Give, Get & Pop!

Two cool things are happening in blogland and I thought you might be interested.

First, the awesome ByJane at Midlife Bloggers is having a giveaway for a gorgeous pair of "Jingle Dangle" earrings. I got a kick out of her simple entry requirements. Here's the scoop to win these babies:

Describe your lonely earlobes. Shout out for the Jingle Dangles in any way you like. Each comment will be a ticket in the MidLifeBloggers Jingle Dangle Earring Sweepstakes. If you Tweet about it, you’ll double your chances of winning (send me the link).

While you're there, take a look around Midlife Bloggers. It's one of my "must read" blogs.

And Snuggie Queen Kristina P. of Pulsipher Predilections has organized a fundraising drive to collect new Snuggies for needy Senior Citizens during the month of March. It never dawned on me how great this funky product would be for wheelchair bound Seniors, so I packed up a Snuggie and mailed it off to the Utah State Veteran's Nursing Home. I hope you'll consider sending one too.

Click HERE to get all the details on how you can participate. Or click her logo in my top right corner.

And last, a fast update on my sinking pool and deck saga.... Due to all the rain we've had in Southern California lately, there's serious concern about draining the pool. Apparently the water table might have risen and, gawd forbid, the pool could pop out during the draining.

Seriously. All I can do is laugh.... and wait. That's life in paradise.

Do you usually enter sweepstakes? (I do!)

Welcome to The Fifty Factor - Joanna Jenkins

Road Trip

We don't do it often enough, but a few times a year, Beloved Husband and I enjoy a 4 day weekend away. Palm Springs is a 2 1/2 hour drive East, so we pack up the car in search of rest, relaxation and sunshine.

But before we take off, there's so much work to be done. For example, the trip we just returned from started like this.....

One car, two adults, four nights away, and all this stuff-- And this picture was taken before we stopped at the outlet mall. And no, we weren't camping.

No wonder we rarely take long trips-- There wouldn't be any room left for us in the car. And for the record, I only packed three pairs of shoes. Most of this stuff belongs to my husband.

Honest!

We had a great time, napped, read, watched the Olympics, star-gazed, ate too much and just spent quality time together. I can't ask for more than that!

Now all I have to do is unpack all the stuff we just packed four days ago.

How do you travel-- light or loaded?

Welcome to The Fifty Factor - Joanna Jenkins

Sundays In My City #26 - Los Angeles Zoo

Do you know Unknown Mami? She's hosts a great Sunday theme inviting YOU to get out and take pictures of your city and/or Sunday to share with the rest of blogland. Click HERE to see Unknown Mami's Sunday in her City today.

Recently I tagged along with Godson's school class on a field trip to the Los Angeles Zoo. We had a great time and the kids were thrilled with every minute of the day.

This exhibit had several gorillas that were so gorgeous and regal, the kids stared at them, in silence (!) for a full five minutes.

On one hand, I was sorry to see them in captivity, on the other I was happy the kids were so engaged and interested in learning more about them. Maybe we'll have a future veterinarian in the class...

Several giraffes were showing off for us. This baby was especially sweet...

The lion's den was another big thrill for the kids.....

And yes, the teachers had to point out this sign multiple times....

Thanks gawd we came home with as many kids as we arrived with!

How's your Sunday?

Welcome to The Fifty Factor - Joanna Jenkins

Doing The "Hollywood Thing"

First things first-- The wonderful PJ of Seens From The Backs Of My Eyelids is having a fabulous GIVEAWAY for her one year blogoversary-- and I mean FABULOUS!!!-- As in multiple gifts including a $75 e-gift certificate from Amazon.com! You can enter once between Wednesday, 2/24 through Sunday, 2/28 so CLICK HERE to enter!

Every now and then I get to do the "Hollywood thing" and attend a movie premiere. In all honestly, some are more fun than others, but even the "duds" are pretty awesome in my book.

It's interesting to rub elbows with celebrities and watch the red carpet "circus" in progress with masses of photographers screaming the stars' names to capture the perfect shot.

I think it's actually pretty intense for the celebrities to be in front of so many cameras at one time, and honestly, it's a little unsettling for us "common folk" to watch from a distance-- There's a real "meat market" feel to it. But I admit, I get a kick out of seeing photographs in magazine that I've seen being taken.

Last week I was invited to a premier screening and party that ranked high on my "cool" scale. It was for a film called The Yellow Handkerchief that opens in limited release Friday, February 26th, then eventually goes wider in the U.S. and overseas. For my Australian friends, I know it opens there around June.

In the interest of full disclosure-- I know someone associated with this film which is how I was invited to the soiree, but I was not asked, nor am I being compensated to say, I LOVED THE MOVIE! I think my regular readers know me well enough to know if I didn't like it, I wouldn't be talking about it at all.

I got to meet the stars William Hurt (beyond nice-- so humble and such a gentleman), Maria Bello (OMG, she's gorgeous), Eddie Redmayne (he's going to be a BIG star) and the lovely Kristen Stewart of "Twilight" fame (she's a sweet young woman who seems a little intimidated by her movie star status).

When you see upcoming photos of Kristen in a stunning black mini dress with large rhinestones around the hem and side seams-- THAT'S the party I was at. Wink, wink. (And Diane, when I saw the dress I immediately thought of you! I looked it up-- She's wearing an Azzaro griffiti dress.)

The thing about this film, which is a love story, is that the performances are subtle and beautiful. And the cinematography is absolutely stunning.

Several times though the movie I thought about my blog friends who are so talented with their cameras and how much they would love seeing Yellow Handkerchief. It's set in southern Louisiana and the colors and images and style of the film are like watching a moving art exhibit.

The other thing I really liked about the movie was that it's a love story wrapped around real life dialogue that didn't include any profanity, nudity or exploding special effects! When was the last time you saw a movie like that? No body count, no F-bombs, no boobs, or butts-- just great dialogue, acting, directing and cinematography.

It's a PG-13 movie that I'll tell my 74 year old mother and my 18 year old grand-daughter to see. These kinds of films don't come along very often and I'm glad this one did.

What kind of movies do you like?

Welcome to The Fifty Factor - Joanna Jenkins

Photo Credit: © oxygen64 - Fotolia.com

PS Hubby and I are on vacation for a long weekend.

I'll catch up with you next week, xo jj

Sundays In My City #25 - Street Colors

Do you know Unknown Mami? She's hosts a great Sunday theme inviting YOU to get out and take pictures of your city and or Sunday to share with the rest of blogland. Click HERE to see Unknown Mami's Sunday in her City today.

It was a gorgeous day on Thursday so I made a trip to the Fashion District in downtown Los Angeles. In addition to numerous manufactures with retail stores there are also several jammed pack blocks of fabric stores.

The bolts of fabrics line the front of every store....

Yes, even in the Fashion District, it's a jungle....

These were a dollar a piece....

I love going to this part of the city. You can't help but be happy with all the fabulous colors and textures....

Maybe I'll apply for a job....

How's your Sunday?

Welcome to The Fifty Factor - Joanna Jenkins

Not "Mad Men"

The fifth grade was when I decided I wanted to be a famous "window dresser" in New York City. Actually I wanted to be a famous bulletin board designer for school classrooms in my hometown but my teacher, Mrs. Fischer, suggested I stretch my career goals slightly higher.

Of course the fact that I always volunteered to "design" the classroom bulletin board and spoke with a slight French accent when I worked on them earned me the reputation as a bit of an over-the-top brown nose, but I figured that was the price of fame.

Fast forward to real life and "window dresser" wasn't a listing in the Help Wanted section of the newspaper so I moved on.

Eventually, I got into the advertising business in a roundabout way via a friend of a friend who knew a guy that had an entry level position available. It was a cool job for a real NYC publisher of a food magazine and the whole "creative process" kicked back in.

No, it was nothing like Mad Men. After all, I'm significantly younger than that era. It was the 80s-- *ahem* very early 80s. Honest.

Since then I've come to viewing advertisements with a different eye than perhaps those not in the business. I'm more critical and always wondering who the target audience is. But lately, say the last ten years, I've come to wonder who the heck the advertiser is too.

It seems advertisers are trying to be so cleaver and hip and cool that the brand name isn't mentioned until the end of the commercial or only in tiny type, if at all. Target stores has mastered this technique with their wildly successful bull's eye logo but most others-- not so much.

During Wednesday night's Men's Snowboard Finals on the Olympics I saw this ad and it cracked me up. But after watching it I couldn't remember what product was being hocked, so I looked it up on YouTube and soon found that not only was it not a new ad, it was also very popular-- Which told me the company was targeting younger males with their message (snowboarders), not middle-aged women (trying to stay awake late enough to see who won the gold metal).

Regardless, I loved this ad and although it would never motivate me to buy the product for "my man", I thought you might get a laugh out of it too.

What's made you laugh lately?

Welcome to The Fifty Factor - Joanna Jenkins