Author Archives: downtonmaggie

Super Woman

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In the past two years I became a wife and mother. We also moved from the Big Apple to a little town in Middle Tennessee.

While I try to figure out how to be a mom, I’m also trying to make friends, clean the apartment, develop my marketing and design skills, explore the surrounding area, be a good wife to my husband, manage our finances, and attempt to type one handed (perhaps the most difficult of them all).

Being a super woman is hard, y’all.

I don’t know how other women do it. I barely have time to Continue reading →

Remembering Hebron

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Reading this article from Aljazeera about the new military restrictions and checkpoints in Hebron makes me incredibly sad. Two years ago I had the privilege of going to Israel and Palestine with a group of fellow students. We were there to learn more about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the people involved and directly affected – students, families, religious and civil leaders, activists, and non-profit volunteers.

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Inside the Ibrahimi Mosque

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While we were in Hebron I met a woman I will never forget. Continue reading →

Happily Ever After

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“And, while Cinderella and her prince did live happily ever after, the point, gentlemen, is that they lived.” – Ever After (1998).

Mawwidge1After months of planning, I finally got married! Woohoo!

It was truly perfect. Sunny, low humidity, high of 75 degrees. Lovely, wonderful people in attendance who I love and admire. Beautiful music during Continue reading →

Simple Ways to De-Stress: Plant edition

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This morning, Verily Magazine posted an article on Simple Ways to De-Stress at Your Desk. They offered some good advice on deep-breathing, sitting up straight, walking around, etc. but there’s one thing they left out that I think is very important:

#8 SURROUND YOURSELF WITH PLANTS

Plants produce oxygen, which is essential to human life.

Plants don’t ask you stupid questions.

You can complain all you like to plants and they’ll just be Continue reading →

The Pope’s Coming to My Wedding!

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Pope Francis waves to crowds as he arrives to his inauguration mass on 19 March 2013.

Just kidding. But Pope Francis WILL be visiting NYC the day before my wedding, which is both AMAZING and super inconvenient. It’s really difficult to get a hotel block for your wedding when the Pope is in town. THANKS, POPE FRANCIS!

Thankfully, the wonderful people at Kleinfield are helping me to reserve room blocks around the city for our many out of town guests. Kleinfield has a truly amazing FREE service for “finding and booking hotel rooms Continue reading →

21 Day Fix – Let the Soreness Begin!

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Today my entire body hurts. My core muscles, my abs, shoulders, back, thighs, everything, are all sore. But it’s a good kind of pain!

On Monday I started the 21 Day Fix, a combination diet and exercise plan. The “diet” part is all about portion control and being aware of what kind of food you’re eating, which is really fun when you have cute color coded tupperware for each food group (protein, fruit, veggies, starches, good fatty foods, etc).

So far I’ve been pretty good about sticking to the food plan. Shakeology (Beach Body’s awesome protein+nutrients powder for smoothies) is definitely my favorite. I’ve always been a protein smoothie person and the chocolate Shakeology mix is the best!

The workouts (aka the main reason why I’m doing the 21 Day Fix) are kicking my butt. Monday’s workout was 30min of full body cardio WITH WEIGHTS! AHHH! What a way to start off the week. I definitely thought I might die Continue reading →

Sunday, Fun Day!

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Man oh man, have the last few weeks been busy!

Last weekend I was a seat filler at the Tony Awards, which was AH-MAZING. It was so much fun to dress up and I sat in some really good seats (always in the first 10 rows, most of them aisle seats). Over the course of the evening, I sat in Taylor Schilling’s seat (Orange is the New Black), behind Christian Borle (Something Rotten!), and near Christopher Wheeldon (choreo: An American in Paris); I took a pic for and shook the hand of Tony winner Annaleigh Ashford (You Can’t Take it With You); and saw Bernadette Peters in person (a dream come true!). Here are some pics from the evening:

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Screenshot from the live telecast!

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Feeling glamorous!

Then this past Sunday, my fiance and I went to the 10th Annual Jazz Age Lawn Party on Governor’s Island! This is one of my favorite summer events in NYC. Thousands of people flock to Governor’s Island to listen to live 1920s style music by Michael Arenella and his Dreamland Orchestra, dance, eat, and most of all to admire everyone’s 1920s costumes and vintage dresses! This year I did more lounging than dancing, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Modelling my vintage dress with my parasol from last year.

Modelling my vintage dress with the parasol I got last year.

Don’t worry if you missed this event! They’re holding it again on August 15th & 16th! Buy your tickets now as they sell out fast!

1200 Calories

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This blog post by Sophieologie is wonderful. Since I started working at a culinary school and sitting at a desk all day I’ve struggled with my weight. I absolutely love food (especially dessert! I simply don’t understand the “I’m not a dessert person”) and now I get lots of really really delicious food. However, I’m also sitting all day and not running around trying to get to class on time or staying up late to go swing dancing. I’m trying to teach myself that just getting out there and moving around a bit/exercising is better than limiting how much I eat. This blog post is encouraging in that regard. Give it a read: