Blog For Baby Boomer Women | Fifty is the New Forty

Time To Pack Up Christmas!

December 31, 2011 – 2:27 pm

Tips For Packing Christmas Ornaments & Decorations For Next Year!

Time to pack up Christmas! Having to pack up Christmas isn’t a lot of fun. Once the grandkids go home, the gifts are put away and even the dog is pooped, it’s time to put away the wrappings and trappings of the holiday. These tips for packing Christmas ornaments and decorations can make next year a little easier!

If you weed a few things out of your Christmas decorations each year…maybe throw out some garland that was getting spindly, or toss a favorite ornament due to breakage or wear. Maybe you gave a special ornament to one of your kids – it’s easy to forget from one year to the next what you did (go figure). Solution: make a short list and lay it on top of the box of ornaments so you see it when you open it up. No more tearing apart the boxes looking for something you don’t even have any more. You can also make short notes on anything that you think will need attention next year, i.e., short on lights, angel is looking dumpy, etc.
Another version of this is to get a small blank book and take an ornament inventory. You can use it to make notes about things that happened on the holiday, special times and how new family traditions started. Your kids will love this later on.
Christmas cards come in all varieties, colors, textures and qualities. One of the very best uses for Christmas cards is to cut the front flap off the cards, put them in a plastic bag and save them to use as gift tags next year. They are absolutely elegant, you have lots of room to write on them and they have all sorts of great colors and textures that dress up even the most simple wrapping. You can be sure no one else will have anything nearly as lovely as these. Put a hole in them with a hole punch, run a ribbon through, and they’re good to go. Voila!
Use clear storage bins for packing all of your ornaments away. Even though the box is labeled, being able to see what is actually in them goes a long way toward organized unpacking next year!
Store indoor decorations stored inside, outdoor decorations outside. That includes, lights, garlands, wreaths, extension cords and timers.
If you get those great candy or fruit gifts that come stacked in boxes, save the boxes for next year. They are the perfect cookie, candy or gift boxes for your own treats next year!

You don’t need to buy an expensive Christmas ornament organizer – save time, money and your sanity with a little planning ahead! Happy New Year!

Posted in Family | Comments (0)

Madonna Performing At Super Bowl 2012

December 31, 2011 – 9:03 am

Madonna: A Safe Choice For Superbowl Halftime Show?

Well, it’s official. With the recent news that Madonna is performing at the Super bowl half-time show, the miserable truth is out. None of us are transcending the over-50-is-one-foot-in-the-grave attitude any time soon. Not even Madonna.

Safe. That’s the adjective used to describe her selection as a performer for the NFL show. Safe. Really? Although I’m aware that Madonna’s early persona really isn’t much of a barn-burner in today’s world in terms of shock value – and we probably still have her to thank for that - I guess I was looking the other way when she stepped over into passé.

If this can happen to Madonna – the queen of edgy -the woman whose determined approach toward shining a light on sexuality, feminism and artistic imagery crossed all lines – where does that leave the rest of us? Who would have thought Madonna would be “old school” at the young old age of 53? Sure, she’s a baby boomer – but this is a woman who blazed a trail as a visionary performer; who shocked the public and retooled how we saw ourselves. I’m guessing she can still out-sing, out-dance and out-perform the majority of the more recent – a.k.a. younger – A-list group.

The Hollywood Reporter writes, “At 53-years-old, the singer is being labeled as a “safe” choice for the NBC program, which has repeatedly opted for less controversial performers since Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake’s 2004 wardrobe malfunction.” I don’t know, I never thought of Janet Jackson or Justin Timberlake as particularly “controversial” other than that one unfortunate incident.

Can it be? Is Madonna performing at the Super Bowl 2012 half time show really a safe choice? Possibly.

So…maybe Madonna’s scorched earth policy toward conventional mores has mellowed a bit. On the other hand, her current persona may have more to do with where we are as a society today than any focused artistic statement. After all, it’s quite possible we’ve hit a plateau when it comes to shocking and outrageous being synonymous with wearing a meat dress. I’m just sayin’.

Posted in Life After 50 | Comments (1)

The Purse From Hell

December 10, 2011 – 8:52 am

Every Woman’s Fashion Accessory Nightmare

Few things in life are more frustrating than The Purse From Hell. You know the one – you know the moment you see it it’s for you. It beckons to you from across the department store aisle. It looks perfect…right size, gorgeous color, just the right amount of handy pockets and the perfect strap length. Sweet!

You joyously pay whatever the asking price is, bring it home, transfer your wallet, pens, hairbrush, gum, cell phone, makeup and all your goodies, and start your day with a brand new outlook. Nothing like it! But as the weeks go by, something isn’t quite right. You’re in line at the store, and again you can’t find your keys. You look through all the gazillion pockets, struggling to keep the lining in place…you panic, start asking the store clerk if she’s seen them, retrace your steps through the store looking at every shelf to see if you put them down somewhere, then hear them jingling in the bottom of the purse as you are sprinting toward your car to check the parking lot. And this scenario occurs again, and again, and again…. Aaargh!

If you are an experienced fashonista, you may have already been through this fashion accessory nightmare before. You may be one of the unfortunate individuals who discover they’ve got one. A “Purse from Hell”.

These are the stuff legends are made of. You may reorganize, sort, and discard some contents. You may go to great lengths to mark the pockets so you know what is where – wallet in one, cosmetics in another, receipts in yet another, to no avail. Your personal items continue to disappear into the folds of this evil accessory.

Alas, there is only one solution: get rid of it. Completely. Don’t harbor thoughts of secreting it in your closet for another day “just in case”. If your recycling soul won’t let you throw it away, make a furtive trip to the Goodwill store and stuff it in the box. Just remember you are forwarding this fashion accessory nightmare to some other unsuspecting woman.

You can be more wary on your next purse excursion, although the purse from hell looks like every other normal purse out there. Be careful. Be very careful…

Posted in Fashion + Beauty | Comments (0)

“Sorry, Your Position Has Been Eliminated. ” Really?

December 4, 2011 – 6:45 pm

Unemployed Baby Boomers Have Something To Say About “Best Practices In Downsizing”

With the last child in college, the emotions of empty nest well behind us, the future looks pretty sweet, really. One more year to go paying for college, with both of us working full time to bring that debt Chocolate and churros! down to a manageable level for him when he gets out. Our son had the privilege to be able to study abroad in Madrid for an entire semester from August until early December. He worked all summer to earn the money to spend during this trip. As Thanksgiving drew close and his 21st birthday on the horizon, we decided to take advantage of this opportunity and go visit him in his host city of Madrid. (An uncharacteristically last-minute decision for a couple that can count the number of vacations in the last twenty years on one hand.) Yet we felt great about it – we’re finally at that place in our lives where we can decide to take a trip like this and not agonize over it. Ain’t midlife grand. So, off we go.

Madrid was amazing. We walked endless miles through different sections of the city. We savored chocolate and churros at Chocolatería San Ginés in Puerta del Sol. We rode the Metro and browsed the shops and sights in Plaza Mayor. We took a bus ride to the ancient city of Toledo, home to Cervantes, and where the Castle of LaMancha still sits. Our son accompanied us to the Prado Museum, where he shared his recently acquired knowledge on the work and life of Velázquez. We had a memorable and amazing meal with his host family in a lovely restaurant in their Goya neighborhood. The best part was they don’t speak a word of English, and our son played interpreter the whole evening. The food was incredible, the company more so. A seemingly ideal vacation.

Then came the email. We finished up our vacation under a pall of negative expectations. Monday morning brought the news: my husband’s job had been eliminated. Yet another solid American company now split between Mexico and abroad with just a scattering of its former workforce that remains shuffled off to other locations in the US. Their loss, in my opinion. Now the buzz words include stuff like ‘best practices in downsizing’. Whatever. And yes, there is an age bias in many instances, not all. There’s a huge unemployed baby boomer demographic out there.

What is up with profitable American companies moving their operations daily to Mexico, China and Europe? Where is innovation? The notion of steady growth? Reinvestment? I’m so sick of hearing about this. I want to go to Mexico and see where all these jobs are going. Are those people living in new waterfront condos and driving new cars? ‘Cause if they’re not, they’re totally getting screwed. Yet at the same time, I’m one of those baby boomer kids. I see opportunity everywhere! want to see NEW business. SMALL business growth. NEW IDEAS in technology right alongside those manufacturing jobs that we’re so hell bent on giving away.

So as we enter midlife we, like many others, are faced with changes. The positive side: our kids are grown, we don’t have a mountain of debt, our health is good and we are both resourceful, high energy people. The negative side: Having to regroup to such a degree…the decisions are big now as they pertain to our own futures. The fact that we will be working indefinitely as we grow older wasn’t anything either of us ever anticipated – who knew? But it is what it is, as they say, and we will cross each bridge as we come to them. So saying “your position has been eliminated” isn’t all that scary…more like a challenge. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention! We never considered either of us would be an unemployed professional or worker in our mid-fifties, but sometimes opportunity knocks very, very softly. There is an infinite amount of experience, knowledge and energy in the unemployed fifty-plus group out there, and they’re all just walking around rubbing their hands together and deciding how to focus their energies. It may turn out that those best practices in downsizing should have included those unemployed baby boomers after all….

Oh, yeah, by the way…our son’s degree? Economics.

Posted in Careers + Planning | Comments (2)

Get Rich Click! Review | Affiliate Marketing How-To Or How Not To?

December 3, 2011 – 8:24 pm

Mark Ostrofsky on Making Money On The Internet

Enter Mark Ostrofsky, a leader in affiliate marketing who attempts to break away from the crowd of internet moneymaking “how-to’s” to deliver a product with real substance with Get Rich Click! his guide on how to make money on the internet.

Carving out a place among the countless internet “how-to’s” that promise overnight success is a feat in itself. Earning money online through e-commerce, pay-per-click advertising, e-publishing, affiliate marketing and creative domain management is generally considered an area of expertise that beckons many but rewards few.

As CEO of ClickBank, a highly successful online digital retailer, Ostrofsky is one of the few who actually has the professional experience to share pertinent and meaningful data – and he does. The subject matter he delivers is covered by thousands of professional bloggers, authors, consultants and industry professionals every day, yet he manages to distinguish this book as a genuine industry resource tool via a “just the facts” approach. An organized outline for each chapter includes research, opportunity, case studies and a suggested plan of action that results in a value-added product for would-be online entrepreneurs.

By providing direction, real tools and tips throughout, there is something here for everyone looking to become either comfortable or proficient at making money in the digital world. Although he wanders into some areas of expertise not exactly his forte, specifically search engine optimization, he recognizes the importance of it and includes a clever workaround, dedicating an entire chapter to a website that is the industry standard for best practices in this critical area. Lending confirmation to the author’s genuine objective to teach is a huge bonus in the form of an exhaustive list of hundreds of resources and site links to proven leaders in several key areas, along with a number of lesser-known but highly relevant sources to explore. This is an easy read, with a direct but relaxed tone and a passion for what he does that comes through loud and clear.

If the benchmark for success in a how-to is whether or not there is a concrete take away, this one is a winner for anyone with real interest in making money on the internet.