Life
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The First Accurate Mani Monday
Happy Monday everyone! It’s been a difficult few days here at Magpie Making Do – my grandmother had some surgery (it was minor and went well, but there’s always anxiety when she has to be put under and stay in the hospital now that she’s past 80 years of age) and one of my parents’ cats, Genghis Khan (who really been “my” cat since we got him as a kitten 13 years ago. I was in 8th grade and he immediately attached himself to me and hasn’t let go since – and neither have I for that matter) is not doing well at all. My mom and I had a…
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Quick NYC Trip
Last week we made a quick day trip up to NYC for a very special occasion: My brother’s senior recital! After 4 long years of toil at the Julliard School, he’s gearing up to graduate, and I couldn’t be more proud of him. The final hurdle (besides finishing spring semester) for a music student is always the senior recital: you put on an entire hour-long concert yourself, and graduation hangs on it going well. Like a giant, public jury. It’s a pretty harrowing experience, even if you’re used to performing. Well, true to form, he did brilliantly. I couldn’t have been prouder of him. He is the most talented person…
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The Good Things Jar
I saw a pin on pinterest the other day with a brilliant idea. I don’t have a link to the pin here, because I can’t seem to find the original source of the pin – all the pins simply take me to the image or a pic dump on some buzzfeed-type site (So if anyone knows the originating source, please let me know so I can give credit where credit is due). The idea goes something like this (direct quote from the pin): “Every January start filling an empty jar with notes about good things that happen. Then on New Years Eve, almost 12 months later, empty the jar and…
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My First Grown-up Christmas Tree
This year is the first year since moving out that I have my own, full size christmas tree. We’ve never been real tree people – my mom is the daughter of a fire chief and her whole side of the family is staunchly pro-fake tree. Too many holidays in their childhoods were interrupted by fire calls where families lost everything after their too-dry tree went up in flames. And while I don’t really have the same memories, I’ve grown up with fake trees and I love them to pieces. Last year was my first year in my “own” place (I shared with four other people), and it was pretty much…