i feel as though i'm sending this out to the void. if there are any readers left out there (hi mom and devoted grandparents, i love you!), bless your hearts. i should be more diligent in keeping this up, i really should. i guess sometimes i just don't feel like there's much to say, but i guess there actually is...maybe i can revive this poor blog with a little TLC?

i like lists, so i'll start there! no rhyme or reason to this particular one, except that it is nice for organization...which i also like...

which brings me to...1. being organized is a good trait. especially for a producer. which i am now. parker and i are working [as of now on a trial basis] with a production company in atlanta. see: greentricyclestudios.com. parker is senior editor, and i am production manager, but it's a verrry small boutique company, so we get lots of opportunity for creative input--i love brainstorming meetings!! i'm really liking the job so far, and we're enjoying exploring the city, aaand being with each other 24/7 :)

we are making fun new friends [i crave hangout-time, MISS YOU friends!], but we're also watching a lot of movies, tv online, and dvds...did i mention we don't have cable (probably a good habit to kick)

2. the king's speech: lovely story, great acting, colin firth: painful yet adorable, geoffrey rush: you're so good
3. TRON: cool to look at. the plot? ehhh, not so much.
4. the tourist: how in the world did this get nominated for actual golden globes?!?! pass.
5. MAD MEN. 'nough said.
6. my new friends complete series DVDs. yessssss.
7. modern family. of course. top chef allstars. best season yet?

8. one fun moment of hotlanta exploration was a visit to the world of coke museum! we went with our friends, steve and mel, and had so much fun! there's a willy wonka-esque tasting room, where you can sample over 100 flavors of coca-cola drinks from around the world. beverly=woof.



9. today we had a SNOW DAY! a real bonafide snow day. the public schools and our office were closed, so we holed up inside and worked from home. it was a beautiful winter wonderland outside. complete with palm tree.!



aaaand 10. crystal light peach flavored green tea. i've never liked peach flavored things. peachios? gross! but the dear gal from whom we're subletting left a lot of that stuff, and it is just delicious! i recommend.

welp, that's the list for today. hope that was a quick little update on life here. call if you want to catch up. and i'll try to be better about keeping this thing up...

ok ok, enough IS enough!

after 4 delightful months of wedded bliss (no throat clears here, i'm not exaggerating!) i'd say it's about time for me to write a blog entry. apparently i do go on these few-month hiatuses, but even though i may not think my life is the most exciting sometimes doesn't give me an excuse not to keep you guys updated!

so...let's have a whirlwind update from the past 4 months [wow!].

1. marriage is so amazing :) i'll spare you all the mushy-gushy details by saying that all is well, parker is the best husband, and i've never felt so loved. it's so fun to live with your best friend, too! (parker is working on a honeymoon compilation video, so hopefully i'll get to post that sometime soon).



2. on the job front. things have been continuing on the same path as they have been going for the past three years, which is the jagged path of career randomness, sprinkled with acting, voiceover work, hand modeling, personal assistance, and writing. i'm definitely getting itchy though now for a more steady gig, i think. i'm just having trouble making up my mind which direction to choose! any suggestions?

one fun foray i recently made into a side job is through...

3. Etsy. Etsy is like ebay, an online marketplace, only etsy has to be vintage or handmade. i love garage saling and thrifting, so i decided to turn that into a little moneymaker and find things to sell online. it's been great to unload some left over wedding items, too. i've only posted and sold a few things so far, but it's really fun. check out my store (it's a little bit bare right now) here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/missellepea

4. DQ. after connecting with a couple of producers through friends, i got in as a project coordinator (producer's helper) on a shoot for a dairy queen spec commercial. it was a great two weeks. i had the pleasure of working with a few wonderful people, from whom i learned a ton about producing. i like to think of it as a crash course. i'll post the final product, or a link to it, as soon as it's finished, hopefully in a couple of weeks! but i'm very proud of the finished product, and hoping to pursue more work in producing.

5. during those two weeks, my brother, cody and his friend were in town. we had so much fun spending time together and doing lots of LA activities. here were are hiking at solstice canyon in malibu!



6. my hubby has a new website and blog. at least check out his reel on the main page. he's very talented, and that's actually unbiased. www.parkerwilson.com

7. we fostered a dog for a week recently. his name was huck, and he was the perfect dog for us, but it just wasn't the right time, unfortunately. so, we gave him a great home for a week and then he got adopted by a lovely family!! isn't he adorable though?



8. backtracking a bit...for 4th of july weekend, we decided to rent a house in palm springs with some friends. because the desert is super hot (we're talkin' 110 degrees!) in the summer, that's their off season, so you can get really good deals. anyway, we got a killer 4 bedroom house with salt water pool and tons of other amenities. it was a perfect mini-vacation, and made summer feel more legitimate, since LA has been sort of chilly this year. we already can't wait to plan another trip! if you're ever going, let me know, and i'll give you the info for this particular house since it was such a good deal.




9. also while in palm springs, and to make use of our sleek, modern abode...parker and i shot another commercial for the next MOFILM competition. it's for dove, and i'll definitely post it when the competition rules allow. we're hoping to enter a few videos by the september deadline, so wish us luck!



10. i just returned from a quick missouri/indiana/kentucky trip where i got to spend time with my sweet family and have a mini-reunion with some college besties at our friend, jaclyn's wedding. it was so much fun! but after all the humidity and missing parker, i was ready to come home to LA!



11. i have a sort of top secret project in the works. i hope that something comes of it, so that i have exciting news to broadcast! if nothing else, i've spent my free time being very productive, so i'm happy with that! stay tuned...

and lastly...12. i've been getting requests for a home decor post (especially since parker and my latest project is decorating our office!), so hopefully that will be the next one coming soon.

love from the west coast!

L

MY HANDS ARE EVERYWHERE!!!

well...it's not the BIG break, i don't think, but it definitely is a start! december 2009 has been pretty exciting for me! first the expedia.com hand modeling gig, and now this...



tooth fairy is a really cute film coming to theaters in january 2010, and stars dwayne "the rock" johnson, julie andrews, billy crystal, and ashley judd. the movie looks really cute actually--you can check out the trailer here: http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/thetoothfairy/

evidently, dwayne johnson has a foundation called the dj rock foundation, and their mission is to "educate, empower and motivate children worldwide through health education and physical fitness." so, naturally, he wanted a special feature on the tooth fairy dvd that promotes fitness for the children viewers.

in the course of just a couple days, i auditioned for, booked, and filmed this special feature! so this means that when the dvd comes out, yes, i will be the main character on the special feature, WOO!!!! i was cast as a tooth fairy fitness instructor for a workout. it was SO much fun, right up my alley! i loved working with a teleprompter, improving, having hair/makeup done, working with kids, and being the main character of a really professional production! you guys are seriously going to crack up, because of all the hilarious exercises i have to lead, in a tooth fairy tutu with wings, nonetheless!! and i'm playing to 6-8 year olds, so i'm sure you'll think i'm oh so funny.

here are some photos from the shoot:





i'm assuming the dvd will come out a few months after the film, so probably around summertime! if you need a good laugh, i'd highly recommend it. who knows, maybe some kid somewhere will think i'm really cool, and (fingers crossed), maybe this exposure will lead to other work!! what blessings!?!?!

it's true! i'm officially a paid working voice actor. it's not like i've hit the big time or anything, but it's so great to actually be working in the industry in a real way. i'm so grateful that my life is very blessed.



most of you watched the jamin fund video on a recent blog entry. as you know, i did the VO for that. parker's boss heard it, and without knowing it was me, asked about it. turns out, his company, the famous group, needed several case study promos to be voiced for their website, and i had just the "buttery" voice they were looking for!! haha. i did VO for case studies with the following companies...you may have heard of a couple of them ;)






it has been so much fun going in to record the past week, and they're finally putting some of the videos up on their site. so, without further ado, please check out my voice on most of these videos put together by the fabulous famous group: http://www.thefamousgroup.com/2009/site/portfolio/

let me know which one's your favorite...i happen to like barbie, but that's probably because i'm a girl! :)

life has been absolutely filled to the brim the past few weeks, hence my absence from the blogging world! that's a good thing; i'd rather be busy really than virtually :) although...some of my business has been virtual. if you saw my last post of announcement, my official website finally went live. check it out if you haven't already at: www.laurenparrent.com



my friend, matt, and i sat down for a few days and put together the footage that i'd filmed last year to have a hosting reel. that's on the Reel tab, so definitely have a watch at that, too. matt did a really great job on it, and if you're an actor or someone who wants some kind of reel, let me know, i can hook you up with him!

in other career highlights:

1) i participated in a performance for the young storytellers foundation, an organization that my friend, alex, volunteers for. i'll hopefully be able to write more about this in its own post, complete with pictures, but for now, just a brief overview. al asked me if i would act in the "big show," a final performance of screenplays written over weeks by about 10 aspiring 9-year-old screenwriters and their mentors. um, duh! yes, please! i was excited about it, because stars like dustin hoffman, jennifer aniston, and rachel bilson had acted in it in past years, and i thought it would be fun. even though there were no big names associated with this year's show (well, a couple you may recognize, but you may have to wait for pictures!) it turned out to be one of the most fun performing experiences of my life--no exaggeration! it was basically two hours of improv. we got the kids' scripts, and with no preparation, they cast us and we had to act them, reading them as we went, of course, on the spot!! SO much fun! and it was a major workout! i can't wait to do it again!

2) unfortunately i did not end up booking this job, however, i did get a callback for a major national television commercial!



yes, my hands could have been featured in a national pyrex commercial--how funny is that?! the auditions were hilarious; i had to pick up baking products in slow motion and sketch whisks and measuring cups. :) ahh, the jobs i have...anyway, i made it to the final 6 actors, so that's good! someone recently told me, i should thanks every person for their "no" on a part, because i'll need about a hundred more and then i'll get my "yes." this crazy business!

when i was at that first audition, i also had the fun experience of crashing another audition. it was casting out of the same waiting room, and so i just asked if i could audition, and they said yes! it was for a .com company, and it was a mockumentary-style commercial spot. it sounded funny, so i had a good time auditioning for it! no word on it, and i doubt i'll hear anything, but it was fun nonetheless!

let's see, what else...ah! i moved! don't worry, i'm only about a mile away from my old place. i haven't thrown in the towel for the west coast yet ;) but i'm loving my new house (yes, a real house!). i've got 4 great roomies, and get this--my OWN ROOM!! aaah! definitely a step up from living the last two years in a shared bedroom in a loft bed! this house is such a blessing that fell into all our laps, and we're so grateful. meet the roomies (and see a glimpse of our adorable backyard!):



i could go on forever...there's so much to update! i hope to write posts soon about my trip home to indiana for my brother's graduation/memorial day weekend, AND about my best friends' from college visit out here!! so many pictures, so little time!!

hope this finds all of you well! take care, enjoy the beginnings of summer...i'm off to the beach! :)

MY WEBSITE IS LIVE!

check it out:

www.laurenparrent.com

:) yay! LP

after finishing up some online work from home this afternoon, i began to reminisce about the multitude of jobs i've worked since i moved to los angeles almost two years ago. i even have close friends here and back home who still gape in shock when i casually mention some type of work i was doing--not even realizing it was one of my 800 types of employment. i really have been very blessed to not have to resort to a full-time job; my hours are still flexible, and i really still enjoy the variety. it's amazing how random odd jobs have just fallen from the sky, and allowed me to keep up this very unique lifestyle. with all that in mind, i decided to make a list of my many employment identities throughout these 21 months--it's actually not AS long as i predicted, but i guess it's still more than normal). here goes... (italics denote a current job)

-personal assistant for a voice over artist
-myspace page manager for my comedian friend
-dog walker
-cat sitter
-actor
-model
-barista
-writing partner
-writing assistant/life organizer
-hat shop special event worker
-movie/tv extra
-acting class secretary
-legal staffing firm temp
-yet another personal assitantship for an aspiring screenwriter


and finally, who could forget my work as a cover girl?! the much-anticipated (ha, i'm sure) may issue of working nurse magazine has finally hit the presses, and below is an image of the cover!! unfortunately it's subscription only, otherwise i'd tell everyone to go buy it, but i'll let you know when i get a copy of the magazine, and probably be a nerd and post a picture of the tangible one on here, too...i'm a cover girl, whatever, i can do what i want!! :)



looks like they went with the rosie the riveter cover image. i think i'm making a goofy, scrunchy face, but, eh, it's still exciting!