She's my first ATC that uses fabric on it. The blue background fabric was a scrap I had left over from a merman costume I made several years ago for my hubby to wear to the Fairy Festival. He makes a very cute merman. In this case I thought it would make a cool sky. Even mermaids need to sun themselves sometimes. She's dreamingly watching shark food, I mean buff surfer dudes surf the waves. I guess she's looking for a mate to take to her sandcastle under the sea. This ATC is for the Day at the Ocean Swap I am involved in. Card is dated 8 February, 2006.

When I was 5 I was injured by a shark. While on vacation in Ft. Myers, Florida I was playing in the water at this beach and I saw a grey fish swim near me. I started to splash the water and the next time I looked down the water around me was red. I freaked and started to scream. My father walked on water to get to me, grabbed me and ran out of the water with me. Everyone was called out of the water and my father called on the CB for help. This nice woman in a van transported my mother and I to the local hospital while my father and brothers followed in our truck. I ended up with 30 stitches in my left knee from a cut that was deep enough to leave a knick in my kneecap. The official report is that a shark swimming near my leg swiped my knee with a fin and cut me. I spent the rest of the vacation being pampered because I couldn't swim with my brothers, I wasn't allowed to move my leg or get the bandages wet. The part that upset me most about the whole thing was that in the rush to get me to the hospital, my father left my Baby Rub-a-Dub on the beach and she was lost. The last I heard, the beach where I was injured was closed to public swimming because 2 weeks after I was hurt a shark killed someone there. I was lucky, and I'm thankful that I wasn't hurt more. Am I afraid of sharks? No, I'm fascinated by them, I just don't want to be in the water with one.