Landen Shea Ellis

Forgive me for this being a little bit late...

BUT my sweet roommate turned 21 today (yesterday I guess, technically)!!!!!

Landen and I met freshman year and ended up both pledging Pi Phi second semester. We remember our first real "bonding" experience to be during pledging on a trip to the Waco Zoo (pictured). Surprisingly, Waco has a pretty rocking zoo by the way... who knew? So not the point. Anyway, our friendship blossomed that day and continued into our sophomore year where we grew even closer. This special relationship finally led us to becoming roommates and here we are today, in our junior year, living the life on 10th street. Together.

Landen is one of the most genuine and caring people I've come across at Baylor and I'm lucky enough to get to live right down the hall from her. She encourages me daily, continuously makes me laugh and most importantly, she covers me with love. Landen is by far one of the busiest people in the world; she does everything and anything to serve those around her and although it's exhausting for her on most days, I know she loves it. No matter how tired she is or how frustrating things may get, that girl always carries on with a smile on her face. She continues to love on people, call out greatness in them and show them grace when others wouldn't. I'm inspired by Landen's passion and work-ethic. She is a true joy to be around and doing life with her is such a blessing. I'm lucky to call Landen one of my closest friends.

Sweet Landen, thank you for all you do. Thank you for loving the unloveable and taking on tasks that no one else will. Thank you for your determination, for your joy, for your unshakable faith. You are strong. You are beautiful. You are funny. You are outgoing. You are remarkable. You are LOVED. And now, you are 21! I hope this birthday was special for you, we love you so very much!

 Thank you God for making this wonderful young woman. We are all blessed by her. Phil 1:3

Friday Night Whites

Friday night I was privileged to go see Maroon 5 (and Train) in Dallas with my friend Kirsten. I thought we had lawn seats but she tricked me and ended up buying us great seats, 25ish rows from the stage kinda great, as a complete surprise to me! Without going into too much detail, this weekend was long overdue and proved to be an amazing 20 hours or so of fun, relaxation and healing. No words can possibly describe how wonderful that was.

Despite the less than profound lyrics of "Hey Soul Sister", Train was surprisingly pretty cool. Much more fun than I expected and I must admit I rather enjoyed their old school stuff. The dude [Patrick Monahan] had about 6 unnecessary wardrobe changes, not kidding... but he has quite a voice so I'm giving him props for that. Plus he walked down our aisle, twice, and stopped in the middle of a song ("Marry Me") for a marriage proposal to occur 4 feet from us. First of all, how do you get that hookup? Secondly, Train? Really? ...Just my humble opinion. :) However, this is the moment where I apparently got too close to Mr. Pat, which resulted in his security detail physically shoving me out of the way. Oops? They also did a pretty incredible cover of Aerosmith's "Dream On" and while Monahan is no Steven Tyler, I was impressed. You go Glen Coco.

Now to the important stuff! Maroon 5 (Adam Levine to be more specific) is one of my favs and seeing them live is always so much fun. They have amazing energy and you can't help but throw your hands in the air and scream the words to every song. I adore those kinds of concerts and to me, there's nothing better than dancing around like a fool to music you love with a bunch of strangers. Absolute bliss. I also like to fantasize about what it'd be like to sing on a stage that big and hear thousands of people screaming your name and singing your songs. What a rush! The Dallas show last night was the second to last of the tour and Adam explained that it was their last "Friday Night Whites" show... meaning that on every Friday night of the tour the whole band wore all white, all night. I loved this and although it probably has no correlation with my guilty pleasure, Friday Night LIGHTS, I'd like to think it does. Just one more reason why I love me some Adam. They had a great set list, an insane light show and super cool media. I was once again impressed with the show these boys put on and would totally see them again. Overall, it was an amazingly gorgeous, carefree, perfect night in The Big D.

Fall

Today is the first "official" day of fall which means the end of a hot, long summer. This summer was incredible; I got to travel the world, relax and spend some much needed time at home in St. Louis with friends and family. Aside from all those lovely memories, I have to admit I'm SO ready for fall to be here. Living in Texas has been an adjustment for me because being from the Midwest, I'm used to having FOUR full-blown seasons... that is not so much the case here in central TX. When it comes to winter, I don't mind that a southern winter isn't really a winter at all compared to what I've grown up with because I'm not great with coldness. However, fall is my absolute favorite time of the year and it always seems to take a little longer to arrive in Waco. So, in honor of today being the first day of my favorite season, here are some things I'm looking forward to about this particular fall!!

1. temperatures below 90 degrees
2. fall fashion - boots, long sweaters, leggings, glittens, scarves, etc
3. seeing my parents (one week from today!)
4. my best friend coming home from Africa
5. football - cheering on both the Baylor Bears and my STL Rams
6. homecoming and PIGSKIN!!!! as the first place act!!!!!
7. celebrating three of my roommates' birthdays
8. going home for breaks
9. firedance
10. dressing up for halloween

Some good Fall memories from the last two years.

Moving Target

Without getting too personal, so much has changed for me in the last year. Everything from relationships to my spiritual journey. I've grown up so much and have never been in a better place. My walk with Jesus is stronger than ever, my friends are more than a blessing and my family is beyond amazing.

Starting my junior year of college a few weeks ago honestly freaked me out... I'm 21 now, halfway done with college and starting to think about being a real grown up. Where did the time go?! With that being said, this is the most fun I've ever had in life! I love where I'm at. I love Baylor, I love sweet little Waco, I love my roommates, I love Pi Phi, I love my church, I love learning (most of the time) and I love what God's doing in my life. Some changes have been extremely evident while others, not so much. Regardless, big things are happening this year and I'm so excited. I honestly have no idea what that even means, but I can feel it.

Here are some of the beautiful people, places and things I've been spending time with this year so far. So blessed and so thankful.

Fashion Is Art

Food for thought.

The High Price of Fashion - NY Mag 2006
(Photo: Griffin Christensen)

I'm a fashion major. Obviously, I love fashion. And for one of my classes, I had to read this article... it inspired me a little bit. There's so much truth in what's written (seriously, read it) even though it is almost five years old. Who decided that a dress should cost more than the average person's car? Not me. But at the same time, I respect high-fashion. I get inspired by high-fashion. I'm moved by high-fashion. I love high-fashion.

I think we can all admit that it's not normal to spend $30,000 on a dress or even $2,000 on a handbag and I'm not gonna do it, but I do get it. Sort of. I get that fashion is art. Clothes are a way of expressing yourself and the things that designers like Karl Lagerfeld and Christian Dior create are out of this world. My brain can't even fully understand how such magnificent works of art are dreamed up and executed. At the same time, I do sometimes wonder, what's the limit? How expensive can we make clothes? How many people are actually buying such lavish items? Is it even worth it?

I don't know. What I do know is that fashion means something to me. No, I'm not going to go out and buy a $30,000 dress or $14,000 shoes... but I will dream about them. I will obsess over fashion shows and gush about designers. I will read magazines and see "who wore it better". I will look forward to reading fashion blogs and staying up on current trends. I will daydream about going to fashion week, on the regular.

I'm a girl. And I'm a girl that loves everything fashion.