Life

  • Holidays,  Life

    November Wrap-Up and December Goals

    Once again, November has come and gone, and I’m left confused and dismayed about how it passed by so quickly. Like, seriously – I swear it was just the beginning of October the other day. How did this happen? How is Thanksgiving over already? How are we almost two weeks into December already and I’m JUST NOW posting my November update? Well, I know how that one happened… my photoshop updated and it took me until now to figure out how to get it to work properly again… but anyway… I guess time marches onwards, and while I haven’t been super active on the blog here, that’s not to say…

  • Life,  Photography

    Seven Days, Seven Black and White Photos Instagram Challenge

    A few weeks ago I got tagged on my personal facebook/instagram to participate in this Black and White Photo Challenge that’s been going around. It was a pretty neat challenge and forced me to look at what is so often “just another day of the grind” for me with a more creative eye. So, now that I’ve completed it I want to share the photos here as well. The challenge requires posting a black and white photo a day for seven days, presenting each photo without any caption or commentary, and I feel like the end result was a pretty interesting visual summary of the minutia of my everyday life…

  • Blogging,  Life,  Lists

    October Wrap-Up and November Goals

    October was a whirlwind of a month, to put it lightly. Much of the first few weeks flew by as our days were consumed with moving, and unpacking… and setting up the house… and figuring out bills… and… and… and… That said, even with all the chaos, October ended up being a pretty good month in Magpie world. Let’s see what got accomplished. 1) Jim and I celebrated 7 years together. So yea, I think we kind of like each other. 2) We bought a house (HOLY SHIT WE BOUGHT A HOUSE) and moved into said house. Again, no small undertaking. So while most of my other personal projects and…

  • Blogging,  Home Dec Love,  Life

    August/September Wrap-Up, or, “Why Magpie’s Been Away for Three Weeks”

    So, big news here in Magpie land. I’ve been pretty absent from the interwebs for the last few weeks, and I’ve teased on twitter a number of times that it’s because of some serious life changes happening in the background, but never really specified exactly what was going on. Well, it’s finally time to specify: we bought a house. So yea, kind of a big deal. It’s an older house, and some of the floors are a little tilty, but other than that it’s in great shape (the previous owners took such amazing care of it) and we love it already. To be honest, the journey to this point has…

  • Blogging,  Life,  Magpie Writes

    On Blogging Seriously (and Being Seriously Overwhelmed)

    I’ve wanted to blog seriously for years. Honestly, 10+ years ago when I first discovered bloggers like Alicia Paulson of Posy Gets Cozy and Jane Brocket of Yarnstorm it quickly instilled in me a nagging want. To be a blogger. To take this seriously. To make this world of creativity a serious part of how I lived my life and made my living. But there was always something holding me back. Lack of time, lack of inspiration, lack of money, lack of my own space, an overabundance of fear… the excuses were and are many. First I was in college and had classes and trying to graduate a year early…

  • Life,  Lists,  Travel

    July/August Wrap-Up and September Goals

    The last two months have been just an absolute whirlwind. There’s some pretty big and significant life-changes that have been going on behind the scenes here at Magpie over the last few weeks that have been simultaneously super-exciting, and absolutely terrifying. I won’t say too much about it all on here until all is said and done, and everything is finalized, but it has certainly contributed to the overall chaos that has been the last two months. As a result of everything that’s been going on, many of the goals that I had originally set for July ended up put on the back-burner for much of the time since I…

  • Life,  Lists

    Liebster Award and Blogger to Blogger Personal Tag

    It’s been a very hectic week here at Magpie Making Do (for a variety of personal reasons that I’m not going to get into here, including a death in the family), and I’ve noticed myself feeling very guilty about not posting in more than a week and a half – which is nice, because it’s been a while since I had even enough energy to feel guilty about my absences. The guilt makes me feel like I’m FINALLY getting back into the swing of consistent posting! But anyway, I don’t have a huge amount of time this week, and it’s been a very long time since I’ve done a “get…

  • Book Love,  Life,  Lists,  Travel

    June Wrap-Up and July Goals

    Ah, another month gone, another goals wrap-up post – and June did NOT go as smoothly in terms of goals as I hoped it would. That said, it wasn’t quite the total failure that it could have been. So how’d I do? Well, June was a strange one this year. I spent the first two and a half weeks rush rush rushing to clean, and prep classes, and run errands, and catch up on everything I always let go during the semester when I’m working 14-18 hour days all week. And then the last week and a half I did, well, nothing. Positively nothing but read, and eat, and travel.…

  • Life,  Magpie Runs

    So Magpie’s Gonna Run a 5k… Again.

    So I know I said in my June goals post that fitness was on the docket, but that I wasn’t going to follow any set plan or anything. Well, turns out I’m a liar. I’ve started a Couch to 5k program. Whoops. Well, at least it’s a good whoops. I’m using the C25K – 5K Running Trainer app from the Google Play store. I used it before about two years ago (maybe three?) to decent success, and I liked how the app functions. It’s easy to use, tracks your progress, gives you the option of sharing either with social media or with a C25K community (I don’t do either), it…

  • 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…