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!!

KITSCH SIGNS

As you may have detected, I love things from the 50s, 60s and 70s... especially gaudy home decor. There's nothing like a good, vintage novelty sign to make your guests chuckle or question your taste in design. Here are some great kitsch signs I found on etsy this week. Perhaps you'll find their witticisms to be as amusing as I find them. I apologize for not providing links to each item, but browsing for these items yourself is half the fun:

Embarassing Moment

Love this story...

I was pleasantly surprised to be seated next to a very handsome man during a conference. We flirted casually through dinner, then grew restless as the dignitaries gave speeches. During one particularly long-winded lecture, my new friend drew a # sign on a cocktail napkin. Elated, I wrote down my phone number. Looking startled for a moment, he drew another # sign, this time adding an X to the upper-left-hand corner. ~Kari Moore (via Reader's Digest)

How I used to pick up boys in college...

I was going through old emails today and came accross this hilarious conversation I had with my mother on AIM on Friday, January 30, 2004, Enjoy!!

ME: i have a movie date er something on saturday lol
MY MOTHER: so how was your day?
MY MOTHER: uh-oh
ME: pretty ok i guess
ME: urs?
MY MOTHER: with whom
ME: with a guy from my tv broadcast class named justin
ME: hes a junior.. hes pretty cute
ME: bad taste in music tho and hes really into sports
MY MOTHER: oooo
MY MOTHER: give me all the details
ME: those were the details lol
ME: hes in my class but not in my group
ME: and today he came into the room i was in with a notebook
MY MOTHER: how did the date happen
ME: and i was bored so im like.. gimme ur notebook so i can draw all over it
MY MOTHER: and what did you draw
ME: lol... a squirrel frozen in a block of ice
MY MOTHER: OMG
MY MOTHER: lol
ME: HAHAHA
MY MOTHER: and that impressed him?
ME: and then i drew his name in block letters, an ice cream cone, uhm a multiple choice sentence about the class.. and i included my sn
MY MOTHER: sneaky...ky....ky....ky....ky....ky...ky
ME: JUSTIN: I was impressed by the wayward squirrel in my notebook, that was cute.
MY MOTHER: hahaha
ME: lol
MY MOTHER: it was the squirrel!
ME: squirrels work every time lol
MY MOTHER: hah
ME: O:-)

Buy four prints and SAVE $20!!

*NEW* in my etsy shop: The Beach Treasures collection.

This set includes four fine art prints:

1. Seaglass and Driftwood
2. Sand Dollar, Starfish and Feather
3. Seashells and Scallop Shells
4. Horseshoe Crab and Coral

You save $20 buy ordering a set of four prints!!

All prints measure 5x5 OR 10x10 inches with polaroid edges. Perfect wall art for your beach house or any house you wish were by the sea.

Like all of my polaroid fine art prints, these images are UNEDITED.

Printed on archival matte paper with top notch professional printers. I send ALL my images to a professional printing press to be printed when you order one.

LARGER sizes (20x20 and 30x30) are available, please let me know what size you would like and i will gladly create a custom order listing for you.

All images Copyright Jena Ardell. All rights reserved.

http://jenaardell.etsy.com

Truly Inspiring: Michael Wolf

German-born author and artist Michael Wolf was raised and educated in the United States and has been living in Hong Kong for 15 years, a decade of which he has spent as a photographer. Wolf's work focuses on vernacular culture, particularly Chinese culture. His projects range from thought-provoking portraits to grand-scale gallery installments that beckon the introspection of society as a whole.


What first caught my eye was Wolf's 100x100 collection. For this project, Wolf photographed residents living in Hong Kong's oldest housing project, Shep Kip Mei, where each living space measured 10 x 10 feet. I was eager to peer into each room to see how individuality played a role in conceptualizing the limited space. After viewing a handful of photographs, I was left speechless. Instead of mind-numbingly satisfying my voyeuristic eye, I was left wondering: What personal possessions would I [be able to] keep if I only had 100 square feet?

Other projects by Wolf serve a similar slice humble pie. One such installment titled The Real Toy Story, consists of 16 images of Chinese toy factory workers surrounded by 16,000 plastic toys. The result: a powerful juxtaposition of imagery that invokes morality.

For this exhibit, Wolf scoured thrift shops in California for toys (all of which were made in China); sanded the back of each toy; glued several magnets to each toy back (45,000 magnets total); installed 30 large panels of sheet metal to a gallery wall; and covered the wall with the toys. It took three people working 10 hours daily for three days to attach all of the toys to the walls.

What impresses me most about Wolf's work is the level of dedication to his craft. Both projects were simple ideas which he took to a impressively higher realm. Seeing projects of this magnitude inspire me to conjure grand-scale ideas of my own which I hope will one day impact others as much as Wolf's work has impacted me.

More information about Wolf and his work can be found in this interview or on his website.

10 Truths

I haven't posted a blog in awhile so I thought this would be a good icebreaker and give me the opportunity (or obligation, hehe) to start blogging again.

I was tagged by Mr. Joel Alexander. Now it's my turn...

I must name 10 different HONEST things about myself. If I tag you, then you can do the same!!

1. My goals in life are to own a beach house and swim with manatees. (And become a successful photographer, of course).

2. I have an Associate's degree in French but I'm too self conscious to speak French in front of people... so I'm hoping to finally change that.

3. I secretly like getting poison ivy blisters.

4. I misinterpret song lyrics all the time but I usually like my version better, so I'll refuse to learn the correct lyrics in fear it will ruin my perception of the song.

5. I've always loathed bats and now I have every reason to continue loathing bats. If you know me, you'll know why... let's just say rabies shots + insane medical bill. :(

6. I own over 300 Archie comic books. I stopped collecting in 1997 or 1998, but I'll still buy pre-1970s issues if I happen to stumble across them.

7. I used to be anti-FarmVille (you know, the virtual farm application on facebook) and now I play it all the time. In fact, I'm probably harvesting my crops as you read this.

8. I have ALWAYS wanted to be a Roxy model.

9. I'm addicted to Pinkberry. There, I said it. Medium original with pineapple + strawberries + blueberries... that's my usual. :)

10. I have three tattoos and I want more. One will probably be an anchor.

Now I'm tagging...

Megs: http://wrapstar.us
Aaron: http://feaverishphotography.com/blog
Addison: http://loveaddsphotography.blogspot.com
Kate: http://flapperdoodle.blogspot.com

Have a great weekend, can't wait to read your responses!!

Featured in Elle Girl Korea August 2009!!

My photography is featured on pages 2 and 33 of this month's Elle Girl Korea!!

Cover of the issue:

My Froggy on the Letter From the Editor page.
Full Page spread on page 33!!

AND ONLINE!!

I'm so excited to finally be published in a magazine. :)


In case you can't read Korean, here is my interview in English. Not sure what parts they published:

1-1 have you been published anywhere? My work has been published in a Madrid-based online magazine, 10x15, and a London-based online magazine, Appendix Magazine, as well as numerous blogs -- the most notable being Decor8 and {Frolic!}. This is the first time I am being published in a print magazine so I am very excited!

2 What are your favorite things to take the picture? I love photographing things, people, places or situations that have a dreamy, nostalgic appearance. My goal is to "transport people back in time" by creating authentic-looking retro images reminiscent of the 1960s and 1970s; so I usually choose objects from those decades.

3 What are you working on right now? Right now I am working on three collections: Daydreams, Life's a Beach, and Under The Boardwalk. The latter two collections are offshoots of my growing Summer Love collection. These collections will be able to view on my website this fall. I also plan on publishing a book titled Summer Love in October which will feature 75 images, including a lot of never-before-seen work.

4 What puts you in the mood to create? I constantly want to create things because I love the feeling of accomplishment when I am able to turn my visions into something tangible. When I do not have time to create something, I make lists of things I want to create. I draw inspiration from anything and everything -- summer, the ocean, Old Hollywood movies, clothing patterns, vintage photographs, the composition of everyday objects, etc. I also spend a lot of time browsing the internet for images that catch my eye because I believe maintaining an inspiration folder is crucial to every artist.

5 What artist(photographer) do you admire? And reason? I admire artist David Hockney's vision of water and fixation with swimming pools. Hockney's Polaroid collages are impressive, especially since Photoshop was not involved in the process. I love the composition of Robert Bechtle's automobile paintings because my eye gravitates toward balance and symmetry. I am in awe of Old Hollywood photographer George Hurrell's portraits. Hurrell used light like no other photographer could or has ever. I am inspired by the simplicity and honesty captured in both Bill Wood's and Bill Owens's photojournalistic shots. Their work is so raw, it almost appears candid. I always strive to capture a similar sense of authenticity. As for contemporary photographers, Peter Granser is among my favorites because I share a similar admiration for subjects and landscapes that appear subtly absurd.

6 What is your dream? My goal is to keep the past alive and to own a tiny bungalow near the ocean where I can shoot photographs all summer long.

7 Where can we see more of your stuff? You can view my portfolio on my website: www.jenaardell.com. I also have an etsy shop http://jenaardell.etsy.com where I sell fine art prints and my work is also available for commercial usage through Getty Images.