Welcome to A-Z, a mini series at Daisybutter, a fortnightly series that takes a letter from the alphabet and where I aim to introduce the many facets of myself to the blog.
The A-Z of Michelle is a 26-part series on Daisybutter. Once a fortnight, I'll be introducing a new 'thing' about myself or an opinion that I'd like to share or a short story snippet. You get the gist. And each will hail from a respective letter of the alphabet. I've become quite enamoured with the alphabet as of late, even renaming my magazine to A for Aesthetic (oh so creatively from its former Aesthetic Magazine), heh.
D is for Daisybutter, my humble little blog and eccentric online space.
I dithered for a while of what to devote this fortnight’s installment to and considered subjects like dreams, dance and other things before settling on a little ‘two birds, one stone’ post where I could just chat about this blog of mine, over six years in the making, I suppose to re-introduce the blog to some newer readers. Hello!
I’ve read lots of posts in my feed lately on ‘what blogging means to me’ so I guess I’ll use this post to divulge why I love blogging and, sort of, why I’m still at it now.
I set up this blog whilst in my first year of University, feeling a little lost and a lot(tle) like I’d perhaps made the wrong decisions. Only a handful of months earlier, I’d written, edited and produced a magazine for an Extended Project module at college. It was about fashion, the digital aspect of emerging fashion, how women in their late teens engaged with fashion and opinion, and, my favorite fashion bloggers. I interviewed Andy (Style Scrapbook) and Rumi (Fashiontoast) which just goes to show just how early on I engaged with this industry. Then I stumbled upon Zoe’s blog, Lauren’s blog, Milly’s, Steph’s... I was hooked on this self-publishing platform that felt so much more grown-up and full of uncertain direction than MySpace and Bebo.
Thus, Daisybutter was born.
Over the years, Daisybutter has taken all sorts of directions. My sister and I flicked through the archives of DB the other week and were amazed at how much there is to be found through its digital pages. I can scour through the earlier days and reminisce at how I’d share what reading I did for Uni, at the thrill of being invited to London Fashion Week for the first time, at the eclectic outfits I concocted from Primark pieces, layering like a crazy mofo to shield from Southampton chills, at the everyday mundane that so many readers(!!) soaked up and would chat to me about.
I’ve made genuine, now real-life friends through this blogging thing. My offline friends are bloody amazing but we don’t share the same passions or the same drive for ‘more’. That’s not to say it’s a bad thing, I wholeheartedly will always support my home friends, but the blogging world always pushes me to do more, to strive for what I dream of and to, you know, engage in important conversations about metal choices, nail varnish colours and the beautiful unnecessary. I honestly can’t imagine my world without sharing some parts of it somewhere online and that’s the way I like it. Some parts go on here, other bits on Instagram and others on Twitter. I have rarely felt like I’m about to reach blogger burnout because I just adore doing this.
There’s a really special and unique sort of beauty in having your own spot in the digital world to really make your mark. And it can be however you want to. Once I wanted to make my mark by sharing outfits, the dressed-up visual representation of me, another time I wanted to help people, and nowadays? I’d like to think my blog is now a multi-functional spot in the Internet for me to share my own moments and dreams and encourage others to reflect on their own happy. Capturing the everyday mundane and finding the little moments of happy amongst the daily grind.