The only reason I like the season change is I get to go shopping...

Here in Texas, Fall is finally upon us. For many, this is a time for rejoicing that the temperature has finally dropped. I, on the other hand, believe I live in my own infinite summer. I don't normally go out shopping for fall and winter clothes, I tend to try to stretch my cutest summer items through the cold, and then resurface them sans over-pieces when it warms up again. Not the smartest move. 

So this year, I decided I wanted to pick up a few items to create a decent fall and winter wardrobe. I wanted to share a few of my favorites that I have picked up, and show you how you can still be trendy on a budget. 

Boots!

I love me some boots in the fall. The last few years, I have found myself living in boots when it starts to get cold outside. Over the years, I have collected both "Ugg" style boots and slouchy faux suede boots for the season. This year I found myself coveting the more riding style boots (or as I put it, the classy boots) that I saw everywhere, and especially at church  (I am well aware of the irony of coveting things I see on women at church). I found myself becoming very picky of how I wanted them to look. I preferred equestrian boots over motorcycle boots, and a very specific shade of brown. BUT I did end up finding the perfect boots for my ideal

These are the Demi Wedge Leatherette Boot from Wet Seal. I bought these after considering it for about a week (I had to have an outside influence tell me to go get them and stop getting flustered about it). I have worn these practically every day since I bought them, and I built a whole travel wardrobe around wearing these boots when I went out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday. These are great over black leggings (my personal favorite), skinny jeans, dresses, tights, what have you. I got these on a Friends and Family sale the weekend before Black Friday, but they are normally $34.50. Honestly the quality is great, and I think they are worth every penny I spent on them.

BONUS JONAS HINT

I also bought a pair of cream leg warmers to go under these at the same time I bought the boots because I have a skinnier calf and they can sometimes look weird on my chicken legs. Best idea ever. I never wear them with the legwarmers, and I love the look it gives them. Kind of a boot sock without a full length sock.

Sweaters! 

Living in Texas, it never really comes to mind for me to wear a full out sweater, but I wanted to get one or two, because I love the look of a sweater and leggings and boots. Being tall (have I mentioned I'm almost 6 foot tall, and I have an incredibly long waist and normal length legs?) it's difficult to find a sweater that is actually long enough to wear with leggings and cover all my ladybits, so I must settle on regular length sweaters every once in a while. ANYWAY. I was at TJ Maxx one random night, because that's when I get my most productive shopping done, and I found the most amazing wonderful beautiful sweater I ever did see. 

It's black and gold stripes, and the gold stripes have sequins in them. I can't express my love for this sweater, and I have gotten nothing but compliments on it. Being a southern lady, sequins sing nothing but sweet lullabies into my eyes and into my heart. I've worn this out on a Saturday seeing a movie and running errands, I have worn this to the office on a more casual day. I don't care what you say about sequins, they're always appropriate. 

Colored/Printed Jeans!

I almost forgot about my favorite find of the season! I cannot believe that! Okay, so I love the oxblood trend. The color burgundy/maroon/oxblood/deep red/wine holds a special place in my heart, and always has. It's the perfect fall and winter color. But I digress. So forever, I was on the search for a pair of oxblood pants, and I had always considered getting a pair of darker palette printed jeans. Well, Wet Seal came through for me once again, and I found the most wonderful pair of BOTH colored and printed pants.

These are oxblood brocade printed jeggings. They are much deeper in person, this picture was taken on Instagram after all and I was trying to really emphasize the print, and they are beautiful. These aren't on the website anymore, but I believe they were $29.50 full price, which I got half off because it was during a sale of half off the entire store. These have been worn absolutely anywhere and everywhere. My favorite way to wear them is with a Chambray top, a white scarf, these jeans and some black flats. My other outfit in my brain involves some combat boots to put a sweet edge on them, but those do not exist in my closet just yet.

There you have it. These are my large finds as far as my trendy things go. Summer still is trying to linger, both in my wardrobe and in the weather, and I have nothing but adventures planned to continue my shopping. I have two three things on my wish list for the season, but alas, I have yet to find them. I'm still on the lookout for a good pair of black combat boots, a leopard print sheer scarf and a black motorcycle jacket. I've looked and looked, but the search will continue to go on until I find something that I am willing to get excited about like these that I have mentioned so far.

What are your favorite items for the fall/winter season? Anything you're still looking for? And if you have any suggestions on where to find my last lingering ideas, let me know! Any suggestion is always appreciated!

Here's to fashion trends!

Love, Hannah Leigh.

Let's talk make up...

Hello lovelies,

So today, I wanted to do my very first make up post, and to commemorate this grand occasion, I wanted to talk about my very favorite make up product category out there, MASCARA. This idea came to me while I was getting ready this morning for work, and found myself being incredibly tedious with my mascara, even though that is literally all I am wearing today.

I, my friends, am a mascara FIEND. I have a ridiculous collection of half used, but all needed mascaras. They each do something different for me, and I know exactly which ones to pull out for whatever lash look I am wanting to go for. So, I thought I would share a few of my favorites with all of you.

My all time favorite mascara is the L'Oreal Voluminous Carbon Black Million Lashes.

I could swear by this mascara and have repurchased this many times over the last 2 years or so. This mascara is the blackest of the black, and it is a dryer formula than most. I have pretty average lashes, not too many not too little, not too short not too long. This is perfect for me. I get all of the definition I could want plus volume to boot. In my opinion, with this mascara, I could never go wrong.

Running a close second behind Million Lashes is L'Oreal Carbon Black Double Extend.

 The Carbon Black mascaras are seriously the darkest black mascaras I have ever tried. I cannot even explain how wonderful that is to me (I don't care if I'm a blonde, I love me some blackest black mascara). This mascara is no exception. The 2 step process is pretty fantastic, and this combined with the Million Lashes is pretty much my holy grail. The primer is the reason I use this. I love to have extreme length to my lashes, and this helps my lashes out big time. I always add the primer to my lashes first, let it set, then run my Million Lashes through before adding the black from the Double Extend (Note: Depending on how I want my lashes to look that day, I sometimes reverse the use of those two for more definition and less volume). This mascara gives me wonderful length thanks to the primer, and fantastic volume from the black mascara.

My other notable mascara from my collection is the newest addition, and if you read any beauty blog or watch any beauty guru on YouTube, you've definitely heard of this one.

Maybelline Mega Plush Volum Express.

Let me just say that I do, in fact, love this mascara, and I love what it does for my lashes. BUT  I have to say, because I have seen negative reviews on it too, it is ALL about how you use that brush. The brush on this mascara is a triangle. There are 3 sides with long bristles and also 3 sides with shorter bristles. The short bristles is where all of my love for this mascara comes from. When I want to go for a truly natural look, I use the long bristles and I'm done. When I want to add some legitimate volume to my lashes, I get those short bristles into my lashes, and I never hate the results. And the formula. My goodness, it is so wonderful. It really does make your lashes soft and touchable, not stiff and brittle. I think I read in Cosmo one time that you should use a soft mascara so your boyfriend can touch your soft lashes. Now, I don't know about all of that, but I know if I touch my lashes and they're soft, I love the feeling.

So, as you can see, I love me some thick, long, dark lashes, and I pretty much rock that look on a daily basis. Mascara has always been one of my favorite things to buy, and I get so excited when I see a new brightly colored tube hit the shelf at wherever I am at the time. It's a self control issue. I am totally aware.

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog, and if you have any requests for things you would like for me to write about, feel free to let me know!

'Til Next Time,
Love, Hannah Leigh

Photos Courtesy of L'Oreal USA and Maybelline USA

Long time, no see

Hello lovelies,

Sorry for the severe hiatus from the blogging universe. With life's changes, blogging just was not the first thing to come to my mind. So let me catch you up.

In May, I graduated from University, and when we last spoke I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life. I was still living in my same house in my college town, and I was trying to figure out where the next move was going to come from. I ended up in the good ol' town of Abilene, TX and worked a couple of different jobs until I settled into an office in a high rise, doing a little bit of everything. So it seems that, at least for right now, I have found something to do with my life.

If anyone has ever heard of Abilene, they probably know that there is quite a large Air Force base in this city (praise the Lord for Blues on Mondays). Since moving to Abilene, I have seen my fair bit of Airmen wandering through out the town, and I have seemed to find myself one of my own. That's right. After 22 years of saying I would never be strong enough to be a military SO, I am one. And it has honestly been one of the best experiences of my life so far. So there's that.

Other than that, I have just been trying to get my life to settle some, and hopefully be able to slow down these days. My best friend, Sami, deserves a special shout out in this post because she is the one that alerted me that I had abandoned my post and I needed to get back into blogging. So I will.

I have a few posts planned out to be up in a few days, and honest to God, whenever I figure out how to add pictures into these posts (sorry, I'm still new to the scene), this blog will be up and running.

Until next time,
Love, Hannah Leigh.