• 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…

  • Baking and Cooking

    Magpie’s Pinterest Test Kitchen: Bacon Broccoli Cheddar Crustless Quiche from Budget Bytes

    Oh hey? Guess who is finally capable of cooking again? Without having a nosey puppy up my ass 100% of the time? This girl. Ohhhh yea, Haruka has finally settled down and become trustworthy enough that I can cook without her nose going in everything (including the stove). And I couldn’t be more excited to finally resurrect what I had always intended to be a recurring feature for the blog: Magpie’s Pinterest Test Kitchen. Although, can you really resurrect something that never really got started? Meh. Anyway. For this first post back in the cooking saddle I tried out a fairly easy one: Bacon Broccoli Cheddar Crustless Quiche from Budget…

  • Book Love,  Magpie Reviews

    Book Review: A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

    So when I first read A Court of Mist and Fury, I actually really loved it. I sped through it in about a day, and just ate the story up. It was signifigantly better than its predecessor, A Court of Thorns and Roses – and despite its flaws, I had enjoyed that as a pretty fun read. ACOMAF just upped the ante. However, the more distance I get from it – the more times I revisited parts of it to refresh my memory as I worked through A Court of Wings and Ruin and A Court of Frost and Starlight… the more problems I started to have. And so ultimately,…

  • 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…

  • Book Love,  Magpie Reviews

    Book Review: Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

    Empire of Storms is the fifth installment in the Throne of Glass series, and like its predecessors, it has its strengths and its weaknesses. However, in the end it was a quick, fun read overall. It is much more quickly plotted than Heir of Fire or even Queen of Shadows, and that movement is really one of its biggest redeeming traits. Empire of Storms really is a race to the end, rarely devoid of action or forward movement, and it kept me riveted even through the parts I still personally find distasteful. The Romantic Dynamics Are Still Mega-squicky Warning: Spoilers ahead. Skip to summary to avoid. I’ve written a few…

  • Lists,  Pet Related Posts,  Tutorials and Tips

    Tips for Surviving Puppy’s First Few Weeks at Home

    Raising a puppy is some exhausting business, let me tell you. Haruka has officially been part of the family now for about a month, and I am tired, constantly smell like puppy kibble, and am covered in itty bitty puppy bites. It is as demanding as it is rewarding, but I wasn’t expecting it to be such a wake-up call for me. I’ve helped raise puppies before, and so I thought I knew what to expect. However, while this may not be my first puppy rodeo, I don’t think I ever realized exactly how challenging it is when you’re doing it relatively on your own. All my puppy experiences before…

  • 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…