Journal

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My YouTube Journey

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My YouTube Journey

Over the weekend I sent out a newsletter which opened with a short anecdote about my YouTube channel. The subject of the newsletter wasn’t actually about YouTube at all but I received an email back from one of my lovely subscribers asking what had happened with my YouTube journey. She said: It feels almost like we followed you on your journey then when you arrived at the Emerald City, you left us outside the gates.

I completely agreed. I’d stopped talking about YouTube once I reached monetisation. I’d shared a lot of what I was going through including my analytics and how close I was getting on my Instagram Stories - but then just didn’t carry that narrative on.

My YouTube journey has dominated my life for a year. I was thinking about it a lot; anxious that I would not reach the relevant requirements and then, when I did, I was worried about being rejected and monetisation would not be allowed for my channel.

So I thought I’d explore why I stopped talking about my YouTube channel in this blog post, as well as looking at my YouTube journey so far.

A Catch Up

A Catch Up

Hello everyone. I hope you are all well. I thought I’d do a little catch up here as a blog post. It seems a little odd as a) I haven’t done a non-video blog post for some time and b) I haven’t done a general, chatty one in months.

I think I got side-tracked by making videos on YouTube and I just forgot to write about what I want, when I want. Sorry about that.

But I’ve been thinking of coming back to my blog more in recent months. It was long before this worldwide pandemic began but having this time at home has heightened my desire to connect with you all and to just write. To not necessarily have a specific topic in mind before I begin - but to talk to you - my blog audience and share what’s going on in my life without thinking about those all important keywords.

Pausing between special events

Helen Redfern | A Bookish Baker

Have you got your tree up yet?

How many times have you been asked that in the last week? Or, what about: have you got all your shopping done? No. No I haven’t. And no, I haven’t left it too late.

It’s only the seventh day of December. We are still, officially, in autumn. And I’ve still got pumpkins on the windowsill.

What is it with this trend to rush from one annual event to the next with no slow moments in between? As soon as the halloween decorations were put away people were saying, right, it’s Christmas now. Let’s get the fairy lights up. Let’s get our trees up.

And no disrespect to you if you’re one of them. I’m not dictating any rules here.

But me? I just want to pause for a while between these special events. I don’t want one to merge into the other. I want the slow moments. The in between times to just be. To watch as the last autumnal leaves fall to the ground. To savour the seasonal shifts. To anticipate the festive season but to not peak too soon.

How often do you also hear, hasn’t the year gone fast?

Is it any wonder when we’re going from Christmas, New Year, Summer, Halloween back to Christmas again. We’re always looking to the next big event. Regular days get brushed aside. Ignored.

But the regular days are the magic days. The regular days are the days you work towards your goals. Inch by inch. Step by step. Little victories. Small wins. Big wins.

Since September I have been working flat out on my writing business. I’ve created a book club on Instagram. I’ve started vlogging my writing and creative week - first on IGTV and now on YouTube. I’ve also been creating weekly videos about cosy creative living - for example my favourite books or a tour of my office. I’ve set up a Patreon account in order to write regular essays for my patrons. As well as writing three times a week on my blog and inching forward with my novel.

All this whilst taking on a new puppy. Whilst struggling with tooth pain. Whilst missing my boy when he went on an adventure of a lifetime then arrived home with campylobacter. Whilst celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, sports wins, sports losses, sorting GCSE prep, making decisions, some small, some really big, whilst packing school bags, whilst nagging about homework, whilst celebrating a mention in a magazine, or feeling sad about the loss of chickens…

It’s been an amazing few months. I started September working in the kitchen with the puppy and gradually made my way back into my tidied and re-energised office. I’ve written about 45 blog posts, one essay, created 13 vlogs, recorded and edited about 8 videos, numerous Instagram photographs and not as much novel writing as I‘d have liked but I made progress.

So now I’m winding down. I’m going to spend the next couple of weeks sorting the house, walking the dogs, wrapping presents, putting up the tree, having coffee with friends, preparing Christmas food, attending carol service, ice-skating (watching NOT partaking), dinner with friends, hosting my family, reading, watching TV and eating.

I made a big plan for this month but I just can’t do it. The creative well has run dry. So it’s now time to re-fill. There might be other blog posts on here between now and the new year but I won’t be sticking to a schedule. And my vlogs will come back in January. Rested, refreshed and ready to tackle the next three months of my writing and online creativity business.

Before I go I want to say a big thank you. Thank you for reading my blog this year. Thank you for your comments, for following me on Instagram and subscribing to my channel on YouTube. Thank you for becoming my patron and thank you for your support. Any support - big and small. It has all meant so much.

Merry Christmas.

The opposite end of childhood.

The opposite end of childhood.

I’ve been a mother now for fifteen years and a few months and a mother of two for nearly ten years.

Reading that sentence back is still incredible for me. There is so much focus and attention on the early years but it’s like once those tearful, toddler tantrums are done time speeds up. Their growth is lost in a sea of spellings, a clean P.E kit, a lost P.E kit, birthday parties, school terms, Christmases, summer holidays, trips for school shoes, uniforms. Then suddenly your children are having grown up conversations with you. Your youngest is correcting your grammar or telling you what the meaning of a word is. Your eldest is explaining something scientific that goes straight over your head. And it feels like its’s always been this way.

Yet fifteen years ago I thought time had stood still. I was there, in my lounge - I spent a lot of time in the lounge back then - feeding my son for, what felt like, the twentieth time that day, and I thought I was the worst mother in the world. Because I hated it….

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The last day of August 2018

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The last day of August 2018

Well, I've made it. Today is the last day of August. Tomorrow it will be September and I can breathe a sigh of relief. Oh the relief.

The countdown to September started last week when the night time temperatures dropped. This, in turn, dropped my shoulders down a notch because it meant the amount of flies hovering around substantially decreased. Good news especially as we're on the last fly swat and even that is beginning to look a little shredded…

Is my slow-living life making me anxious?

Is my slow-living life making me anxious?

My chickens and ducks are stressing me out, I wrote in one of the Facebook groups I belong to a few days ago. My slow-living life is actually making me anxious. My jaw is constantly clenched, making my teeth sensitive and the pain is going up into my ears.

The end of winter and the beginning of spring always means there's lots to be done. The ducks in particular are filthy creatures. Six of them in one house makes for a lot of mess and a lot of smell and the constant feeling that I'm not keeping on top of it.