Hiya! It be a new Madeleine Mae

Hiya! It be a new Madeleine Mae

Taking a break from blogging has been all the emotions but the very one I thought it would actually be.

I thought it would be relaxing. I thought it would be time out for myself after three years of desperately trying to wrangle out two posts a week alongside university. Instead, what it’s mainly been is a whole load of FOMO and fear. FOMO because I’ve seen people posting away on the ol’ blogs and I’ve been desperately itching to get posting again. However, fear came along to bite my bum and stopped me getting back on the blog as soon as university was over. I’ve been wanting to redesign Madeleine Mae for a long time now but never had the chance because uni drained my energy away (lol) but as soon as freedom arrived and I could get stuck into a new chapter, I became bloody terrified of getting the blog back up and running because I wanted it to be perfect- ha, looks like my Virgo star sign is finally living up to its name. So, nothing could cure my FOMO because lil old me wasn’t fighting through the fear. What a silly bean, eh?

But I finally got my act together and started redesigning the blog back in July and I’ve slowly been chipping away (with the help of my friend, Dan, who’s a bloody amazing computer whizz) to create something new that I think resembles the Madeleine Mae of today- and not the Madeleine Mae of three years ago, a lil Fresher just embarking on her university life. It’s taken a long time to get right (and there are still some elements of the site I want to change in the New Year) but I think it’s about time I got going again.

So without further ado, let’s have a catch up about where things are at over here. We’ll begin with this brand spanking new website- and then we’ll move on to real life, because it feels weird to be talking virtually all the time. Not only has the website design changed but so too have my values, passions and writing style since the beginning in 2016. It be time to shake things up and all that jazz- so let’s start with what you can expect from around here wit meeee!

You might notice a few lil nods to the previous site on this new design. For one, all the old posts can be found on the blog still- I’m a lil sentimental bean and ain’t no one gon make me delete three years of hastily typed blog posts after a day of lectures. For two, you’ll see a lil colour scheme throughout the website which nods to the previous era of Madeleine Mae and all that jazz. For example, the awesome logo that my good pal Lauren (you can find her bladdy incred art over here) designed for me. I’m particularly a fan of how it looks when you scroll down the home page when on a laptop, so pls check it owt. It’s very excite- I’m very sad hahaha. I’ve kept the whole purple thing goin’ on throughout the site, as I wanted part of the old version of this blog stickin’ around. And my writing style, while hopefully a lil more developed than when I started back in 2016, is going to be equally as annoyingly chatty as always, so I hope that’s not too much of a bummer lols. I like being grammatically correct around here, but I also want to keep things fun- because YOLO and all that.

However, there are a few things that have changed and will be changing on this site- hopefully for ze better. I really hope this new blog design is snazzier than the last- it looks particularly good on a laptop instead of a phone so if you fancy reading that way I’d v much appreciate. There’s only so much you can do to make a blog look good on an iPhone, apparently- Steve Jobs really didn’t think of us bloggers, did he now? I’m making sure to take as many of my images as possible with a PROPER camera (AKA not my phone lol) so hopefully image quality will be half decent. There are some fun layouts on the homepage and each section of the website, so make sure you have a good scroll around now and again. And I’m only just getting to grips properly with all the new, cool features I’ve got access to after the redesign, so I’m hoping things can get even funkier around here the more of a play around I get the chance to have.

Oh- also! Let’s chat the actual content of the blog, now. It’s all good makin’ something look pretty, but I want to make sure what’s actually being written and discussed around here is actually worth your time reading. And as I’ve grown, graduated (WHAT?!) and left university, my values have developed and I’ve really now had the chance to think about what exactly my niche and passions are when it comes to blogging. You’ll notice we’re talking ‘Life’, ‘Style’, ‘Music’ and ‘Hey, Boo’ (whatever the heck that is) over here now on Madeleine Mae. The ‘Life’ section encompasses anything from general lifestyle chitchats, to travel pieces, to fun posts out and about in my NEW CITY (more about that later in this post!!). I’m trying to become more eco-conscious now, because I understand the huge importance of caring for our beautiful planet, so I don’t really fancy the idea of me focusing my content completely around fasshunn anymore, as much as I adore the freedom we all have with experimenting with our dress sense – so this is where the ‘Style’ section comes in. I still want to write about fashion, just in a more mindful way. Any fashion posts I’ll do will be focused on mindful purchases, vintage finds, clothes swapping, re-wearing and revitalising the pieces we ALREADY own- hence why ‘Style’ seems to fit the new site. And if you’re wondering what the heck ‘Hey, Boo’ will be (good question, as I’m still working on it myself lol) but I have a feeling of where we’re heading with this part of the website. In short, the reason why writing is so important to me is because I really feel like you can challenge notions in society and change the way people think through the power of words. And something I’m really passionate about is challenging ‘taboo’-esque topics and trying to normalise a lot of stuff people generally shy away from talking about. I want this blog to be a space to bloody well celebrate exactly who we ALL are and to laugh in the face of preexisting ridiculous notions in society. Writing is powerful and writing can be a tool for change. And I want to make sure my writing is speaking to change- because really, why else should I do this? So in short, ‘Hey, Boo’ feels inclusive, a welcoming ‘hey, come on over here – let’s talk taBOOs and make the world nicer, yeah?’ – it’s a bit of a stretch, but it felt like the right name for this section of the website, and something I’m going to develop further in the coming months. Just hear me out 😛

So now you’ve found out a lil bit about the new chapter of Madeleine Mae, here are some practicalities regarding the website. I’m gon try my v v hardest to post once a week, sometimes twice. However, as will be explained in a secondoooo, I’m now in full-time employment (AH) therefore if I slip up and fail to post sometimes, please know it’s because I’m a busy bean who needs a lie down after workies. And one more thing: I’m really looking to collaborate with other bloggers whom I love and adore on posts on this website or on my most-used social platform, Instagram. I want this space to be a community (UGH hate this word because it sounds all entitled and gross- but I mean it in a diversifying, inclusive, expressive way) for everyone to participate, come for a chat and have a good ‘un. SO if you want to get involved- please get in touch, either through DMs on Instagram or Twitter ( @maddiemae_xo in case ya don’t know ) or pop me an email at [email protected] – I’d really, really love to hear from you!

So now some stuffs about where I’m at – in REAL life instead of on a virtual blog, lols. I graduated in July from the University of Birmingham with a 2:1 in BA English & Creative Writing (literally canNOT believe I’m typing this) and I am the happiest I’ve been in a L O N G time. I miss my pals and living in Birmingham endlessly, but I do NOT miss my degree. I struggled a lot throughout the last three years with the academic stress the university puts upon its students- in the lead-up to finishing in May, I worked solidly from 6am in the morning until at least 5pm at night on essays I really didn’t feel like doing, but knew I had to do. Basically, I wasn’t the biggest fan of university, academia-wise, and that’s something I wan chat about on here soonio. So I’m absolutely buzzed and proud to have made it through and to be able to say I’m a Bachelor of Arts- sounds faaancy. I secured a full-time paid marketing internship in my local town for over the summer months at the end of June and I began the role at the beginning of July. I spent my summer saving up monies and in September, after MONTHS of half-planning, half-dreaming it just might happen, myself and my boyfriend moved to Bristol. Now, if you follow my Instagram, you’ll know I obsess over that city (nearly as much as my all-time-fave, Paris) and it’s been a dream of mine to move to Bristol for over a year. My boyfriend was at university here, it’s a place special to our hearts, and after being together five years, we wanted to get a lil place together. So that brings us up to today, a freeezing December Sunday afternoon: and I’m a full-time worker as a Marketing Assistant for UWE Bristol’s Students’ Union, I do some writing in my own time, I’m taking a ‘break’ and having a year ‘off’ before attempting to pursue my dream which is to do something in journalism, I FINALLY live in an adorable little flat in Clifton, Bristol with my fave human and I’m starting back up Madeleine Mae as a new chapter!! How mad is that!!

I really hope any of you that read this post/this blog/accidentally stumbled upon this never to set eyes on it ever again enjoy the new design and direction I really want to be taking Madeleine Mae. I would absolutely love your feedback if you at all have a min to let me know what you think about the site. I’d love to know any ideas you have for blog posts, any topics you’d like me to touch on, any collaborations you have in mind. I’m still a nervy, fear-led bean having finished writing this post because I’m too hellbent on wanting this blog to be as perfect as poss. But perfect ain’t even a thing- and it’s a societal construction forced upon us to make us constantly want to better ourselves HA we’ll be getting deep around here very soon, I’m sure- and I’m excited to see where the next few months will take dis lil blog o’ mine. If you want more info on where this blog is headed, check out each of the sections, as I’ve written a new lil postie on each page. And my ‘About Moi’ section is also updated with some new stuffs. Thank you for reading and I hope you visit soon hehe x