Welcome back!

Ah, those lazy some days. All gone now, back  to work...

If you're anything like me, school is back, the daily grind has really set in and everyone seems to be asking you when Uni starts again (basically I think they're all sick of me!)

Since it's been quite a while (and I promise I'll get to why afterwards) I thought that for the first post back I'd tell you a little bit about how this all started and I suppose really why.

Warning it's a wordy one, but I'm proud of it.

I'd never been one to read loads of blogs or watch a whole lot of YouTube. Spending time on my computer was mainly reserved for pretending to study and watching Sherlock. Two tasks that I could actually do unlike so much of the technological world! (bit of a grandma over here!)

It's safe to say that when I leaped excitedly into blogging I fell face first and not at all gracefully.

Still, I was a little proud of myself. It was one of the first spur of the moment ideas that I took the time to actually see through. I didn't over analyse, I just dived in with no second thoughts.

Now, let's be honest, I'm still picking myself off the metaphorical blogosphere’s floor, dusting myself off and learning the tricks and etiquette to blogging gracefully.

I personally think that my (quite short) blogging adventure started with a disgusting sick day at home. It was one of those days where the thought of even getting up was so horrible and snotty that the only thing to do was curl up in bed and watch YouTube.

Growing up I never understood the appeal of YouTube. I think it probably had something to do with there being too many choices and me hating the idea of trolling through the thousands of videos to find something to watch. It had really only been the end of 2014 when I had far too much time that I discovered its wonders. Even then the only things I watched were Cheerleaders (I was going through a serious cheerleading phase), Buzzfeed and cute baby videos.

It was purely by chance that the next suggested video was "In flight travel essentials" by Zoella.

My very first Zoella video I've probably watch 500 by now...

At the time I was still coming down of my first international travel buzz.

Buzz? More like best time of my life!!!

I'd just broken myself into long flights and was itching to do it again so this was the most perfect video for me at the time.

Zoella was (and still is!) a lovely person to watch. She made me fall in love with this whole new pocket of the internet. I found that there is a whole collection of people who spend their time happy to chat with those poor sick girls tucked up in bed.

This lead to vlogs. My goodness! I know there is a chance that I'm preaching to the already converted, but vlogs are probably one of my most favourite things to watch. My day may be absolutely rubbish but all it takes is some clicks of a mouse (or my phone) and I can be having a much more exciting day through someone else! (Probably somewhere much more interesting too!)

For the first time ever (because I have always been a goody two shoes!) I was experiencing those "what am I still doing!!" moments.

Seriously, what am I doing? Go to bed child!

I found out the hard way that suggested videos can be both a blessing and a curse (especially now that they auto-play. One video triggers a whole landslides of videos and suddenly there you are still sitting in the dark at 2 in the morning tossing up whether it's ok to watch another daily vlog from ages ago because it's only a short 15 minute one... It totally is ok, by the way.

Where was I going with that?...

I suppose just to say that YouTube lead me to a community that I never knew existed. One that really was happy to welcome you and me.

#teaminternet

I am still amazed at the number of YouTube personalities that have book out. I can't really say much about many of them (not being a big self-help/biography fan) but being curious I did read one, or two. 

Girl online looked like the best choice to dip into the YouTube book craze. Being a young adult fiction novel is was really the easiest to pick up being something I probably would have found eventually in the library anyway!

Rarely there is a book that catches me so well that I can't put it down. It has only happened a handful of times (one or two of the later Harry Potters come to mind) but they are books that I read, put down to do some work, pick up again, put down because I realise it’s now 5.30pm and I still haven't done any work, then admit all hope at getting anything done today is wasted because I MUST FINISH THIS BOOK! Some book huh?

I could write a whole review but I don't think it's really my jam (though maybe I might someday...) because wow, I have not read such a captivating book for a while. There was a certain detail to what each character wore and liked that is often missed. Have a good think, do you know what your favourite character is wearing in your favourite books? Sure you probably imaging what they look like, but for once I enjoyed being told what they wore. As someone who enjoys sewing and fashion it was warmly welcomed.

I suppose this is a really longwinded way of saying that 'Girl online' sewed the seed that lead to me to the whole world of blogging. It opened my eyes to so much more that the diary entry style blogs that I had grown up with.
And I guess it was also the seed that grew into this blog.

There was a lot of planning, a lot of Googling and a lot of time spent on finding the right name. (I had a bit of a rant in my first post.)

I had never really set out on something this big before.

In this time I relocated a blog I'd written as part of a dare/challenge 3 years ago. It was the final step before I started. I realised that even then while I thought I'd been a terrible writer who was just throwing words on a screen for the sake of getting it done, I wasn't terrible (for one I'm not illiterate) and while my topics weren't the best I could still form proper sentences and ideas. So why not try again?

And there you have it 'The Little Ginger Blog was born! Well, begun, it's still coming together even today.

So why the month MIA?

Firstly I made a promise with myself this year to come up with a regular posting scheme. Something like Monday, Wednesday, Friday with the general idea that there would be a certain type of post that would generally go up on that day (with a little flexibility of course!). Sadly though when the first Monday rolled around I still felt unprepared. I had issues with the content I wanted to have on my blog and what I felt I could actually write about. Not to mention that I had completely run out of time!

Rather than give some half-assed blog (like I had in December) I decided to give myself the time to come up with where I was going.

I hate to admit it, (because I love to float through life with little purpose) but I had to decide where I was going. Having a blog is all well and great but with no aim or idea of where you want to go there is nothing to work towards. 

Secondly about half way through the month when I was about to knuckle down and crack out some proper blogging I decided to rearrange my photo collection. The movement of the photos was enough to break the links they had to EVERY post. I spent the rest of that evening trying to remember the order of the photo in each post and reloading every single one.

Did I mention I'm a perfectly coordinated blogger?

Well I can most definitely say that I have learnt my lesson. Don't mess with the location of pictures within your online storage!

And there you have it!

Too many words. Congratulations to those who made it this far! I promise I wont do that again!

Lots of love

To a better year of blogging!

Hurrah!

xx

Caitlin

(The baby blogger who’s seriously still learning the ropes...)