I have a Youtube Channel! How times change!

I've come an incredibly long way since starting this blog back in 2004. I've gone from being too shy to show my face on the internet, to having a Youtube channel! My channel is about a yearlong style experiment that I started earlier this year. It already has several videos up for your consideration, on the subjects of style, fashion and sewing. Here's my first video in which I talk about why I started my channel (though I also wrote a little about that below):




I do hope you enjoy my videos and maybe consider subscribing if you like that sort of thing. The most recent is my first one I made with proper video editing software -- not just an app with the most basic features like I was using before. The other day, I finally sat down and taught myself how to do it, and I'm quite proud of myself:



Making the thumbnails (the cover picture) is also quite fun!

Writing this post has gotten me thinking about how much things have changed since I started hanging out on the internet back in 2004. For many years, I was too shy to share my face (let alone my whole body!) on the internet. I was incredibly self-conscious about it. For example, I was into knitting and crocheting hats for a few years. I couldn't convince anyone I knew to model them, so I bought a head model from Ebay just so I could share them online. (I still have her -- her name is Hedda!)

I often found myself in a ridiculous situation where I wanted to sew clothes, but I was too self-conscious to share them on my blog. I wanted to share everything craft-related here, so if I didn't feel I could share it, I didn't make it! It was a piece of topsy-turvy logic that seems funny to me now. (...and yes, I ended up with a big stash of fabric I never used!)

Joining Instagram a few years ago changed things immensely for me. Seeing other people with similar body types to mine helped me to come out of my shell. I started posting photos of my face, and later, my whole body. I began to enjoy fashion more when I saw the possibilities, after having given up on it years earlier. I wanted to make my own clothes again, like I used to when I was a teenager. I did make a skirt last year, but I was so out of practice and made so many mistakes, that I was too embarrassed to blog about it. Here's a picture of it anyway:

The stars must have been aligning early this year, when I had a strong urge to get my fashion/style house in order, and saw this video about a 365 day style challenge. I decided to do one of my own! I'm not usually that impulsive (maybe it was a pandemic thing), but there you are. At first I was going to document it through my blog like I've done with so many projects before, but I became increasingly convinced that it wasn't the right format. It can be hard to describe something so personal -- and sometimes complicated -- in writing. Some things are just easier to talk about. About a month after I started, I decided I may as well try documenting it in video form, and started a Youtube channel to support that.

I've learned so much from starting this project -- not only about fashion and style, but about making videos. It's been a steep learning curve, fun, sometimes frustrating, but always satisfying, and I hope there are many more videos to come!