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....and now back to our regularly scheduled blogging! Hehe!
Let's see, I haven't done an official catch-up post since... September 29th. Uh oh. I have a lot to fill you in on, ahhh! Okay let's see, we'll go oldest to newest! You ready?
October
October was a fun and busy month! So busy I pretty much skipped Halloween. I did a lot of private events and parties. I've been posting a lot of behind the scenes from cool things I get to do.
The majority of my time was spent doing private parties with Mermaid Naida. Mermaid Mimi was at the time doing a show (she's an actress!) so I didn't get to spend as much time with her. I did get to squeeze in one gig with her though ;)
I got to do a private swim at Oak Island Inn. A place most Nova Scotian's know is famous for pirates. According to legend, pirates buried treasure on Oak Island. Though no one has been able to find it yet. I did manage to find this pirate.
I also spoke at the Discovery Centre (a local science centre) over Halloween weekend about fins on types of fish. I even got to meet Wolverine. He was pretty cool, haha!
Of course, October brought with it Canadian Thanksgiving. Sean and I decided to keep the holiday free and spend it at a family cottage, taking in the last bit of warm sun!
My new tops from Merbellas have been a big hit with all the clients too! Kids love ocho-the octo-top
We also had some gifts arrive in the mail from the merman king himself in preparation for NCMerfest! Just in time because it's been freezing!
I managed to stick myself in front of the camera and get a few mermaidy self portraits too ;) gotta keep those creative juices flowing!
And of course, I got a little bit of video over the month too during our gigs. We don't often get to make planned videos. Most of our videos are from transition times at gigs and very brief. No time for anything elaborate. However, we're hoping to focus on more videowork in the future. :)
I had a really cool experience happen I'd like to share. I went to my first ever entrepreneur faire. We are really ramping up business to a huge level (more on that later) and I've been working my butt off with my business mentors getting everything in line. I was invited to this networking faire to meet other people like me. I was really nervous, I was convinced I would be out of place and at first it seemed like I was. I was one of a handful of women. And I was certainly the youngest person present. I looked around at all these people in suits and felt out of place in my green dress. I wore a nametag with my business on it, and before I knew it I was getting stopped. But I wasnt being stopped because people wanted to know what it was I did.. I was being stopped because PEOPLE ALREADY KNEW ME AND WHAT I DID. I was totally floored. Totally. At least 5 people came up and knew exactly who I was, and one man (who is also a fan and a supporter on my page) even had a photo he'd taken with me from the summer on his phone. It was so validating!!!
October really was a whirlwind of busy. I am sure there is more I just can't remember it all. LOL. I also met the awesome local mermaid who just moved back here, Mermaid Fare. She and I will be collaborating in the future and she's just cute as a button!
November
November was crazy and awesome, it was my birthday month and mers around the world helped me celebrate! There was just so much going on I am sure I will miss things and kick myself later, but for now I'll try and sum it all up!
I received an amazing gift from Mermaid Lorelei, it's the Barbie version of me crafted by Mermaid Stephanie Works can't even describe how amazing this doll is and how much detail has gone into it. I will do a video late to show you, it's insane! Thanks to both amazing ladies, wonderful supporters in my life. I had a rough day too and came home to such a lovely early birthday gift
Our new t-shirts arrived for all the staff in the mail with our brand spanking new sparkly logo (thanks to Sarah Barker) and Seanny couldn't wait to wear his. Can you tell I had a little bit of fun making it?
The girls and I all got together for a fancy dinner and then karaoke to celebrate my birthday. My boyfriend snapped this camera phone pic of us, sorry for the red eye haha. But it was great :) I love these ladies. They make being a mermaid a million times better! <3
During my birthday I did a gig, and the little girl it was for sang me happy birthday. You can see a clip on the Halifax Mermaid's Facebook page. That's the other thing, we now have a Halifax Mermaid's Facebook Page for all our joint work together :) Be sure to like it if you haven't already.
Our website also received a HUGE very much needed facelift. You can see it at www.halifaxmermaids.com or www.halifaxmermaids.ca :) Here's a photo of the two happy birthday girls.
Just before my birthday, we also had an image go viral on DeviantART thanks to a site wide feature they gave us! It's a beautiful photo from Sean and I am so thankful. It netted me nearly 1000 new facebook fans!
We also had a great time with my ask me anything on reddit. The people on reddit have been so awesome to me and have been a driving force behind my internet fame! An ama= ask me anything. And people sure did! Keep in mind this is the internet, so if you read it, not everything is appropriate ;) I tried to have fun with the trolls. But for the most part the comments and questions were spot on. I also got heaps of new fans because of this so THANK YOU REDDITORS. Be sure to read the funny stuff here.
Sean also captured this great photo of me where I look super happy at a gig I just have to share.
We also got back some older photos! Here's a couple we got from my besties wedding I did back in the summer. I realized I have lost a whopping 15lbs since these photos! whoa!
The Music video Naida and I were in will be released soon. And in the meantime the rockstar sent us a few shots from the set to share! Just reminding you all, I really DO play guitar hehe.
Lots more private parties happened too which was awesome :) We've quadrupled our bookings since this time last year! And tripled our mermaids! hehe.
UPCOMING
Okay, lots of things upcoming! First off I submitted an article 3 years ago to a magazine- a version of my post you all saw on Annette Kellerman! Well they finally got around to publishing and it will ne available this month!The article turned out really well and the photo they chose to publish just looks amazing. I'm really happy with it, thanks to Carolyn Turgeon for all her awesome help. If you're interested in buying it, it can be found here: https://www.faeriemagazine.com/Product/5d7ca0
NCMerfest is just around the corner! I am an official sponsor and am donating some time to run workshops (one on working with kids, the other on starting your own mermaid business), sponsoring a child to become a mermaid, and walking in a fashion show. I am really excited because it's just around the corner! For more information if you think you'll be interested in attending go to www.ncmerfest.com
In the meantime you may notice my company is expanding! From Raina the Halifax Mermaids now to Halifax Mermaids, to also Atlantic Mermaids, and Canadian Mermaids! We will be touring in the near future and training other mermaids all over Canada and we aim to be the premier Canadian booking agency for mermaids. My hope is that I can train fellow Canadian mermaids so they can make some decent money with their skills, land some big gigs, and enrich their own mermaiding personas. It will also allow for so much more collaboration and hopefully better tails all around. Every other type of performer has their own booking agencies they can go to, but not mermaids yet! We're excited to be one of the first (there are several in the world but we are the first in Canada). So, you can also visit our website at www.canadianmermaids.com and .ca and we will soon be reaching out to other Canadian mermaids! <3 I will give you lots more information on these developments later, as they will go hand in hand with our super secret project :)
Thanks for sticking with me folks! Here's to a great December and January! I hope your holidays are safe and filled with family and love and joy. I hope to see many of you at NCMerfest! Best fishes!
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