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Introducing The 48×30 Road Trip

Awhile ago I shared a bucket list of things to do before turning 30. I made this list when I was 17 and 30 sounded really far away. Now it’s right around the corner! One of my goals was to make it to all 50 states. After thousands of miles of road trips across the United States, I have seven states left to visit: New Mexico. Oregon, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Alaska and Hawaii. For better or worse, I’ve ruled out making it to Hawaii and Alaska, since I don’t think I’ll get over my fear of flying in time. Maybe that’s a bucket list item for before 40.

I’m calling this blogging/road trip/bucket list project 48×30. And I’m going to be sharing about it every step of the way.

Personally I find the nuts and bolts of a blogging project interesting. Nothing happens over night, and big things like this take months of planning, or in this case, years. I think it’s a waste to see only the finished project and miss out on the guts of a trip. The days spent emailing and saving up the money. And agonizing over routes and what car to take or not to take.

Right now I’m trying to figure out if I want to drive or take the train. Luckily Amtrak goes everywhere I need to be. Plus they sell a 30 day pass. However, if my first Amtrak experience taught me anything, it’s that sleeping in a train seat is the worst. OK, not the worst, but pretty bad. There’s lots of people who say get sleeper car, but have you seen how much those things cost?! It pretty much doubles or triples the price of the ticket. Not exactly budget friendly.

And then there’s the good ole automobile. My only concern about driving this time is that there will obviously be a lot of hours spent simply trying to get to the states I have to check off the list, which may detract from the time I can spend exploring and seeing these states. Obviously there are pros and cons to either option, so it’s just a matter of deciding what works best.

So that’s where I’m at right now! I hope to share more about the trip in the coming weeks. If there’s any questions you have, please leave them in the comments!

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Getting back into the swing of things.

I’ll admit that after blogging every day for two months, I was a bit burnt out. Somehow over two months has passed since my past post, which is a bit shocking to me. I guess since things in life were busy, I stopped paying attention to the blog. I do this about every six months, where I just get sick of it and say I’ll never go back and then magically one day I find myself missing the blog. I’m probably never going to be one of those people with an editorial calendar or a posting schedule, although, yes, I know all the virtues of those things. But I will never do them, because I don’t like them.

So, here I am. Getting back into the swing of things once more! I kind of like it, though. Maybe some people might feel lazy a lack of motivation after a break, but after the craziness of the past two months, I’m really excited to get back to writing here.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing about a new project I’m working on that will hopefully come fruition. I know a lot of bloggers choose to be mysterious and wait until all the T’s are crossed and I’s dotted, but personally I like hearing about the process of planning something whether it happens or not. So please come back tomorrow!

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Lessons Learned From Blogging Every Day

Well, I’m afraid I’m closing the chapter on my dream to post every day for a year. I made it about 56-ish days, which is pretty impressive to me considering I went from posting maybe two or three times a month to posting each day. Well, almost. Anyway, I’m calling it quits on my “blogging every day for a year” journey. Why? Well, sometimes I simply don’t have anything to say. And saying rubbish is worse than saying nothing.

I am glad I tried and made it two months. I never did make a schedule, I just kind of winged the whole thing. I guess the part I’m happiest about is the fact that I tried it at all. I mentioned before that I always wanted to post every day for a year. Now that I’ve attempted (and failed) at it, I can say, yeah, I did that that, and I didn’t like it.

I’m kind of envious of people who can stock pile blog posts or write three or four posts in a row. For me, it’s always been about sitting down every day (or once a week) and asking myself, “OK, self, what do you want to write about today?”

In my endeavors to blog every day, I touched on topics I would have put off. Like sharing about my anxiety and depression, that finally felt right to share about. I’m not sure I would’ve written about it had it not been for daily blogging.

I also think I found my voice here, finally. One of the best compliments I ever received about my “online” voice is that I write like I speak. I think as a writer that that’s the best I can hope for. Sure, I’m not always elegant. I’m clunky at times and say, “So…” and “You know” a lot. But, so what? Ha!

I do plan on posting more frequently than once or twice a week, just not every day, fortunately or unfortunately. Thank you for following along with my journey, the ups and the downs. I definitely don’t see this as a failure, just something I tried and found I didn’t like in the end.

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Baby, it’s cold outside. And bootie weather.

It’s getting cold out! I know most of you in the U.S. reading this probably experienced the start of fall about a month ago. Down in Texas, it took some extra time, but it’s finally here as of two weeks ago. At first, I kind of enjoyed the cold weather, but then I was like, “Holy eff is it cold!” I don’t like it. I hate it, but OK, it’s here and I guess I have to deal with it. Every day I’m grateful I’m not still in Boston, where there’s six months of winter. The last time I saw snow was about two years ago and I’m totally OK with that. If I had it my way, I’d never see snow ever again. I wouldn’t miss it, not even a little.

But, OK, I admit that it’s cold. And that means it’s bootie weather. I’m really digging ankle booties as of late. Mostly because they don’t present as many issues as mid-calf boots. You can wear them with almost any style of pants from skinny jeans to flares. It all looks good. Heck, even go for a dress or a skirt. Booties are up for anything.

Since going vegan, I’m super conscious of what I’m buying. I rarely buy anything brand new, instead opting for something secondhand. However, coveting a specific item  often means I do buy it new, since it can be difficult to buy very specific things secondhand. Thus, I’m aware of staying away from anything leather because I’m a vegan.

If I buy something at Goodwill, I don’t mind if it’s leather, because the way I see it is that I’m not adding demand to the supply and demand cycle. I realize there are flaws in this thinking–like wearing leather basically shows the world that you are OK with it, whether its brand new or secondhand. What a quagmire of a situation! I’m the last person who would ever tell anyone what to wear or eat, so all I’ll say is that the situation is sticky and it’s best to decide what works for you. But yeah, OK, I’ll admit that I’m a hypocrite, but I’m trying my best.

vegan-booties

BC Footwear Alliance Booties ($90), Fortune Lay of the Portland Booties ($54.99), Rocket Dog Casual Influence Boot ($69.99)

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My Favorite Red Lipsticks

My Favorite Red Lipsticks | Road Darling

Once upon a time, I wrote an exhausting amount of posts about red lipstick. And, you know, that’s cool and all, but a break from it was necessary. Now that it’s getting colder down here in Texas, I find myself turning to red lipstick and nail polish, which has me revisiting my favorite reds. When I sat down to write this post, I initially thought I’d have a long list of favorites, but nope. For me there are only two.

Now, let’s back up and talk about red lipsticks in general so I can better explain why I only have two favorites. Red lipsticks have basically two different undertones. There’s blue red reds and orange red reds. Pick one for whatever mood your in. For me, I like a good orange red if I’m going for a bright pop whereas blue reds work better for a more sultry look. That’s just me. I say, wear what you like.

Given the two main categories of reds, I guess it makes sense that I have two absolute favorites. My go to blue red is MAC’s Russian Red ($17). My favorite orange red is NYX’s Pure Red ($5.99). The things that these two have in common is that they’re both mattes, go on easy and stay on. Which one do I use more? NYX’s Pure Red, hands down. But that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate Russian Red.

If you’re new to red lipstick, I share some practical tips at the end of this post!