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Hello angels 💜 SO lovely to see you again! I’m very grateful you’ve chosen to share part of your weekend with me 🥰

My August was a mixed bag (and in the interest of Realness On The Internet, I’m gonna give you the ups and the not-so-ups).

I’ve been doing a lot of running around - travelling across the country for events, travelling back home to take care of Gem, trying to keep up with the ever-changing demands of social media, create new things, take on new projects, be a decent friend and partner and person etc. etc. You know, all that human stuff that is a lot for any of us to balance. I didn’t get the balance totally right and ended up burning out big time this week.

But I’ve given myself permission to go slow, to miss things, to not be at 100. I’ve had therapy and watched my comfort films (Dumplin’ is medicine in movie form), and allowed myself to be held. I’m trusting that I deserve to feel good again and also recognising all the moments of joy that came in August! (Putting this month’s newsletter together really helped with that!)

I’d love to share some of them with you, and then maybe you can tell me what’s been going on with you, too? 🤗

I Pride-d myself out! 💃🏽

I went to celebrate all things sparkly & queer with my girl at Brighton Pride - there was a lot going on and I think I was kidding myself with my ability to party two whole days in a row lolol. But lewks were pulled, sun was soaked in, and I felt genuinely proud to be there with her 🌈💜

Giving big “opposites attract” wardrobe vibes

It was also UK Black Pride on a cloudy Sunday in London - Char was working the event and I decided to volunteer in the morning before taking my team t-shirt off and letting the good times roll! This one felt a much more manageable size and I *loved* being part of the team! 👩🏽‍🤝‍👩🏾

From organising in the morning to dancing in the evening!

I also challenged myself to document the most boom-boom-pow outfits of the day as a way to cope with the social overwhelm (excellent excuse to talk to lovely people, would recommend). I posted them here!

I drove down South to meet one of my oldest friend’s new member of the family!

First time I’d ever held a baby, although years of holding dogs had prepared me well…

I spent one beautiful day visiting a residential mental health unit and delivering two workshops - one on eating disorder recovery and one on body image - that I’d created myself and worked on for weeks! It’s the day I have the least content of (literally just this one image), but that felt the most meaningful and affirming. 💜

I learned so much from everyone there and left with some big reminders about why I started doing what I do.

I zoomed over to Bristol (v cool & artsy place in the UK) to host a Q&A + walked around exploring the hundreds of incredible pieces of street art!

Me being in constant awe!

Then it was back home-home to clock in some time with my sis and make sure she was feeling like the Queen she is! 👑

Crabbe sister weekends include: walks, manicures, hair refreshes, visiting the fam, baking, dancing & filming ridiculous things for the internet

And on the work side of things, I’ve had a couple of pretty major projects brewing that *hopefully* I’ll be able to share with you soon! For now, here’s a couple of behind-the-scenes moments that I’m probably also not supposed to be sharing with you… but I know you’re cool, so these can be between us 😉

A pink-haired lady in a sports bra on a big camera, how mysterious…

Someone gave me & Joeley access to a recording studio. We pretended to be popstars. Eat your heart out, Christina.

And after all that, on a day when my nerves felt fried and all I wanted to do was paint some nice colours on a canvas to calm myself down, bae decided to let me use her body as a landscape…

Acrylic on skin, extra fun to peel off!

Whew! So that’s what’s been going on with me! I feel like I’ve been talking for ages and my coffee’s gone cold - your turn! How’s August been for you?

Is it fucking beautiful when people care deeply about things?

Last weekend I was walking with bae when we stopped to admire a tree (as we do), and when we turned back to our path we noticed a stranger a few steps ahead looking towards us with the excited expression of a child about to burst with a new discovery.

“Do you know what kind of tree that is?” they said with their face widening into a smile.

We said we didn’t.

The stranger told us what the tree was called, and added that we should come back and see her in autumn - that’s when she really grows into her colours.

We thanked them and we each went back to our staggered paths. The stranger only got a few steps ahead before turning again to tell us that the Latin name for the tree is really something, and we should look it up when we get home.

In a single interaction I was reminded that one of the most beautiful things about being a human is deciding to care about something, and doing it deeply. It doesn’t matter what that thing is - trees, knitting, ancient Egyptian history, perfecting a pecan pie recipe or posting on social media with a purpose. All that matters is the meaning we give to our thing by truly caring. And no other person gets to take that meaning away from us, or tell us it’s not worthwhile.

I walked on, grateful for the chance to be here, and to care about things, deeply.

Transcript: I don’t know who needs to hear this, but mental health hangovers are real. You know that time after you’ve had a moment or you’ve had a day, where you don’t feel like yourself yet, where you’re slow, you’re forgetting things, you feel like you’re letting people down, you feel just fragile and like the world is too much? Those feelings are very real and they’re very valid. You haven’t failed if you can’t immediately shake off a bad mental health day, or jump back into life after a breakdown like it’s nothing. You are doing your best and you deserve to give yourself credit for that. And I promise you will feel like you again soon - for now just keep going through the hangover.

That’s all for this month’s ✨ MJC-Mail ✨ !

Extra thank you to those of you who offered to buy me coffee during this catch-up by being paid subscribers!! Thank you for affirming that there’s worth in what I’m doing. 💜

And to my free subscribers! I love and value you and still wanna hear all about how you are! Coffee’s on me this month 😉

Love,

Megan

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