i have the BEST friends. (thanks lindsay!! XO)

last week i got two packages from one of my best friends lindsay...


the packages were covered with ladybugs!! hehe.


i had no idea what could be inside...


to my surprise lindsay and her mom sent me and rick A CUPCAKE KIT!!!! complete with sprinkles and frosting!!


MmMmMmmm... naked cupcakes!!


rick started eating his even before he was finished decorating it...


my cupcake:


tim and aldrin stopped by and made some cupcakes too. here's aldrin licking icing off the knife...


and here's tim. (notice the b-day decorations that have been up since rick's bday...)


the other box contained a stuffed monkey (we have an ongoing monkey-joke-turned-gift-theme that started in 7th grade). there was also a cute pomeranian magnet and sign.

here's the magnet:


I HAVE THE BEST FRIENDS!! THANK YOU LINDSAY AND MRS. F!! we loved the cupcakes and surprisingly we have a couple left!! ...but not for long!! hehe.

songs i remember liking when i was younger...

we're talking 1989-1994.

*Martika - Toy Soldiers (probably the first music video i remember seeing)
*Mr. Big - To Be With You
*Spindoctors - Two Princes
*Mariah Carey - Emotions
*Amy Grant - Every Heartbeat
*Cathy Dennis - All Night Long (i remember not be allowed to listen to this tape)
*M.C. Hammer - Too Legit
*Tom Cochrane - Life Is A Highway
*Charles And Eddy - Would I Lie To You
*Gloria Estefan - Turn The Beat Around
*Harry Connick Jr. - the entire SHE album
*Wreckx-N-Effect - Rump Shaker (my cousins refused to remind me and my friend jennifer what the lyrics were because we just kept singing the chorus).
*Dee-lite - Groove Is In The Heart
*Crystal Waters - Gypsy Woman
*Sheryl Crow - All I Wanna Do (first CDs i bought)
*TLC - Waterfalls (first CDs i bought)
*Billy Joel - River Of Dreams

brings back memories............

you like stuff??? good. because i got LOTS of new stuff!!!!

NEW FLICKR UPLOADS!!!! lots of good ones from this weekend...

dreamlife
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

contemplative
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

cadillac tv
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

wanna go steady?
Originally uploaded by jena ardell.

playing with fire.

well... i wasn't, but they were.

yesterday i assisted ryan's Phoenix Projekt shoot. it was nice to finally meet ryan. he was a fun guy, very easy-going. oddly enough we met on craigslist (rick and i bought his entertainment center from him) and then we got to talking about photography, hehe. hopefully he'll get more gigs in the future that he'll need me to assist!!

it was a looong day, (i didn't get home until 11pm) but it was fun and i took a bunch of good portrait polaroids that i am in the process of cropping. ryan also let me shoot with his 20D and fisheye lens. can't wait to see the photos!! everyone was really nice and interesting and i can't complain about the fruit, hummus and pretzel crisps either, haha.

it was pretty hectic/crazy at times because there were 22 people ryan had to take individual shots of. he used two cameras and three different lens, so my job was to switch out the lens every other person. i was given a bag FULL of random fabrics and put in charge of "dressing" the sets. so i chose a color scheme, picked out all of the orange-y colored fabrics and draped and tied them to a tall bamboo fence which could have looked tacky, but the way i did it came out really kewl.

the location was fun. it was a community center with a stage inside and a skateboard ramp outside. while it was raining, all the kids who were skating started sliding down the half-pipe like a water slide, hehe.

there was also this unubtrosively interesting girl in a bright red jacket (not part of the phoenix projekt) who was kind enough to serve as my model for a few polaroid shots. i had THE SHOT in my mind all set up. location, pose, everything. but she was videotaping and i felt kinda weird approaching her so i just asked if i could take her picture. i did that and the photo came out eh-ok... she was a bit nervous i suppose. she went back to videotaping and THE SHOT was still eating away at me. so after a few minutes, i approached her again and said "i thought of another good shot for you!!" she was game so i led her over to where i wanted to take the photos and then directed her how to pose. the shots turned out so good!! probably my favorite polaroid shots of the day.

the weather was pretty crappy and rainy for most of the day, but we made the best of it and the firespinners were still able to do their thang by the end of the night. it was pretty awesome to watch and photograph (AND DODGE!!) the firespinners. there were guys with fire nunchakus, girls spinning fire, girls eating fire, girls with fire-fans and a man blowing a fire-TUBA!!

there was also this awesome lady with a fire hula hoop that she spun around her NECK while she was in s split. shesh. i was even just impressed by how she was able to dance while continously spinning the hula hoop. makes me wish i could even hula hoop. now i might have to go out and buy one and practice. hmmmm.

polaroids are now up.
production photos to come.

giraffes, steel drums and magicians.

(and don't steal that for a band name!!) hahaha.

friday night summarized into one sentence: i ate pierogies, kicked rick's butt in scrabble and we watched Rock Star (which was awful).

saturday, today: rick and i went over to his parent's house, ate some lunch and did a load of laundry. while we were there, rick's sister and her family stopped by after a trip to the santa barbara zoo. you'll never guess what the highlight of the day was for rick's almost-5-year-old neice...

"there was a giraffe... and it was PEEING and then another giraffe come over and DRANK IT!!!!" she told us. "that's what i want to do when i become a giraffe."

HAHAHA. after our visit, rick and i met up with his friend james, his wife sarah, their daughter and their friend jack. i had never met sarah before. she reminded me of a cross between the two NICEST people i know -- my best friend andrea and my former second grade teacher who has become a long-time family friend. so we ate chinese food over sarah's parent's house and then went to a CSULB (cal state long beach) steel-drum concert. it was REALLY kewl. the show was held in an elementary school auditorium that was all decked out island-stylee. there had to have been at least forty people, all wearing hawaiian shirts) banging on drums or symbols or cow bells. they played a couple Bob Marley songs including "Is This Love," "I Shot The Sheriff," and "Exodus." they also covered the Carnaval song from Black Orpheus and Harry Belafonte's "Jump In The Line" as well as a few original songs.

and if you think that sounded kewl, get this... james's friend jack is a magician and he might be using me in one of his acts as the girl he "saws" in half!! HAHAHA. how awesome would that be?!!

tomorrow: the pola-nerds are meeting up. rebecca and i were expecting to go but i will be assisting ryan williams at 2:30 and rebecca has to take her mom to the airport so i guess we're no-shows :( which stinks cause i really want to meet the pola-crew!!!! BUT i will busy preparing for something a tad kewler. sorry pola-crew, there is little you can do to compete with FIRESWINGERS. :O

p.s. i took a bunch of awesome polaroids that i can't wait to upload.
and f.y.i. lions and tigers can't purr... but cougars can.

a moment of personal reflection.

hmmmm...


my boyfriend and i have FIVE blankets on our bed... and we live in southern california. are we wusses or what?!!!

SONGS STUCK ON REPEAT:
*CCS - Music is my Hot, Hot Sex
*Firewater (featuring Jennifer Charles) - Bad, Bad World
*Richard Ashcroft - I Get My Beat
*The Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You
*Arcade Fire - Keep The Car Running
*Incubus - Dig

TOO FUNNY.

so i sent my grandmother some production stills from the shoot i assisted for CJ...

"did you get the pictures i sent you???" i asked.
"yeah, i saw that CJ Burton. He's a bit strange looking..."
"uhhh..."
"i mean his hair," she said.
"yeah, i guess it's sorta flat to his head," i said, half questioning.
"what are you talking about?! it was standing up all over the place!!"

and then i realized who she thought CJ Burton was...




"wait a minute," i said between laughs. "why would the photographer's face be painted RED?!!"
"what?? i just thought he had a ruddy complexion."
"and what about the pictures i sent you of the guy holding a camera??" i asked. "who did you think that was??"
"someone who worked for him!!"

aye, my grandmother. one of the many reasons why i love her.

for the record, here's what CJ really looks like.

thursday thru sunday... let me fill you in.

thursday i worked a casting call for dave and, as always, it was a lot of fun. dave is currently casting baby boomers for an upcoming stock shoot. when we arrived on location there was no one there to let us in the studio dave rented, so we upgraded to dave's friend's big, beautiful studio on the second floor with lots of windows and great light. lisa (the stylist who i met at dave's spike tv shoots) stopped by for lunch. she gave me the name of a good thai restaurant that i am definitely going to check out because i have yet to find a really good thai place around here. there was a good turnout for the casting call... we saw about 110 people. quite a few characters and a handful of really good, workable people. toward the end of the day, dave let me shoot some people!! i loved making them do all the "Oooo's" and "HEY!'s" and "WOW's" and funny faces dave has them make when he is casting. i always find it amusing how easily people comply when a camera is involved, hehe.

friday i bummed around/stayed in my pjs all day long. i emailed a few photographers and looked for work on craigslist. found a few promotional jobs. rick and his dad picked up his rick's sister and her family at the airport and guess who they saw... GREG BRADY!!!! haha, yep, barry williams was arriving from somewhere and rick didn't even take a photo with his cell phone!! :( i think i would have had to sneak one... it's not every day you see Greg Brady.

saturday i met up with rebecca (rutabegabunny on flickr) at her dad's house and saw his infamous celebrity pool!! herbert anderson (the dad from the old 'dennis the menace' tv show) was the previous owner of the home rebecca grew up in. the pool is extremely photogenic... very retro looking, with a lot of curves. soon after admiring the pool, we were off to melrose for a thrift shopping spree.


we hit up SLOW which USED TO BE one of my favorite thrift stores. i hadn't been there since may 2005, and A LOT has changed. first off, the store now over-employs a bunch of teenage hipsters. secondly, most of the clothes were NEW. and thirdly, they did away with alllll the kewl tee shirts that used to be on the second floor. :( the prices are still reasonable, but i still am highly disappointed. we ate some soup and shopped at wasteland, crossroads trading co. and a few other places. i would up buying rick a hooded sweatshirt/zip-up and a REALLY nice quiksilver zip-up that is more like jacket. it was only $25 and it looks brand new. i bought myself three shirts that i'm sure you'll see photos of in the near future. rebecca wound up buying a few shirts too and a pair of marc jacobs pants. and no shopping excursion is complete without a dressing room photoshoot!!

sunday: rick went to church with his sister and his neice and then went over his parent's house. he always lets me sleep in, which is nice, but then i feel bad about not going to his parent's house with him. i played boggle online with my mother. some of the people on the boggle site are waaaay too damn good at the game!! (try your luck here). i also did dishes, went for a walk, caught up with justin and talked to margot's mom. sunday night, i watched Dark Victory, a pretty gloomy bette davis movie. i also uploaded some new photos to my flickr so be sure to check em out!!!!