It's Always Been You...Tube

I feel like I have kind of talked about Youtube a lot on this blog, and many times, because the truth is I have been trying to become a 'Youtuber' since I was 13/14 years old. By 'Youtuber' I don't mean someone famous on Youtube, I just want to make videos regularly and because I enjoy doing it. I mean let's not lie, having a career in it would be amazing, but that's not my end goal, for me it's just about something that I love. So instead of giving a million excuses as to why I haven't been making videos, I thought I'd talk about why I want to make videos, and a little history of my Youtube life. If you would like you can watch the above vlog which covers everything, but in case you prefer to read I'll also do a short write up of everything I talk about below!

So let's start on why I love Youtube...

I started watching Youtube videos when I was around 13/14 years old, and I watched Youtubers like Charlieissocoollike, Shane Dawson and Meekakitty, mainly daily vloggers, although Shane also did some sketch videos. I can't remember the exact reason why I first started watching videos, but the reason that I stayed was down to a sense of personal connection that you get from watching a certain Youtuber. I had plenty of friends at school so I wasn't lonely, but I think I was still working out who I was as a person, and watching people who were either going through the same, or had already been through it really helped. Even now I watch Youtube videos when I wake up, when I'm on a break, and when I get home, I consume so much Youtube that it's probably a little unhealthy, but I really don't care!

My first Youtube channel...

It wasn't long after starting to watch videos that I made my first Youtube channel, and I kept getting into the loop of making videos, and then deleting them, and then trying again a few months down the line. For some reason I could never make it stick. That channel is still up today and there is a clip of one of my really old vlogs in the video above, if you want to check out cringey 17 year old me! I even tried a couple of times (unsuccessfully I might add) to take part in VEDA (Vlog everyday in April) but only ever kept it up for a few days at a time.

University and blogging...

When I went to Uni my Youtube obsession was at it's height, I went to study Film and TV and I was hoping to make a lot of friends that also wanted to make Youtube videos. Thankfully there wasn't a shortage on people who were into Youtube, unfortunately I was rubbish at sticking to making videos. Then in my final year of Uni I got into something entirely different, blogging. As you can tell it went pretty well as I have been blogging for almost 3 and a half years now! I've told the story many times about how I got into blogging so I won't bore you with it again now, but if you really want to know I do talk about it in the video above!

Gaming Channel...

When I left Uni and moved back home I lost a lot of my creative outlet because I wasn't making films for work anymore, so I knew I really wanted to try and get a channel up and running again. At this time the type of Youtube videos that I was into the most was Gaming paythroughs, this was about the time that Pewdiepie started getting popular. So I got ahold of  a recording device and started recording myself playing on my Xbox 360. This was probably the first time since starting Youtube that I actually felt like part of a community, and I even did a collab with another small Youtube gamer. In the end I couldn't keep up with recording, it was mainly because I lived at home with my Mum and my brother and it was difficult for me to find time when it was quiet enough to record. So in the end my gaming channel fizzled out but it's something that I really want to get back into in the future.

Where we are now...

About a year ago I got really good at making videos and made one a week which went on for a good few months, and that is where I plan to get back to! Tim and I may be moving into our own place very shortly which will make it even easier for me to film, as I won't have to worry about his parents being around. In the mean time I plan to upload a new video once a week on either a Friday or Saturday, whether it be a vlog, a makeup look, or a challenge video, so keep your eyes peeled for those!

Let me know in the comments what kind of videos that you want to see on my channel, and I may just make them...

Treasure Trails

If you follow me on Twitter then you may have wondered what the hell this tweet was all about. Don't worry, I'm not imagining things, or going insane. I was actually doing a walking treasure trail in my home town! 'What is that?' I hear you cry, well, it's basically a little booklet, that leads you on a walk around your chosen area, to search for clues, to solve a mystery!

A friend of mine introduced me to these, during my Graduation week, when we all went on a treasure trail around Aberystwyth. It was so much fun, it took a couple of hours, and we all got to spot things that we wouldn't have necessarily seen otherwise!

You can go onto the Treasure Trails website, and pick a location in the UK, and get a booklet for it. You have three choices when buying the trail. The cheapest option is paying for the PDF file which you print out yourself, or you can pay to have it delivered to you by post. The final option which is more expensive, it to personalise the story with your own/your friends names. The best thing is, that they each have different stories, and reference locations within the area!

This was the story for the Newbury one: 'Tired of hearing the exuberant cries of people enjoying themselves on Newbury's waterways, local resident, Ivor Grudge, has decided to take drastic action. He has developed a device that will release a foul-smelling substance into the canals to contaminate the water and jam the locks - effectively bringing all canal activity to an end. What a tragedy this would be for pretty Newbury! Can you foil Ivor's wicked plot by locating the de-activation code?'

Here is what the little booklets look like when they are put together correctly! (I kind of cheated because my dad works at a printing company and put these together professionally)

This is what the inside looks like. It gives you precise directions to follow, and the green boxes are the clues that you need to solve. It also throws in some interesting facts about the town! Also to help you out, you get three free texts to give you answers to clues, so using them wisely is imperative!

This was where we had to fill in our answers, but not every treasure trail follows this format, for example the last one I played had a list of suspects and weapons that we eliminated with each clue we solved.

I think the best thing about this was learning some things that I didn't always know about the town. I've lived near Newbury my whole life, and I've been to town countless times, and yet I've never once noticed some of the things that the treasure trail pointed out to me! My home town certainly is beautiful!

The clue for the above photo was pretty funny, we were supposed to look for a memorial and the nickname was our clue. We all found it hilarious that the nickname was 'Hippo Granny'!

The picture above didn't come out as well as I had hoped. It's actually a painting of a Stag or 'White Hart' and it was one of the clues. I had literally NEVER seen this before, and I don't know how I missed it because it's so obvious. Although I'm glad that I've now opened my eyes!

After we found all the answers we settled down for lunch, and attempted to work out the deactivation code. Unfortunately we couldn't work it out, and we gave up. I wouldn't say that it spoiled it though, because we still had an amazing time searching for all the clues!

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who loves mysteries, and anyone who wants to learn more about where they live. It may seem kind of nerdy, but I really loved it, and I will certainly be doing another one very soon!

If you fancy it be sure to check out the website here!