Lost at Sea

Yikes! You will have to forgive me for neglecting my blog for the past couple of weeks. There has been a tsunami of activity in my life! I happen to be quite the bubble brain, so updating my blog while things have been happening has escaped me. So now I have the tsunami aftermath to write about. I warn you, this blog will be long and filled with wonderful stories and pictures!

I suppose I should start with our snowy photo-shoot. We chose a serendipitous day to shoot simply because it happened to start snowing that day. I don't usually check the weather, so I didn't notice that it was going to storm that day. Needless to say it started snowing pretty heavily by the time all four of us were at the location and it was time to shoot. How did four mermaids get to the location in the snow? My lovely (non-mermaid) sister let us borrow her van, and change at her home. We brought my wheelchair...er....mermaid mobile, and each took our turn getting in and out of the house/van/gazebo. We changed, wriggled our way to the door, wheeled ourselves to the van, got in, and snuggled in our blankets. We actually took the seats out of her van to accommodate our flukes more comfortably.

Mermaid Sardines!

Um.....where are we going?

Miss Mermaid Nikki

Mmmmm! Mermaid for dinner!

What can I say? The girls and I are quite the fishy characters when we get together. You can't tell, but lovely Janelle is sitting in the front seat, her fluke and tentacles aren't as wide as the rest of ours. But we rode, like sardines, piled in the back of a van to our location. Then, our lovely sailors helped us hop out, load into the mermaid mobile, and wheeled us (quite unhappily as it was cold and slick) to the gazebo to shoot. It probably took us close to a half hour to load everyone, so I'm glad my tail is silicone so that I was nice and warm. But it was still freezing outside. And don't worry, the coat isn't real fur. We sat on sledding inter-tubes to help with mobility. The ground was slick, and we wanted less damage done to our tails so they helped a lot. We had hoped to actually be able to sled, but the visibility was low so it was too dangerous. It's still snowing so hopefully we will be able to soon.

But baby it's cold outside!

 We also got some amazing shots in my mermaid themed bedroom. I know I've mentioned before, but my bedroom is floor to ceiling mermaids and ocean themed things. It's a marvelous place to sleep. We took the pictures on my bed, so you can see the wall behind is littered with mermaid-related stuff. I'll take pictures soon of the entire place so you can get a better image. But I digress.....

Trouble? Us? No!

What a darling family!

The "Queens"

You can't tell from the image. But on the far left in the picture, I have a little shelf that is filled with my stuffed ocean friends (I have a ray, Dory, a starfish, an octopus, several seals, an otter, and the dog (you remember, the one with the keys to the jail) from Pirates of the Caribbean. I love stuffed friends. And the middle image is the beautiful Mermaid Dottie, her Squirt, and her lovely pirate husband. It was actually really nice to finally have several images of SeaQueen Janelle and myself in our tails, together. We didn't have enough of those, mostly because she usually plays photographer. Isn't her angelfish tail amazing? In the water it looks like tentacles floating. She very much resembles a jellyfish. And the tiaras we are wearing were made by her, and she does take custom orders. You might not be able to see them closely, but she also made me a matching necklace and earrings.

The following week we landed another birthday party for a wonderful little mermaid at the Herriman Rec Center. She was such a darling little girl! The entire party was Ariel themed (and almost every gift she got was Ariel!). We spent the first hour in the party room entertaining the guests and giving them trinkets. Mermaid Nikki and myself were introduced to a strange substance called "pizza". We proceeded to eat a slice and put the sauce on our nose until Janelle (who was mer-tending) made us stop. We had decided that we would be bubble-brained mermaids and she was our caretaker (since we tend to get into trouble). We ate cupcakes that looked like the ocean, and were filled with marshmallows (yum!)...and of course, thought we could use the bright colored frosting as makeup....until Janelle intervened (it would clog our pores!). I was thrilled because my voice was back enough to sing. Although I've been able to talk clearly, I've had some trouble singing after I had laryngitis in December and January. But it's coming back now. After the "dry" portion of the party we scooted our way into the shallows of the pool (beached mermaid!) to swim with the kids. We took them for mermaid rides....and I even gave a mermaid ride to a couple of the adults and the hostess! I have a strong fluke, and I can actually carry quite a bit of weight while swimming. (Who knew?!) It was such a delightful party, and everyone was thrilled to have us (and we were thrilled to make so many new friends!). Even the lifeguards were snapping pictures! You will notice in the pictures that we don't share the pictures of our guests for privacy reasons. Both Janelle and myself are trained artists and have worked extensively with children (I work in a center for autism), so there are a lot of problems that can happen if we release those pictures. For anyone inquiring for parties, we do provide privacy release forms so we can post, take and share pictures. Just make sure to ask us for them!

I'm waiting for one of those people with legs to let me in the door!

Beached Mermaids!

Just sittin'....well layin' pretty!
 

Mermaid Dottie and I spent some time at a local indoor wave pool out in Layton last weekend. It actually felt like going home! I could finally swim with the waves and ride them to the "beach"! It was wonderful! We're hoping to make regular visits there! For anyone interested in doing parties, they have very reasonable rates and do allow mermaids! On that same note, I'm going to post here (and elsewhere) that we are running out of available dates through the month of June for bookings (most especially on weekends). If you would like to book us for anything during that time, please do so early! Slots are filling fast!

I want to leave you with one last darling story. I met a delightful little girl at the pool a couple of weeks ago. Now, on my tail I've tied a little fishnet around my ankles for decoration (and to hide my ankles a little). This little girl noticed the tangled net, and with dismay in her eyes started tugging on it. She looked up at me and asked, "What happened?!" And I told her the same story I tell everyone, I was swimming too close to a fisherman's boat and I tried to steal some fish from his net for dinner, but I got caught in the process! Luckily I had a sharp shell on me and was able to cut most of it off, except for this piece. The little girl looked at me, with a tear in her eye and exclaimed, "You poor thing!! Can we get it off? I can help you!" I told her that it was okay and I liked it now and thought it was pretty (which she agreed).

I'll update soon again with more adventures. My tail is taking a rest this week (okay, I'm taking it out on Friday, but I'm otherwise leaving it dry) until I get the silicone I need to do the repairs. I have a few small holes and it needs to be taken in a bit (I've lost some weight from swimming as much as I do). I'm sure that the repair process will be a blog in itself! And of course, there are always more adventures as we are booked for festivals, birthday parties, and more in the coming months!

Lots of love and fishy-kisses to you all!