well, it's been awhile!! please forgive me, as a couple important things have happened in the past two months of my blogging hiatus: parker and i got married, went on our honeymoon, and are now roomies in our lovely new apartment! needless to say, but i've been just a little busy...

more photos from those events later, but for now...let's talk more about YOPLAIT!

after winning third place in the MOFilm contest to create an ad for yoplait, parks and i were awarded a budget for film equipment, which we used to buy a camera (that's called reinvesting in our careers, folks). MOFilm and the yoplait team also personally extended us the offer of flying us to NYC for the MOFilm awards events and partnered events with the TriBeCa film festival. So, after a restful 48 hours at home in LA after getting back from hawaii...we flew off to the east coast for 3 days in the big apple...



as soon as we landed, we were rushed to our hotel (the tribeca grand), where we did a quick wardrobe change into "smart casual" and popped down to a MOFilm mixer. let me tell you: for those three days they treated us right! wined and dined, meet and greets with MOFilm/Yoplait/major brand's marketing chiefs, and even a Q&A session with susan sarandon (who was there to encourage brand partnerships with important social causes.




we screened the very creative winning commercials from the NY MOFilm competition (ours was actually entered into the previous Barcelona contest, so it wasn't shown here), and we even voted on the grand prize winner out of the first places from each brand. we had a great time networking with all the marketing people and befriending the MOFilm executives (who are all super personable), and the fellow young filmmakers, who we look forward to keeping in touch with!

see the top tribeca videos here (lamasil was the overall winner):
http://www.mofilm.com/competitions/tribeca2010


the next day, we met with the yoplait marketing team, a couple of their agency's creatives, and the other 2 teams who made the 1st and 2nd place yoplait commercials. the yoplait team was so complimentary of our spot, and immediately recognized us as "jane" and "fiance," which was fun! they were so interested in hearing the back story of how we came up with the ad, our real-life relationship, the film's tiny budget, etc. they also talked about how to use all these viral ads and fresh ideas in the future for this brand and others. we feel like there's definitely a new wave of advertising/creative filmmaking/young filmmakers beginning, and this experience made us really a part of it.

that evening, MOFilm sent us to the premiere at TriBeCa of a film called "Beware the Gonzo." not my favorite new movie, but it was fun to see, and the acting was actually pretty good. the most fun part for us was the whole experience, though, because we actually walked the real red carpet, spent time in the green room, and attended the after party with the cast and MOFilm people!!! check out all the photos!!! we just ate it all up!

new york newlyweds

morgan and pia: 1st place yoplait team from australia


the paps loved us! haha:





we mingled with some of the actors at the after party...

i told jesse mccartney how i still unashamedly listen to his pop hit "beautiful soul:"


judah friendlander from 30 rock:


we're both very excited about the prospects of working with MOFilm and it's amazing brands in the near future, and are already brainstorming some new commercial ideas! so look out for those hopefully soon. it's great to have an outlet for our creativity and a product to show for it in the end!

my goodness!!! i can't believe it's almost the end of the year. wow! i ALSO can't believe that i turn 25 tomorrow!!!!! yikes! no more of this "early twenties" business...

so on the eve of my quarter century, what is there to write about? lots, actually.

a) wedding planning is going well! we finally picked a date and secured the location. it'll be in april 2010, and we're getting married here in the la area! neither of us can wait! :D our wedding website is currently under construction, but when it's ready, i'll surely post a link to it on here, so keep an eye out for that! we took a few engagement pics with our friend, jer, but the weather was bad, so we plan on taking some more. here is just a little taste, though...




b) last weekend, parker and i went to visit his parents and family in virginia! it was just the perfect dose of fall that i always crave this time of year (especially since living in la, where seasons don't exist). we did a ton of hiking, eating, and good old-fashioned hanging out. it was so crazy and wonderful knowing that i was sitting around a table with my future family-in-law!!! i couldn't be more blessed, though--i've said it before, but i'm inheriting the best family!




there are more pictures that i haven't gotten ahold of, but it was just beautiful and we were so spoiled! also, parker's older sister, molly got engaged to jesse, while we were there!! so wonderful to be a part of that!



c) i just made some changes to my professional website: laurenparrent.com. i added a bunch of links on my reels page to videos that i've done the voiceover work on! i've also been doing weekly improv with monkeybutlercomedy.com and i'm LOVING it! i've only been taking the class for about two months and i just got word that i'm getting promoted to the next level! i've always loved comedy, and feel that it's my forte, so it's exciting to see another route of acting being set in my path. hopefully there will be updates on this front soon!

d) we just finished celebrating one of my favorite holidays--halloween!!! i LOVE dressing up and trick-or-treating was always a huge deal for our family growing up. anyway, parker and i had two halloween parties, and thus, two costumes! let me tell you, we used a TON of cardboard! anyway, here we are as 1) the geico gecko and the money you could be saving with geico, (along with jon who was the geico caveman), and 2) ms. pacman and inky the ghost!




e) my mama is here for a visit!!! i can't wait to do a bunch of fun wedding and non-wedding things with her! hooray family!

ok, more soon i hope! take care!

well folks, prepare for a media rich post!



first off, instead of posting all my ireland photos here, i'd love for you to check out the whole albums that i posted on facebook. you can see them on the links below **even if you're not a member of facebook:

Part One:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2400307&id=15902030&l=535bfb92db

Part Two:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2400320&id=15902030&l=dbef25b826

the trip was incredible and sharon and i adored the scenic hillside country drives through southern ireland. we saw dublin, killarney, kerry, cork, shannon, bunratty, and many other strikingly green places! i'd love to go back sometime, independently of a tour, and stay at scattered bed and breakfasts throughout the countryside. ireland: recommended!


secondly, i'm so grateful to have the most wonderful, fun, creative friends! they're pretty much the coolest friends ever. as you probably know, parker and i went sailing for my birthday last november. he loved it so much that he and his roomie, matt, took sailing lessons to become certified sailors. we rented a sailboat this weekend and went out for the whole day. it was SO awesome! i just have to brag on my friends as friends, and also as crazy talented video editing machines...and pretty rad dancers, as you'll see in the short video that my friend, josh, made of our trip. check it out below!!

Sleepyhead Sailing from Josh Sneider on Vimeo.

awesome, right? and my boyfriend is a pretty amazing gangsta. all is well in la la land. now i'm just settling in after these fun trips. as the summer winds down, i'm expecting a few guests this week, and enjoying life as always. take care and talk soon!

after going nonstop this weekend and waking up at 4:45 this morning, la time, you'd think i'd be looking for any free time to nap, however--i have too much to share to not blog at least a little bit before my head hits the pillows! so, what was all this excitement over the weekend, you might ask? well, i went with parker to his hometown (denver, co) for a friend's wedding. besides getting to spend time with parker (which i obviously loved), it was so fun to see more from his life growing up, meet some more family and friends, and to explore some of colorado!

instead of boring you with a ton of text, i'll just post several pictures with short captions so you can get a gist of our weekend itinerary! enjoy :)

our first night in CO, we drove up to vail to stay with parker's sisters. molly's boyfriend, jesse, took us jeeping up vail mountain where we had a gorgeous sunset picnic! it was so silent and secluded and wonderful! and we could even see stars! (i love you, la, but i needed this!)





the next day, parks and i rode bikes about 4 miles into vail village. the ride was spectacular--colorado in the summertime is beautiful!




later, we took a gondola with molly and brynna up the mountain to "friday afternoon club," which had breathtaking views of the backside of vail. the weather was perfect and it was such a treat to see real skies and clouds!




on saturday, we spent the day touring around parker's stomping grounds, and having some down time with parker's grandmother and aunt kathy, which was great. that night we went to the wedding, which was up in the woods near denver. it rained all afternoon right up until the ceremony, which was outside, so it ended up being perfect! the bride and groom were lovely, and parker got to see a bunch of high school friends, including chris, who made a special appearance with some fire torches!





our final full day in town, we ate a delicious breakfast with some other family members, and then walked around downtown denver, which i'd never done. here we are at a few of the capital's sites!



making nice with the colorado bear


last but absolutely not least, we took a group dinner trip to the white fence farm-parker's family's restaurant. i was SO excited about this, and yet my expectations were exceeded! the food was amazing (fried chicken, steak, cole slaw, corn fritters, mashed potatoes and gravy, beets and cottage cheese, mmmmm) and the restaurant and grounds were so cute! i have to say my favorite part, though, was this picture of baby parker feeding a cow--tell me this isn't the cutest thing ever!!



us at the farm (for those of you kentuckians, it's similar to patti's at the lake):


the americana barn with live music and a slide for kids!


the barn


and, i can't think of a better way to end this post, or any post really, than with a chicken truck...


it was a perfect weekend, and i can't wait to go back for another visit!!

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! :)

this weekend i experienced a big first, and oh, what a fun one it was! i got to go on a snowboarding trip up to mammoth with a bunch of friends. now, i'd been skiing twice before, but never boarded, and so i was very nervous, considering i didn't have much experience on the slopes at all, much less riding a board. little did i know that i'd love riding waaay more than skiing! it was super athletic and strenuous, but it was so much fun, and i feel like (even though i fell a TON, and am bruised and sore as crap!) i did pretty well for it having been my first time!

we have several friends that board, and so i was definitely intimidated. i was the only rookie out of about 10 of us that went. parker, who is a talented boarder (he's so good, seriously! and so cute out there!) could have gone down double blacks all weekend, but was so sweet and spent a lot of time riding green and blue runs with me. he was an exceptional teacher--so patient and gracious! i couldn't have had a better first boarding experience. i seriously would like to get my own gear and try to improve, going at least once or twice a season. it's so cool that here i am sitting amongst the palm trees, by the beach, and yet the snow was only about 5 hours away...ah, life!

anyway...we stayed at a really cute condo, had an amazing time hanging out with our friends (old and new), eating at yummy restaurants, and bundling up on the mountains (both june mountain and mammoth). and, i'm honestly just pleased that i'm back happy and in one piece (albeit a still very stiff piece..)

below are a bunch of the fun pics from the weekend!! have fun perusing :)

the ski bums at convict lake: brent, me, nate, parker, yuko, matt, graeme, and jer (thanks jer for this shot and the first one above, as well)



parks and me the first day at june



i'm a burnt little ski bunny!



everyone predicted this is how parker would feel after a day of teaching me how to board:



and, lastly, a new friend, tracey, and me taking a break on a run:

where to begin?! i just recently returned home from a fabulous trip to glitzy las vegas!!! a couple months ago, parker's dad, charlie, suggested we get a group together for a fun little getaway to vegas, so i'd been looking forward to this trip for awhile. it turned out that parker and i were the only la-ers to go, and we were going to meet up with charlie, and parker's aunt kathy. we packed so much into the three days we were there, so i know i'm just going to be skimming the surface of trip details!

on sunday, parks and i made the 4ish hour drive to vegas, where we met up with his dad and checked into the retro-futuristic (isn't that what you called it, parks?) bally's hotel and casino. it was perfectly situated right on the center of the strip, which was convenient for charlie's plan of walking opposite directions each day to explore the other casinos. i was really excited about my room--it was almost the size of my whole tiny apartment in la, and i had it all to myself!! aaah! i never knew a king-sized bed could bring a person so much joy! shortly after settling in, we three hit the pavement. we walked half the strip, basically, weaving in and out of the casinos to see all the sights. each time i've been to vegas, i've been amazed at how much money goes into creating such intricately themed hotels. i felt like i visited multiple foreign countries over the course of the weekend! we saw the paris,



planet hollywood, the mgm grand, the excalibur, the luxor, and mandalay bay. my feet were pretty tired by the end of the afternoon! i'd never been in a few of these, and i was impressed. i'd seen outside the luxor, for example, but the inside was crazy--this vast open space with all the rooms right around the pyramid's edges...

later, we ate dinner and then headed to see penn & teller's show.



it was funny, but not at all what i expected. i thought it'd be an elaborate magic production, but it was instead a stark stage with mainly just penn talking (teller's a mime, basically). they debunked a lot of psychic's tricks, and showed how common magic tricks were done. it was cool. after the show, parks and i headed upstairs in the rio to voodoo, a lounge on the top floor with an outdoor area that has the best view of vegas. it was amazing up there, and i felt very grateful to get to soak it all in with parker by my side. wah wah wah, i know, i know...ok i'll move on...to monday!

monday was parker's aunt kathy's birthday. she flew in and i got to meet her for the first time. much to my (and parker and charlie's) surprise, park's two sisters, molly and brynna, had flown along with kathy to vegas!! i was happy to finally meet molly, and to see brynna again!! what a welcome surprise!!



we spent that afternoon heading the opposite direction up the strip, going in and out of the casinos and shops. we had a celebratory birthday lunch in venice (complete with gondolier's serenades)...




we saw tao nightclub, which may be familiar to any of you who follow tabloids...sorry this picture is blurry, but you can see the extravagant entrance of orchid, filled bathtubs...



then we got yummy gelato from a place that had an elaborate chocolate fountain. i felt like i could dive in it and be augustus gloop from willy wonka...ok, it wasn't that big...




more than anything, i loved getting to spend time with the wilsons. they're a pretty sharp bunch, wouldn't you agree?! next, we wandered over to the bellagio and had an ocean's 11 moment as we watched the fountain show:



then, we all got dressed up for the evening ahead, which included a delicious dinner at SW, a restaurant in the wynn (which i think i've decided is my favorite hotel/casino in vegas!!). besides the incredible food, and outstanding company, the highlight of dinner was they wynn's bi-hourly show that's projected on the fountain just outside the restaurant. i can say without reservation it was possibly one of the most bizarre things i've ever seen. we got to see three separate, approximately 4-minute vignettes during the course of dinner. what made them so strange was that they were so unexpected--this ultra-trippy, completely odd show in contrast with our calm, upscale dinner. below, are some pictures, and a youtube video that someone else filmed of one of the shows that we saw...apparently more people than just i think it's beyond weird...







aaah, so crazy!!!! we still can't stop singing: "bow bow, chicachicka!" haha.

next up was a trip to the mirage to see LOVE, the beatles themed cirque du soleil!!! i'd never seen a cirque show before, so i didn't really know quite what to expect. from what i've heard, this one was less astonishing, in terms of it's acrobatic feats, but more on the commercial side, which i was fine with. i thought it was spectacular, creative, and entertaining. there was so much going on, it added to the already sensory-overload vibe i was experiencing in vegas! there was a ton of symbolism, which makes me want to research the beatles' music. but, yeah, overall i loved it! they incorporated a variety of styles of dance, and elements like trampoline and skate ramps, along with the traditional cirque bungees. highly recommended! and of course, the musical selection was superb!



after the thrill of the big show, we decided we should at least try out hand at the tables on our last night in sin city. the girls and i played some slots, to no avail, and parker spent some time at the roulette table. i actually ended up playing roulette, too, for a bit, and it was so fun!! we both felt out of our usual scene, but it definitely made for an exciting evening. luckily i only spent (and sadly lost) $15--that's right, big spender right here...

after just about stuffing in all that we could in las vegas, we had a fat tuesday breakfast at a cafe in the bellagio. then we packed up and headed back westward towards home. we made the trip in good time, again with surprisingly little traffic, and had fun conversation in the car with parker, charlie, and me. when we got back in town, we capped off the excellent weekend with a trip to ever-popular pinkberry!!



so...as you can tell, it was a lovely trip!! and, believe it or not, it's taken me until now to finish this post, because i had an equally eventful rest of the week post-vegas...charlie stayed for a visit in la, so we had some more good times, and you can look forward to another new post hopefully very very soon!! whew!!