Hey guys... How are you all doing today?

This is my first outfit post for the year. And that’s after being away for a very long time. These photos were shot some weeks ago but I’ve been preoccupied with my sister’s wedding preparations. If you follow me on Instagram you must have seen lots of photos from the wedding. Thank God the wedding was successful. Anyways, I made sure that the month of February doesn’t go by without this post. (I couldn’t even wait for my photographer to edit the pictures).

So! Mom jeans are one of the most comfortable forms of jeans to wear and they can be styled in a whole lot of ways. Here, I decided to style mine with this very lovely yellow coat that’s made of African prints. As a fashion designer, I have great love for textiles and I’m particular about Ankara. If I haven’t mentioned it yet, I actually plan to incorporate African prints to whatever outfit I wear in my daily life. It’s one of my 2017 goals. (I’ll do a post on my ‘2017 goals’ really soon). So far, it’s been fun wearing a touch of Ankara every day. Let’s see how far I go with achieving this goal. Plus, I’m eager to see the various ways I’d style African prints in the coming days. It’s indeed fun and I know I can do it.

The yellow coat I wore in this post is really very breezy, and can be worn anytime, any day. Especially in this region where there’s no serious cold. It’s perfect for our Nigerian weather. The coat is not thick at all, so you need not worry. I imagine some of my readers wondering why one would wear a coat in our hot environment. But it’s safe to say this coat is more like a duster jacket. Coats like this one comes really handy when you’re dressed in -take for instance all white, and you need to avoid getting any stain.

You might also want to know that I made the coat myself (MAUDIFFIED). And it’s available in other colours. Which you’ll see soon here. Kindly follow our page to know when more photos are shared.

By now you must have noticed my sneakers. And probably wondering if they came with the embellishments or if I had pimped them myself. Well, YES guys, I transformed my plain white sneakers to this. Just in case you don’t know yet, the classic clean white sneakers are out of trend and what’s in this year are bedazzled, embellished, bejewelled, be-funky, be-not-boring sneakers. LOL. And if I must confess, I’m loving the trend and I hope you do too.

It’s such a shame that I didn’t remember to document the process. I have no step by step photos or video to share with you. But if you would like to see the DIY process, kindly let me know in the comments section below.

So, speaking about trend, what are your thoughts on the embellished sneakers? Are you into mom jeans? How do you feel about wearing a coat in the type of weather we have in Nigeria?

I’ll really love to know what you think, so please, kindly share your thoughts. And puhleeeeeeease, be kind to share this post.

Thanks, and have a pleasant day.

xoxo

Maudleen.

Hey guys,

I know it’s been ages right? Literally ages. Four years is no joke! I can’t believe my last post on here was February 1st, 2013. Wow!

First, I must say I’ve missed the whole blogging experience. From curating blog photos, to creating contents and reading your comments. But on a more serious note, I am sorry for my disappearance. I mean it’s been “four years”. A lot of you must be surprised that I even came back to the blog. I hated being away though, for real. (Though I’m wondering if I should rather start a new blog afresh than continuing with this one).
Now you’d be wondering why I quit the blog. Well, I started blogging as a ‘fun’ hobby. Probably wasn’t passionate about it as much as I thought I was. But trust me, I loved blogging and placed the blog first before all other things. Even my studies at some point. Guess I needed to learn how to create a balance. But aside that, I really didn’t realize when I began to wallow in fear, laziness and self-pity. Well, in my defense, sometimes one just need to take time out and figure things out. As well as find oneself. But should I have been way for so long?

Quote

You may delay, but time will not.

I stopped blogging because I felt pressurized at some point. I was blogging for fun, but some people (quite a lot of people actually) thought it was funny to be a blogger. Fashion blogger for that matter. They thought it was kind of a waste of time seeing that I wasn’t even earning from it. Especially seeing entertainment bloggers who earn millions from their blog. But they didn’t understand that I was simply a girl blogging because I enjoyed it. Not necessarily for what I could make from it.  And all I got was links on “monetize your blog”, “how to monetize your blog”, “freaking monetize your blog”. Damn! It was indeed exhausting – I began to feel like child’s play. And blogging felt more like a task than something I enjoyed. But don’t get me wrong. To all those who ever insisted or advised I monetize my blog, I appreciate it because I know it came with good intentions. In fact the best intention ever. And that’s one of the reasons I’m back. (No shame) So I really appreciate you. But keep in mind that as at four years ago, and for a novice who started a blog as a hobby, all I wanted was to go with the flow. To be able to enjoy my new found love, to get an audience and literally grow with the blog. That was just it.

Speaking about appreciation, trust me guys, I would have appreciated it more if I was sent links on “how to blog better”, “ways to improve your blog” or even a cute blog theme. Okay at least someone sef should have asked “Maudleen, what have you learnt form blogging so far?”

To make matters worse, someone I thought and took as ‘special’ refused to help take me photos for the blog. I had practically packed a box of clothes I planned to style in order to curate outfit pictures for the blog. Like I’ve said, blogging was of a hobby to me and I actually never paid a photographer for a photo-shoot. Family and friends would gladly assist me with taking blog pictures. So naturally, I had thought that this person would as well, gladly accept to take the blog pictures. But to my greatest surprise, this person refused to take me pictures for the ‘blog’. Even went as far as asking “how many pictures do you want to snap?”, “are you going to change into all these ‘so many’ clothes?”. Mehn, let’s not even go there. Although I’ve forgiven, but I still do remember. Please, keep in mind that I’m neither venting nor blaming anyone. I just want to share answers to questions some of you have asked severally. And weren’t given a real answer.

Another reason I stopped blogging was that I was battling with incessant acne. My face was literally covered in pimples. This was sometime round 2013 to 2015. And that alone killed my self-esteem - talk about wallowing in self-pity. I realized I lost my confidence and lost interest in dressing up or taking outfit pictures for the blog. I even shied away from Instagram during that period. Fast forward to 2016, and after series of facial peels and treatments, my face is a lot better and I can gladly, boldly and with a big smile strike a pose for the camera.

I think I should stop here. Although these are not all. But the good thing is that I’m back now.

I am back not only to share my personal fashion and lifestyle, but back to make an impact. To grow, achieve goals, be responsible, challenge myself, meet people, have fun and to make a statement.

Thanks to all who waited patiently for me, thanks to all who kept on telling me to return to the blog (I wish I could mention names). Thanks to you who said “Maudleen I’ve got your back”. Thanks to you, you and you.

Let’s do this.

xoxo

Maudleen.