What's Up?

What's up? Well, a lot, actually! I've had so many things changing and happening the last few months and I suppose I was waiting until it all sort of slowed down to officially post about it all, but...life never slows down. At least not for me.

So, I suppose it's time to give a little update on my life and all the changes and happenings. First of all, my education is changing quite a bit. I'm no longer going to be going to the school I'm at now, and I've been accepted to a different college where they have a fashion merchandising program. I'll start that program this summer and I'm so excited to learn absolutely everything that I can about fashion to help my career.

As far as what I want to do, exactly, in the fashion industry...at this point, I'll take any of it! No, but really, I love the idea of working with department stores or boutiques or designers and helping with the merchandising of their products or resources. I'm not a designer, but I'd love to look into being a full time stylist as opposed to just the side work and weekend jobs I book for styling and personal shopping. I love styling for print work, but styling people for their everyday lives is so much fun for me, as well.

I was talking with someone who has hired me to do some personal shopping as a gift for his wife this Valentine's Day, and he said to me, "Why do you do this? Shopping is exhausting. Why would you want to do it for a living?" I laughed right out loud! Why wouldn't I? It's the kind of thing that I love to do for fun. If I could do it for a living, how could I not? We've all heard the quote that if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life. That's how I feel. Though I couldn't justify quitting my "real job" (I work at an HR company) because of the great benefits, (and honestly I really love my job!) looking toward doing something that I absolutely adore sounds so perfect to me. To be able to do a little of both? Doesn't get better than that.

There is a line in a song by Kip Moore when he says, "Happiness don't drag its feet and time moves faster than you think."

I've reached a point in my life, especially with the help and encouragement of my husband, where I just need to do what makes me happy. I don't have the time to wait around. Fashion and beauty and styling and makeup...those things are a blast for me. I've had concerns that working in the fashion or beauty industry would make people think I have less character, or that some people might not take me as seriously or think that I'm as educated or capable because I like clothes and shoes and makeup.

But then I thought, "Yeah, I don't care one little bit what you think."

My greatest joy in life are my two kids and my husband. But logistically and realistically, I have to focus my career around the other things in my life that make me happy, and I know that doesn't make me any less of a wife, a mother or a woman.

Why not do what makes me happy? And not just do what makes me happy, but do it and be proud of it. So that's where I'm at.

So I guess, that's what's up.

-L

Wardrobe Wednesday: From Sunday Best to Mechanic's Threads

Well hello, everyone!
First I just wanted to say thanks for the phenomenal turn out, I guess you could say, with respect to the giveaway last week for the Agnes and Dora leggings. It was so much fun, and the support from everyone meant a lot to me! Fashion is a huge passion for me (another post) and pulling these outfits will one day not just be what I do for fun on my blog or when collaborating with other designers or boutiques. IT WILL BE MY JOB, MARK MY WORDS.

Okay, onto some more fun stuff. Here are a few looks as of late. Happy Wardrobe Wednesday!

So this first look was just me and my babies before church one morning. We played with neutrals and a few pops of color. Ellie's whole outfit (minus her purse and shoes) was a Christmas gift from my Grandma Bonnie. She always does have great style. Especially when my Aunt Jill helps her pick things out. Thanks, ladies. Ellie looked beautiful. Though I couldn't get a full shot of my Landon (he's just so busy with very important things to do, ya know??) he felt nothing less than dapper that day, which he showed by telling everyone at church, "I look pretty great today." No lie.

Ellie-Dress: Children's Place; Cardigan: Children's Place; Heart Tights: Old Navy; Purse: Wal Mart; Bow: Children's Place; Shoes: Payless.

Landon-Pants (not pictured-Khaki slacks): Target; White Button-Up: Children's Place; Blue and Green Tie: Target

Me-Aztec Skirt: Old Navy (available in Tall, ladies!!); Chevron Tights: Target; Oxford Pumps: Sole Society; Chambray Top: Nordstrom; Nude Pullover Sweater: Old Navy; Jewelry: Old Navy

This second look was right before heading out to the concert that I blogged about here. Dan surprised me with a cute v-neck tee from Edelbrock, which is a company that he loves to buy car parts from. What can I say? I'm married to a mechanic. These jeans are the Rockstar line from Old Navy which they now sell in mid rise. (Ladies. Like, buy mid rise jeans. They don't look or feel like "mom jeans" but you hate your muffin top, I know you do because you're constantly grabbing the two belt loops closest to the button and doing the oh-so-flattering "up and over" routine. Please. Do this to help yourself and everyone behind you when you bend over to pick up your kids. Kthanks.) They also offer these in Tall and Long (not sure the difference...anyone want to enlighten me?) which I love because I love the slouchy look you can get from a great pair of skinnies and sneakers... but my legs are too long.UNTIL NOW!

TShirt: Gift from the hubby and Edelbrock; Jeans: Mid-rise Rockstar Skinnies from Old Navy; Shoes: Converse; Bracelet: Um. I forgot.

What did you all wear this week?! Link up!

-L

New York Fashion Week

NEW YORK FASHION WEEK STARTS NEXT MONTH.

Oh wait, I mean, *ahem*...

Hey guys!

No but really. Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion week is in February and I'm dying. I can't wait. I was just telling my husband (who was probably not listening because when it comes to this stuff, I ramble) that I love, love, LOVE fashion week. I can't wait to see all the looks, but I'm especially excited for designers like Rachel Zoe, Tory Burch, Michael Kors, Charlotte Ronson, Zac Posen, J. Crew...OH MY. JUST ALL OF THEM. I don't typically start snooping around at the looks for 2014 until the New York fashion week is upon us. And now I've surpassed snoop and I'm onto full blown obsession.

Look, I know that most of the designs walking down the runway during Fashion Week aren't going to make it in my closet or ever adorn me while running my mommy errands or sitting at my desk at my "real" job. But that's not the point. (Well Lyss, what is the point?)

Yeah, I don't have time to get into that.

If you want to read about February's MB Fashion week in NYC, check it out here. They also have live streaming from the website. I watched Badgley Mischka for like 2 minutes and found myself actually crying. Has anyone else noticed how much her pieces seem to emulate the 50's. Kind of like lots of flowy shift pieces and even some that remind me of the early Chanel dress suit?
See what I mean:

And can we just take a second to die over Zac Posen's work? Like, why can't I have an excuse to wear a gown? 

It's also worth your time to follow @mbfashionweek on Instagram.

Here are my predictions: Lots of color on color (black on black, white on white, blue on blue, etc.) and lots of floral or feather inspired prints. Can't wait to see it all unfold. I'm trying to hold myself back from snooping too much so that I can fall in love with it all during NYFW. Tell me what your favorite designers being featured this year are???

One day I'll make it there, you guys. I will.

What do you think? Should we do a special giveaway on the 6th of February honoring Fashion Week?!

-L

Hey Ya'll: Country Music Concert and Wardrobe

Hey ya'll! (Pun Intended)

Over the weekend, I got to "cash in", if you will, on a Christmas gift my dad gave me. Let me just give you a little background.

Growing up, country music was always a part of my house. And not just country music. We grew up listening to The Beatles, Journey, Boston, The Eagles, etc. But there was always a fair amount of Garth, George and Shania and I've grown up with a love for country music. That's just kind of all there is to it.

So this Christmas, as everyone finished throwing away the last of the wrapping paper and thinking thoughts of Christmas breakfast, my dad, with a wink, told me to go look in the tree (yes, in the tree) because he "thought" there might be one more gift left. As I opened it up, attached to an iTunes gift card, were tickets to go see Lady Antebellum with my dad. Just me and him.

So, aside from my love of music, my crush on Charles Kelley, getting to watch Jana Kramer and Kip Moore open and the badass Tshirt my dad bought me, you KNOW I died over the wardrobe and makeup. Even my dad could tell. Walking out of the arena he said, "Okay, so what did you think of the clothes and makeup?" launching me into a session of gushing I'm not sure he was prepared for. But anyway. Just look.

Hillary Scott had several costume changes, but this one was one of my favorites. Peacock feathers?! Sequins? I'm not sure what's not to love. Her makeup looks great too. Not too chizzled out but her features were still defined on stage. Props to her stylist and MUA. The guys were comfortable but very put together. (As opposed to their opening act, Kip Moore. I didn't love his get up at all...especially the cut off Fender tee. I'm a Gibson girl, anyway. ha.) As far as music went though, Kip sounded great and really surprised me when he went out to sing "Hey Pretty Girl" on a stool, acoustic, by himself. The amp seemingly failed him, though, when his guitar lost power after the first count of eight, and his band tried to jump in to help him. Kip held his hand behind him, as if to tell his band to "hold off" and sang acoustic without his guitar. After "Hey Pretty Girl" he, in an effort to appease the crowd after his technical malfunction, sang "Stand By Me" acoustic, once again without his band.

One of my favorite moments of the show was when Charles stopped the band right before the last chorus of "It Ain't Pretty" to talk about how beautiful the arena looked with everyone's cell phones lighting up the crowd. He said it was one of the best parts of their tour, and then Hillary finished the last, and quite powerful, verse and chorus. There is a gorgeous acoustic version here.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of Jana Kramer but she was wearing some great skinnies (black leather, it looked like from afar) and a loose, almost billowy top in a dark red/purple color. She topped it off with a single, long chain, golden key pendant. Her bracelets were silver cuffs that she wore high on her forearm so as not to hit against her guitar, especially when she played along with the band during her single, Whiskey. Take a listen here. Her makeup was simple but gorgeous. Light smokey eye and a mauve lip.

I thought all around Lady A sounded phenomenal and looked just as great. Their encore included "Need You Now" and an awesome cover of "Wake Me Up" and "Cups". You can see a terrible and ghetto iPhone video here but if I were you I would skip to :40. Though the quality isn't great, you definitely get a feel for it. We left on a musical high.

If you want to check out the review from the Salt Lake Tribune, you can find it here.

Bottom line, it was a great concert with my awesome dad!

And for good measure, don't we look great? These photos courtosey of MY ghetto iPhone!

Now go listen to some country music.

-L

Review and Giveaway-Agnes and Dora and Leggings, OH MY!

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Addressing Some Questions as of Late

Hey everyone! So just a quick little post today. Over the last week or two, I've been absolutely overwhelmed (in the BEST way possible) with requests via email, Facebook, text, in person, etc. for specific blog posts, product reviews, guest blogging and collaboration concepts, Q and A sessions, stylist requests and the like. I was even broached about the subject of doing a YouTube channel and legit started laughing at that one...
Anyway, I wanted to quickly point out a few things.

First, the best way to get in touch with me regarding business inquiries is either email or Facebook. Chatting in person is totally fine by me, but it's harder for me to keep track of it all if it's not "written down" somewhere. You can find me on Facebook here, or email me at: alyssalynnhall5@yahoo.com. Also there is a link at the top of my blog where you can find ways to get in touch with me about any of these types of inquiries.

Secondly, I wanted to really, truly THANK all of the people who are not only following this blog, but have shared it with their friends. Thank you for encouraging people to become "followers" and to subscribe by email. I typically post a link to my blog posts to Facebook, but I'll be leaning away from that a bit I think. I'll still share them to my Facebook wall from time to time, and I'll be sharing THIS post, so it's not like I'm anti linking blogs to social media. But that being said please, "follow" my blog or subscribe by email and encourage your friends to "follow" my blog as well. I get a lot of comments about my posts on the link that I post to Facebook and that feedback is so awesome for future posts. But I'd like to gear that toward the blog itself, instead of on the link to Facebook. PLEASE feel free to "share" my posts on your own Facebook. I wouldn't and couldn't ever discourage that. It's so fun to find out that I have followers of my blog that have found me through others' sharing of my posts or giveaways. I'm simply saying that I would like the discussion and feedback from my blog to occur here, as opposed to my links shared to social media. This will help me to use that feedback to what it is that you'd like to see me blog about!!

And finally, I have some awesome reviews and giveaways coming up here in the next few weeks, but I'd really like some feedback from all of YOU. Please, tell me what you'd like to see. I've had requests like: tutorials, more outfit posts, more makeup posts, more giveaways, more reviews, etc. Tell me what you think! Let's build this out to something incredible together.

I've really appreciated all the support (especially as of late) from some great people that I truly consider to be my friends. Thanks for your support, your "atta girl" attitude toward me, and the support of my dreams and the changes that are happening in my life to move toward those dreams (another post entirely--stay tuned). I walk a fine line with trying to convey how much FUN I think all of this "stuff" is (makeup, clothes, styling, etc.) and making sure my readers, my friends, my family and my community know that I don't think that the "stuff" is more important than what really matters. I also want to acknowledge that though I'm working toward that professional training, at this point I'm NOT a professional makeup artist, I don't have a fashion degree yet, and I DON'T for one second think that I'm one bit better or smarter than anyone else out there who just loves to experiment with fashion and styling as much as I do. I love the idea of collaborations and guest posts, so like I said, please feel free to contact me at any time for those things.

So, in short, the support has been phenomenal and I really appreciate it.

Thanks, everyone!

Wait Just a Minute, Here

They grow up so fast and I often struggle with finding the balance between taking in the moment, mourning the past and the outgrown, and deciding if I'm more scared of them growing up or more excited to watch it happen. 

And there are so many times that they are just so darned independent. Too independent, if you ask me, but not really. Just growing and learning; trying and failing and spilling but learning.

And I want to say, "Now wait just a minute, here! I have not said it's okay for you to get bigger, or know how to pour your own juice, or repeat swear words, or be embarrassed by my mommyness or write your freaking name."

And then sometimes they still just need to be held.

So do I.

-L