adorable :)

[AniaR]

So it's been a good couple of days. I am finishing up all my end of book stuff. It'll be in other people's hands after this upcoming week. I am meeting with the photographer in a week too to go over the cover. Eeep it all happens so fast and then slow and then fast again! I had a fun little easy gig today after we were hit by Hurricane Arthur yesterday and without power in many places.

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I wanted to touch base about my facebook ad experience. I had mentioned how the add worked great in the beginning, a steady reasonable amount of clicks and new fans. However I have been reading into it and it seems even the legit advertising platforms are now exploiting a bit. How most of the ad platforms work is that you pay your fee and your ad is in rotation until a) it gets a certain number of clicks or b) you select a time frame. I went for the clicks. I could get up to 5000 clicks. That doesn't mean 5000 fans. Just that the ad would rotate until it had been clicked on 5000. I had it for 7 days and it was doing well. Exactly on the 8th day by page likes jumped an enormous amount and the add 'expired'. When I looked at my anaylitics it was clear they used fake accounts to to expire my add so it wouldnt run as long. Thus encouraging me to pay more money for adds. ughs.

Anyway, since then I have been weeding out the fake accounts and facebook obviously flagged them too. I dropped over 3000 fans and am still losing them daily- all fake/spam accounts. It kinda sucks but I felt much better when I saw my popular city go back to Halifax and my 'reach' go back to normal. Fake accounts make your reach freaking plummet. No one sees your stuff because FB only shows it to the inactive accounts. So real people arent looking and checking facebook so no reach. LIterally in the day I gained the big jump my reach was like "5 people saw this post" and no likes. LOL.

I am still researching better ways to advertise with facebook but I started a facebook group specifically for the Halifax Mermaids. I also use my Raina mer page. I find these both working much much better than my fan page. My fanpage that has 17,000 fans? I can post a pic and it's exciting if it breaks 50 likes. ON my Raina Mer page it breaks 100 easily. I also found better ways to embed search tags on our website and blogs, and it's paying off fast. (I totally suggest digging around the advanced settings of your websites!)

You can catch up on our blog here: http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog on that main page is just excerpts you have to click the "read more" to read more ;)

This week is my Dad's Birthday. I also have a few gigs and a special swim with a summer camp that I am really looking forward to. I am hoping to do an underwater shoot with my splash tail before it gets retired soon and we're looking at setting up a backdrop and doing it in my parents temporary pool. It's deep but not very big. I wont be able to swim but I can certainly pose for some pics.

Beyond that it's just paper work paper work and more paperwork and spending money. lol.

[AniaR]

I am crashing! Thought I'd post another update quickly before bed zzZZZzz

Today I auditioned Mermaid Mutiny (https://www.facebook.com/mermaidmutiny)She just joined FB so be sure to go give her a like. I put her in my sequin tail we bought from Mermaid Bonnie. GIRL WAS A NATURAL HOLY COW. I already did the interview portion and this was the swim portion. We had so much fun and she is so so so good and that tail looked so so so good :D

Pictures

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https://38.media.tumblr.com/53e1a72acec44e62707236d665589a57/tumblr_n8f537eD0p1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg


We also got a few photos of me while we were at it

https://38.media.tumblr.com/50e37034fbd9616ba5af430686ae2ffa/tumblr_n8f598ryNR1r0wgkuo1_500.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/a6b766ad9171a5ef7c5a26f16b954129/tumblr_n8f4t2i9iG1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/d77bd2263dd781aea2e75837e6b07a3d/tumblr_n8f45alcYX1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

Videos


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33HBrllJmQM


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtC4GzNj8wY

The underwater footage I have is amazing and is the only thing that really does the tail justice. It's still rendering and I'll post later

Today I witnessed a violent altercation while in my mermaid tail. I was teaching a mermaid the ropes and we were at a local park in a swimming hole. We had an audience of about 20 young teens (junior high age) and about 10 random adults with kids. The 20 teens had all arrived together and were pretty roudy from the start. They were blocking the path and I realized pretty quickly they were egging each other on to fight. They started cursing and making threats. They were above me on a rocky ledge, while I was below in the water. It was quite the height drop. At that point I hauled myself up on the lower rocks and insisted in my best teacher voice that they move along. This was a provincial park, there were kids all around them and more coming, and they didn't need to be subjected to violence or swearing. The kids got lippy with me, and I got lippy right back which they didn't expect. Then they started throwing punches. So right sitting there in the water, I took the phone and called the police. They took off pretty fast after that.

To them- they were just a bunch of kids, carrying on and egging on a fight between two people. The two people messed each other up pretty bad. But what they werent thinking about- was how easy it would be for any of them to bump the bystanders, the children, the other adults. Or for someone to slip and fall off that ledge in the heat of the moment. They were putting themselves and everyone around them at risk - especially the little kids. It takes one stupid choice or accident to cost someone their life- especially in a place like that.

There were all these bystanders and no one spoke up but the girl sitting in the mermaid costume in the water. Mob mentality is a funny thing. People get scared, people want to mind their own business. But when you see violence and bullying- never underestimate the power of your words and actions! You don't have to get in the middle of it like I did- but making a phone call to the police or security can safe someone's life. I couldn't stop them from wailing on each other but I made sure no one else got hurt or involved. If the 10 adults who were there even took a step forward, or joined me in my verbal interactions with them, those kids may of took off before anyone got hurt.

Never be afraid to stand up for what is right. It can be scary but there are strength in numbers, and if you're too worried to do it yourself, call the police.

The police were awesome by the way, and got a kick out of my costume


Off to bed now. Im at a summer camp in the morning swimming in the chilly ocean!

[Mermaid Enora]

you're such an inspiration to everyone!

[AniaR]

the underwater video


http://youtu.be/--RlgFvVojI

[Aquarianne]

I love Mutiny! She looks like a real natural! :D

[AniaR]

Today I surprised a summer camp. It was cool but omg so cold. lol

First I arrived while the kids were all having lunch. Then I swam out and scoped the place out. I have never been so cold. Like, I dont wanna be TMI but my boobs felt like blocks of ice and it made it hard to breathe. I swam out and hit behind a dock and when the kids first came out I sorta swam about curiously. They thought I was just another swimmer until I dove and the tail came up. SILENCE. It was amazing. I swam over and then quietly belly crawled to the dock where they were all standing with mouths open. Then I spit water at everyone hahahaha then one kid asked if I spoke English. I told them the recent hurricane had made me get lost and I wound up on their beach. Would they mine if I hung around a while til my family found me

They were super cool!!! We swam all over played games checked out the reef caught critters and I posed for photos but I gotta tell you I was colder than I've ever been at a gig. I think i actually pushed it too far and was bordering on making myself sick. I was shivering the whole time until the end when I stopped. My hands were white, my skin was white, and I was super thirsty. so as soon as they were gone Sean put me in the car wrapped in warm blankets and towels and with a hot drink. I was in SO much pain when I started to warm up my muscles ached and my skin stung. I got home and 45 minutes in the shower and I didnt feel warm. it was hot out but I put on PJs and got into bed with blankets. I checked my temp and it was just a few points of a degree off on the lower end but not serious to warrant a hospital visit. It took a few hours to warm up but I did.

It is usually warm enough this time of year but today just happened to be unseasonably cooler weather all around. We did manage to get a few pics.

Here's a photo of me getting into the water and trying to adjust to how cold it was, taken with my phone.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/3e604426b67bfd685d2b88c28913b505/tumblr_n8gm0seSd61r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

Here's a few photos we grabbed at the end near this neat sea wall they had

https://31.media.tumblr.com/59d409bdf0dc18d665f313bafdeaddd8/tumblr_n8gs3vEnYZ1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/b1ca516a8d699717df5f1a0d5c115cb9/tumblr_n8gsdnHViu1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://33.media.tumblr.com/3c1b3685af00ea3f8363b79a347784b9/tumblr_n8hbixUyCO1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg


I have two more visits at that camp. I think im going to wear tights under my tail next time and a bathing suit top under my silicone top. I'm going to drink warm fluids before hand too.

[Aquarianne]

That is the GREATEST intro to an event ever. I love the "do you speak english" part, that's hilarious!!! XD

[Mermaid Wesley]

aww poor mermaid! bring some cocoa next time! "come on kids didnt you know that mermaids love cocoa?"

[Echidna]

That lake looks wonderful!
I wish someone would invent a mermaid suit with tail looking like the typical mermaid, but warm and insulating for all those gorgeous cold swimming locations.

I was in a beautiful lake myself last week, and I got chest pain and a bit of fever now. Will see the doctor later today.
Hopefully not pneumonia.

Be careful in cold water!

[Lily]

Do you have neoprene socks? Divers use them to keep their feet warm in cold water. You could also try wetsuit pants (http://www.amazon.com/NeoSport-Wetsuits-XSPAN-Pants-Black/dp/B002YQHF1K/ref=sr_1_10?s=boating-water-sports&ie=UTF8&qid=1404971606&sr=1-10) if you think they'd fit under your tail - far warmer than tights!

Also, those kids are so lucky! None of their friends back home are going to believe they met a real live mermaid at summer camp!

[Mermaid Melanie]

That's awesome ! Kids must have loved it ! I get the same problem with getting cold - I was told to put an extra knob of butter on my toast for breakfast or have a plate of porridge to keep your body warmer while out in the water and it actually helps !


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PearlieMae]

I wish you could somehow conceal a GoPro camera in your top...I'd LOVE to see the reactions!

This is so great!Think warm thoughts!

[Mermaid Galene]

I'm going to post these link again. Folks, swimming in very cold water can be immediately life-threatening! If it's too cold to be safe, tell the client it's too cold to be safe!

http://www.coldwatersafety.org/WhatIsCold.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4052348/

[AniaR]

That lake looks wonderful!

It was the Atlantic Ocean


Do you have neoprene socks
I did I was wearing them :) I'm def gonna try pants.


I was told to put an extra knob of butter on my toast for breakfast or have a plate of porridge to keep your body warmer while out in the water and it actually helps !

I think a huge part of the problem was that I didn't eat enough before going in. I only had 1 bagel. I needed protein and a full belly. I have to admit my eating habits have been far too sporadic since going full time.


I wish you could somehow conceal a GoPro camera in your top...I'd LOVE to see the reactions!
We didnt have permission this time around to take video but we got it for the next 2. So you very well may. Plus the staff took their own video and if they post it online I'll share :)


I'm going to post these link again. Folks, swimming in very cold water can be immediately life-threatening! If it's too cold to be safe, tell the client it's too cold to be safe!

Where I live we have legislation in place for when kids can be outside and in the water temperature wise. This still met the minimum. It was just a collective bunch of factors that made it too cold for me. Also, due to one of my illnesses my sense of what is actually too cold and too hot is off/skewed so my body plays tricks on me. I think I'll be fine next time. I'll be more prepared but these conditions were more of a fluke. ;)

[PearlieMae]

...I'll be more prepared but these conditions were more of a fluke. ;)

;) I see what you did there.

[AniaR]

hehehe ;)

[MermanOliver]

Well, that's one kind of introduction! Their faces must have been priceless and a reward beside the pay. :)
The kids will definitely never forget that day.

Stay safe and don't push too far.
Sent from my phonebrick using Tapatalk

[AniaR]

I am so excited I've finally moved my second book process into the final stages! Editing, formatting and soon.. TO PRINT. Wee. I don't have an exact release date yet but
"Fishy Business: My Life as a Mermaid" will be coming out soon. It documents over a year of my life working as a pro mermaid. The ups and downs and funnies! Plus there are loads of mermaidy tips inside and I think it'll inspire many! I am so so so excited :) Soon!

[Talia]

Wohoo!!! :yay: Congrats on the new book, Raina! Can't wait for the release.

[Mermaid Kassandra]

Oh Raina I'm soo happy for you! You're my inspiration and seeing you doing something so impressive (a full time mermaid for me sound quite as impossible to do) makes me just think you're such an amazing woman!
And congrats for your new book! I can't wait to read it, O really loved your first book and I'm sure I'm going to love this one too :)
Go on like this you inspire my dreams :D
Sent from my RM-914_eu_italy_283 using Tapatalk

[Mermaid Enora]

I loved the first book, can't wait for the second!

[Seatan]

Awesome! I can't wait to read it. And as for the cold Atlantic... you're brave. I won't even SCUBA dive in fall with a 7mm suit in cold water. I'd practically need a dry suit for anything below 75 lol.

[AniaR]

So Saturday I did an underwater photoshoot. I am trying to get great photos with my splash tail before I retire it. It was a lot of fun but very difficult because I only had one of those tiny temporary pools to work with :(


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5FekBbQgnCA

You can see there how small it was ^ lol but it was fun and refreshing none the less.

These two pics were taken with my tablet actually:

https://31.media.tumblr.com/73cd46dbfe4d6a302a9e5c432c21600a/tumblr_n8mynowk7c1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/aed428fc84c1a927cd558f81c23c4075/tumblr_n8myjbFNDs1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

then I switched between our dslr in a housing, and our underwater point and shoot


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=mSJVktRdRxA

https://38.media.tumblr.com/5f47b61123a1e87e3b6c1f2354956f80/tumblr_n8mxepLXdo1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/04336c690e346f1ba466fee676369e97/tumblr_n8mx74r8Bt1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/54b0c42c7e0ba14efcbf12c59102bac8/tumblr_n8m7vvSoYg1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/2827802c16a48e0ed2f44ebbe6a9eaf7/tumblr_n8m7mti79o1r0wgkuo2_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/48e6b556834f0dabf28e0b5211824c7e/tumblr_n8m7mti79o1r0wgkuo5_1280.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/f059da62e71cfb79bd9447313ec2e09d/tumblr_n8m7mti79o1r0wgkuo3_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/a5361745caf11614d54c0c88bba667f1/tumblr_n8m7mti79o1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/df07b65962e11d7152c247582d15c22b/tumblr_n8m7mti79o1r0wgkuo4_1280.jpg



Today is Monday and my only day off. So far I spent it answering emails and organizing gigs haha and I'm okay with that. Tuesday and Wednesday I'm in workshops. Thursday night is Mermaid Mimi's bachelorette party woo woo then Friday morning I have a gig at a Library. Friday evening is Mimi's wedding rehearsal dinner. Saturday is the wedding (Sean and I are both in it) and Sunday I have a gig that Mutiny will be training on.

I am trying really hard now that the book draft is done to wait for my editors. I am so thankful for their help but man oh man it's not easy to wait. Sean and I have been sharing a laptop since March while we argue with the people who have mine (sold me a lemon, wont give me a new one, keep trying to fix lemon, it keeps staying a lemon!) which makes everything difficult.

My beautiful red hair lasted all of a week with my gigs lol so I've gotta dye er again for the wedding. I can't stand how awful it looks from the pool bleaching. *sigh*

I'm still struggling with the balance of MAKING myself rest. When our entire livelihood hinges on mermaid work, I feel very guilty about taking any time to myself even though I need it. I must admit I am exhausted but I at least seem to have my leg pain under control. I gave in and realized I just need to keep spending the money at chiro every week. I dont really break even when I do that- ends up on my credit card... but I'll make it work somehow.

Anyway this week should be exciting. Im really looking forward to the library gig

[AniaR]

Forgot to put also, I am still researching about facebook fan page reach and likes. Trying to find new ways around it. FB has been blocking people from sharing my page. It says it's a security hazard. I get it myself when tagging myself or sharing something -_- I've put in loads of reports. So freaking annoying. I am relying more on the profile I set up for Raina which helps a lot. Also, adding meta data to our website is dramatically increasing the hits so that's awesome too.

I read some recent articles that say FB has really stepped up their system to catch fake fans. Now the sites that sell fake fans are all in a flurry because facebook will drop 1000s in a day. I know from my last experience trying to buy the add I dropped close to 4k and I weeded a bunch out myself. I am still finding though everyday about 20 pages or so to boot off. It's sad. :( You just want REAL people and FB is doing everything they can to advertise. I've started getting all these notifications that's just FB trying to sell their "boost your reach" bullshit. Which I still dont see any purpose to it. back to the drawing board I suppose. I just want people to see my stuff and I'm starting to realize my facebook fanpage is becoming irrelevant. Hard pill to swallow after 6 years of maintaining it!

[MerEmma]

Those photos are so gorgeous omigosh. Your tail... <3

[AniaR]

Getting really tired of FB bullshit! When I copy and paste my Raina Mermaid FB fan page, It tells me I can't post the status. When I try to use the share button right off my page it gives a security warning they are actively blocking me from getting new fans and I have no idea why. It's getting super annoying.

[Seraphina Suds]

Is it just your page or is this happening to other popular pages too? D:

[Mermaid Amelia]

I think I would rather pay a small annual fee to Facebook for my business page as long as it worked the way that it used to. They would at least be making money and not just pissing us all off with this no share crap :(


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AniaR]

Is it just your page or is this happening to other popular pages too? D:

Others have told me it is happening too grrr


I think I would rather pay a small annual fee to Facebook for my business page as long as it worked the way that it used to. They would at least be making money and not just pissing us all off with this no share crap

AGREED. People who buy all these fake like services are essentially doing that too. You pay a service and it makes sure you get likes comments and shares on all your stuff. 150$ a week. lol I was thinking more along the lines of FB charging like 10$ a month hahaha.

[AniaR]

Today was a special kind of crazy in both good and bad ways.

I woke up at 5am in the couch, no idea how I got there (I slept walked) and realized I had gotten sick all over the kitchen floor and broken a glass. No memory of it at all. Seanny had cleaned it all up (because he's awesome) and apparently I was SUPER upset about something lol I have no idea. Night terror I think. but it threw me for a loop and I couldnt get back to sleep after 5 am. I felt weird and shakey from not getting enough sleep. Achey all over, and my belly hurt. :(

I had a gig this morning so I had a bath and pulled myself together. No one could take the booking for me and you know, I get sick so much a lot of times I feel better after a few hours so it's hard to choose when to stay home and when to go. I decided to go. im glad I did because I felt better later... just tired.

The booking was with the library. They were expecting about 50 people. they wanted an educational session, reading books, and posing for pics while giving out handouts. I went in the back room and just as I was pulling my leg into my tail a reported called LOL. I passed it off to Seanny, turns out he'd been calling everyone trying to get ahold of me even the store where I sell my stuff. They wanted to come film me at the booking!! So we said sure.

Sean carried me out, and there were 300 kids. 300. The place was packed. It was so crazy we didn't even get any of our own photos but the news guys got loads of footage and interviewed people about us and then interviewed me which was cool. The gig went an hour over schedule because of the amount of kids but I toughed it out and it was fun. I felt pretty disoriented through most of it though and through the interview. It's airing in a few hours I'm a bit nervous at how I'll come across but Sean swears it was good. We'll see I guess.

I found out at the gig when my fluke felt funny that my monofin has snapped down the middle :( :( it didn't break through the silicone but snapped down a few inches and I am heart broken. There's really nothing I can do to repair it. I just gotta wait for the new tails and be careful. Ugh talk about stress.

Here's some pics I grabbed from instagram from a friend

http://instagram.com/p/qmUSBNlnst/?modal=true

http://instagram.com/p/qmTZ6FFnrG/?modal=true

Im still feeling off and shakey. Got the rehersal dinner tonight for Mimi's wedding. I'll post the news link when it's up

[AniaR]

oh that article I did came out finally online http://thechronicleherald.ca/community/dartmouth/1223047-local-mermaids-make-a-splash

[AniaR]

ooh a guest sent in a photo I wanted to share

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10487478_10154449092615425_674514139543176038_n.jp g?oh=b96aa736329b9ad0b512f15d09fb667f&oe=5452158A&__gda__=1414633696_094445c96b3400f3b4de8aa22da526a 3

This right here is why I do what I do this young lady was wearing her own mermaid tail and was practically shaking with excitement. I asked her if it would be okay to kiss her cheek and she told me yes but that she'd cry. lol. She waited at least 30 minutes for her turn to see me.

Also, see. 300. lol

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t31.0-8/10553672_10152207297386931_8938710678720856162_o.j pg

[PearlieMae]

WOW!!! That face! That is so awesome!

[MerEmma]

Wow, massive crowd.

I'm so sorry about your monofin though...that really, really sucks. That would be fixable wouldn't it (IF you wanted to/could afford it)? Still though...really heartbreaking. I'm glad you have another tail on the way but... :(

[AniaR]

The news video turned out amazing my dad cried lol http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=401756

[Seatan]

"I touched her tail, and guess what...... I also got... a red jewel!" *heart melts*

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Such an awesome segment on you Raina!!

[MerEmma]

Beautiful video! Very well done by the team and I love the silhouette of Sean carrying you through the metal detectors. :P

[AniaR]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/1486636_10154450042565425_1386640756037656936_n.jp g?oh=99dc693e7c11a7ecf770dc5b2f7ca312&oe=544E003D&__gda__=1414311862_7a72f4459a9a9c23931362ca66cc177 e

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/10489648_10154450042850425_135127247260633105_n.jp g
(I get a kick out of this hahaha, "Mermaid")

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10462943_10154450042775425_166962289846270694_n.jp g?oh=3c383f8ff39fe66d9014f75770187830&oe=54438762

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t1.0-9/10394018_10154450043705425_5784267638580183844_n.j pg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10562920_10154450044145425_3498556138243257521_n.j pg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/10552364_10154450044375425_24072011241429832_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10533904_10154450045145425_2345919767702735713_n.j pg

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10409722_10154450045780425_4053214013366082630_n.j pg?oh=22a14bd6af2b3fa21e95aab7afbb05ea&oe=54463437

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/10514683_10154450045610425_7092205208915844793_n.j pg

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/t1.0-9/10527535_10154450045375425_6673546655529445526_n.j pg

<3

[Aquarianne]

Soooooo fab!!! Where'd you get your cast seaweed top? I love it!!

[Mermaid Wesley]

Her seaweed top is from merbella studios finfolk productions also makes one though the styles are very different


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mermaid Enora]

so awesome!

[Mermaid Galene]

Congrats on all the great press, Raina! Sorry about your monofin. That sucks!

[Seraphina Suds]

Wow, that's all so exciting! Minus the monofin trauma :c I wonder what caused it to snap? You weren't swimming...

[AniaR]

I think it happened prior to the gig and I just didn't notice. for a while now the fluke has felt extra flexible to me while swimming and I kept checking it and checking it to see if something happened. But I couldn't feel/see anything until yesterday. I suspect a crack started but I couldnt detect it.

I actually baby my tail a lot but people gotta know, it's old and extremely well used. lol tails aren't indestructible pretty much every item I own that I use as much has wear and tear. I am very excited to get my new tail :) poor Rapidash needs a break.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her at this point. it had been my plan to use her for ocean gigs because the competitor is best for that, and since she already has a fair bit of damage then I wouldnt be so worried about rocks and sand etc. I know Raven can replace the body or fluke of a tail easily enough, but I don't think it's really worth it because really the whole thing needs to be replace.

Im not sure where Raven is in her line of current orders. She's been MIA for a few weeks which usually means she's spending every waking moment on tail making. She admitted she's having trouble posting photos etc to FB because she's just so darn busy and I know Tyler has been busy with his own stuff. So I'm just hanging out trying to be patient and waiting for my friend to come up for air. :) I know she'll surface sooner or later.


Today I am off to Mermaid Mimi's wedding and tomorrow I have Mermaid Mutiny shadowing me for a gig! weee

[AniaR]

Mimi got married yesterday and it was so beautiful and I cried a lot. LOL I was a (mer)Brides maid, and Sean was the videographer! We feel so lucky to have been there with her for her special moments!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t1.0-9/65967_10154454524960425_8634082593927470150_n.jpg

Mimi's sister made the bouquet out of costume jewellery that their grandmother left behind after she passed. Mimi always feels that when she sees a white feather- it's her grandma saying hello. And without knowing that her sister had added a white feather to the bouquet as well. So Mimi cried ;)

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10351377_10154454524760425_1153215221484160858_n.j pg?oh=21ba792e1561aad2ffed391ddd43d849&oe=5453FE66

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/10492496_10154454524530425_2636071137759340224_n.j pg

The entire wedding was mermaid/ocean themed and Mimi had so many details! The wedding favours were all hand made out of shells. Shells and sea glass decorated everything. There were mermaid and sailor motifs everywhere. It was seriously beautiful.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/1551532_10154454523895425_8824327829456306259_n.jp g

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10502047_10154454523780425_7757766792366490181_n.j pg

She made us all sea glass necklaces too hehe so cute. Sean and I had a blast

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/10464374_10154454523635425_3231133206774681306_n.j pg

Today I am off to a gig for a return client, and Mermaid Mutiny is coming for part 3 of her audition. I think I've mentioned somewhere that I have a 3 part process. Interview, swim training, and then gig shadowing. This way both I and the mermaid know exactly what we're getting into! I'll post later today the results ;)

[AniaR]

Well mermaid mutiny did amazing today and has been invited to be a Halifax Mermaid.

I have monday and Tuesday off this week and then the rest of the week is crazy. I am anxious about the workload with the state of my tail but I'm hoping I can manage!!

2270822709

[AniaR]

What a day I am so exhausted! If you missed it I updated this thread with a new vlog http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?7857-So-YOU-want-to-be-a-MERMAID-New-vlog-series-by-Raina&goto=newpost

Today I did the camp again. I got video of my arrival. This group was older and a few boys were a little rude at first. I won them over by the end but the arrival wasnt as nice as the first time around ;) uploads take forever here so I'll share the video tomorrow. We got some staged photos and then some of me with the kids. I could really feel my broken monofin :( swimming was not easy

https://31.media.tumblr.com/7037ae879dac5b823b0dde0c7204feae/tumblr_n96kfn0mYg1r0wgkuo5_1280.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/380d1ff415aa579312de64889f8ce22f/tumblr_n96kfn0mYg1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/3304069de4f21c576c909112f50151ed/tumblr_n96kfn0mYg1r0wgkuo3_1280.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/6d71c06cf7173b534d803dd4bd215abf/tumblr_n96kfn0mYg1r0wgkuo6_1280.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/029b9d24e7d1ec95e1127b9dcb40587c/tumblr_n96kfn0mYg1r0wgkuo4_1280.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/5799f85537b543e25cd79074e71fe335/tumblr_n96kfn0mYg1r0wgkuo2_1280.jpg

An eel bit my finger :( but it's okay. Saw a lobster and some crabs. water was way warmer than last time!

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/t1.0-9/10527594_789695514395240_293093262563508687_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/10488382_789695564395235_2576174070693484682_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t1.0-9/10500509_789695541061904_4210547911905573865_n.jpg

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10559921_789695721061886_1038938906654764981_n.jpg ?oh=98ee0db0f0517385188f8000eb1c4302&oe=5446D810

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/10547453_789695791061879_3779619844332382277_n.jpg ?oh=705a3ab6231f4e646c055c4f758ced18&oe=545A78C3

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10346613_789695907728534_8902571056980541582_n.jpg ?oh=da5f3684ae3346976a74188fd97a2cf0&oe=5451570A&__gda__=1413312643_434dfe134f0886a220bcbfcb796871f d

https://scontent-b-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10580134_789696067728518_9012322030799279508_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10489643_789696304395161_5510964342411598313_n.jpg ?oh=d532062e11ba5064ff4b0dd29a247cc2&oe=54353A23&__gda__=1412870043_d6df3f078b50b748ae90f75e87ffbcd 4

https://scontent-a-ord.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t1.0-9/10580255_789696507728474_6406987579168385208_n.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10487276_789696474395144_5002170641110456093_n.jpg ?oh=8390ba7622075c70c053209d6c66eec8&oe=543CD798&__gda__=1413001796_da276f14153d8941ddd1b5d4182e3e7 e

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10516617_789696614395130_9194998875062797610_n.jpg ?oh=b118a7f7ebeb6a2423fb6ad68bec131a&oe=543790E0&__gda__=1413497432_2d9adacbd12b159953b0301303b337e 0

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10552502_789696691061789_1972254857355786496_n.jpg ?oh=9329d1b2f578d7c9a81418fc92dba4ef&oe=544B878F&__gda__=1415051237_aa32607d1221d602a19054a6bb0a2c6 9

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10559892_789696784395113_8373018869211720218_n.jpg ?oh=7bf4b0665e4875952b34ef99afd1075f&oe=545387EE&__gda__=1414368388_ff43e7487da946dd7f4d29d4e233bb1 5

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10557398_789696941061764_5123730382432359222_n.jpg ?oh=ed8db51846d67b7cfca135a7f9df0ab7&oe=54536F18&__gda__=1414995570_539ca94ca5ca739a1e6bf0906d3d1bd b

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/t1.0-9/10400857_789697031061755_613684012582225528_n.jpg


I swam for 2 hours. You cant tell from the pics but It was actually really deep. There was a reef and only once you got past it could you swim without fear of smacking into anything.

[MerEmma]

What beautiful pictures! Looks like a beautiful place to swim as well. So sorry about your monofin, seriously, makes me really sad to think about. ):

[Mermaid Wesley]

An eel? Like an EEL? D:


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Chrissy]

seriously an eel bit you??? That is crazy, hope your mono fin hold up!!! The pictures are lovely!!

[AniaR]

An itty bitty one. I didnt realize but they told me later they caught him and had him in a tank to observe and then let him go and he was hiding out right where I decided to get pics. I went to put my hands back and something bit me. I got home and googled pics of the bite because it looked like a BITE not like, crabs snapping me or anything, and it came up eel lol. So Im pretty sure that's what happened. but it was only a little nip. A get away from my face nip. lol

I have this gig one more time this summer. It's been really fun and lovely :)

[AniaR]

Here's the video of the summer camp


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pd3D0uezp0

you can hear some of the boys are a little rude (didnt happen the first time) but I promise by the end of it they were totally in to it. I just handled it by not giving them too much attention when they acted that way and they figured out pretty quickly they had to be kind to get attention.

It's a little shakey in the beginning. I swam over to the one kid who knew me ;)

You can kinda see in the footage how my fluke was a bit messed up.

I've been updating the website and on our mermaid biography page (http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/mermaid-biographies.html)you can now see photo albums for Mimi, Nessie, Mutiny, and Sean. I dont have time for the rest but I'll finish later. Check out Sean's page for some cute and funny photos. Mutiny has a really cool Bio too :)

[MerEmma]

Wow, talk about an awesome gig. Seriously, that's just SO awesome. I love the kid who wanted to know your name really bad, hahaha! SO adorable. All around, everything, thank you for sharing! Looks like such a blast you had. <3

[AniaR]

Crazy busy weekend so far. Yesterday Mimi and I did a gig together and we were next door to Sidney Crosbees house! (famous hockey player, won the cup, the Olympics etc) huge amazing beautiful mansion, super well behaved kids

I dont have many images to show, they only gave me permission to share a few but here's some stories to go with em!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10524017_791030904261701_7972114553197762152_n.jpg ?oh=0d3444aa1d14fb615c820a0d45da2058&oe=5448E773&__gda__=1413001647_a74fc841730cc716eb03caeaad5451c b

Mermaid Mimi (https://www.facebook.com/MermaidMimi) and Raina the Halifax Mermaid (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Raina-the-Halifax-Mermaid/183327321702019) help a young merling learn to use her fins!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t31.0-8/10353511_791032707594854_3079464558886788835_o.jpg

Little boys enjoy our mermaid parties every bit as much as little girls. They love to swim with mermaids, go for rides, try out our tricks and underwater cameras, and they love to swim in mer-fins too. This little guy was very proud to call himself a merman, and he sure figured out that fin really fast!!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t1.0-9/10357514_888756924492385_2901594112873253941_n.jpg

This young merling sure had me fooled! At a booking yesterday several of the kids had mermaid tails/ mermaid monofins. Most of them were still learning how to use them. When this wee one showed up with her whole outfit I assumed she'd need a lesson too. I offered to give her a ride on my back around the pool. She accepted and in this photo she explained to Sean (who took the photo) that she wanted to watch my tail move while we swam.

When I stopped the ride and she hopped off, she dove under the water and took off like a speed of light. 6 years old and she was better in her tail than most adults I've seen. I joked with her parents that in 10 years she needs to come work for me! I was floored by her agility. She was doing flips and tricks and had stamina to outlast me for sure.

NEVER underestimate kids. They will surprise you all the time



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-yKCLW1ziA

Token funny video ;)

Loads more gigs this weekend! More to come...

[AniaR]

So those were yesterdays photos, here's a few from today. I don't have any up of the client because they didnt give me permission to put them online but the kids were so so soooo cute! Instead, you get lil oh me as per usual ;)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/s960x960/10520819_888975111137233_8861012117142113443_o.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/1277373f256d87ec5b53a68fa7c7e405/tumblr_n9caqs3SyD1r0wgkuo1_500.jpg


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEJt4oMGQWw


Tomorrow is back to back gigs. one by myself, one with Mutiny (her first official paid gig wee!) after. Im feeling really chlorine warn out today, and waterlogged. I'm worried Im fighting an ear infection. My hair is shot. Im so tired it's already 8 pm and I gotta make a mermaid crown for tomorrow lol. I am still working on the photos for yesterday's client, then today, and one of the clients tomorrow wants photos. Loads of photos to edit and get through ahhh also I forgot my booties today and my feet got so awfully blistered :(

In other news, on wed I get my impressions taken again for my teeth and in 3 weeks I get my appliance put in. Then in January the braces. Wee! (or ahh, you know)

I've started wearing a brace around my back/waist at the suggestion of my physiotherapist. I don't need to wear it 24/7. Just when Im at the gym and whenever I get pain. Im testing it out tonight and oh man it feels wonderful.

Tomorrow my first gig is in a pool and then the second in a lake. For the lake one we're using the neighbor's dock to swim up to the party from. Should be a lot of fun. I don't normally for birthday parties swim for more than an hour. The second hour is usually the party room. but I let this client talk me into swimming for 2 hours. It doesnt sound like much but 2 hour gigs with loads of excited kids IN the water are exhausting and wipe me out lol. I'm expecting to be good and dead by the end of the day tomorrow lol

[AniaR]

Holy karp what a weekend. Totally waterlogged and dying LOL

This morning I had a booking with a little girl who was so in love with me it was so freaking adorable. She kept chanting "mermaid mermaid!" and stopping to hug me. Her party was an absolute delight (we dont have permission for photos) but the only issue was that the pool was concrete. I was leaning against it for a photo and a kid jumped on my back. the force made me slide and you guessed it... scrape my tail -_- in almost 3 years I have not scraped the paint off the knees of my tail and it sure as hell scraped off. Ugh. Raven tinted it the whole way through so it's just orange knees now but it scraped some of the superficial yellow off the top, and you can see hair line scrapes in the silicone I'll have to reinforce so it wont spread. It's not too noticeable in most situations but I think the average mer could see it in person. Maybe not so much in photo. But yeah. dayum. At least the little girl was the happiest ever.

I went from that gig, grabbed Mutiny and we went to another. By now my ears are in bad shape from the 3 gigs so far this weekend and because I got some sand in my foot pocket and did the morning gig without my booties (forgot em) I got the worst blister. I had to tape my foot up and then put a bootie on and it still wasn't enough. I was pretty exhausted by the time we got to the final gig of the weekend. Mutiny and I went to the neighbor's property and swam up from there to the client's dock. The neighbors was weirdly shallow. We could BARELY belly crawl through this gross mud to get good 100 yards out before we could actually swim it was kinda weird. But once we swam we got to the clients and surprised the kids. The water was cold and the kids only spent 30 minutes in it. The client was super easy going though and put us in the hotub (before you freak out, smoothon tells me my tail is safe for short bursts in certain warm temperatures. The issues with tails in hot tubs comes more prominent with latex, fabric, and caulking made tails) and a wading pool. Plus Sean carried us all over to get photos with the kids. These clients went all out on decorating and mermaid themed stuff. The SECOND the party ended it started downpouring. I was not convinced I could swim back to the neighbors. One foot was totally raw, and the other foot had popped out of the foot pocket because of all the lifting Sean was doing. So Sean wheeled us each up a hill in a dolly and stuck us in the trunk and we drove away lol

The client tipped all three of us!! and also gave us chocolate sea shells.

I gotta say I really appreciate why Linden ops for a sequined tail frequently. I have been finding it harder and harder to get into and out of my tails these days. I've read a few articles that says silicone hardens over time and I believe it. My tail has virtually no stretch to it anymore. I weigh significantly less than I did this time last year , but I am experiencing a lot of water bloating due to meds and my legs swell some times too. Trying to get this thing off and on with swollen legs and silicone that wont stretch is a nightmare. I either hurt myself, or the tail, or both. I actually think I wont get my next one as form fitting. I think I would be more comfortable wearing tights under my tails (that's what Raven does) than needing to lube them up. I even have to lube up my hands to get the tail off these days. And yes it'll still be a good fit, but when we took Rapidash in we made er skin tight and that just does not work for me for how often I need to take a tail off and on.

I am totally exhausted. I came home and slept for 2 hours in a stinking hot room. Then sean appeared with an AC unit and installed it!! I cant wait to sleep tonight. I have been eating like a horse this week (mostly healthy I swear). In this week alone I swam 10 hours and was in my tail longer. It doesnt seem like much but that lake I was in today was deep at the clients end. Nowhere to rest. Non stop treading water. Same with the other gigs, just a lot of full hours constantly moving. I've got water in my ears (ironically from the shower not swimming hahaha) and I've been dosing them with anti ear infection drops in anticipation of them.

3 of my clients out of 5 ordered photos so I have a LOT of photos to get through. Here's a couple from today at the lake party

https://38.media.tumblr.com/07639e021dcbc5ab3e4915c392a40981/tumblr_n9e1arewDQ1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/48538a5d1cea614aedb5ec95af5f4643/tumblr_n9e1myKZvx1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/5320a2fcea7b266d80f93ad98ba8b03e/tumblr_n9eo01zDks1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg


Here's a few more from the previous party that I think are fun!

https://31.media.tumblr.com/c213df222d2874578c8ce885588652d4/tumblr_n9eo3v17DK1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/5/7/24579160/8247258_orig.jpg

http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/5/7/24579160/3129841_orig.jpg

http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/5/7/24579160/1911243_orig.jpg

http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/uploads/2/4/5/7/24579160/4197777_orig.jpg



This weekend's worth of gigs paid our rent through til the end of October. Yay :) I am so excited to have M-Th off from gigs this week. My feet need it to heal and if I end up with an ear infection or two I'll need it to get through those. I do have loads of photo editing, admin stuff, and making stuff to sell to do this week. Friday I've got a private booking. Saturday is the pirate festival. Sunday another private booking. Monday a meeting.

my back seems to be holding up well (knock on wood) this week. I havent had to go to chiro so that's a good sign. I picked up a back brace to wear at home and it's making a difference.

My hair.. well.. not so much ;)

This was my hair exactly one week ago :
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t1.0-9/10516811_10154454527135425_5551745824743684552_n.j pg


Here's my hair today:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t1.0-9/10177932_10154480606250425_4017225056239854986_n.j pg

I've never bleached my hair. My natural hair is auburn red lol. the pool just takes not only dye, but bleached my natural hair too. I think Im just going to let it go a little longer. now that I'm in the sun it bleaches the top pretty evenly with what the pool does. Before you lecture me I work my ass off on my hair. Just never found a system that works for how much I am in chlorine. And my hair dresser advised me it's good to routinely put in perm dye to prevent more chlorine from being absorbed. And yeah that red was perm dye. Wouldnt come out even when I washed my hair with soap. but after 1 chlorine gig it was pretty much gone. By number 2 it looked like this :p

[Lily]

So sorry about your ears! I'm super prone to ear infections and for some reason I've never had that natural water-preventing bubble effect or whatever it is that keeps water out when you're swimming. If I don't wear earplugs even for a quick dip I'll have water all up in there! Guess you can't wear plugs in a gig, though :(

My fin gives me blisters as well, even with my booties on. Those band-aid brand blister things are life-savers!

Your gig photos are completely adorable. My inner 5-year-old is giggling like crazy!

[AniaR]

Guess you can't wear plugs in a gig, though

actually I wear clear silicone puddy in my ears during gigs! I just dont wear ear plugs during showers anymore because it's been years since I got water in my ears during them. I just so happened to drop the shower head and try to catch it and eater flew in my ear lol

[AniaR]

A few more pics!

https://31.media.tumblr.com/b48983d72ed292c0f28e350658864823/tumblr_n9feqv7haq1r0wgkuo3_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/7249efc44afcd08ebfb30fd13212d1d9/tumblr_n9feqv7haq1r0wgkuo4_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/b54a4b3bb765d9d11417fd881a1ba143/tumblr_n9feqv7haq1r0wgkuo7_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/52f3dbd5a7491dc3260a9ec93f7ec175/tumblr_n9feqv7haq1r0wgkuo5_1280.jpg

https://33.media.tumblr.com/4a704370d1f3a6f17d8b44bb7449907e/tumblr_n9feqv7haq1r0wgkuo10_1280.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/0c6ac1319cf01278745cff1330eac10f/tumblr_n9feqv7haq1r0wgkuo9_1280.jpg

Last one is more of an awesome out take!

[Mermaid Galene]

Sorry about your tail scrape and ears, but I'm glad you had fun in spite of all the difficulties. You certainly earn your paycheck!

[AniaR]

Mutiny and I escaping from that last gig... lol

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/10534138_10152543492697593_1794289307065959625_n.j pg


This week has been rough. I am exhausted yet so over tired Im having trouble sleeping. I wanted to take a break from mermaid stuff before the busy mermaid weekend so I insisted Sean and I go on a bunch of dates. Haha we saw a few movies, went to dinner with friends (courtesy of gift cards we'd been saving) and I tried to make myself rest. Of course I had to edit all the client photos and was trying to let my feet heal from the week before.

Yesterday I did this great gig in a beautiful spring fed lake- one of so few where I live- and the water was amazing. I swam up and surprised some very happy kids. I don't have any pics to show of the kids due to privacy but seanny captured a few of me in the water

https://33.media.tumblr.com/f75f56fd9861144e2d153afe268b9b0f/tumblr_n9nehtCtiN1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://38.media.tumblr.com/361888c060b793b266873ade51d0146f/tumblr_n9neglY0DS1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

You cant see it that well but you can check it out on instagram. In those pics and the upcoming ones I am trying out new eye stickers I got from our local dollar store and they lasted under water! So neat looking

I stayed up late and made all sorts of merch to sell and then today we did the pirate festival. The full album can be seen here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.794923630539095.1073741842.644749652223161&type=1

I find dry gigs like that so much stress. We bring a canopy to get changed under and it's so hard not having a clear space to change and being all cramped and trying not to hurt yourself and your tail... but we managed. I almost had my foot totally healed and now it's busted right open. I have a gig tomorrow and one on Wed. I don't think it'll heal before wed :( ugh. I just keep trying to take care of it. #mermaidproblems

reppin a local brand:

https://33.media.tumblr.com/08a22bb37b2b40905a257d5d83668769/tumblr_n9pgh7xCmu1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

And just a shot of me in the water

https://31.media.tumblr.com/adba39897882068663b4de0106f436aa/tumblr_n9pgixziRw1r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg


Behind the scenes:

Mermaid Nessie is moving away for school at the end of the summer. We took her for dinner and got her this necklace. (I have the same one and matching earrings) from my favourite pewter store. It's a tradition every year that we pick something up.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/t1.0-9/10524731_10154503027885425_9119995601878160679_n.j pg

this is the one I picked out for me!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1010189_10154503028535425_8775735747944538359_n.jp g?oh=eec532b09bcafe682e36d27c262b7765&oe=543D4E93&__gda__=1414224889_2e589ebd1620f33de23963ef7fa570c 4

We also saw loads of these chesty mermaids hahaha

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10593009_10154503028875425_5628810923334362064_n.j pg?oh=d8ed75ea44da0675dcd8fe44ac825c66&oe=5453A619

My stickers that stayed on for 4 hours through sun and underwater

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/934797_10154503029280425_351523381702392879_n.jpg? oh=420724d825cfa0a0c988b7c36675bfd3&oe=543BB9C4&__gda__=1414789369_aacba2af9ee6e07581a7908542b8340 6

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10580065_10154503029660425_7158675703149502883_n.j pg?oh=948d75b707ab79ced76efd05aa631086&oe=5439C74D&__gda__=1412693288_6cbbb3569b6026007f74afcf1542c7c a

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t1.0-9/10494599_10154503030005425_3573533963827464178_n.j pg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10553406_10154503031015425_2636764823421177650_n.j pg?oh=1f2a21a273e8b899c3d35cd16c840cd1&oe=5435796E&__gda__=1412679697_515d3e2b924afdbe87a35160dea5ff6 a



Back at er tomorrow. Busy week ahead. I so sleepy. lol

[Echidna]

I love reading about your experiences, especially the outdoor gigs, since I mostly do those.

Still, I wince every time when I see some nice water and the mermaid is the only one in it while everyone else is sitting in boats wearing sweaters :p
The mers in warm countries don't know how good they have it!

Admittedly, I use my fabric tails during performances and the more realistic ones only for photoshoots.
It's just so much easier and comfortable to have a lightweight, stretchy fabric tail to swim and perform in.

Neoprene gets tighter with age too btw, at least it's the case with neoprene suits. I have one I've only worn once, and a year later when I wanted to use it again, it was so tight I couldn't stand to wear it, and I had lost weight that year.

Maybe I'll make a fabric tail with sequins someday and see how that one works out.

[AniaR]

Thanks Catluna.

Just checking in for the rest of the time. Sunday I did a booking and the kids weren't into it. It was the first time that has ever happened. It was just a wee bit too cold outside and the kids werent feeling it. But a baby was! I ended up pushing her around in the pool the whole time as she babbled at me. really cute.

My feet are totally destroyed from the blisters and I have been slathering pure vitamin e all over them. I was expecting to have until Wed before I had to get my tail on again, but my summer camp got moved up a day due to an impending storm. So Im back in er tomorrow.

I am booking right through November which is nice. And christomer is reimbursing me for Merfest which is so awesome!!! I can pay down the little bit of debt I had incurred from going. Puts me right back into the normal. Yay!

So since my gig got moved I'll have wed, thurs, and friday off. First time in a long time I've had 3 days in a row and Im thankful. I need to get some merch together for the store where I sell stuff. I need to edit photos. And our emails have been exploding. More gigs requests than we can handle. Need more mermaids!!! With mimi getting married and Mutiny about to be married and both their honey moons, and Nessie moving in 3 weeks, it's like AHHH. but we'll make it work~~~

I have another girl I'll be auditioning soon. A local girl who works for the store where I sell my stuff. She made her own tail and is super cute and I am excited to give her a shot. We're both going to be in a parade on Saturday- weather pending!

Local photographer Jim Mackenzie got a few mermaid photos at the pirate festival. Turns out he saw me in the pride parade a few years ago too! https://www.flickr.com/photos/jimmackenzie32/sets/72157646169732154/ crazy to see the photo of me from 2012 (at the bottom) and how much I've changed since then!!!

[AniaR]

So today is the BEST day I've had in a long time. I am running around happy as anything!

I rested up yesterday, I mean I slept a LOT. I slept in til noon, then had a 4 hour nap, and I needed it sooo bad. New energy today. I had my physio apt and it went so so so well. She gave me such good news that one of my issues will be cured in 6 weeks1 CURED. That's not a word I ever hear. All of my illnesses are chronic no cure. It may have been the first time I've heard it. Haha so I have been stoaked.

I did the final summer camp booking today. One of the little boys who had been at the first two loves me. He saw some sea foam and his mom told him I sent it haha. So when I swam in today I went right for him and asked if he got my sea foam and his jaw dropped. I stayed very still and got engulfed in a school of mackerel twice! Really neat. The water level was really high, the tide was in super high but it was great. We had fun with campers, and then I got some photos that Sean took too.

I have some video but it's not finished uploading yet. I'll post it later :)

Oh and I saw this when I showed up OMG


http://youtu.be/mtY63vpCNGI

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Fancy edited ones

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[Mermaid Galene]

Glad you had such a great day and good news on the health front!

[AniaR]

ooh and Pearlie mae sent me power mesh to reinforce my waist. wee :D got it today.

Also, one of the videos


http://youtu.be/5j7MT8_70jA

[Mermaid Danielle]

Thanks for sharing all of your experiences, they are enjoyable to read :) And I'm so happy for you with the illness being cured! Best wishes, and enjoy your days off!

Best wishes!

[PearlieMae]

Excellent! I'm glad it finally got there! So glad to hear your are doing well and happy!

[AniaR]

Latest blog post: http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog/expanding-weddings-summer-and-more

[AniaR]

final summer camp visit


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6QGakkegAfw

[Echidna]

Looks like a lot of fun (if exhausting)!

That's a nifty trick you have there for underwater swimming without goggles.
Tried it once, but I just cannot stay down that way, and I'd probably bump my head somewhere
(even more than I already do, that is :p )

[Fifi Tigg]

I love sitting down with Emily and watching your adventures! She gets so excited and energised to go out in her tail after watching you :) xx

[Mermaid Wesley]

*takes detailed notes* I'm stealing your ice breaking techniques Raina.

[AniaR]

1 am Monday morning, man have I had a crazy week and weekend! lol

My endometriosis flared up and has been making this past week difficult. I take daily medications (a new drug specifically for endo, as opposed to the old way of treating it with insanely strong birth control pills with heaps of side effects) to prevent endo issues. About 3 weeks ago I missed a dose due to a 24 hour stomach bug. Ever since then I've been having bad bloating issues (you'll notice it for sure in some of these pics) and sporadic pain. It finally built to a full flare so I've been laying a bit low, in bed with the heating pad. It makes me appreciate how much the meds do for me, but also makes me nervous for the amount of trouble I get for missing a dose (not like i could of changed that either)

Thankfully, being in the water helps a lot with the pain, so it wasnt too hard for gigs. Just hard to deal with bloating out of your tail!

I did a parade Saturday morning, you can see photos here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.798357066862418.1073741844.644749652223161&type=1

I met with a new mermaid who I'll be auditioning soon. She's great and made her own tail. It's got some issues but she learned a lot while making it and she's excited to make her next one. She's really beautiful and has a great personality. She's young and a bit shy hehe but I like having shy mermaids- they work well with shy kids! Keeps everyone in the group balanced :)

Here she is with the daughter of the guy who owns the store were I sell my stuff

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The little girl is one of my biggest fans and I made them both sea shell crowns hehe :)

A couple photos from the parade:

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They had me in a chair that was bolted down and covered with a tarp. It was all VERY spur of the moment. Next year I'll bring stuff to decorate with.It was really fun but was 75 minutes of me flapping my tail at the ankles and man oh man are my ankles and shins sore! lol

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I always LOVE seeing people's reactions at parades. They are priceless. Next year I want to have a reaction camera lol

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You can see from the above pic I was pretty bloated. I've also been having so much trouble with how sore my feet are that I've given up getting all the tail wrinkles out. When I wear my booties to protect from blisters, it makes it extra hard to get my feet into the monofin and smooth out the tail. When I wear bear feet I just have extra wiggle room and it's easy. But with the booties everything sticks. Lately I just get so frustrated trying to get my tail on because of how stiff it's become, and my own bloating, that I just dont do that great job getting it on. Most of the time it doesnt matter because Im in the water and no one sees wrinkles. I just don't want people seeing it and thinking it wasnt made to fit. I've had it 3 years, tails change (silicone hardens and loses stretch) and so do bodies!

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I was so tired and sore after with such bad pain that I was having trouble holding my tail up while Sean wheeled my on the dolly to a space to change. So these little girls who were my fans came and held my fluke up for me while Sean pulled me. It was soooo cute!

Here's video of the parade. Mind the bagpipes. lol


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zTEBVqJBTM


I wasn't feeling well so after that I crawled into bed for a few hours before my next gig. I literally still had all my mermaid stuff on. LOL

My next gig was a private party and I wasn't able to take any photos with the kids... but the pool oh man the pool!!! It was out doors, heated, so clean, not burny at all, and was like a water park. The ground was even rubber so I didnt have to worry about scraping. The kids were sooo well behaved too. And it wasnt expensive for the clients to rent so we think we're going to rent it at the end of summer to get some fun underwater footage! It was such a treat to swim in and the clients were so great!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FI90Z3z_t3Y

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Today I had a later gig too so I stayed in bed for a while. Sometimes my endo triggers my IC and I have to pee every 20 minutes ugh. I was like that for 2 hours but thankfully it went away before the gig.
It was just a standard swim for an hour but the birthday girl was sucha fish. Only 3 and so outgoing. It was at a wave pool so we coasted the waves.

My gear however is dying. My shell bra ripped down the middle recently (it was old when I got it), and today I went to put on my sea weed bra and the clasps on the back had rusted right off! I had to put it on with safety pins until we can buy new hooks/eyes to replace it with. My necklace raven gave me 5 years ago I always wear as a good luck charm- the clasp broke right off. Iona made me earrings and the girls accidentally broke some of my pairs :( and my favourite pair the shell snapped in two. It did that before and I glued it and it was fine. This time it snapped and I didnt know and lost the piece. Iona's earrings are beautiful... we just put em through hell. Oh, and the auto settings and auto focus on our camera decided to die. lol it's all going at once because we've been so busy.

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I've been dealing with so many bookings, I can't expand fast enough. Everyone wants to come along for the ride but I'm fronting the gear and it gets hard at times. I just don't have the money to replace everything by myself and the girls can't replace for themselves either right now. It's wonderful to be in such demand but it also takes a lot of time to train new mermaids to our standard too. I wish we had more independent mermaids out this way- people just have a hard time buying good tails out here (plus custom fees are insane) and many tail making supplies wont ship here.

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I never give out my phone number to clients either but I made an exception for one lady so she could text me a pic of her pool to see if I'd fit in it. (I don't. I find a lot of people think I can fit in those tiny blow up pools or those temporary pools with 10 or more kids and I cant even fit in them and swim alone) She's really excited for her party but texts me multiple times a day and emails me and all hours of day/night and wants instant responses and gets worried when I don't respond. It's my smallest package too. It's hard. I try to be patient with people but I dont work 24/7 and need the freedom to NOT reply to non-emergency emails at 11 at night :p

But it's not all difficult. I'm booked through november, and Im surprised and thankful to have pretty consistent booking through the fall. While summer is the busy season, the rest of the year is every bit as busy we just don't get week day bookings unless they're at schools. So I make all my money on the weekends. Im averaging 4 a weekend right now come fall.

This week I have Monday off, to nurse my wounds and repair gear and get everything ready. Tuesday, Mutiny and I have a booking at a local upscale private aquatic club. It should be really fun, pays well, but the pools are concrete which have me nervous four our tails. I'll be doing my best to prevent issues but I did have paint scrape from my knees the last time I was in a concrete pool. Wednesday I've been hired as a photographer for a soccer team (I usually do their photos every summer), Thursday I get my dental appliance in. One day off to recover, then two gigs sat and two gigs sunday.

I dont want my stuff to sound so negative Im just trying to be real with you all about the challenges of trying to do this 100% full time. It's a daily struggle to make sure I'm making enough to pay bills, cover company costs, pay for my meds, and make this business work. I'm actually really happy and I gotta say, I'd rather this sort of stress than pretty much any other stress I've experienced in my life. This is so rewarding, and even though I drag myself to gigs sometimes because Im tired or feel unwell, I get a jolt of adrenaline once I see those kids smiling. I get so much positive feedback and people in my city treat me like a local celeb. I feel like I'm doing exactly what I set out to do :)

Here's a pic of me in a storage room getting ready, LOL

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I really feel that even though my illness is a problem, it's SO MUCH EASIER to handle now that I make my own schedule. No more, I need to get through 40 hours of work before I can rest BS. If I dont feel well or am in pain, I go to bed or have a bath. The most I usually have to "stick it out" is 2 hours before I can get myself home. Not 8 or 10. I can eat healthier, exersice... it's not easy trying to do anything with chronic pain and illness but holy heck it's easier when you make your own schedule.

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(at the gym, cuz who cares about matching socks???)

I sleep walk, and last night I caught myself being a sleep mermaid. LOL. I was on my belly with my legs up beind me "flapping my tail". LOL. I dream about gigs all the time.

I do get worried about the future. I wanna get married and have kids at some point, I wonder if I'll get my company to enough of a self sustaining things that I can step away from it for a year and have it keep going. I wonder what'll happen after I have kids. I wonder about my health. I wonder about how Sean and I will afford things like a vacation (we never go on them because we always live on such a shoe string budget) or getting married, or even just a badley needed new car.

But for now, I try to live in the moment and take it day by day. I am so proud of what we have accomplished, and I am happy I get to do this even if it's not forever. I keep looking to the mers who came before me for inspiration and they never let me down :)

Plus I'll get the new book out soon, we'll do some new workshops... it'll be great!

[AniaR]

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[AniaR]

Wow I havent updated in a week, so much to share!

Last Monday I took the day off beyond the usual photos editing and emails etc.

Tuesday Mutiny and I were booked for a private club swim at a very expensive place. It was a lot of fun, we dont have many photos because of their privacy policy. We swam for 2 hours straight in a very deep salt water pool giving rides and were exhausted by the time it was over, And freezing!

Mutiny with her mer wrangler

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I spent the rest of the week working my butt off on our new company expansion and updating the websites www.canadianmermaids.com and www.atlanticmermaids.com (still under construction)

I'll copy and paste my FB announcement as it explains it best:

---

Canadian Mermaids Inc (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Canadian-Mermaids-Inc/1522333807997260) and Atlantic Mermaids (https://www.facebook.com/AtlanticMermaids) will be launching soon! We plan to be the premier booking agency for Canadian Mermaids both country wide and in Atlantic Canada. It's our mission to make the mermaid entertainment world in Canada bigger, by training, education, advocating for, and empowering other Canadian Mermaids! We want to be the place clients go for a directory of amazing Canadian mer-talent, and we want to provide the BEST mer-talent in our home and native land by helping new mermaids get going in the industry, or empowering existing ones. Keep an eye on these facebook pages as we get closer and closer to launch! You'll find out ways to apply to be an official "CanMer Affiliate" or "Atlantic Mermaid Affiliate" and have a variety of packages to choose from to help get your mermaid career into the waves, or build upon it!

These pages will also be a great place to keep track of all things mermaid in Canada, and follow the adventures of current Canadian Mermaids Inc and Atlantic Mermaids members.

Canadian Mermaids Inc is a registered Canadian-wide business, owned and operated by Raina the Halifax Mermaid and her merwrangler Sean Norman. Atlantic Mermaids is a subsidiary company and parent company to Halifax Mermaids (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Halifax-Mermaids/644749652223161) . Our website is currently under construction as well as our new FB pages. Please be sure to like for updates.

---

Thursday I had my dental appliance put in. I still cant speak normally and it hurts :( it's made me feel a bit embarrassed at gigs. I told the kids I was still learning to speak English, and they made me speak mermaid underwater! lol

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It'll be so worth it when Im done though!!!

Yesterday I had a lovely booking for a cute party, and afterwards I did a little bit of video.

Here I am "talking" underwater


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A22orlHaryU

Here I am showing the kids how to make bubble rings


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E67Pjt_GAUg

Here's a video I made for my sponsors Mystic Knotwork showing one of their bracelets! You can reallllly tell how messed up my fluke is. It keeps flopping to my left underwater and sometimes you can even see the fold down the middle :S


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dADK8WdhSk


My beautiful bracelet

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floppier than normal fluke

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This morning I had a lovely and beautiful gig with some of the sweetest kids. No photos with them but a photo of me just kinda hanging out before it started....

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You can see Im holding my mouth kinda funny cuz I cant figure out how to smile yet with this thing in there.

As for this evenings gig... well... I think I better just copy and paste what I put on my personal FB cuz it's a little nuts.

Why do so many parents think it's okay for us mermaids to take a beating from their kids? I am very clear in my booking agreement. Some parents are amazing and really pay attention to make sure the kids are treating us respectfully. This evenings gig saw me being beaten up by a boy. He spat at me in my face multiple times, smacked me with toys and noodles and was generally awful. I had to keep breaking character to use my teaching voice. I would swim away and visit other kids and I coudlnt figure out who his parents were. At the end of the gig we posed for photos and I put my fluke up. He decided to grab it which sometimes kids will ask me if they can hold it and that's fine. He decided to try and peel it into two pieces which since my fluke recently broke in the middle is not that hard. And he wasnt just picking at it, kid was insanely aggressive. I made him stop and within a second he walked to mermaid nessie and with both feet jumped into the air and tried to land square on the back of her heels (could you imaging lying on your belly with your toes pointed and having someone intentionally crush your heels?) I caught him with my arm mid jump and pulled him away and dropped all kindness in my voice and told him what's what while his dad stood there.

Other fun things? Let's see I still have a giant lisp and no one could understand me. I put my feet into the tail, got it all pulled up and into the water only to realize I had a second pair of socks in the foot pockets. My pectoral fin was torn clean off and Sean had to stick it back with safety pins until we could get it home to fix it. The dads at the party decided to ANNOUNCE that the mermaids werent real and were in costumes. Thanks for making us go through so much hard work to make sure the kids don't see us change and we stay in character and chat all through emails how important that it- and then just burst the bubble. Queue 5 little girls being insanely rude about us not being "real". One dad teased me about my dental work and the birthday girl as sweet as she seemed wasnt interested in the slightest.

After all that we got home and realized my phone got forgotten at the pool. This was also Nessie's last birthday party before she moves

I am thinking I'll make a separate behavioural policy for part gigs from now on it. Honestly, I have only ever had 2 really bad bookings but you wouldnt let your kids treat anyone this way. Paid or not. Im also going to make a fee for anyone who does intentional damage to us.

This mornings gig was a ray of sunshine and the kids were lovely. Bad gigs are few and far between but man do they ever make you think


So.. yup.

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I will re attach it before my gig on Tuesday... no worries. Made me think fins would make cool head dresses tho!

A few other things...

Nessie is leaving us soon :( we have one more gig together! She gave us goodbye presents!

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She got me this locket and I have always wanted this thing. I collect pewter sea jewellery from this specific company! I cried when I opened it lol

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So kinda and thoughtful :)

A few more behind the scenes

We went to a family birthday party and I got this:

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Washing the tail

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I am trying this new teatox fad and for whatever reason it's working for me. You can see my progress on my instagram HFXmermaid. I've lost 4lbs in 3 days (I can never get even so much as 1lbs to come off) and lost an inch of bloat. I have a lot of problems with water retention thanks to my meds, and this is realllly helping !!!

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[MerEmma]

Wow, I'm so sorry about that gig. What a pain in the butt. :( I'm glad it doesn't happen too often to you but damn, those dads were also rude as heck. I can't believe they'd say something like that.

[Mermaid Danielle]

I'm so sorry you had such a difficult weekend :( Hopefully next week will be much better. Thanks again for sharing all of your stories with us!

[AniaR]

I'm actually in a good mood just gotta haul ass on my tail before Tuesdays gig

[Arella]

I was just thinking about some kind of fee for clear intentional damage. I was just at a party and a Mom stood next to her son as he ripped the top off my mermaid chest! It was NAILED in.

[AniaR]

Wowza!!!

[Arella]

Yeah that chest only took me about a week to make by the time I was done with staining and painting the gold parts and the decorations...23459
Sorry for the big pic I really need to learn to resize pics!

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Wow! You have amazing patience with kids, even the naughty ones! If it were me, I would've just screamed at the kid and told off his parents. So glad I'm just a rec mer.

[AniaR]

If I screamed I'd have 20 sets of parents and kids all telling everyone they know. Plus staff. Small Town. Sometimes you gotta roll

[Mermaid Jaffa]

I don't have patience with kids. I barely tolerate having my nieces and nephew around but that is because they are family. Here you are dealing with strangers' kids, its just wow.

[AniaR]

23461


All fixed. Good as new!

[Arella]

Looks good!

[AniaR]

I didnt have any new black pigment but it'll do for now :)

[Arella]

Was that just Slipoxy?

[AniaR]

Yup

[AniaR]

Quick little catch up before I get into yet another busy weekend/week.

Im still adjusting to my dental appliance. Man this thing is annoying lol. Got it cranked today for the first time ugggh. 22 more days of getting it turned and wearing it til January. LAME.

Tuesday I did a private booking for a party but it was kinda weird. The birthday girl and her sister both had tails which was cool... but the poor birthday girl was not in a good mood and basically ignored me and everyone else :( Im not sure if something happened before hand or what. To top it off I still have a dramatic lisp, and she was hard of hearing. So as much as I tried to encourage her she didn't care. Her sister was a lot of fun as were the other kids.

My repairs to rapidash held up well. I had some friends together including some of the mermaids for a game night of cards against humanity and tears of hilarity were shed. It was really nice to get together with everyone outside of mer work. Mimi just came back from cape cod (where splash takes place) and brought me a beautiful mermaid ring. Im not sure where she got it.

23602

The music video I have a small bit in was released

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUphxmQaIbo

My computer that has been gone since March finally came back and they didnt send me the battery or plug!!!

After all that drama of the bad gig I updated our booking agreement http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/booking-agreement.html

Off to go blueberry picking in the morning tomorrow. Then Mermaid Mutiny (https://www.facebook.com/mermaidmutiny) gets married!!! then for the rest of the weekend we're all at Tallahassee days 12-3 both days. Should be good. Monday off, then a daycare booking Tuesday and a private booking Wednesday. Monday is mine and Sean's 7th anniversary!

https://38.media.tumblr.com/db0a14c0799f4d8ca88f241c13f08663/tumblr_nam4iz6Co51r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

STILL having the issue I wrote about in the other thread where facebook thinks my page is spam. *sigh*

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Have I mentioned just how much I enjoy this thread?

[AniaR]

Catching up for the rest of the week and into the weekend before I start another busy week!

I've been getting my new dental appliance turned every day. It's widening my pallet and holy crow does it make a difference! But hurts like hell. feels like being kicked in the face every time. My speech is still awful and embarrassing :( but I am learning to cope with it. It's gotten much better I just wish it was normal.

Friday morning Sean and I decided to do something non-mermaid related and went blueberry picking :D it was a lot of fun even though my mouth was sore.

I present: merwrangler Sean... blueberry picker and kid wrangler ;)

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I picked up this cool mermaid shirt at a part store when I went to pick up supplies for the weekend

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And here I am wearing it while I clean my tail... lol

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Mermaid Mutiny got married! Aboard the tallship Silva!

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It was beautiful and we are so so so happy for her!!!!


I decided it was time to fix my hair. I havent dyed it since before Mimis wedding cuz the chlorine just kills it. My hair is naturally just a little browner than this, but I go brighter because that way as the chlorine leaches color I look normal a little longer, until I look fried again. What a difference!

Fried hair:

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New hair!

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It ends up going SUPER BRIGHT because of how bleached it is from the pools lol. It gives me a great confidence booster though. Makes me feel good :)

All weekend we had a festival, before we set up I got some behind the scenes pics

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As for the event we worked you can see the full two photo albums here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.805721406125984.1073741845.644749652223161&type=1

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.805987286099396.1073741846.644749652223161&type=1

ANd here's the video from day 1. I havent had a chance to upload day 2 yet. (it takes like 6 hours to upload lol)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTEjrvj6mro

Mermaid Nessie slept over last night and we stayed up all night lol.

I wanted to share a story I've been posting on FB along with some photos that go with it

"I just have to share a magical moment that happened in Fisherman’s Cove today.

My merwrangler Sean has a friend with a 3 year old daughter. This daughter has to deal with very serious illness. So serious she moved here just to get treatment at the IWK. I personally had a very difficult childhood due to circumstances around my birth and illness as well, but I wasn’t prepared for the story for wha…t this little one had to go through. This little one goes through painful procedures daily so she can live. It’s so amazing sometimes when you hear about kids going through this stuff and then seeing them still be kids.

She loves mermaids. Love love. And when she came today to see us she spent a good chunk of time. I watched her laugh and dance around, climb up with mermaids and ask us questions and talk, sing, tell us funny stories. Her reward for being so good during all these treatments was to meet the mermaids. And we made sure it was the best experience possible. She was a normal kid today. Which to her and her family, isn’t taken lightly.

The whole Tallahassee days was just like that. Everyone being in character and going out of their way to create this fun storyline and include visitors in it. I know it made a difference to that little mer-fan, and I know it made a difference to everyone who made it out. From pilgrims who lead games and stories, pirates running around causing shenanigans , and shop owners who went all our to contribute to the experience.

Thank you to everyone who was involved! Us mermaids are honoured to have been a part and recognize the hard work of so many that went into making it so great."

https://38.media.tumblr.com/c9288bdcff54167565e6067dcff5b9af/tumblr_naub6jkPm41r0wgkuo1_1280.jpg

https://31.media.tumblr.com/75f54ff0342cdb093b6e45912ae29a61/tumblr_naub6jkPm41r0wgkuo2_1280.jpg

and here's a few more pics:

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(thats the store owner and his daughter where I sell my gear!)

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that's my adopted merling :D she's been my fan since I pretty much started and comes to events when she can. I wish I had money I'd buy this girl a tail. she so deserves one.

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This is Sean's friend some high school and she has C.P. SHe's hilarious though, loved us and reallllllly loved sean. She was kissing him and hugging him and liked his butt. Haha he's popular with ladies

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the girl in the middle is Mermaid Victoria with her land legs ;)

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we tried to go out for a swim and the tide was so far out all we could do was sit in a few cms of water LOL

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this little girl brought us shells she'd found for us

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A store owner gifted me with this!

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Nessie gets some poutine, LOL

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The pirates wanted to make chowder out of us!!!

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this little guy came to several events. He also built me a reef lol

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This week!

Monday- Mine and Sean's 7th anniversary so be prepared for mushiness heading your way! Haha. I might make a restrospective post. <3

Tuesday- daycare visit, hoping I can speak clearly enough so they can understand my lesson

wed- a private swim

sometime this week- I am doing a mermaid makeover as a thankyou to two girls who helped out with the summer camps I did and we're hoping to take nice underwater pics of them.

Labour day weekend- NO GIGS. I booked it off haha. vacation! Sean and I, Mimi and her hubby, are off to go camping on an island and frollic in the ocean all weekend. <3

After that school starts so my week day gigs slow down except for the odd school booking. I'll be training to be a first aid instructor to help me round out my earnings, and we're also hoping to launch atlantic mermaids and canadian mermaids affiliates program, publish my book (there will be a huge book release party we're hoping to live stream), many private events and parties and we're going to travel to "open" a YMCA, I'll be preparing my latest set of workshops, updating all the vlogs, and visiting with christomer! He's coming to Halifax for a week so we're going to take him on adventures ;)

that's all for now!

[AniaR]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JKD9-YD_Wo


the other video :)

[AniaR]

Hey there, did you know little boys LOVE spending time with mermaids? Because apparently some people can't wrap their head around that, or why it would be A good thing! So I decided to address it http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog/boys-over-mermaids

[Raayvhen]

Well said!

[MerEmma]

Great post all around! :)

[AniaR]

Today my vacation starts! woo woo!

Tuesday I did an awesome visit to a daycare. Only 8 kids I was shocked! (some took the week off) it was really easy and the kids really loved everything we said and did. The boys were super into it.

Yesterday (wed) was a weird one but still good. I arrived at the hotel where I was doing my private booking. The staff didnt know a thing about it which was weird. I'd been there many times before, and I'd made sure with the clients to double confirm the staff knew. There was the fleeting fear of "did I go to the right place?" but I checked my emails and I was. They would NOT let me into the pool area (even though it was empty). So I slopped on lube and ungracefully pulled my tail on in the lobby. I sat on some chairs not very impressed trying to get ahold of the client and figure out what was going on. I had been early so I could get into the pool. I ended up waiting 25 minutes before a staff member who knew what was going on and addressed the miscommunication came down and let me in.

This particular pool is always hit or miss in terms of chlorine. The first time I was in it we did all this underwater photos and videos because it was so easy on the eyes. Everytime since it's been horrid. This was so bad before I even got in my eyes hurt. Ugh. Thank god for gen-teal eye gel! I hit the water, AND SWAM OUT OF MY TAIL. That has not happened since my old mertailor tail days. I have lost a bit of weight. but not THAT much. my tail was still skin tight THE DAY BEFORE. I realized in my anxiety of getting ready I'd used waaay too much lube. I could not get it out either. Before the clients arrived I tried to swim and couldn't swim properly because the thing would slide around so much, bunch, create drag, and fill with water. I tried opening the waist and letting water in and trying to swish it out but I didnt have time to take it off and put it on again. The kids arrived so I muddled through.

The main client's daughter didnt like me lol she was only 2 and when you go that young it's hit or miss. But the other kids did. I gave rides, swam around, and posed next to the hot tub for photos for them. It was an easy gig once it got going.

Here's some behind the scenes pics from the last little while:

Back from that other event I did, here's a real parrot meeting a robot one. If you watch the videos on my instagram it had pretty neat results

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I've got water proof makeup down to a science and can make it last 2-3 gigs a day. This is a photo after the gig from Tuesday

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^got these for my girls

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last look at my hair before it got chloriney again lol

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still losing tummy bloat thanks to this amazing tea I've been using

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^unimpressed me waiting to figure out what was going on lol

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was too fast swimming around so Seanny couldnt get many photos

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So I have just ended summer basically. School starts next week and my gigs MOSTLY return to only weekends. I decided to take between now and the 6th when I have my next gig off. I wanted one weekend in the summer to myself so for labor day weekend Sean and I are going camping on an Island with Mimi and her husband. It'll be great :D we're gonna snorkel and be mermaids and have camp fires and make food and just enjoy having an Island to ourselves.

I've made it through 3 full months of being a full time Mermaid. that's all I did. It was my only income and sometimes I supported both Sean and I too when he was in between contract work. I'm really proud of myself. I did a lot! I didn't do it without help though. Sean was amazing, my other mers were amazing, all our clients, and a select group of the mer community really helped me out in the start when I had a bunch of expensive health stuff fall on my shoulders. People were so great about buying my book and workshop so I could pay for things and a few people got sponsored places on my website too. I am so lucky to have such support.

Fall will be tricky, and I am relying on new book sales (once the book is launched) along with workshop, merch and others to help round out the less gigs. Though I am booking up every weekend until 2015 I know it wont be enough unless I get these other things going too.

I am still really struggling with this damn appliance in my mouth but only 15 more days of turning and the pain should stop and I should get better with my speech. it's hella annoying and if I knew it would be this much trouble I would of waited to start the process. But it is what it is so I gotta deal with it for now.

I'm going to be doing admin stuff over the next week, updating the websites, and getting ready to launch Canadian Mermaids and Atlantic Mermaids. I was a bit bummed when Gasprilla (the group that did merpalooza) launched "the mer directory" as it's incredibly similar to what we announced, and of course it has to be international so it includes Canada. However, we are offering a lot of things that are very specific to the Canadian Market, along with a bunch of other awesome things that aren't offered through there. It just sucks because our part of the website isnt live as we wait to hear back from lawyer and insurance agent. I've got to go and redo things now or it'll look exactly like we copied the merdirectory even though we were first. I also tried to approach the other people who run similar things (like mermaidtales.net) when we were in the planning stages to let them know what we were doing and how we were trying to be different, out of respect and so they wouldn't be shocked when they saw it. I just kinda wish I'd had a heads up since some of the people involved with the merdirectory knew what I was working on. This is life though. We are going as fast as we can with our business expansion but it all cost money and I have to earn that money and pay as I go. Meanwhile people who have money can just swoop in and do something in a week you'd been trying to get together for a year, Bug big business for you! I'm learning the hard way that you can't expect other people to be as courteous as you are.

I am trying not to be sour about it and be positive. Our goal with Canadian mermaids is to legitimize mermaid work in Canada and help people get more work. The merdirectory will do that too, so I am tweaking things so that we compliment each other. And I think it's important to address the specific needs of canadians and have a canadian do that. So I guess we'll see what happens. IN the past only 2 canadian mermaids have ever registered on these types of sites. And I think I can offer them more.

In the meantime, Christomer is coming to visit us in a few weeks time. he's up here for work so Sean and I are going to take him around to do some Canadian stuff.

Raven is catching up on tails and flying through but mine isn't started yet. Hopefully soon. I am thinking if it's done in time I may do my book release, and a tail release at the same time! Let people see my tail at the event for the first time like a big unveil. We'll see :)

that's everything that's up in Raina land. I'm not sure how often I'll post in this thread now that things are winding down. I guess we'll just have to see how crazy things get!

[AniaR]

I'd really appreciate your help with something!
There's a function on my page I would reallllly appreciate you using! It's called "invite friends" . It appears on the left hand side of my page. You will see photos of people who like my page as an icon, and just beneath it says "invite friends". Then it'll give you a pop up window and you can invite people you think might like my page It's cool to invite everyone, it shows up as separate "pages" notification and they can ignore it if they don't want to like.

I'm asking you to do this because the usual "share my page" or tag me stuff isn't working. facebook is STILL blocking me and prompting people to put in a capctha as if it's spam And I am still booting fake accounts off my page. It's really important to me that I have REAL fans on here, people who want to see my content and aren't just a fake number. It's how I get business.

It's especially helpful for me if you are someone who is Canadian, or even better yet. local! But I am really thankful for mernetwork people because it all helps. My city has been stuck in instanbul for weeks even after deleting 100s of fans :(

I've attached a screenshot of my friend's page, to show you where to click. THANKS EVERYONE I REALLY APPRECIATE THIS. As we are now going into the fall and winter I rely on word of mouth booking so much!

23893

My page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Raina-the-Halifax-Mermaid/183327321702019

[AniaR]

So last weekend Mimi and I went on Vacation! The water was 9 degrees C so swimming did not happen for me at least. Mimi was crazy and went in. I tried but it physically hurt and there was no getting used to it. That's the stuff seizures are made of, and Mimi kept saying it gave her a headache. LOL but she did it anyway because she was having fun. It was a great and much needed weekend.

Im adjusting a lot better to my dental appliance but I still have a lisp and that sucks.

This week I've been catching up on mermaid accounting (good Lord it took me 4 hours), planning out our gigs, working on the websites, and tomorrow I have a business meeting with my board of directors.

Christomer is coming to visit me soon. So Sean and I are planning out stuff for that.

This weekend I've got gigs and a wedding. It's been crazy going from go go go with the gigs to a halting stop (for weekdays) now that school has stopped. But Im already getting requests for school visits and after school program visits.

My tail is sooo shot ugh she needs another overhaul before the weekend, just been so busy! I had to order replacement scales for Mutiny's tail too only to find out the main color we need is discontinued ugh. Oh well we got the closest one to it.

Anyway.. here are some pictures. We also got some back from Mimi's wedding I thought I'd share :3

Making the fish lip faces!

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These arrived for us, TOP MAKING PARTY SOON woo woo

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Mimi swimming in the freezing water

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She went in like this, I attempted to go in like this and walked right back out hahaha

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Eventually though she got cold. Gotta love my white white legs. Always under a tail... lol

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It got so chilly at night I wrote a tshirt and tights UNDER fleexe pjs with wool socks LMAO

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Tried to take romantic photo... Mimi photo bombed lol

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I did my version of the ice bucket challenge by dousing myself in the frigid water. For perspective, ocean water in Atlantic canada that is UNDER ice is typically 6-9 degrees C. This was WINTER temps thanks to a tropical storm that blew through.

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It knocked the wind out of me. LOL. Wont do that again.

We found a castle. Someone lived there. I think it might of been prince Eric

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We took a boat everywhere and enjoyed our only vacation of summer!

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Yearly romantic boyfriend post

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Mimi and I being silly
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COLD WATER

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Group shot

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if you didn't see yet already I released the MOCK UP of my covers. This one has typos and some things will be changed. But it's a general idea. GETTING SO CLOSE Thanks to people in the forum who are helping to edit!

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[Arella]

Looks like you all had fun :)

[Mermaid Lorelei]

<3 Glad you finally got a vacay!

[AniaR]

did an awesome photoshoot with Mutiny and Mimi!! Here's a little behind the scenes of just me. We did these just at sunset. got dark and cold fast lol It was filmed and uploaded in HD but for some reason it keeps going blocky.


http://youtu.be/xaemlalZqZg

[AniaR]

Two more vids:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxNvzfTfrXM


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp7-WNhmiKA


Off to gigs today and tomorrow, and Christomer just arrived! Supper tonight hopefully.

[AniaR]

Just wanted to share some of the photos I've had a chance to edit from our photoshoot last Friday

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I had gigs this past weekend, didn't get any pics on Saturday, that was this gig with a little girl who wanted to be as INDEPENDENT as possible it was hilarious. She was 4 and taking on the world. She did eventually let me give her a ride at the end.

Sunday Mutiny and I had a gig in a pool so shocked it killed us. There was more kids than should of been allowed, we should of had 3 mermaids because of how many. but we managed through it and has some fun. It was good.

Christomer arrived Saturday and after my gig we headed out to show him parts of Halifax. Turns out the mermaid punch he loves to make here is illegal. So they made us drink 1 drink in a bunch of shot glasses. There are some TERRIBLY staged photos of me pretending to be wasted on his profile. LOL We've been eating all kinds of Canadian foods and showing him around it's been a lot of fun. Remembering last merfest and talking about what'll be happening this upcoming merfest.

I'm still finishing up the editing process of my book. Hope for it to be done really soon.

My dental appliance is coming along I can almost speak normally and I have 6 more days of adjusting it left. It still has to stay in until January but I am getting there.

I've had to deal with a family crisis during this past few days and it's been awful. I don't wanna say much online but I could just use some good juju sent my way. I have some big things I have to do that are scary, and I may have to make some big life changes in order to keep a vulnerable family member safe. Just got a lot on my shoulders.

Let's see some more pics, shall we?

Mutiny and I at a gig

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My tail and I

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christomer and the famous door from the Titanic that inspired the scene in the movie. (maybe it couldnt fit two after all)

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Christomer on a Titanic deck chair replica (the real one was behind glass)

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spiral christmas tree!

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Sometimes my mermaids and I just need to blow off steam. mermaid and merwrangler games night!

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Mermaids eat sock monkey

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Did some makeup inspired by pearlie's tail!

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Set up my office area for the fall

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^ christomer took a few photos of Sean and I

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cant figure out how to smile yet lol

took him to a mermaid pub

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This week I have to do MAJOR tail repairs. I am thinking of making two vlogs around it. One about cleaning my tail, one about fixing it and showing the process.

Our underwater camera broke :( the door that protects the battery and SD card came off, we're trying to order a replacement but I gotta admit I had a bit of a meltdown. Our stuff just all needs some serious replacing. :(

We are spending time with christomer, I am planning out our charity events for the year, overhauling and organizing all our stuff, editing photos, trying to get the book finished, and getting ready for another family wedding along with handling a family issue. So yeah, crazy week and I am not sleeping well. lol I predict a big crash at the end.

[MerEmma]

I love that makeup! Looks so magical. :D And your jacket in the last few pictures!
The picture of you and Sean by the pond is so sweet. <3
Sorry about your camera too, though. :(

[PearlieMae]

Great photos!!!

I just got one of these on Amazon, it might hold you over until you can get a decent one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MV5S7UM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I tried looking on the Canada Amazon site, but they didn't have any...maybe a US mer could mail it?

Hope everything is okay!

[Sherielle]

That picture of you and Sean in the park is simply breathtaking.
And good juju coming your way.

[AniaR]

the spot is where we went on our first date and where we always used to meet :) you can't see from the photo but that tree makes like a private little dome! haha

[Kishiko]

Great photos!!!

I just got one of these on Amazon, it might hold you over until you can get a decent one: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00MV5S7UM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I tried looking on the Canada Amazon site, but they didn't have any...maybe a US mer could mail it?

Hope everything is okay!

Sorry for the derail, but how is the quality of that camera? Have you tested it yet?

[PearlieMae]

Nope, just arrived today. The reviews are good, but they do say "It's no GoPro, but a great value"

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Lovely! At least your tail half kept you warm!

[AniaR]

an announcement: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1473221092956269&set=vb.100008051770372&type=2&theater

[AniaR]

I've been too busy to post any updates here! but I've got a video compilation from the summer ready.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9xFtsY9U5E

[AniaR]

I thought I'd check in with an update! It's been a while.

I launched my book and there's a blog post about it here: http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog/fishy-business-my-life-as-a-mermaid

I also did a blog post about the end of summer: http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog/the-end-of-summer

September and October have been up and down for gigs. September has always historically been a low month because it's back to school and parents and venues aren't thinking about bookings- they're working on the transition after summer. I also had to start daily adjustments on my dental appliance which hurt like hell and made speaking at gigs really hard. So it wasn't an unwelcomed break. Gave me time to heel. (my lisp has gotten a lot better just in this past week)

We've mainly done birthday party bookings, I've been going to the dentist a lot, and physiotherapy. I am feeling A lot healthier!

My girls and I had our semi annual Halifax Mermaids meeting, and we brainstormed some things for the next 6 months and how we're going to make that work. So that was great. We dismissed one of our previous mermaids due to not following the employee agreement and etiquette agreement as well as some professional issues. (PLease don't name her, I don't want to have drama around it) It was a relief for me as I'd been doing a lot of damage control and was very stressed out for every booking that person worked. After my experience with that person I fine tuned the agreement my girls sign and updated everything. So I feel much better about the future.

We did a volunteer gig for the local children's hospital that was a lot of fun and unseasonably warm for October.

Both our cameras died and have been replaced with a Nikon D300s and a gopro Hero 3+. It's been tricky learning how to use the Nikon as we've switched from Canon, and this particular camera has no true auto settings which we rely on in pool environments. Sean accidentally took all the photos of our last gig in black and white and I had to convert every single one LOL

I had my online and local book release, and have been selling some books around locally too. The store where I sell my merch closed up shop for the season so I got the remaining merch back.

I have an online workshop coming up https://www.facebook.com/events/1456030647955213/

We managed to get our local YMCA to finally accept mermaids, so that was nice. Only took 3 years.

We only have a few public events left in the year and everything else is private parties. I am already getting booked up for next year. in Canada our spring break happens in March and is called March Break. THat whole week is already booking up with events. I'm planning for opening a YMCA about 3 hours away next month, I have my birthday next month, and in January I'm going to NC Merfest, and then to that girl's empowerment weekend I mentioned before.

I get the dental appliance out at the end of January, along with 3 teeth. And then braces go on. I am excited to finally progress.

Sean and I also recently adopted a kitten named Charlie. He is a cat fish. He comes with me into the bath, into the shower, and I even had to fish him out of the toilet one day. He's very lovey and a perfect fit in our household. Though it took Chicklet a little bit before she got used to him. It's been about 2 weeks now. Can't imagine life without him.

Now for photos and videos...

New camera fun

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The eye on the octotop popped off so Mermaid Mutiny improvised

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Behind the scenes at a gig

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Charlie likes my book

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...and my tail

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I tried these out and didn't like them, they mostly got in the way

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Cute boyfriend ready to take photos

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The two books together!

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Some lovely gifts from Mermaid Lorelei after my main necklace and earrings broke (just from over use)

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Mutiny and I had a few difficult gigs, and then a few awesome ones

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Mimi and I were really tired after gigs

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Mimi got a mahina merfin and while it sure is pretty it is without a doubt the most uncomfortable thing I've ever worn. lol I dont like it at all. I'm glad I know though - I wont buy a tail with it in it

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Sean editing my book

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A picture from Christomer's visit

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Sean tried Christomer's tail I was so proud of him

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We all piled (mermaids and their partners) into Christomer's hotel room and made him eat donairs- a eastern canadian food. So good

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Mermaid Mutiny and I smiling at a gig

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Sean being handsom while I learn the new camera

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Me celebrating my new haircut and fall

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Mutiny and I out for a swim

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Another shot from a photo shoot

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Guess where Charlie likes to hang out? lol

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He fell asleep like this

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New mermaid shirt!

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Picking up a happy mermaid Mutiny for a gig

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Yeah it's not just me...

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He really is a cat fish

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An early birthday present from Christomer, a shirt put out to gain money for Mission Blue one of my favourite charities.

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Couple shot

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Behind the scenes

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I've lost a bunch of weight and water retension which is nice. Top is before, bottom is 3 weeks after. Using a detox program

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Photos from my book release, this little boy was my first ever fan when he was a baby!

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and speaking of babies...

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The mermaid on the left is mermaid victoria, she made her own tails, and we are training her. She's not an official Halifax Mermaid yet but we hope she will be in the future.

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My nanny came to the book release. She is 88. She was very interested in touching the tails it was too cute. She is also in the book so she decided she was a celebrity. ;)

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https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/10354729_830503506981107_2178124483947760594_n.jpg ?oh=d6a6297f0d4e5c8dc8549c3af47e069a&oe=54B190B7&__gda__=1425439494_b44429d1f9096f0b1bbaad8ad850ba0 4

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10731130_830503946981063_1550563873458878992_n.jpg ?oh=4953cf998c3046fa29c20a37c3e7f20e&oe=54C07809

My Dad and Stepmom came too, and my aunt sent flowers and a mermaid balloon

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/10620395_830504610314330_3120574542578235145_o.jpg

We got fan art

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Photo of Mutiny

https://scontent-b-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t31.0-8/10708573_829361600428631_3401239273324023534_o.jpg

Stickers bought from dollar store, stayed on during swimming

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Mutiny and Mimi

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/10571924_825649800799811_3064127149130672493_o.jpg

Mimi being adorbz

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t31.0-8/841104_825224784175646_1480085983606451096_o.jpg

What the children's hospital means to us...

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/10630613_916901125003856_9099993873181664103_o.jpg

Captain Jack wanted a tail too

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10295296_822994674398657_3831412044868511263_o.jpg

he told us he stole his boots that's why they looked so clean ;)

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This little boy is special. He and his brother have been fans a long time and come to many events. His brother passed away and he was at this charity event to raise money for the hospital that treated him, and to take part in his memory. I let him be a pirate and catch the mermaid ;)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/1606443_822994051065386_9080029995232424649_o.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10662038_822993751065416_8738697667768382321_o.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10700268_822993697732088_8602734768398549559_o.jpg

More gigs

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10539164_820316361333155_7413442102221894966_o.jpg

https://scontent-a-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/1548163_820317337999724_467134780083364540_o.jpg

having fun

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Bought Jazz's book

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This happened

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hair cut

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1485160015095710&set=a.1390748491203530.1073741829.100008051770372&type=1

Kitty in bath

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No photo, but I saved another kid from drowning... lol


Here's a few videos

A funny vlog about putting on tails showing Sean and I hilarious falling while trying to do it


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttrjqh_IJNI

Giving Sean a swim lesson


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ztx39q5RrDE

Visit with christomer swim


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My2IsNg_coM

Sean trying the tail on for the first time


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDwGVf8QQ3g


BAM youre now updated on all things me. Also, my eyes have been driving me nuts I think from too much chlorine damage. The past two months I've been having trouble with blurred vision and typing/writing with loads of errors. On a wait list to get it checked.

[Mermaid Lorelei]

-thumbsup- You so awesome!

[Mermaid Galene]

Witht the giant fish tails around, I bet your new kitty is thinking he's the luckiest feline ever!

[Yulia]

Love your new haircut! It fits you perfectly.

[AniaR]

Our 2015 mer-calendar is here and makes a perfect holiday gift for the mermaid enthusiast in your life! Click "preview" once you've opened the link to see pages featuring the Halifax Mermaids. http://www.lulu.com/content/legacy-lulustudio-calendar/my-calendar/15457318

[AniaR]

Did you ever wonder just exactly what mermaids teach and how we educate? Often when we explain that a component of what we do involves education- we get a funny look! So here's a new page on our website that explains it all. You can also see some great images and video of the mermaids educating people of all ages! http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/mermaids-for-education.html

[Mermaid Galene]

That's great, Raina! It's really important that clients understand what we do is more than just sparkly fantasy.

[Vrindavana Starfish]

That Nikon looks badass. That's the one camera I haven't used (probably because I'm primarily video.) I have a family of Lumixs, a GH1 and a GH3. Awesome photos! Those kids look so happy!

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Have you made a vlog about mer hair after the pool?

Lately, whenever I leave the pool, my hair both super crunchy and full of knots. I had it professionally dyed at the salon. I've tried coconut oil but didn't really like it as I'm not fond of the smell.

Another forum suggested putting sunscreen on your hair. Have you found a solution that works?

On non pool days, I wash it with a shampoo and conditioner for color treated hair, and alternate days I put in a leave-in shampoo. But still have crunchy, knotted hair at the pool.

[AniaR]

Nope. as I've mentioned a few times (maybe you missed it) Iwont make a vlog about hair til I find something that I feel works and I can endorse. I have tried everything under the sun, and nothing really works when you're constantly in the water.

[Mermaid Wesley]

True facts there. I'm partial to COATING YOUR HAIR IN TONS OF VASELINE. But that's only really good when the pool in question is going to burn your hair off and you can't bring yourself to jump in. It will protect your hair but it's also a huge fricking pain in the ass to wash out. And don't expect to have pretty mermaid hair out of the water lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Nope. as I've mentioned a few times (maybe you missed it) Iwont make a vlog about hair til I find something that I feel works and I can endorse. I have tried everything under the sun, and nothing really works when you're constantly in the water.

Yes, I read that. I had hoped you had a solution that you forgot to post up!

I'll try the sunscreen and let yous know how it went.

[Vrindavana Starfish]

True facts there. I'm partial to COATING YOUR HAIR IN TONS OF VASELINE. But that's only really good when the pool in question is going to burn your hair off and you can't bring yourself to jump in. It will protect your hair but it's also a huge fricking pain in the ass to wash out. And don't expect to have pretty mermaid hair out of the water lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yikes! Maybe try olive oil? It's pretty heavy and won't rinse out in the pool so easily, but comes out probably easier than vaseline. I'm a fan of coconut oil at all times, and I found a shea butter conditioner that is too heavy for every day use, but it's been working as a leave-in before I swim. I'll give it a few weeks and say whether or not its still working.

[AniaR]

There's several threads and one main thread for haircare if youre interested. I'd rather just keep this thread for documenting my journey, I've already got a thread on my vlogs and there's plenty of hair care threads, thanks :)

http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?231-Mer-Care-for-Mer-Hair&highlight=hair+care

http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?4402-How-to-deal-with-chlorine-s-negative-effects&highlight=hair+care

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Thank you.

[AniaR]

I havent updated this in a while, here's my latest blog which sums up the past month http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog

November was our slowest month in all of 2014. In December we have more bookings than I can handle and I'll be spending some time with mermaid victoria to scope her out. We're also talking to a lifeguard about him doing some contract work for us, and also him giving some thought to being a merman (if I can find him a tail). It's so frustrating to have the demand and not enough resources. ON one day in December we have 4 gigs, and could have 6 if we could clone ourselves hehe.

We're also having a Halifax Mermaids party. We did a craft fair and used the money to rent a pool for 2 hours so we have the time to swim, get photos and videos and such, then we'll be coming back to my place for a small gift exchange, watching Splash (none of them have seen it!) and food.

January of course brings Merfest, the NB gig I mentioned about in other threads, annnnnd my appliance finally comes out, along with 3 teeth, and braces go on! So for the last week of January and first week of February I am out of commission and the girls are covering all my gigs. Mimi has been making us some fabric tails and I keep trying to buy up the kid's monofins whenever I see sales online. So in January we also hope to offer a package where kids can be turned into mermaids. Im also hoping to offer photo shoots similar to what Fifi is doing come spring and summer!

I seriously cant even wait to get this appliance out of my mouth. It sucks I'll have it for merfest! Grrr

[AniaR]

Also forgot to add I had to pick up some temporary part time work at a pool (which is still awesome hehe!) doing an after school program. Sean is still struggling to find work and my income is generally the only income so I had to suck it up or he was going to have to move to another province to find work :( thankfully it's been good and fun AND because it's government I get MEDICAL coverage in a few months! Which means no more insane bills for my pills yay. It's only 25 hours a week so not too bad, lots of time off too, and they're accommodating my mermaid schedule perfectly :) I miss being full time mermaid all the time, but I still spend 75% of my time doing mermaid stuff. It was either get a job or let Sean go :( so you can see the predicament.

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Nice. I'm still looking for work... Isn't it winter over there? Too cold for parties?

[AniaR]

we do indoor pools!

Also, I just booked a 10 day (5 hours a day) contract with the local museum in march. woo woo! It's all educational stuff. Really exciting!

I've got another library booking in March too (the last one was the one the news did coverage on that had 300 kids!)

I am so happy because our January and February are totally booked up for 2015 when in 2014 they were the slowest months. I already have a wait list all the way to Sept 2015 now! 2015 is going to be the best mermaid year yet I can just tell~!! :)

Sean's work situation hasn't changed at all so we are hunkering down. I picked up tutoring work, subbing work, first aid work, loads of mermaid gigs, and the part time work at the pool continues now into the new year for the winter. I am literally working 5 part time jobs but the two main ones (mermaid work and the pool work) FEEL like full time. I am trying hard not to get burnt out. It's going to look like I am making a lot of money- and I guess technically I am- but I am trying to provide for 2 people along with pay down our debt and pay for med stuff (at least until insurance kicks in soon!)

I have 5 gigs this weekend. it's going to be crazy. But I am excited! then next weekend we're having our company christmas party. We rented a pool and we're doing photos then since no one has seen splash we're coming back and watching it and having lunch. Then hopefully the next day visiting a local wild life rescue to make a group donation!

Trying to make Rapidash last through all of this... >.> can't wait for my new tails! Merfest can't come soon enough.

Also hoping my hair lasts. Eden seriene is going to help me out with my hair at merfest :p

[Mermaid Wesley]

Keep it up lovely mermaid! Merfest is gonna be a blast and hopefully you catch a break soon.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AniaR]

I got permission to share some photos, here's a couple. More later. I did a pre teen party it was awesome and we made a crazy video so I'll be posting some versions of that toO (with permission)

Mimi has been making tails!

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10841805_865357663495691_491485219623281680_o.jpg

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https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/t31.0-8/10830095_966541623380581_5553038824515574870_o.jpg


Also I did a little bit of modelling on the side :)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/10818421_966066896761387_4193114607747013011_o.jpg

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[AniaR]

Fun video from last weekend, posted with permission! Mermaid makeover party. Kids were given free range of our two underwater cameras and they had a hilarious blast!


http://youtu.be/4ut322jYSVU

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Neat!

Girl swimming with glasses remind me of myself when I first decided to do mermaid swimming as exercise.

[PearlieMae]

That looks like so much fun!

[AniaR]

It really was. That was from the weekend of like 5 gigs hahaha.

Here's some in between footage from our fishmas party. You'll see my waist gaping- it's because I put ankle weights in my tail and one was at my butt so everytime I swam it pulled my waist a bit lol. Some of the mermaids took turns with the mermaid creations tail. You'll see an additional mermaid. She's not officially part of the team but she's a young girl who makes her own fabric tails and she volunteered at some of my events this past year- so I brought her out to take photos and video as a thank you.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY59RHExpfI&feature=youtu.be

I have so much to post about I'm not even sure where to start... lol I def gonna make a blog post soon!

So we had our fishmas party which was so much fun. We started the day with 2 hours of swimming, underwater photos, and video. Despite all my research and efforts out of 1000 photos I got about 1-2 of each mermaid that was usable. The rest were just too blurry. We realized far too late that we had access to this awesome weighted stick marker that we could stick the camera to so it stayed perfectly still. Live and learn. We still had a lot of fun.

Then we went to the local wildlife rescue group I told people about previously. I have been saving a portion of my book sales along with collecting donation money so we could make a donation. We gave our donation and they took us on a tour and it was SO MUCH FUN and really cool. They had just released a bunch of their animals so there werent as many to see. They rescue seals which is cool! we didnt get to see any but we saw where they keep em.

After that we came back and watched splash because no one in my group has ever seen it so it was a lot of fun. We exchanged fishmas gifts. I got an ariel mug that is stunning, a mermaid inspired handmade book mark, and a copy of a book by my hero Sylvia Earle- SIGNED. Mermaid Mutiny was able to find a lock ness monster with a mermaid on it and gave it to NESSIE. How amazing is that haha?

Then I spent the evening editing photos and videos and will keep doing that today :) oh and eating leftover chinese food.

I landed a big contract locally for next year and the gigs are piling up. I'm seriously hoping I can add a merman to the group at somepoint this upcoming year because I am getting so many requests for one. I just can't afford another tail for the business. Poor Mimi's is in horrid condition guys :( the butt split open, it's full of holes like you wouldnt believe, I can't believe she still uses it. It's so hard to find a used tail for her because she's like an amazon. Her mom is buying her neoprene for christmas and she's got a mahina monofin so I am hoping she'll be able to make herself a silicone caulking one for the time being. but man, it's in rough shape!

Here are some pics:

Screenshot of us all being silly

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/10873619_868716186493172_2997491283230438459_o.jpg

Some of my fishmas gifts

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10850185_10155019869980425_1439348023350232281_n.j pg?oh=10a254d93670e0f0fa8a710454b8cca3&oe=553AF56A

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/10403130_10155019870070425_8567669212261932957_n.j pg?oh=98aa965f97b3550c3826e0a89a488ea6&oe=55039B66

Behind the scenes of Shooting. Sean and I being silly with foggy masks!

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/10631086_10155016809885425_2818614845113681755_o.j pg

Behind the scenes

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https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10482315_10155016812780425_3112239500841463950_n.j pg?oh=f9698babf285bd3331c1b1ceb3467b30&oe=5539C05A&__gda__=1426454799_5a6be0159454827c175895c39a5665c 0

Some of the usable mermaid photos (had to be heavily photoshopped background wise and colourwise to compensate for blur and other issues)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/1546239_10155016803215425_150092384671103292_n.jpg ?oh=c89c38f454d63f3654dc5b68b0090f3f&oe=55376AE8&__gda__=1425712976_61d96f06f844430c5b9860c15c936be 9

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https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10828107_10155016805300425_257195806796140087_o.jp g


Also, a few more of my modelling pics having fun

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10410850_10155012989180425_6129237805339965940_n.j pg?oh=7abaf1c79dfb3ed2a0077915af289936&oe=55086BB4&__gda__=1429567906_cb2c4b4ab2f75ffb1912ecd87c0d5b9 7

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10881665_10155016910165425_7272158387982760849_n.j pg?oh=5f602e17e60346991d41a3d1da4faafb&oe=5546D937

Funny story our kitten likes to hide in my tail so when I went to swim there was a cat toy in my tail... lol

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10858354_10155010751430425_1683389315460236634_n.j pg?oh=e229a1fc4c0afa7f82eb091852ac06e8&oe=55456703

https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10501684_10155010751985425_8187066558475780386_n.j pg?oh=ffa9a2532939a14f92dc1278da1f5912&oe=553519F8&__gda__=1429912455_e5fe66b1e2fa71bb5c36c9ecddcc4c0 e

And that's now it for mermaiding for the year! I wont be in a tail again until New years Day when I get to merfest and receive my new one :) my hair is beyond fried, like beyond. I'm afraid if I go to the hair dresser she'll tell me to cut it off lol. i AM WORKING HARD TO AVOID GETTING SICK LOL. ugh everyone is sick!

And that's about it!

[Vrindavana Starfish]

I love the black backdrop. Is that plastic sheeting or fabric? Nessie's photo is so cool! It would look amazing with some chromatic aberration, especially with that tail of hers. I'm kind of obsessed with chromatic aberration at the moment.

I used to find catnip mice in my pointe shoes all the time. The cat on the tail is priceless. :)

[AniaR]

it's a black fabric that we weight down. It just didnt work out even though it was huge it still wasnt big enough to give us enough coverage.

It's so hard trying to do underwater stuff here we basically learn as we go. I try to research but NO ONE is equipped to do it here and no place rents anything :(

[Vrindavana Starfish]

If I get a good opportunity to do underwater photography/videography, I will share what I learn. My husband and I have a history of inventing/building our own equipment.

[AniaR]

Posted my thank yous for 2014 if you're interested!

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/10854839_974309675937109_1125271484064985429_o.jpg

Find em here: https://www.facebook.com/RainaMermaid/photos/a.183334358367982.40273.183327321702019/974309675937109/?type=1&theater

Also, family photo! lol

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10848504_10155039843405425_5503407443442336572_o.j pg

[AniaR]

OH PS here is a hilarious behind the scenes of our photoshoot!!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRuxMUEPu4U&feature=youtu.be

[Mermaid Enora]

Love the way muntiny's fluke moves in the water!
y'all are amazing!

[AniaR]

I love how you can literally hear her fin move at one point underwater lol. Mermaid Bonnie made that sparkly tail :)

[PearlieMae]

Nice buttwalking!

[AniaR]

Mermaid scootch lol

[MerShellly]

When you get your new tail, couldn't Mimi use Rapidash, or are you going to have another use for it?

[AniaR]

Mimi is way too big and rapidash is barely holding together. Its being retired because its no longer durable enough to swim in.

[AniaR]

I broke the monofin right down the middle

[MerShellly]

Oh yeah I forgot you had mentioned that Mimi was very tall. I know tails have certain measurements but I was just hoping.. :P And oh wow I had no idea! When did that happen? I haven't been reading your blogs/updates until recently; they're really cool.

[Mermaid Wesley]

Lol that was funny


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mermaid Nessie]

Mimi the mermaid hunter! :rotfl:

[Arella]

Mermaid photographer xD would make underwater photo shoots that much easier :)

[OceanWhisper]

Mimi is way too big and rapidash is barely holding together. Its being retired because its no longer durable enough to swim in.

R.I.P poor rapidash. :( I've always thought that it's a beautiful tail. also, LOL that buttscooting >.<

[AniaR]

Here's a blog update from me http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog/catching-up-with-the-halifax-mermaids

Updates to share:

-Merfest was awesome! Loads of pics on my FB for anyone (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.993102214057855.1073741842.183327321702019&type=1)who wants to see.

lots of media coverage for it including an MTV link

Mutiny (https://www.facebook.com/mermaidmutiny) and Raina (https://www.facebook.com/RainaMermaid) gave an interview for88.1 FM (https://www.facebook.com/CKDU88.1FM) just before we left for NB for the Girl's Empowerment Workshop. You can listen to it at the 22:56 mark! http://tinyurl.com/lump28q

Pics from the Girl's Empowerment Workshop (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.416060851877115.1073741830.342653429217858&type=1)



We are training up this lovely mermaid (https://www.facebook.com/mermaidvictoria?fref=ts) to become a new member of our team by summer :)

If you missed the saga, I now have a book cover by the famous author of aquamarine (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?9958-Famous-Author-uses-my-photo-for-her-book-cover-without-my-permission)...

I was reunited with my merling from the 2014 adopt a mermaid program (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?9960-Raina-s-special-little-merling)

I am planning a third book (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?10033-Possible-Third-book-need-input-please)

I have my new merbellas tail (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?3092-Merbella-Studios&p=167260&viewfull=1#post167260)and I love it

we made a donation to this awesome wild life charity (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.868611146503676.1073741852.644749652223161&type=3), we'll be working with them this summer and we get to hang out in a seal tank (seals wont be in with us but next to us) to help raise awareness and funds

My tail is holding up awesome for all the parties we've been doing

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10384822_884348851596572_4565100231741207065_n.jpg ?oh=6a9ca7362e55e97ca160ab96f0c541f7&oe=55223FAA&__gda__=1433040832_731878edcf46ca8efafc55308a18040 7

I got my permanent dental appliance out and have a retainer for a few days. On wed I have oral surgery to take out 3 teeth. then on feb 13th the braces go on. Sometime in between I think I am having a dental spacer put in, ugh not looking forward to that. But just 1 year of braces. I can do this I can do this I can do this! Just keep telling myself that :)

Upcoming:

loads of freaking gigs! I wish I had more mermaids and more mermaid tails. everyone always wants to hire us on the same days lol. We have a wait list 3-5 potential clients deep lol. The summer is going to be mermazing. Merman Christian will be coming to visit and we'll be putting him to work. Lots of awesome summer tourism gigs already booked and a huge wait list for parties.

I am hoping to go to Florida in the spring. it all depends on my early tax return ;)

I just got us a business accountant and it was the best thing I EVER DID. She is the queen. Helping me get loads of money back.

We've got more media coverage coming up.

I've found a local photographer who does a bit of underwater photography and he and I are going to have a test shoot. I am excited and I hope this ends up expanding to us having a reliable underwater photographer outside of ourselves haha.

I think some of you know I picked up extra work to try and take stress off sean. I make enough to be a full time mermaid but due to other life circumstances we needed extra funds. Well I just found out I'll be able to return to fulltime mermaid status around June so that is really exciting for me. I like having extra money but working full time mermaid plus extra work on the side is becoming impossible and I am getting pretty sick. I am finding myself really overwhelmed trying to keep up with everything. I look forward to just focusing on my mermaid stuff this summer and writing that third book :)

[Lily]

Dang, Raina, I cannot get over how amazing your new tail looks! Rapidash has definitely evolved.

Your upcoming dental work sounds... lame. I had braces for 6(?) years as a kid and had at least 8 teeth pulled (not counting my 4 wisdoms, which came out after the braces were off) and it is NO FUN. My dad is experiencing adult braces right now. His recommendation: smoothies (with added protein powder), soft food, and lots of Advil for a few days after every adjustment. He also advises against rice because of the way it sticks in the braces. Are you opting for metal or clear?

At least everything non-mouth-related is going well! It's so exciting to watch your business grow!

[AniaR]

the braces are metal I cant do clear because of the way the teeth are :( but I'll survive!!

[Mermaid Wesley]

It'll be good. Braces are a pain, but worth it in the end.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[AniaR]

So I just got this super cool fanart from this awesome person (http://marvel-scales.tumblr.com/) and I totally wanna get it tattooed on me.

http://41.media.tumblr.com/038ad881bdb05325c0c1bc18e775cbf7/tumblr_nipqxlJcgD1s3w6c6o1_1280.jpg

http://40.media.tumblr.com/c774f3b46c48fae9a2ee2349a5d22542/tumblr_nipqxlJcgD1s3w6c6o2_1280.jpg

[Mermaid Nessie]

Your teeth are gunna look so amazing after. I'm stoked for summer!

[Mermaid Lorelei]

Woohoo! Girl, you are so freaking awesome.

[Mermaid Harmony]

I'm always impressed as well, that's so much stuff. Way to go.

[AniaR]

So I have been off most of this week thanks to a snow storm that shut the city down, and dental surgery. I am healing up fine but taking the time to organize a bunch of things and book us public events!

So on the burner I've got:
-2 new vlogs being fleshed out- as soon as my mouth feels better I'll record them
-a new video series called "Secret Diary of a mermaid" a fictional youtube show :)

The mers and I are booking up loads for the spring and summer so far on the list outside of the normal private events we've got
- a family swim event for a local TV station in two weeks, just the usual entertaining but some TV coverage of it and magazine. Will be fin.
-Spring Break educational week at local museum. I'll have a touch tank of critters and loads of fun resources and mini workshops for the kids. 10 day contact, so crazy
-two library bookings, one for me one for mutiny- hers will be at a brand new beautiful library
-volunteering for a 4th year in a row for the make a wish princess tea party. can't wait, always so cute.
-World Ocean's day
-Hosting merman christian!
-Canada Day annual public event
-Tallahassee days (basically a big fun pirate event)
-and the wildlife rescue program's annual open house

Got a few more things I am juggling around trying to see about and others that will confirm closer to. Hoping to land the summer camp gig again what a splash that was.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t31.0-8/10955659_893653967332727_6350277806841188471_o.jpg

I've picked up subbing full time for the month of Feb so I am hoping it'll be enough to help me pay off my credit card. If I do that I may get to go to Florida :D visit Raven and others!

[Lily]

That Maritime Museum event sounds like so. much. fun! I would totally go if it wasn't in another country... and if it wouldn't be really awkward for me to be there as a grown-ass woman with no kids... but yay!

I hope you get to visit Raven! It's so cool to see the two of you evolve side by side - you as a performer, her as a tailmaker/performer - and it seems like magic always happens whenever you cross paths IRL.

[AniaR]

http://youtu.be/dNYpoxbgszE

[AniaR]

Okay! let's see update time!

I'm still having the issue with my account being marked as spam. If you've got a minute, please fill out this form to let FB know my fanpage isn't dangerous. I know mermaids are often seen as dangerous but it would be nice if FB took the silly block off my page. Just copy and paste my URL at the top and let em down bottom it's just a harmless fanpage and not even off site! Thanks https://www.facebook.com/help/contact/244560538958131 <--- this is a different link than what I've been asking people to fill out before. This one apparently will get me someone from facebook actually looking at this if ENOUGH people report :)

I've been doing plenty of gigs, but don't always get permission for photos. Here's a behind the scenes of Mermaid Mutiny and I just before a gig :)

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10269437_1000570393311037_1684987639576762140_n.jp g?oh=7f87374c8a0b391fb779eb84bd4b3634&oe=5589BF99

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/s2048x2048/10931576_994821720552571_8143716832705833400_o.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10384028_993618504006226_6503105117955136497_n.jpg ?oh=48072800b60d4599093d41d6ca7d9d77&oe=555C3168&__gda__=1431478736_14a0d704cf37afecc41af8a2699771c 5


Side fun note: I got this awesome mermaid dress

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10952412_995339680500775_6808472028140210537_n.jpg ?oh=8811d01fc628090812bed93d9abd13cf&oe=555678FC


A little video of Mutiny and I having fun:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrLqrwQT7QI


Very excited to say we're in the process of training up Mermaid Victoria. (see her on facebook here https://www.facebook.com/mermaidvictoria ) Victoria works for Shore Things- the store where we sell our merch in the tourist season. She makes her own fabric tails and they're really pretty. But she also borrows my mermaid creations tail while she is figuring out the best method for her own. Here's some pics of Victoria in her tails:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10897098_1433791206911160_6585757073368191520_n.jp g?oh=2455ac7d836380bd4f92066b4aa2e883&oe=5559EE2C&__gda__=1435728149_5db7cccb6f882c6a87c04e762ec98a4 2

^she made both

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t31.0-8/887338_1432859333671014_6172443560015448200_o.jpg

^made this for her sister

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10920938_1431701310453483_8155166368212862754_n.jp g?oh=05f06ca2e4f3469882046c2a33188c74&oe=555217B1&__gda__=1431503073_ed57e6e5a9593eac03b0c45fe2aa231 6

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10408097_1431694823787465_3654444726114016683_n.jp g?oh=49cb3feb16fd6bc82e817b42e6af0757&oe=555A7E4E

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10885261_1431701180453496_8507765105972442984_n.jp g?oh=dd8bbdc29907643ebc24a7c0deab1eae&oe=555AB649



She's done two gigs with us so far. ONe with me and one with mermaid Mutiny. Here are a few pics from the one with me

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10974542_902876333077157_6928609889539346559_o.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/t31.0-8/10983560_902877496410374_4763220999411515030_o.jpg

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/10985511_902877263077064_130192528451685382_n.jpg? oh=d5f46a089c336834adf769a962afc8b0&oe=5548FE84

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/t31.0-8/10847668_902876846410439_8994671491743869669_o.jpg

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10505362_902876316410492_7168981160845811580_n.jpg ?oh=04d43d99dce93255da2a6dea3864cae6&oe=555144DE&__gda__=1435449346_affe7b3d5395d1b0b74b0f0fe4bf975 2

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/11006472_902876359743821_7064798742997026217_n.jpg ?oh=bd8c10c7b959c88292f6379e56a14845&oe=5557D67A&__gda__=1431058163_06d0826a1cbf7dd9ae4f42bbe32cb09 3

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10429392_902876869743770_777731840332907928_n.jpg? oh=f26d7bb9b51a9964492779fce2d9d096&oe=55483AF9&__gda__=1435860792_77d200ec2b7362cc3c8b8fc4334eb8a 8

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/t31.0-8/10915089_902877396410384_167797153317898968_o.jpg

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/1613876_902877093077081_5685031277980157895_n.jpg? oh=3cc206406a43da922cde36f9d184f44d&oe=555D7EFC

https://scontent-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t31.0-8/1799042_902876713077119_7151852192100159584_o.jpg




We are also in the process of auditioning a merman who is both an actor and a lifeguard. He'll likely use the mermaid creations tail too.

Merman Christian is coming to visit us in July and we're already booking him for events ;)

Oh yes and I got some braces on Friday.Uggh it's annoying haha. Still getting used to it.

Seanny got featured in the Daily Mail, a few quotes and a photo of him and Pearl http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2937588/Ariel-feel-right-home-Merfest-convention-sees-300-mermaids-mermen-ornate-TAILS-costing-2-500.html

I also just gave a huge interview to The Globe and Mail (Canada's biggest paper) that should be published this week, really exciting.


On the more random note, I joined a rock band as lead singer and I am having so much fun :D

Sephina is coming to visit on Friday evening. So that should be fun too. Getting together for a swim :)

Weather depending we have a big all day gig on Monday. But it's been super stormy every week. THere's a snow drift in front of my door bigger than I am...

[Mermaid Enora]

everything sounds fun!
Always love hearing about your adventures!

[AniaR]

we've had a bunch of media coverage lately, check it out:

http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=571622&binId=1.1145745&playlistPageNum=1

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=917807894917334

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=917804498251007

I'm not fond of how my braces look but oh well. It is what it is. lol

[AniaR]

I've got so much to update but for now we've got some updated media coverage. They make a few mistakes here and there (saying my tails are from California... lol)

Raina the Mermaid Splashes her way to Success, March 2015 Click here (http://peninsulanews.kingsjournalism.com/raina-the-mermaid-splashes-her-way-to-success/)
Raina and the company are featured in The Globe and Mail March 2015 Click Here (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/inside-the-mesmerizing-mermaid-movement/article23521757/?cmpid=rss1&click=sf_globe)Raina and Mutiny can be seen on CTV Morning Live March 2015 Click Here (http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=571622&binId=1.1145745&playlistPageNum=1) The Mermaids can be seen in this CBC News Feature, March 2015. Click Here (https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=917807894917334)
The Mermaids were featured briefly on CTV Live at 5, march 2015, Click Here (https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=917804498251007)
Raina was featured in a CBC Article March 2015, See Below and Click Here (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/march-break-2015-6-things-to-sea-at-maritime-museum-of-the-atlantic-1.2990505)
12 Fantastic Things to do in Nova Scotia this March Break- Blog Link Feb 2015 Click Here (http://www.novascotia.com/about-nova-scotia/blogs/march-break-fun?utm_source=Visit+Nova+Scotia+newsletter&utm_campaign=b4fb1b713a-Fun-Filled-Family-Vacations-March-2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d5e0a55d90-b4fb1b713a-186838829)
Merwrangler Sean was quoted on the Daily Mail along with a photo of him and a photo of Raina, Feb 2015 Click Here (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2937588/Ariel-feel-right-home-Merfest-convention-sees-300-mermaids-mermen-ornate-TAILS-costing-2-500.html)
A quote from Raina and a photo appears in this French magazine, January 2015 Click here (http://www.bibamagazine.fr/culture/photos-mon-coup-de-coeur-de-la-semaine-les-sirenes-23701#offset0)
Raina appears in this online article, January 2015 Click here (http://beautifuldecay.com/2015/01/26/arthur-drooker-mermaid-and-mermen-conventions/)

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/11025747_1577040212574356_8538617633341171844_n.jp g?oh=59d67d0ae225b07c0568e85b4b56258f&oe=55BC94CA&__gda__=1433724826_61515e6e2db899d939e8ad86ddbd6c7 9

Been a crazy few months! I'll play catch up on here soon :)

[AniaR]

Things have been so insanely busy it would be the biggest wall of text ever if I posted it here. So I made a blog full of pics and videos. Check out all the mermazing stuff happening in the world of pro mermaiding! http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog/spring-catch-up-with-mermaids

Proud to announce that Seanny has picked up enough contract work that I'll be returning to 100% full time mermaiding in a month or so. However, I may decide to renew my contract for one more term in the fall. I have big plans and extra money (plus the insurance I get) would be a big help. I'll explain soon ;)

Life for mermaids is awesome :D living the dream and making it happen!

[AniaR]

Our latest blog to see what's up in Halifax with mermaids. There's a LOT in here! And it'll take a few minutes to load because of all the media. :) http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog/mid-summer-review-2015

[AniaR]

With summer coming to an end the Halifax Mermaids reflect on August and all the fishy fun we had. Read our latest blog to see what we've been up to http://halifaxmermaids.weebly.com/blog/end-of-summer