Making Do

  • 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

  • Life,  Lists,  Making Do

    May Wrap-up and June Goals

    Well, hot damned. It’s June. Already. I find myself saying that a lot these days. “Already!?” “It’s summer already!?” “It’s [insert month] already!?” And the busier I am from day to day, the more I seem to be saying it. And May was a VERY busy month. It always is. From wrapping up and ending the semester, grading final papers and exams, getting final grades in, and working graduations not just at my own institution, but at a couple others in the region as a musician… Then add in all the holidays and anniversaries – Mother’s Day, a major family member’s “cancer free” milestone anniversary, my birthday, trying to shop…

  • Baking and Cooking,  Life,  Magpie Writes,  Making Do

    The One Where Magpie Hates Healthy Eating

    So one of my biggest goals for this month is a total ban on take-out and fast food. Over the last couple years as I’ve added job after job, my eating habits have basically found themselves going right down the toilet. Whatever was quick, easy, and convenient was what was on the menu. I drive past Dunkin’ on this day, the Thai place is right around the corner from where I work this day, etc… etc… My location determined my meal. Which sucks for a variety of reasons. The biggest being, of course, that my wallet AND my waistline both take issue with the habit. My waistline has continued to…

  • Life,  Lists,  Making Do

    March: The Good, The Bad, And the Goals.

    As part of my plan for getting more consistent around here, I’ve decided to make it my goal to post a wrap-up of each month – this way I can sort of look at each month in review, identify what I accomplished and what needs improvement. I feel like it’s also going to be nice to have a handy list of what I’ve accomplished for myself (in addition to everything I know I’ve gotten done for work) over the last month. Hopefully it’ll be a handy guard against my anxiety creeping in and telling me I’m unproductive and lazy. Now the shape this post takes may change as the year…

  • Life,  Magpie Writes,  Making Do

    Reassessing for 2017

    So any of you who have been around for a while know that my blogging over the last two years has been… sporadic at best. I’ll have a month or two where I’m really consistent, and then go on radio silence for three. I’ve spent a lot of time over the last few years trying to figure out why I can’t seem to break this cycle, and honestly there are like, a thousand reasons. I originally had a massively long post typed out listing them all, but I scrapped that because it all just sounded like I was making excuses. And that makes this feel like less of a hobby…

  • Life,  Making Do,  Purchases

    2017 Bullet Journal Setup

    I’ve done a detailed Bullet Journal Set-up post the last two years, but as I started to set up this year’s, I realized that over the course of those two posts, I’ve really sort of settled into the system that works for me. So this year, I’m not really changing much up from last year, and as a result this post will be a bit more brief than prior years. I’m using a different size notebook this time – last year I tried to stick with the standard Moleskein size, but without actually using a moleskein, and I ended up rather unhappy with my selection, and ultimate choice. It was…

  • Life,  Lists,  Making Do

    My 2017 Goals

    So it’s January, and of course, that means it’s resolution time. I’ve spent a lot of time these last two weeks really putting thought into what this year’s goals should be, because I feel like I’m very much at a crossroads of sorts. I’m turning the big 3-0 this May, and there’s a lot of things in my life that I feel like I need to address before I cross officially into the realm of “Thirty-something.” The resulting list is a lot more conceptual than my goals have been in the past. More overall lifestyle changes than specific, quantifiable goals. And while that made coming up with photos to break…

  • Life,  Making Do

    Take Back What’s Yours!

    I’m taking back my CONTROL. An appropriate post for my return to the blogosphere after an almost three month absence, to be sure. Because really, that’s what this absence has been all about. My loss of control. Or at least the feeling that I’ve lost control taking control of me. I just really lost my grip on things the last few months, and honestly, I’m not entirely sure why. Trying to look at it objectively, I don’t think the end of this semester has been any more stressful than usual… There were a few hiccups in the road due to health problems within my family, but quite honestly after the…

  • Home Dec Love,  Links,  Making Do

    Filling Empty Wall Space

    I’ve been on a home-dec kick lately. Or rather, I’ve been on a home-dec kick on PINTEREST lately. Because actually decorating the apartment requires money – at least a little – and money is exactly what I should not – no, CAN’T – spend right now. But anyway, I’ve been specifically concerned lately about our surplus of empty wall space. There’s just a lot of white, blank walls in our apartment, and it’s starting to get to me a little bit. So I’ve been looking for ideas about how to decorate using as little money as humanly possible, and Pinterest (of course) came through in spades. I figured I’d share…