Seasoned Blog for Women in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond
Happy July 1, friends! Welcome to my seasoned blog for women in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond!
Over 50 Feeling 40 was born 16 years ago today, and is now fully a seasoned blog for women in our vibrant second half of life.
Seasoned means that I am experienced after 16 years of doing this.
I am honored and humbled to still be here almost every day for you.
When I began this seasoned blog for women, I was known as a blogger or even a writer.
The word “influencer” was not around yet…and I must confess that I do not like the title at all.
I began writing at age 11, and eventually would major in journalism. I much prefer to be known as a writer or even content creator for women.
To me, the word “influencer” means that this blog solely exists to get you to buy stuff.
I know that I am uncomfortable with sites that just push and push and push stuff, so I do not want to do that here as heavy as is done in other places.
While it is helpful when you purchase with my links, because the blog does have expenses, it is not my main reason for being here.
So, let’s sit down and talk and allow me to share my heart about this seasoned blog for women in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and beyond.
SEASONED BLOG FOR WOMEN: THE FOUNDATIONS
At age 50, I received a wake-up call… an AH-HA moment. I had been putting ME at the bottom of my priority list.
I looked and felt like a mess!
It was time to turn things around, so I began a journey at that point to do just that.
As a trained journalist, I began to learn about clothing…fashion…beauty…and good health practices.
I was so excited about all that I was learning and I could see the results in the mirror…so I started sharing what I learned with family and friends.
I told my fellow teachers all the tips and tricks and healthy messages…plus I was having so much fun.
So, my best friend who was the art teacher down the hall from me, said one day…“You Need to Start a Blog.”
Hmmmm…the idea intrigued me, but I really was not certain what a blog was or how to do it. So, I started learning again.
A little over 5 years had passed at this point in my journey, and I was 55…stacking up lots of knowledge.
Since I am a writer, it was the information and success stories that I wanted to share the most…I did not even show my face for a long time.
I was the headless blogger covering my head with a newspaper or book or just cutting it off…I was not comfortable with me as a model for what I wrote about.
However, other bloggers, coaxed me out from behind the periodicals and said I needed to show all of me…so I did.
And my story became an important part of this seasoned blog for women as I share all that I experience and learn progressing through the second half of life.
In fact, though we all love to talk clothes, I knew it would be important to share about our lives going forward and all we can learn from one another as we face different challenges.
Also, as my JOY had increased over age 50…I desired to share with you how your JOY could also increase.
I have always thought it was sad that many women going through the second half of life are described as angry…my goal is to always encourage you to CHOOSE JOY.
That is another reason why the goal here has always been positivity and encouragment.
SEASONED BLOG FOR WOMEN: GOING FORWARD
Things have changed a lot since the beginning…in fact, maybe one day, I will post about how often my hair has changed…colors and lengths!
But, for now, allow me to address a question I receive often…why have I not changed the name of the blog as I have aged.
Quite simply…marketing. Once you are branded as a name, it does not make good marketing sense to change it.
New names…new websites…new marketing…is very expensive.
So, I encourage you to understand that we will always be OVER 50…the rest of our lives. AND, the phrase FEELING 40 is just a way to say that we want to feel our best through the second half.
Also, I have surveyed this audience at least once a year to see what you want to read about and the number one answer continues to be CLOTHES and how to look our best.
That is why I cover clothing more than anything.
My heart is for Over 50 Feeling 40 to be your online women’s magazine where you discover important information for you at a critical time of life. We have a lot of living to do!
Sadly, magazines are not what they use to be…especially fashion magazines which are now mostly about politics.
So, I want this to be your place to find that information, encouragement and inspiration…without politics.
I do my own photography and graphics…to the best of my ability. But it helps me not to spend money on those services.
I am spending more now on web services and web protection…just the world we live in. I am not that tech savvy anyway.
Yep..we have all changed alot….hair…body type…color analysis….
But, what has not changed is that this is the best blog community of followers anywhere. You ladies rock and inspire me every day.
Thank you for your participation, support, and ideas. I am hear to listen and help.
Yes, this is a seasoned blog for women in their 50s, 60s, 70s and beyond. But, I prefer to think I am sweet 16!
See you tomorrow everyone…until then….
KEEP SMILING!!
By Pamela Lutrell
For all your shopping, please use the links on my SHOPPING PAGE…thank you, thank you to all who shop this way.
And remember…..
JULY IS ONE OF THE VERY BEST MONTHS TO SAVE IN BIG SALES! I WILL LET YOU KNOW WHEN I LEARN OF THE GOOD DEALS!
Congratulations Pam. I have not commented in ages but I have to today. You are one of the few blogs I read and you are an inspiring, positive, entertaining, informative and dedicated writer. I love so much about what you bring to your audience and how you care about us readers. I also appreciate your honesty in sharing events in your life that have been difficult and also for sharing life’s joys. You truly brighten up my day. Bravo!
Jule! It is so great to hear from you and know that you still read. I have thought of you often. Thank you for starting my day off with a smile.
Hugs! Have a great Sweet Sixteen party today and know how much you are appreciated. You are The Best role model for being Joyful and sprinkling it wherever you go. Thank you for your dedication. I would love to see the hair transitions! Fun!
Thank you, Deborah! I love talking fashion with you…thank you for being here consistently. I will consider the walk through my hairstyles and even admit how that happened over the past 16 years.
Happy Sweet 16, Pam! We can tell you have joy in what you do, or you wouldn’t be here everyday.
Thanks for joining in each day, Kim…so glad to have you in this blog community.
Yours is the first blog I read every day and the only one I comment on regularly. I’ve dropped or cut down reading those that push products endlessly, while claiming that “their words are their own.” I understand it’s a fine line, and you walk it with integrity. That virtue is in short supply these days, and valued a lot by me. Keep being you, and I will keep reading! (And for the record, you look younger now than when dressed in black – powerful visual endorsement of color analysis – and I love your hair, but especially wavy/curly). And I want to see more of your signature green going forward lol.
Happy Anniversary Pam!
I look forward to your blog every morning. I sincerely thank you for all the wonderful information you give us. I am 73 years young, 5’6” and apple shaped and I always learn something from what you share with us.
Thank you, Linda for your encouragement. I agree on the colors…it was such an eye opener when I could finally begin to focus and see what black and white were doing to me. There was a big reason white never looked good…it wasn’t suppose to on me. I will wear some of that green soon. Thanks for being here.
So glad to have you here, Beth. This is my birthday month as well…the big 72 is on the horizon.
Congratulations. Pamela! I have been following you for many years, and you bring delight to every day.
Congratulations on your Sweet 16, Pam! I look forward to your posts to start off my day. It is one that I can relate to, and I thoroughly enjoy it. While I really like the posts about clothing, I also love hearing about your family and the your home life. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Cheers on your blog anniversary, and here’s to many more years of this community! 🎉🎉
Congratulations. I enjoy the videos you share of street fashion. Another Melbournian here.
ANd you bring delight to mine, Marcia. Thank you for being here.
This is why I choose to call myself a lifestyle blogger over merely a fashion blogger…we are all so complex and our lives include so much. Thanks for joining with me each morning, Glenda.
Pam, Congratulations on reaching 16 Years. You are an inspiration to all of us. As said in an earlier comment, we look forward to receiving your daily blog. You provide us with great insights and opportunities for us to look at how we are approaching our daily lives. We applaud you.
Dear Pam,
Thank you for sharing your history. I enjoyed hearing everything you had to share. I agree with you, the word influencer is not the best word.
Congratulations to you for all you do for this community.
Wow love learning about how u arrived here. Also yes share your hair journey. Fun to see. I really appreciate u and all u bring to us positivity 😇
Bless you, Janet. Thank you!
Thank you, Katherine!
Thanks Debra. I left out a little bit of the story. The wake-up call actually started with renewing my driver’s license picture at age 50. When I saw the photo, I was shocked. It was the first time I had slowed down enough to really look at me and I did not like what I saw. That photo set me on a whole new path to self care.
Congratulations on your sixteen years of presenting content that is actually worth reading! 🥰
Just ditto to all of the articulate women in this community. With one exception your email is my morning desert! I plow through the emails and then get to sit back and relax with Pam. My only regret is I did not find you sooner.
Congratulations on sixteen years! I haven’t followed you for that long but I have to say ever since I started following you I have learned a lot and have enjoyed what you write about. I really like that you don’t classify yourself as an influencer. That’s important to me because I know anything you recommend is something you believe in. Keep it going!
Pam, Congratulations and thank you for your wonderful blog. I so enjoy your topics and the other people here in the community. Here’s to your next 100 blog anniversaries!
Gratefully, Mary
Happy sweet 16 ! I appreciate your sweetness and candor and look forward to reading every day. I love that you share so much with us, it always feels like talking with a friend. You make me think about things, some times in a different way and I’ve learned from you as well. Here’s to 16 more years (at least)! Blessings!
🥳🎂 Happy Sweet Sixteen!!! Met your blog the summer of 2019, just as the private school where I worked shut down. I felt a little lost and sad, decided to search for inspiration in facing my next chapter, style-wise. Instead, what I discovered, WHO I found, was you, dear Pamela. A thoughtful, tender, kind woman who manages to talk style without ever losing the substance, the heart of what binds us together as older ladies. Yes, you are my favorite ladies’ magazine, resource, and gentle ear as you respond always to this group with personal notes of encouragement. The world may have influencers galore, ‘virtual’ friends, but you are as real an influence, and beloved, as my regular core of friends, and I think of you much the same, worrying when you have a health concern or scare (that awful attacker after your walk!), and cheering for you in your family’s journey forward. So, again, congrats on 16 here. May you continue many more years, and reap the blessings of so many friends from around the world. 🤗💕
Congratulations on 16 years, I have not followed you that long but appreciate your dedication to your craft and your followers. I must say that in my eyes you look current, approachable and professional in your black and white outfit which is where you were in your life’s journey at the time. Looking for JOY in your life has been a wonderful message for me as it was during Covid that I found your blog and it was a great message for that time as it still is today. Talking about your title brought a joyful memory of my grandmother who when I asked her when she was in her late 80’s how she was feeling said, ” I feel like I’m 18 but my body just won’t listen!”
You are so kind, Donna…thank you!
So glad you are here now, Suzi!
Thanks Paula…I plan to keep going…I turn down so many offers from companies and from products I try and do not believe live up to the hype…I want to only show you what I have tried and believe in.
Amen to that Mary…and I also am grateful for you.
At least, Kathleen. Thank you!
I feel the same way, Connie…all of you are my friends and your friendship has helped me so much in moving to a place where I knew no one but family. I can always come here to find advice from this community and a listening ear.
Oh yeah…my body listens less and less every day! LOL!! We made it through COVID and we will power on…one day at a time…to live with purpose and joy! Thanks Linda.
Congratulations on 16 wonderful years, Pam! I’ve been following your blog for over 10 years now and yours in one of the very few that I’ve stayed with. You bring such positivity and joy and do so with authenticity! I enjoy the variety of topics you write about, whether it is fashion, your family, health-issues or food! As a woman over 65, I’ve experienced my share of tears, fears and hard moments, so it’s a real comfort when you share yours as well. But what I appreciate is that you keep that positive outlook which is so motivating! Blessings to you and looking forward to another 16!
Blessings to you as well, Beth. This time of life certainly brings us more and different challenges, but I will always believe that we can come through them with you and hopeful expectations in our hearts.
Congratulations on 16 years of exploration and growth. I have been following you for most of those years, and it has been fun to follow along on your journey and learn about your family as well as fashion. I am like Suzi, I save it for reading after all the other business has been taken care of, just a relaxing read. Keep up the great work Pam.
And thank you for being here, Diane. So many wonderful women in this space.
I totally agree with you, Pam. To me, the word influencer sounds arrogant and so many of the fashion blogs that I used to follow have become nothing more than shopping sites. I love the way that you share your life with us while at the same time, focusing on fashion and encouraging us to be the best that we can be at this time in our lives. As I used to say to my students, keep up the good work! I have been blogging for over 17 years and the title of my blog no longer fits as well as it once did, but like yours, it has become my online identity, so I I’ve kept it.
Congratulations on 16 years of writing your amazing blog. I have only been with you for a few years but have come to think of you as a dear friend. I too remember your attack on your street and was horrified that we could have lost you to a very different result. Your loving decision to move up to Abilene near your daughter and her family was difficult. You had to leave the rest of your family, friends and home. Pamela, you have a lot of grit. You keep smiling even in pain and loneliness. You are making a new home and making new friends. You are very close to your grandsons and your beautiful daughter. Your journey is a shared one with all of us and we love you for it. Showing your vulnerability during your surgeries and how they changed your shoe journey is something that a lot of us can relate to in a fun way. Life changes every day. We have lived long enough to roll with the punches. Keep on writing as long as it feeds your soul dear friend. I will be right here reading your story.
I know you are one, Elaine, who has walked this walk with me. Changing your name drives away some audience and makes it difficult to find an audience for the new named blog…it is marketing suicide to me. I am blessed that many here understand that. Every time I tell someone my email they comment on how much they like the phrase, so I know it puts a smile on some faces no matter my age. I am grateful that you still come here to read.
Sydney…you are a dear friend! I feel like one of my reasons for being here is to be vulnerable and authentic about the challenges we face during the second half of life. We can get through anything with a smile and hope. I may be missing a toe (roast beef!)…have a permanently ripped ear lobe…too much around the middle…thin skin (literally)…and those pesky skin tags with crepe around them…but I can still strive to look my best every day and go out with confidence and joy. I am so thankful to take you guys along with me.
Happy Anniversary! I discovered your blog a few months before I took an early retirement in 2010. I was wondering who I would be when I wasn’t that woman in high heels & business clothes. You have inspired me through many changes since then. First as a new minted retiree, then as a caregiver & finally in this new season of widowhood. You always reminded me that I mattered & to seek joy even when my world was spinning out of control. By sharing your journey, the good, the bad & the beautiful, you have shown us the real woman that you are & not the “perfect” media image that so many others project.
I wish you many more years of joy, love & happiness. Thanks for taking us along on this journey!
Pam, congratulations on this very significant milestone! Back when “sweet sixteen” parties were the norm, they communicated that a young woman was blossoming and entering a new chapter. hope this blog-iversary can be the same sort of launching pad for you as you continue to grow your readership and tweak your content. Although I haven’t been a reader since the very beginning, it’s now been so long that I cannot remember when I didn’t read your posts daily. I quote you often, and when I do, I never say “this blogger/influencer I follow,” I say “my friend Pam said…” This reader community is very special, and I love having a small corner of the internet where I know negativity and hatefulness has no place. May your efforts continue to flourish and grow for as many years as you wish!
Thanks for being here, Becky…you have always inspired me.
Thank you so much, Lorri…I am very confident that we will meet face to face one day. It means so much that you quote me as your friend…means way more than the blogger/influencer. Maybe this will be a blossoming going forward…I am at a place of new beginnings and am very excited to see what this new chapter holds. Thanks for giving me that to ponder.
Happy Sweet 16. “Stories Matter” and with your stories about your life, your family, your towns, and all you have built a community here. Of course we are interested in clothing but this blog is so much more than that. Its you, sharing with us what you have learned, discovered, and experienced. Thanks you for being here and being who you are.
I seldom comment but I read your blog (and look forward to it) every day. I think you’re fabulous! Congratulations on 16 years. Thank you!!
Congratulations! Just think Sweet 16!!
I read your post everyday, comment sometimes, but am always encouraged by your positive message. Thanks, blessings always, looking for to many more posts and clothes and living ideas.
Thank you for sharing your story as well, Kathie. I am so glad you are here.
Thank you, Donna…this is very kind.
Audrey, you are so faithful to comment and join in. Thank you for being here.
Congratulations! Sixteen years is an accomplishment – you have one of my favorite blogs. I have been following for about 11 years. Wishing you all the best.
Eleven years…wow, thank you Pat! So glad to have you here!
Congratulations on 16 years. I don’t comment often, but I read you every day and the comments and enjoy it all. I feel part of a family. Keep up the great work. I especially enjoy Sunday Reflections.
Thank you, Cheryll! So glad you are in the family! I love writing Sunday Reflections!
I am like Becky who commented above. I did not discover your blog until I retired from teaching back in 2010, and now it’s the very first thing I read every morning. I think of you as my friend, and look forward to what you will share with us every day. I was so impressed one time years ago when you sent me a personal email concerning your suggestions as to which pants I might find more comfortable after I described my situation of having one smaller leg due to having polio as a child and feeling uncomfortable wearing leggings. Then we both had foot surgery about the same time so we were dealing with similar health problems for a while. I sometimes wish I had your coloring because I’m so often drawn to what you wear, but as a winter your colors are not mine. However, I often copy your outfits but with my good colors. Thank you for entertaining me, inspiring me, and making me always look for the joy in my surroundings. Happy 16…and many more! ❤️
Celia…we are friends! Thank you for the sweet words and for joining in often. Love to see your name pop up!
Congratulations on such an awesome achievement! I follow several blogs but your blog is the one I read everyday and will come back to for updated readers comments. You are one of the few that actually engages with your readers and as a result have created a supportive community of women willing to share with one another. I admire your honesty and your willingness to share your faith and feel this is not merely a business for you but rather your passion. Looking forward to the next sixteen!
I look forward to it too, Sonja! Thank you!
Congratulations Pam! You are the first email I go to every morning; been following you from the very beginning. I appreciate your honesty, authenticity and commitment to positivity. As a soon to be 74 year old, I have enjoyed your journey which has often paralleled my own. Thank you for all you do!
Thank you for sticking by me for so long Linda. All of you have been such a blessing to me.
Happy Sweet Sixteen, Pamela! Appreciate all you that you do for this community of readers. You’re one of the most inspiring parts of my day.
Thank you so much Deanna.
Happy Blogiversary! I found your blog many years ago and have been a quiet follower ever since. You are such an inspiration for embracing the now and appreciating all the Joy that comes one’s way.
I christened my 50s with surgeries, a year of chemo and a few years of recovery. I closed my 50s with a couple of gnarly mountain bike accidents that required more surgeries and multiple rounds of physical therapy. I am now embracing my 60s CAREFULLY (no more mountain biking for me ha ha!) but with all the intention and focus on being happy and healthy in this moment that you write about and share on your blog.
Thank you for being wonderful and I hope you are blessed with many more years of writing!