A Life In Gowns: Meet Princess Naomi

Ever wonder who we are when we're not all glitzed up, entertaining your little ones with our mad face paint and balloon skills, or dazzling them with our big bag of magic tricks? We're a diverse group of folk, each coming from a different performance background, and with a little bit of a different story. 

Allow me to introduce: Princess Naomi!

Naomi is one of our most experienced and most requested entertainers, and it's really no wonder why. A classically trained theater actor and musical theater performer, Naomi truly embodies each character, and brings her own special brand of silly along, too. She's an incredibly versatile entertainer, and switches easily between the more traditional Princess roles and other, sillier characters. When Naomi was little, her favorite Princess was always the Little Mermaid.

 "She's super goofy and fun, but seriously curious, and always questions everything. Plus, being a mermaid is just awesome!"

As a kid, Naomi used to spend hours in the bath, her little feet crossed, make believing she was a mermaid herself, but she never imagined that she would one day be pretending professionally. 

Naomi had always been passionate about performance and costuming, and when she was little, she dreamed of becoming a professional Ballerina. The first Halloween when she chose her own costume, she was a Mouse Fairy Ballerina. 

After studying musical theater at the Chicago College of Performing Arts, Naomi moved to the Bay Area to pursue another long time love: circus. A friend who had been working as a kids' entertainer suggested that Naomi might make a perfect Princess, so Naomi applied to Fire Pixie (thank you, whoever you are!). It started as a great survival job for her while she worked on a variety of different projects and trained circus, but Naomi very quickly fell in love with making kids happy. 

"It's hard to not love what you do when you see all those adorable smiles!" she says. 

Since staring with Fire Pixie, Naomi has done a ton of parties for kids of all ages, but especially loves the 4 year old crowd because "They're old enough that they're engaged, but magic is still very much alive in their imaginations."  

Naomi loves all the characters she plays, but especially enjoys being Ariel and Elsa, since they're both singers, and they really give Naomi a chance to show off her vocal chops. 

"Elsa is also a very powerful character, and definitely not your damsel in distress, so she's really fun to play." says Naomi. "Plus, all the kids absolutely love her." 

Naomi is an excellent face painter, and her magic show is top notch, but she says she really loves doing Crafts with the kids "Because you get to play with them instead of for them, and make something awesome together." 

Naomi remembers one party in particular, where she appeared as Elsa at a birthday celebration for a very special little Princess who was recovering from chemotherapy. 

"Her hair was just starting to come back, and it was so touching watching this little girl and her friends just belting out Let It Go. Overcoming your obstacles and staying strong through your struggles is really what it's all about after all." she says. 

When Naomi's not entertaining kids at parties, she can often be found flying through the air with the greatest of ease as a professional aerialist, or twisting herself in to unfathomable shapes as a contortionist. Learn more about Naomi's circus performance here. 

 

Naomi on her Aerial Frame. Photo by RJ Muna.

If you'd like to invite Naomi to your party to inspire and amaze your little Princess, you can book her here. 

Party Snack Ideas: "Dinglehopper" Cake Pops!

Having a Little Mermaid themed party? These Little Mermaid inspired "Dinglehopper" Cake Pops would make a great addition to your snack table,. Plus, they're super easy to make and they look gorgeous! 

What you'll need:

• Vanilla Cake mix 
• Blue food dye
• 1 1/2 cup vanilla frosting
• Melted White Chocolate
• Plastic silver forks dinglehoppers
• Sea Shell chocolates
• Pearl Sprinkles
• Edible Pearl Mist

Follow along with this great step-by-step video from Dishes By Disney to make your own:

Party Snack Ideas: Crabby Marshmallow Pops!

These easy to make marshmallow crab snacks from Jessica at Sew Homegrown are absolutely adorable, and perfect for any Little Mermaid, Pirate, Hula, or Under the Sea themed party!

Here's what you'll need:

• Large Marshmallows
• Mini Marshmallows
• Mini Chocolate Chips
• Pretzel Sticks
• Small Red Gummy Candy (Jessica used Welch's Strawberry Gummies)
• Vanilla Candy Melting Wafers
• Red Food Coloring
• Non-stick Aluminum Foil
• Lollipop Sticks
• Brown Sugar (for display)

Display your crabs in a pretty glass dish with a brown sugar "sand" base, and voilà:

Here's the full step-by-step instructions.

Las Vegas Mermaid Convention / World Mermaid Awards

Swimming mermaids from all over the globe converged in Las Vegas the first weekend in August to splash, giggle, compare tails and lure unsuspecting sailors to their doom at the first annual World Mermaid Awards.   This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and I loved every minute.

We arrived at the Silverton Resort on Friday when the convention was in full swing.  We were a little late.. after snooping all around the Silverton and getting distracted by its huge mermaid tank, we finally wandered into the convention as the Mermaid Pageant was about halfway through.. in other words, all the boring stuff was over, and the Mermaid Tail Parade was about to begin.  I wriggled right into my tail and seashells, and flopped right up onto the stage.  

There were so many beautiful costumes!  There were probably 20-30 mermaids, two mermen, and a whole school of mer-babies and mer-children, who were absolutely in seventh heaven. 

I was in awe of the super realistic latex and silicone tails that were represented, and even more excited by the beautiful and unique handmade tails.  All so different.. all so fantastic and delightful.. and completely inspiring.  My tail received its share of compliments (it was one of the fanciest of the handmade tails, with its multi-layered fins and sparkly sequins).. and now that I am home again I'm hatching all kinds of schemes to make it even fancier, sparklier, and more realistic.  :)  The Fire Pixie mermaid tail continues to evolve!

It was a joy to connect with other like-minded merfolk from around the country, and "geek out" about neoprene vs. latex, brands of monofins, and seashell bra construction.  Somehow it's just magical to meet other people who are just as crazy as I am, spending weeks and months of their lives on something as ephemeral as a costume.. getting the scales and the fit just right, choosing colors and materials, all in order to find ways to transform our spirits into something more than just human.

The pageant was fun, but the pool party was truly the highlight of the evening.  Hannah Mermaid and MeduSirena Mermaid did some fire performance at the pool side, which was delightful to watch (although desperately confusing to my fantasy aesthetic - how on earth would a mermaid ever encounter enough fire to learn to perform with it?  But we now have so many ideas for a Fire Pixie Mermaid show complete with pirates, fire performance and partner acrobatics..so check back soon).  Twig the Fairy was there in a gorgeous golden tail (and I was too startstruck to swim up to her and start a conversation!  Twig is my hero)   We swam, we giggled, we networked, and we delighted in each others' company.. how many times in my life will I have the pleasure of swimming with so many mermaids?  It was a magical night. 

See my whole photo gallery here on picasa

Our Princess Christmas Video Shoot

Last night we shot the majority of our new Princess Christmas video.  We've got a couple more scenes to shoot and some editing to do and I'm hoping to have it completed in early December.

I'm feeling so Christmassy this morning.  We decorated my downstairs to look like the inside of a Christmas present, and it just turned out delicious - all the lights, flowers, and fabric turned my living room into a wonderland.  (I had breakfast in there this morning.. I want to start every day by sipping tea while surrounded by fairy lights.  :)

I was listening to Darrell beginning the video processing this morning, and .. wow!  The quality of the music is blowing me away.  We've got some amazingly talented Princesses!  I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

My plan is to make a video that can be personalized.. so our Princesses can sing Merry Christmas directly to your special little girl, on Christmas morning.  Check our YouTube Channel in the next couple weeks to see the finished product!