Hi there! I have  a new, fun, adventure I have chosen to enter. I have been selected to be in the “Face of Fitness” contest. This contest required people from around the country to submit a non-professional photo and explaination relating to fitness. My entry consisted of how I try to keep my passion for food, cooking, eating, and etc. in check by altering unhealthy recipes to be healthy. I also explain the importance of having fun with working out. The paragraph is titled “3 Fs: Food, Fun, and Fitness!!!” This practically summs up my way of life relating to Fitness. Much of you probably know how much I enjoy trying new foods from my tweets and blogs. Who says models don’t eat???

This contest only lasts until Sunday and is based entirely on viewers’ votes. If I have enough votes by Sunday and move up in the ranking, I will be in the running to be on the cover of Fitness Magazine and a winning a trip to Hawaii!! Fitness Magazine is not only my favorite magazine, but the material included is something I’m very passionate about. If you ask any of my close friends, they will tell you I usually can’t stop talking about fitness, healthy habits, and etc. I almost even majored in nutrition! I want to share with others the reality of how fitness can fit into their lives in  a fun way! Please visit http://photos.fitnessmagazine.com/category/vote/photo/781859/33 to see my photo (make sure you see me in a blue tank, sometimes the links lead to other people’s photos) and story. If you have time, please click the orange button below the photo that says “vote.” Each person can vote once a day until Sunday, so please also tell your friends and come back daily! I truly appreciate all of you and how you take the time to help a friend in need! I’ll send more updats soon! Right now, I’m in 25th place, yesterday I was in 23rd. Let’s get the story all the way to 1st!

If someone asked about my plans after graduation  a year ago, I would have explained how I wanted to stay at Eastern Kentucky University to obtain my master’s degree which would lead me to certification as a Speech-Language Pathologist. I was very nervous about getting into EKU’s SLP graduate program since it is so competitive due to the number of applicants with very competitive test scores. Suddenly, I started thinking that my modeling career is something I need to take advantage of now. I had previously only considered going to graduate school straight out of college. However, inspirations such as Kristen Johnson-Davis (Miss KY USA 2005 and Miss USA 2nd Runner-Up)  had explained to me that she modeled two years in chicago after graduating then returned to get her Master’s degree. Regardless, I still preferred going straight into graduate school while I was used to studying, but I also didn’t want to regret not taking the opportunities that are infront of me now to my full advantage.

I couldn’t have been more shocked at myself when I ended up not even applying to EKU’s program at all. I had the new idea that I should attend graduate school online to enable traveling with modeling and acting, not missing class, but still going ahead and starting my graduate education. It wasn’t until the day that EKU’s applications were due that I completely decided to not apply. I realized that taking this leap of faith meant I was either going to be taking a year off from school or complete my degree online. I just felt very peaceful about this and knew it was the right decision.

Applying to online programs brought on even more concerns since they can be even more competitive. Since there were only about 4 online programs in the nation for Speech-Language Pathology with my specifications, I applied to them all! My first choice was right here in Kentucky; Western Kentucky University. This school would allow studying through a remarkable program with distinquished professors, an affordable price, and even the option to study with my friend who is attending the on-campus graduate program next year (Katrina – Miss KY Teen USA 2007)! After hearing that 400 people applied to WKU and only 35 are accepted, my nerves grew a little more thense but I still remained somewhat peaceful deep inside. I knew wherever I was supposed to be, I would end up. Nonetheless,  I was really hoping for WKU! When I opened my email without even thinking about Graduate school, my jaw dropped upon seeing an email subject line stating ”Acceptance into WKU!” I immediately burst into tears which must have been full of toxins of worry from the past 5 months of applications and not  knowing what my future would hold. I couldn’t be more relieved that I not only will be completing my degree through a prestigious college that has a 100% employement rate 2 years post graduation, but I’ll also have the summer off for a nice break, start grad school online in the fall, and have the ability to travel as needed while also having more “home-time.” This lifestyle will be  perfect for when I have my “home-body” days and perfect for my “want to travel the world” days. Most importantly, this will be perfect for inching closer to my ultimate career goal of making a difference in the lives of children with disabilities by helping them gain the gift of communication. The verse that was displayed on my daily bible reading cards the day I received my acceptance email was very applicaple: “…anyone who believes in Me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the father. You can ask for anything in my name, and I will do it.” John 14:13.

Countdown until graduation: 3 weeks and 3 days (only counting school days )

Landa Designs

Yay! I have received photos from my recent photo shoot for Landa Designs. I have been anticipating these photos coming for some time now because I was so excited to see them. The super sweet people behind Landa designs not only took extremely good care of me during the booking with a hotel and incredible food, but they also sent me a CD of the images along with huge prints for my portfolio. This saved me mega bucks ! I think the shots turned out awesome! They wouldn’t have been so great without the incredible work from the crew’s professional photography, lighting, editing, and of course the stunning gowns designed by Whitney Burke! To view me modeling the pageant line of Landa Designs, see photos below! Also, photos will be up soon on www.LandaDesigns.com and in their upcoming catalogues . You will find great dresses for any occasion with this company!

Last weekend, I was in Chicago for three days for what is known as America’s Beauty Show. This show was in a huge exhibition center to promote new hair and makeup products created from several companies. I worked for the company called Tigi. This company creates a wide range of incredible products from shampoo and hairspray to incredible makeup and more! The products of Tigi that I modeled for is known as “Bed Head.”  I have always admired Bed Head products and so I was excited that my second booking through Ford, my agency in Chicago, was for them. On Thursday, I arrived in Chicago for rehearsals after waking up about 4:30 am for the drive from KY. I was assuming the long rehearsals that were scheduled for Friday and Saturday were for the stylists to practice hairstyles on the models. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that rehearsals were arranged in order to teach us choreographed runway routines. The routines required very slow walking and some groups of models even had professional dancers in the background. These routines also consisted of models crossing in between each other in formations while models maintained different attitudes based on the assigned hairstyles. Previous Tigi shows are archived on YouTube.com. I will continue to check back for this year’s runway shows and try to keep you updated.

When driving from my cousin’s house in Chicago to the exhibition center, I was ready to never see another person dressed in green again! Apparently, there was a Saint Patrick’s day parade that morning whichcaused many road blocks and the streets to be absolutely flooded with people dressed in extravagant green outfits and hats. My cousin told me St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated very heavely in Chicago… who knew?Every timeI folloed my GPS’s rerouted directions, I was just led to another road block. After pulling in front of people and driving like a mad man, I decided to ask one of the security guards how to get to the center opposed to listening to the GPS. One explanation wasn’t enough since I could barely concentrate and so I had to pull over again for more directions. The second guard felt the need to criticize my driving, which I totally deserved at that time. The combination of rushing, stress, and a lack of sleep lead me to teary-eyes. Regardless, I decided to not give in to the urge to cry and I finally found the exhibition center. This detour took about 40 extra minutes than what I had planned, and I couldn’t have been more grateful that I left 45 minutes early.

I was eager for the show on Sunday because I knew it would be a blast. Models were to arrive at 7:30 am to do fittings of the intricate wardrobe and to be prepped for hair. This required literally setting 3 alarm clocks. However, it wasn’t because it was an early call time but because of Daylight Savings Time change and I wasn’t sure that my phone automatically resets itself. This meant when I came to Chicago on Friday that I went back an hour into CST, and then on Saturday it felt that I went back to EST when Chicago “sprung forward” one hour, then I “sprung forward” another hour on the way home back into EST. A little confusing, but I appreciate the days being brighter longer

Can you guess who this is??? Me!

Each model in my group wore a wig in order to not have to cut or color our hair. This required twisting individual sections of hair onto my head without a single pin. This translated to an unbelievably detailed hairstyle but also many hours of working out hairspray on the way home! A cap was placed over each girls twisted hair and then the wig was placed  on top of the cap. For my hairstyle, the stylist hand painted my wig with bright colors and created my makeup with a thick layer of purple sparkles across my eyes. The styling was so fragile that my sweatshirt had to be cut before taking it off to prevent messing up the hair. The styler was so kind to reimburse me for the sweatshirt, but it was truly my fault for not taking it off before getting my hair finished. I thought the neck was wide enough to pull over, but in the last minutes when we were rushing to be backstage in time, it was just easier to cut it.  Overall, the hairstyles may not have been for everyday wear (one awesome one even had Coca-Cola stenciled into it as the girl wore a Coca-Cola recycled dress!!), but I was truly amazed with the creativity and artistic abilities of the whole Tigi crew from England. Each girls’ particular artistic styling, choreographed routines, and outstanding hair styles made for breath taking runway shows that were so fun to participate in!

Other than this, I am staying busy with school and still waiting to hear back from my graduate school applications… I should be hearing back from them any time now! I have only applied to online schools to further my education in becoming a Speech Language Pathologist. Although this can be a nerve-wracking time, I’m really feeling peace about it all and am trying to have faith that things will turn out as they should. Besides this, I am still working in Nashville as well. On Friday I had the opportunity to go audition for the Nashville Symphony Spring Fashion Show which will feature beautiful gowns from “Marchesa.” I really hoped I booked this one since last year’s symphony show for Isaac Mizrahi was so much fun! After the audition, I caught up with my friend Ashley Durham, who I met by working for Tony Bowls. Don’t forget to visit www.MissUsa.com and vote for Ashley (Miss TN USA 2011), Ana (Miss TX USA 2011), and Kia Hampton (Miss KY USA 2011) each as most photogenic and rate them as “5 stars!” They are all incredibly sweet and talented girls that are making life changing impacts with their titles. Also, the date for Miss USA 2011 has been released when you can watch them compete: June 19th 2011!

I have survived another trip to the “Big Apple”  to work for the outstanding designer named Pamella Roland. Her gowns have been seen on the red carpet as modeled by the likes of Carrie Underwood, Eva Longoria, Beyonce, Paris Hilton, Halle Berry and more! This was my third trip to do “show room modeling,” which requires modeling on several gowns live as buyers from various stores pick out the pieces they are going to sale. There were buyers from all over the country. Some from Ukraine, some from Mexico, and my favorite buyer who is from Nashville with the store Gus Mayer. When I was working at Gus Mayer about a year ago, the sales representative of Pamella Roland asked if I had ever modeled in New York. After telling him I hadn’t, he asked if I wanted to. Obviously, my answer was ‘Absolutely yes sir!’ I’m thankful to still be continuing my friendship with the gang at the Pamella Roland office and to be invited back.

My first trip to NYC I brought my mom and grandmother with me, the second trip I did solo, and the this trip I decided to bring my dad. Although it wasn’t easy to leave my mom behind, because my dad works long, late hours, he isn’t always available to travel with me. Therefore, I was very excited to show him NYC; he hadn’t ever visited it before. Right away, he was in awe of the cab driver’s ability to swivel in and out of traffic and warp speeds. Being a driver for UPS, he also was very interested in the daily requirements of the men working in the brown trucks scattered across town compared to how he does his job in Lexington, KY. The first night consisted of visiting Times Square and going back to the room to take an online test for my class called Speech and Hearing Science. The next few days we found some great places to eat and spent even more time in Times Square. We definitely played the role of tourists. I was so happy that my dad ventured out to take multiple tours of the city while I worked from about 10-6 each day. However, it was the last day and we still hadn’t tried the subway yet, which was something he wanted to do. So, on our last morning we decided to go watch the recording of The Today Show (and yes we were the silly people behind the fence waving eagerly at America through the camera lens ). Next, we rode the subway back to our hotel. I was a little cocky at thinking I knew exactly what I was doing and which line to take because I had taken the subway so many times during my last visit. However, I have learned that just because my phone’s directions says to take the B line, you must double check which direction that particular B is going. We were aiming to only go something like 2 blocks, but instead we almost went all the way south to the Bronx! After my dad finally convinced me that I was in fact wrong wrong, we decided to get off and catch a convenient cab back to the hotel. This was very stressful since we were racing to be packed and ready at the hotel to catch our scheduled car heading to the airport. However, I looked as it as an opportunity to experience 3 very New York staples: rushing, the subway, and a yellow taxi! Regardless, we did make it to the airport in time and have arrived home safely. I couldn’t be more thankful for the great father-daughter time we got to experience. It was  a nice change of pace since we’re usually both so busy that we hardly get to see each other at all.

Another exciting bit of news was a recent finding I stumbled upon when hanging out at a Starbucks and browsing the Internet between two auditions in Chicago. I visited the website called www.leonacollection.combecause I had previously participated in a photo shoot for this designer who’s adorable apparel appears in boutiques across the country. Her name is Lauren and is just as sweet as her clothes are beautiful. Her clothes are available at the site listed above as well. Additionally, the talented photographer who knew just how to create the perfect lighting for the shots was Brad Rankin. He was a blast to joke around with. He even required me to hop onto a tree limb to pose on, which required climbing on the fence by the deck. The limb was extremely tall and I definitely thought it would break. However, no injuries occured and the he was right… the shot was totally worth it! To view more of this Paducah native’s work, please visit his site at http://www.bradrankin.com/. Overall, these are some of my favorite outdoor photos yet! To check out the the pictures and super cute clothes, please visit the mentioned website and look under “summer 11,” “spring 11,” and “swim 11.” Some of the photos from the shoot are pictures here as the ones with white studio backgrounds and also the ones taken outdoors. The other casual photos capture some of my favorite memories from NYC and designs by Pamella Roland.

 Finally! The pictures I’ve been waiting for have arrived! Here are some photos from my most recent portfolio building photo shoot to build my portfolio with Ford in Chicago. The photographer was named Lawrence of Lau Photography. He was one of the sweetest and most artistic photographers I’ve ever worked. Not only was he fun and profession, but he even ordered one of my favorite foods for dinner… sushi!!!! Some samples from the shoot are displayed below. My favorite look is the one in front of the windows when I’m wearing a white button-up shirt. The designing team was also very noteworthy including styling by Eve Rydberg, hair/makeup by Jenna Baltes, and help from humorous assistants: Daniel Tisue and Jamie Philp. The drive up was long, but not too bad thanks for my mom coming with me. Even though we have now received our first parking ticket from Chicago, we still didn’t let it ruin our trip. The way home got very blustery with the beginning of the Chicago blizzard and was a little stressful since we were using a new navigator leading us in a new direction on back roads, but thankfully we still made it home!

Last week was a very busy week for me, and I truly don’t know how my professors are so generous to work with me and modeling. I was absent both on Wednesday for a really fun booking in Nashville with my agency called Advantage and on Monday I drove to Chicago and back, (all in one day and by myself for the first time) for an audition. This meant missing two session consecutively of the same class, one of which I have an exam in tomorrow! Regardless, the drive to and from Chicago may have lasted approximately 14 hours there and back, but the audition only lasted about 30 minutes. The drive home got a little scary since it was the day the “storm of the century” in Chicago began. When I left the Windy City, there wasn’t flake of snow to be seen. But around Indianapolis got pretty icy. I was planning on staying with my friend Courtni Hall, who represented Indiana at Miss USA the year I competed, but instead I wanted to get through the weather so I wouldn’t be snowed out of school the next day. After one fishtailing episode and another very close crash where I slid horizontally on the road, (but thankfully at a low pace), I eventually was clear of bad weather and made it home. I couldn’t have felt more blessed or closser to God at that moment. At one point when I was beginning to spin again, I begged for God to please make it stop and that very second my car stopped dead in it’s tracks from the spin without hitting anyone else and I was able to straighten up and continue the journey home. It was a close call. However, the moral of the story is… to trust God . Plus… that audition has landed me what I have been shooting for many months now… my very first booking with Ford Chicago! I go up Wednesday for the shoot!!!! 

The commercial for Miss Priss Gowns of downtown Lexington premiered Saturday night during the Miss America pageant on ABC. I can’t be more happy with the results. I really am just so impressed with the special spins the producers (eppicfilms) put on the video to make the commercial even more special than I could have imagined. Not only did I have a blast recording it, but I’m astonished by the outcome. Below is a link to copy and paste into your browser to view. To get more information about Miss Priss visit MissPrissGowns.com

https://files.me.com/eppicfilms/l2rpx3.mov

As far as the results of Miss America go… I am so proud of Dujan Trent, Miss Kentucky, in her successful placing in the top 10. I knew her shinning personality and beauty would stand out in the eyes of the adoring US citizens during the live telecast . Thank you Dujan for all your hard work and determination for setting a positive example for everyone to follow here in the Bluegrass State. I also am thrilled for the new Miss America, Teresa Scanlan… only 17 years old!!! I feel as if I relate to her somewhat since I can remember going to compete at Miss USA as “the only teenager” being 19 years old, and the youngest contestant. I can tell that she will have a positive impact on the younger generation from being so close in age. 

Congratulations to Wesley Ware, Miss Kentucky Teen America, for placing 3rd Runner-Up at Miss Teen America this weekend in Nashville. You couldn’t have been more of a pleasure to coach and spend time with over the past several months. You’ve made me so proud not only of how you did at the pageant, but of how you present yourself as a young lady with established morals and values. There are many young girls looking up at you and many who want to follow in your footsteps.

Although being at the Miss Kentucky County Fair pageant this weekend didn’t allow watching Miss America, it was worth every minute of it (especially because my dad recorded Miss America for me at home ). I enjoyed watching the 91 incredible contestants represent their designated counties while they competed for one of the most coveted titles of Kentucky. The weekend was marked complete with being introduced on stage as a previous titleholder, havingthe ability to see members of the “pageant community,” and especially by eating at Joes Crab Shack on the river with my mom…. yum!

The Miss Priss gown I wore to the Miss Kentucky County Fair pageant