St. Patrick's Day Smoothie

JENA'S ST. PATTY'S DAY SMOOTHIE:
1 handful of spinach
1 orange (peeled)
1 lime (peeled)
1 cup of water
3 tbsp honey
12 or more ice cubes

BLEND IT, BABY!!

Perfect for St. Patrick's Day and every other day...

CHRISTMAS IS ALMOST HERE!!

Did you know the original house used in the movie A Christmas Story was auctioned on ebay in 2004, purchased for $150,000 by Brian Jones, a San Diego entrepreneur and fan of the film since childhood, and renovated to appear exactly as it did in the movie?! After spending $240,000 in renovations and stocking the house with props and replicas from the movie, the house opened as a museum and gift shop in 2007. Staff members give tours every half hour and maintain a well-stocked gift shop.

The house is located on 3159 W.11th St. in Cleveland, Ohio and welcomed its 100,000th visitor in August 2009.

A dozen of my favorite Christmas songs:

1. Rockin Around the Christmas Tree - Brenda Lee
2. Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
3. It Must Have Been Old Santa Claus - Harry Connick Jr.
4. Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms
5. Eartha Kitt - Santa Baby
6. Have A Holly Jolly Christmas - Burl Ives
7. Dominic the Donkey - Lou Monte
8. Blue Christmas - Elvis Presley
9. Last Christmas - Wham
10. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) - Darlene Love
11. Sleigh Ride - The Ronettes
12. Christmas All Over Again - Tom Petty

My Top Ten Favorite Christmas Movies:
1. A Christmas Story
2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas (original cartoon version)
3. It's a Wonderful Life
4. Home Alone 1/Home Alone 2
5. Christmas Every Day
6. Rudolph (the clay animation version)
7. Elf
8. The Shop Around the Corner
9. The Holiday
10. The Santa Claus

Enjoy and Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays!!

Christmas and New Years

my generous, amazing boyfriend went above and beyond (waaaay beyond) this christmas and bought me my dream camera, a Canon 5D!! he even secretly contacted my boss dave to ask some questions about it. sneaky, sneaky. when i mentioned the gift to my mom, her face dropped... she was planning on buying me a Canon Rebel XTi because she didn't know rick was buying me a camera!! what an amazing mother and boyfriend i have. :)

this year i realized i enjoy christmas eve much more than christmas. there's just something more magical about christmas eve -- some sort of warm anticipation that's lost after it officially becomes christmas day. everything that has been decorated, purchased and planned suddenly becomes obsolete after christmas morning. i must have watched A Christmas Story at least four times on christmas. TBS should really just air the movie until 12 am december 26th, because i would have squeezed one or two more viewings after christmas dinner.

new years eve was a blast -- a dozen of us (me, my mom, my cousin, his fiancee, two of their friends, my best friend andrea and five friends from high school: zac, jess, scott, phil and his girlfriend jessica) all went out to eat chinese food at a restaurant my family has frequented since i was in 2nd grade. afterward we all went bowling -- a tradition we started last year.


my mom and i bought "bling rings" for all the girls and i brought along my infamous bag of fun.

the bowling alley supplied a lot of decorations too. everyone had a really great time. we used the coveted "strike necklace" again. (the prize you earn/lose each time someone gets a strike). each time it's passed, a photo is taken.





this year andrea wound up being the last recipient of the necklace which was long-deserved since she got robbed of it last year by justin who was the last bowler of the night. we were a very eclectic group -- some introductions were needed and it was the first time andrea and i had ever met phil's girlfriend (who was awesome... we totally approve, hehe) but everyone quickly became friends. being home made me miss my friends even more but knowing we can always pick up from where we left off reminds me how lucky i am to have such awesome friends. :)










HAPPY 2008!!!!

story of my missing cat

i was disappointed that my hexum cat was MIA when i arrived home from california. i figured i would see him the next morning, tapping his tail against the window screen until i let him inside. but day after day passed and the cold wintery weather continued with no sign of my little orange striped cat. he's an indoor/outdoor cat and the longest he ever strayed from home was four days -- the week my cousin and her kids came over to feed the cats while my mom and i were down the shore.

my mom was convinced an owl or coyote or fox had gotten the best of my cat (one time a fox had my cat up a tree), but i doubted the scenario. i didn't want to believe it. in my mind, someone found him and took him in, thinking he was just a friendly stray. hexum is slender, does not have a collar and one of his eyes is duller than the other eye (due to a mysterious, outdoor injury) so he could be mistaken for a stray. i thought about his eye injury and wondered if that put him at a disadvantage, making him an easy target. i wanted to put "missing cat" fliers in nearby mailboxes, saving one for the bulletin board at the post office.

it seemed like every pet product commercial featured an orange striped cat that looked just like my poor little missing hexum!! i started paying more attention to my mother's cat who's a good cat, but no substitute for my hexum.

he was obviously hurt or trapped somewhere because he always comes home when you call him. the day before Christmas eve marked one week of his disappearance. by this time i had checked the garage; my mom had checked the barn and we had been calling his name outside once or twice a day. about to accept his disappearance, i reminisced about the four years i spent with him.

my mom and i had just finished some last minute Christmas shopping (and a meal at ruby tuesdays) and returned home around 9:00-9:30 PM. it was a lousy day outside. all of the torrential rain had melted the remaining ice and snow. we carried some bags inside and my mom opened the door to take my dog outside. in runs a cat who jumps right up on the kitchen table. my mom assumed it was her cat, but it was hexum... soaking wet and hungry as ever!! i was in disbelief. i just pointed at him and called my mother into the kitchen. we were surprised and relieved. it was a mini Christmas miracle!! and the cutest part was yet to come...

after hexum devoured one can of cat food and a dish of dry food, he plopped himself right under our Christmas tree, as if he were a present!! i'm so glad he came home!!

12 DAYS TIL CHRISTMAS!!!!

have you finished you finished your holiday shopping??? i'm almost done!! i'm glad to be going home to spend the holidays with my family and friends but with temperatures in the 20s and 30s... i think i am going to freeze. :(

My Top FIVE Favorite Christmas Songs:
1. Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree"
2. The Waitresses "Christmas Wrapping"
3. Lou Monte's "Dominick the Donkey"
4. Harry Connick Jr's "Sleigh Ride" ("It Must've been Old Santa Claus" is a good one too!!)
5. Eartha Kitt's "Santa Baby"

My Top FIVE Favorite Christmas Movies:
1. A Christmas Story
2. Christmas Every Day
3. Home Alone
4. The Grinch (the animated version)
5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas... Happy Hanakakah, Happy Kwanza, or nothing (if you are a Johovah's Witness)!!!

don't feel bad if our Christmas cards are better than yours.

so my mom and i ordered our Christmas cards tonight that we are sending to family and friends. we've never done this, but this year we opted to create the annoying picture-postcard kind.

here's the conversation we had. just TRY to guess our "theme," hahaha:

my mom: which one do you want to be?
jena: why?? are there going to be arrows pointing to who's who??
my mom: no, but in my head i'm thinking of who i wanna be...
me: which is susan serandon??
my mom: what?? no, you look more like geena davis...
me: well, i'm just asking. i dunno who's who!!

to help you visualize our holiday postcards: we uploaded a photo of the two of us on the Grand Canyon Skywalk. next to the photo, it says "May your Holiday Season be one Grand Adventure!" and underneath... "Love, Thelma & Louise." hahaha!! i love my mom!!

(feel free to reread the title again now... ;) hehehe).

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!! (and my dad's bday!!)

celebrate by viewing some of my new additions on flickr and reading the post below ;)

L O V E
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

L O V E

"If you would be loved, love and be lovable." ~Benjamin Franklin

"Have a heart that never hardens, and a temper that never tires, and a touch that never hurts." ~Charles Dickens

KEWL FACTS FOR VALENTINE'S DAY:

ROSES/FLOWERS

*110 million roses, the majority red, will be sold and delivered within a three-day time period.
*California produces 60 percent of American roses, but the vast number sold on Valentine's Day in the United States are imported, mostly from South America.
*15 percent of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day.
* 73 percent of people who buy flowers for Valentine's Day are men, while only 27 percent are women.

CARDS

*About 1 billion Valentine's Day cards are exchanged each year.
*One-third of all Valentine cards are accompanied by gifts.
*70 percent of those celebrating the holiday give a card, followed by a telephone call (49 percent), gift (48 percent), special dinner (37 percent), candy (33 percent) restaurant meal (30 percent), and flowers (19 percent).
*Teachers will receive the most Valentine's Day cards, followed by children, mothers, wives, and then, sweethearts.
*Children ages 6 to 10 exchange more than 650 million Valentine's cards with teachers, classmates, and family members.

CHOCOLATE & CANDY

*In 1866, candy manufacturer NECCO made the first "Conversation Hearts" then called "Motto Hearts." According to NECCO, eight billion of these little candies are sold between January 1 and February 14.
*More than 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate will be sold for Valentine's Day.

GENERAL

*In the US, 64 percent of men do not make plans in advance for a romantic Valentine's Day with their sweethearts.
*The Italian city of Verona, where Shakespeare's lovers Romeo and Juliet lived, receives about 1,000 letters addressed to Juliet every Valentine's Day.
*About 3 percent of pet owners will give Valentine's Day gifts to their pets.

HISTORY OF VALENTINE'S DAY:
One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young, single men -- his crop of potential soldiers. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons where they were often beaten and tortured.

According to one legend, Valentine actually sent the first 'valentine' greeting himself. While in prison, it is believed that Valentine fell in love with a young girl -- who may have been his jailor's daughter -- who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter, which he signed 'From your Valentine,' an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories certainly emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic, and, most importantly, romantic figure. It's no surprise that by the Middle Ages, Valentine was one of the most popular saints in England and France.

information taken from http://www.theromantic.com/ and http://www.gailhennessey.com/index.shtml?valentine.html

crumbs diptych
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

crumbs diptych

i heart you (original)
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

i heart you (original)

on the tip of my tongue
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

on the tip of my tongue

see more of my Valentine's Day set. <3>
ENJOY YOUR DAY!!!!