Thursday 27 November 2014

Member Appreciation

As some of you may know I've joined a blogging community called Beau Bloggers. To celebrate 10 members joining we are doing "Member Appreciation Week", where we talk about who we are and why we joined. 

If you are a member, click here to find out
 how to put the logo on your blog (this is optional of course)

My name is Izzy and I am 16 from the UK. I started blogging this January despite the fact I've always hated writing until now. I never in a million years though I would actually enjoy it! 

Once I really started getting into blogging, I thought it would be great if I could easily meet other bloggers with similar interests. Then I came across Lauren's blog and soon after she posted about wanting to start a blogging community. It was literally perfect timing. I immediately thought "YES THIS WOULD BE PERFECT I HAVE TO JOIN NOW!"

I've written a post about what Beau Bloggers is (here) but just as a quick reminder it is:
  • A friendly community for people with similar interests to share their blogs
  • A place to meet new people
  • A place to potentially gain more readers and followers
  • Open for anyone and everyone. Whether you are an enthusiastic blogger yourself or just enjoy reading blogs. 
  • A community that doesn't tolerate hate. Luckily everyone has been nothing but supportive to each other so far.
It's actually unreal how kind everyone has been to each other in this community. I want to say a huge thank you to the members who have made it so special so far. I will list the current member's blogs bellow. Please check them out, they're all amazing:

Lauren (the creator of Beau Bloggers): http://loveheartdoodles.blogspot.co.uk/
And a shoutout to Ashley <3

Joining Beau Bloggers is really easy and can take up as much or as little of you time as you want. You can click "join Beau Bloggers" at the top of my blog whenever you want to. I highly recommend it as it's so much fun and you won't regret it. 

Thank you for reading. The song of the day is 18 by One Direction. Have a nice day xxx

Sunday 16 November 2014

Meeting Alfie Deyes

It literally feels so surreal writing this post, but exciting nevertheless. On the 14th of November 2014 I had the life experience of meeting Alfie Deyes, also known by his YouTube name PointlessBlog.

I cant quite say how long I've watched his videos for, because it just feels like him and other YouTubers have been part of my life forever. But I'm sure it has been a good few years. That's why it didn't feel real to think that the person I've seen on a screen for so long was right in front of me. Like actually looking at me! And talking to me!

The copy of the book I brought

 I went with my friend Georgie Watts because we both fangirl over him loads! We started off by heading into Birmingham on the train. It started chucking it down while we were at Sixth Form so we spent most of the day soaked. However this didn't dampen the mood (if you'll pardon the pun) and we were still smiling with excitement throughout the train journey.




The most attractive 
train selfies in the world

We found the line for his book signing and joined the other hundreds of other fangirls (and some boys) who all seemed to be as excited as we were.




What we did to entertain
 ourselves whilst lining up

 Then quite possibley one of the best things ever happened. We were lined up, quite near the front, when the camera went past for his vlog.  HIS VLOG! We're only in the video for a few seconds in the background but that didn't stop me bursting into tears watching it the next day. Obviously they were tears of joy. 


We are on the left of the girl with the blue top

It really started to hit me that we were going to meet him when I walked into WHSmiths, where he was. I was actually so nervous for meeting him at this point I could have fainted. Luckily I didn't and I was more happy than nervous about the whole thing.


Cant believe how close we were

I could hear his voice from around the corner and then I realised I was actually standing in the same room as him. Then I looked up over the crowd and mangaged to catch a glimse of his hair. As we moved closer I could see more of him, and we carried on moving closer untill my time had come. I was standing right infront of him.


There he is with his friendly smile

Alfie is 100% one of the nicest, friendliest people I have ever met. I know I only saw him for about 1 minute, but you could tell he was greatfull and really cared. Georgie was in front of me in the line so got her book signed first. He apparently drew the heart funny when signing it and said "sorry I messed up the heart" to which she replied "don't worry, its fine you havent". Then when it was my turn I told him "Thank you so much" to which he ACTUALLY REPLIED "Thank you for coming". Its still strange to believe we've had a conversation.




We even took selfies with him!

And I'd also like to say how friendly everyone was there. The security guards outside were helpful, we got chatting with the girls next to us in the line, Alfie himself was so kind. We even went to Costa's afterwards and people were suggesting winter drinks to us. Small acts of kindness like that really make my day... and of course so does meeting YouTubers. 

Thank you for reading my little fangirl post. The song of the day is Magic by One Direction because meeting Alfie was pure magic xxx

Tuesday 11 November 2014

YouTubing For 1 Year!

As you can probably tell from the title, today is my YouTube channel's 1st Birthday. Yep on the 11th of November 2013 I first joined YouTube, and oh how the time has flown by!

I know I've written one or two posts about my videos lately and I don't want to bore you by talking about the same thing over and over. But I couldn't resist acknowledging my YouTube anniversary. I started making videos a year ago but for good reason the earlier videos are on a private setting. If you think my videos are cringy now, trust me that's nothing compared to what they were like a year ago!

Nevertheless I have enjoyed every minute of making videos throughout this year. It honestly feels like yesterday I filmed my first video and I cant believe it was that long ago. 

I also started a little scrapbook to remember things about my channel and blog as I continue with them. I'm rather sentimental in that sense. I never in a million, trillion years thought I would ever pluck up the courage to make a video, yet alone post it and then make more.


Ta-da this is my little scrapbook 

The first line of the first page of the scapbook
 says "November 11th 2013- Made a YouTube Account"


I know my channel is very small but I've still enjoyed it. Thank you to everyone who has supported me, it honestly means the world to me. I'm certain I wouldn't have had the confidence to continue without you.

It would be crazy to be writing a similar post this time next year, but I hope I will carry on with it. Thank you for reading. The song of the day is Hollaback Girl by Gwen Stefani simply because it has been stuck in my head all day today.

Friday 7 November 2014

The British Tag

I've done many tags on my blog before, but I thought it would be really fun to give it a go on my YouTube channel. Here's me doing "The British Tag", I hope you guys enjoy!


I know its a rubbish thumbnail but 
I really didn't have much of a choice soz!

Here are the questions in case you are interested in trying it yourself:
  1. How many cups of tea do you have a day?
  2. Favourite part of your roast?
  3. Favourite dunking biscuit? 
  4. Favourite quintessentially British pass time?
  5. Favourite word?
  6. Cockney rhyming slang?
  7. Favourite sweet?
  8. What would your pub be called?
  9. No.1 British person?
  10. Favourite shop/restaurant?
  11. What British song pops into your head?
  12. Marmite? 
I'm trying to post videos more regularly. I've come up with a new uploading schedule which I'll hopefully stick to *touch wood*. I'm gonna do my best to upload every first Friday of the month and see how it goes from there. 

So now you know how much I fail at being a stereotypical Brit. The song of the day is What Makes You Beautiful by One Direction as I had a little jam to it in the video. Thank you for reading/ watching xxx

Monday 3 November 2014

Attention Avoider?

I wasn't sure if this is something I wanted to write about because I didn't want to seem like I was complaining or attention seeking, but I feel like I need to get it off my chest. This is probably going to be one of the deepest posts I've ever written so you've been warned. Grab your popcorn, get comfy and lets get started...

My entire life I have been an extremely shy person.  I remember that at nursery it always took my ages to pluck up the courage to go and play with the other kids and a lot of the time the workers had to introduce me to them so I got involved. Even to this day it takes me a while to warm up to people. I don't want to deliberately appear rude by not being chatty and open to people I've just met. But the truth is a probably seem like I am. I wish I was one of those bubbly people with a lot of (or even some) confidence to get chatting away with new people.

How I act around people I've never met before


However my close friends and family would never in a million years consider calling me a quiet person. In fact they have rather hard time trying to get me to shut up! My shyness definitely depends on the situation I'm in. In some situations I can be extremely loud and probably seem quite confident but other times I will seem the complete opposite. 

How my family react when they cant
 get me to stop singing Disney songs at 11.30pm


When I'm in a large group where everyone is being loud I have no problem being my usual, weird self. However, when a teacher asks me a question and I can feel the whole class stare at me...it happens. My voice starts shaking and I just become really nervous for some reason. I cant even explain why. Its not fear of getting the question wrong or sounding stupid, its literally just me standing out from everyone else and getting noticed. 

I gave a presentation in class 
today and this is exactly what I looked like


I think my problem purely occurs when I realise I'm the center of attention. I will literally do anything to avoid having any sort of attention on me. I'm perfectly happy taking the backseat with things, doing all the behind the scenes work and letting someone else be the face of it. I am also aware that I'm a lot louder online than in person. It is just a lot easier expressing yourself behind a screen rather than to someone face to face. 

This is what I look like 
when I'm asked a question in class


The reason I'm actually writing this post is because I feel like its starting to limit me. I'm going to start to do things that are hopefully going to help me overcome my compulsive need to avoid being the center of attention. I will try to:

  • Do at least one thing a day that is out of my comfort zone. I will start off with small things and gradually build up.
  • Talk to more people.
  • Put my hand up in lessons more. Come on Izzy, you know the answer to more things in class than you are willing to admit. 
  • Post more YouTube videos. If I am capable of posting something that anyone around the world could potentially see, I am capable of talking to people in person.  
Ron's wave is quite possibly
the only thing more awkward than me

And there we have it; a basic introduction to one of the many reasons why I'm such a shy and awkward person. I'm not saying that its something I cant cope with or that I struggle more than anyone else out there. I am fully aware that, unfortunately, there are people out there who find these sorts of situations A LOT worse than I do. The song of the day is Skyscraper by Demi Lovato. Thanks for reading, let me know if you can relate to anything in the comments xxx