Hello readers! :) I hope 2016 was a good year for you. It was an extremely productive and awesome year. Other than many, many awesome photoshoots, collaborations with many lovely people, and attending wonderful events (I'd love to list each and every one here but the post would turn into a novel!), some really big things happened!

The first major thing to happen was my tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy in February, which was Hell on Earth for two weeks. But after it was over, my condition of living was greatly improved. :)

Then I made my own website, followed by a site for my child-friendly mermaid persona.

Orion and I also met up for three highly complicated and detailed photoshoots: The Barbie parody, aka "Media's Marionette" (conceptual meaning behind this photoshoot here, and "the making of" blog entry here), The Unicorn, a full body bodypaint, including armpit hair, plus unicorn mask, (examples one, two, and three), and Deep Sea siren, a detailed airbrush bodypaint with attempted prosthetics...UNDERWATER (blog entry here).

The next MAJOR thing was meeting face to face with Stephen for the first time, after five years of friendship and a year of romantic partnership. It was absolutely magical! I went down to Oklahoma to visit him from May 31st to June 11th, so we were able to spend both of our birthdays together. We took some absolutely fantastic photos (short blurb here) and officially announced our engagement. ♥
Oh, and one of the great pictures taken by Stephen was given a Daily Deviation, making it my third DD. Woohoo!

Stephen also took a turn visiting me from August 29th to September 26th. It was great for him to meet my family and friends face to face, and even begin collaborate with Orion on some modeling ideas. :) As before, we had a lovely time and took some amazing photos. To see details about the August-September 2016 photoshoots, please see this blog entry. I am so excited for when he and I can be together again, we make a wonderful couple, both as a couple and as an artistic duo. I love him so much. ♥

While Stephen was up in September, I attended my first two big mermaid events: Ladew Garden's Nature! Art! Play! (where I was placed into a koi pond), and the New Freedom Heritage Festival in PA (as an actual vendor, not a leech! :P). Speaking of mermaid stuff, I also took my first three mermaid swim lesson students on in a private swim class, all throughout the summer! It was super fun. :) Mermaid Gipsy also officially became an ambassador for Fin Fun Mermaid, the best and most well known fabric tail brand on the market.

I also flew up to Boston, then drove to New Hampshire, for a week long photoshoot session with Lindsay. We took a TON of neat photos, it was quite a week. Feel free to learn more about that in this blog entry. :)

After Samhain/Halloween I also won a huge herbal/magickal/hippie/pagan themed give away hosted on Instagram (blog entry here!) which seriously lifted my spirits for awhile. I've incorporated the prizes into my daily life, and it's really helping me with my more spiritual side. :)

Although there is no blog entry about it, I had a fantastic family Yule/Christmas season as well. I spend the season at home with my family, and we exchanged some wonderful gifts on top of that. It was lovely!