Blissdom, budgets, and baby boomer beauty

This is what 53 looks like.
(Photo by Rachel)

OK, guys, I know I'm way behind on my Blissdom recaps, but I've been so tired. First I go to Nashville and exhaust everyone by blabbing my fool head off to anyone who'll listen.

Then I come back and have to scale Mount Washmore. (For the non-English-majors: I did laundry. Lots of it.)

Then there was a Girl Scout meeting to teach the wee tots about budgets. (A true case of the blind leading the blind. I'm just sayin.)

The whole time, my head was in a whirl. Lack of sleep, excitement, blabbing, Karaoke, and cocktails will do that to me. But on top of those, something has been percolating.

Partly it was seeing hundreds of Tea Party types at the Opryland and wanting so badly to give them a makeover. Partly it's someone at Blissdom advising us to blog our passions--the things we'd be thinking about even if we weren't blogging. And partly it's seeing so many women who need a nudge. They've been focusing on careers, graduate school, or children, and they look up and ten years have gone by and they have no idea about style. Their bodies, complexions, and hair have changed, and they don't know what to do about it.

I've been thinking about this for a long time. Five years ago, I went to a college reunion and was shocked at the way so many of my classmates had just given up. They didn't color their hair. They didn't even style it. They didn't use makeup. They didn't worry about what kinds of clothing would flatter them. And this wasn't the politics of frumpiness. They had given up.

Then and there I vowed never to give up. "As God is my witness," I vowed to my friend Liz, "they'll have to pry my lipstick out of my cold, dead hand."

So I'm going to start blogging about midlife beauty and style. How to take our hard-won wisdom and discernment and use them to defy the aging process.

I'm going to start with a 30 day series: Turn back time in 10 minutes a day.

While I cudgel my brains thinking of 30 days worth of posts, do me a favor and think of questions. Or just tell me this is a good idea. Or tell me where I should be doing it. Should I put it on Poppy Shops? Or start a new blog? And does "baby boomer beauty" sound as dorky as I think it does?

Help me Obi Wan Invisible Internet friends! You're my only help!