Life

  • Life,  Making Do

    Where To? And What Now?

    One of the reasons I’ve been gone so long here, is I have been completely unsure of the answer to this question with regards to this blog. Where to? And what now? I spent some time over the last few weeks going through old posts, sorting through all my old drafts and brainstorming material, hoping I might find an answer in them. Hoping I could find a thread to latch onto to tell me where to go and what to do next. How to ease back into posting here. How to ease back into writing about… something that’s not work. And I’ve found myself at a major loss. Those old…

  • Life,  Making Do,  Uncategorized

    Oh, Hello.

    Hi. Hello. Yes. How are you? Been a while. A long, long while. Lots of things have happened.Some good, some bad. Some very very good.Some very very bad. Lots of life changes. Lots of life challenges.But I’m still here. Yup, I’m still here.And maybe… just maybe… that’s good enough for now. – Maggie

  • Holidays,  Life

    2018 Has Been A Rollercoaster

    So 2018 has been a weird year.  It’s been filled with the highest of highs, and yet also somehow has been overwhelmingly not-good as a whole. Even those highest of highs have been undercut by other pressures which have left me feeling at the end of the year just very… tired. I’m wholly ready to leave 2018 behind and start fresh. Which is kind of saying something – because while I always make New Year’s Resolutions and whatnot, I never *really* see it as a fully fresh start. And this year, I’m really hoping it’s gonna be. The Highs: 1) It’s been the first full year in the house. Which…

  • History Love,  Life,  Travel

    The One Where Magpie’s Getting Married

    Yup, you heard that correctly: Jim and I are finally going to tie the knot. The big news broke on my insta-story the day it happened, but Jim has officially popped the question, and after almost 8 years together, we can now officially say we’re engaged. And yes, you read that right: 8 years. We’ve been getting a lot of “OMG FINALLY” reactions from those around us – to be expected after such a long time and since we own both a house and a dog together – but we did what was right for us, in our particular situation, on our own time, and we couldn’t be happier. So…

  • Life

    Halfway Through – 2018 So Far

    Today marks the first day of summer, and as we’re also right around the halfway point for the year, I feel like it’s time to do a little goal check-in and assessment of how things have gone so far – particularly since I haven’t been keeping up with my monthly goal and wrap-up posts. 2018 has been a bit of a rollercoaster in a lot of ways. Emotionally, I’ve been pretty all over the place. On a personal level, I can’t deny that it’s been a pretty great year. Jim and I are finally settling in our own home, and the difference that shift has made in me finally feeling…

  • Life,  Pet Related Posts,  Photography

    Meet Haruka

    World, meet Haruka. Jim and I have been talking about expanding our little fledgling family with a furry addition basically since we moved into the house. The past few years of being out on my own have frankly been difficult without the companionship of a dog under the same roof. My apartmentmate had Olive the cat – but as much as I generally like cats, it’s just not the same. And while I was able to get my weekly dog-fix by visiting Hilde and Linde at my parents – again, it’s still not the same. And so after some deliberation and some waiting for my schedule to hit its summertime…

  • Blogging,  Life

    The One Where Magpie Begins Emerging From A Funk

    Oh, hey. It’s been a while, world. I’m still slowly emerging from my funk, but overall I’m glad to be back. Glad to be putting fingers to keyboard and writing again. Although, I must admit to still being a bit at a loss for what to write about. I don’t have any clever beauty advice to share, or new book review to post. No academic advice or fun finished creative projects either. At least not right this moment. Really, right now I’ve got nothing to offer except for… well… me. And I’m not sure when that became something so scary. Particularly when this whole blogging hobby of mine was started…

  • Blogging,  Life,  Magpie Writes

    The One Where Magpie Is Angry

    So January and Feburary haven’t quite gone as planned. You can probably figure that out based on the quietness here. Nothing about the last two months has been the way I expected. January this year was… weird. I generally spend a good deal of the month working from home. Because of that, January is usually one of my most productive months of the year in terms of blogging and prep work thanks to the lack of crazy commutes to eight different places. It’s always easier to get stuff done when you’re not spending half of your day living out of your car, after all. But this year I just really…

  • Holidays,  Life,  Lists

    Hello, 2018

    I’m really no different than anyone else when it comes to having a, well, not-so-great track record when it comes to sticking to New Years Resolutions. And yet, here we find ourselves, year after year after year after year… making more goals, and not always keeping them. But while I’m definitely one of those people who isn’t good at keeping to the letter of the resolutions, I still see a lot of value in making them anyway. For me, making resolutions provides a concrete goal to aim for. Even if you miss the target, any forward movement towards it is still valuable. This year, my goals are all about small,…