The third week of Vlogmas began with a Christmas wrapping challenge. We filmed two videos with my friend Ceri and her daughter from MyahzineTV on the same day.

The British cookie taste challenge went up on MyahzineTV and the girls also did the wrap challenge. I gave them 3 random household items to wrap that were funny shapes and filmed them wrapping them. They did brilliantly well and ended by wrapping my coffee table. I was wondering if they might try to wrap each other by the end of it but they were happy to just rip the paper off everything in a bit of a frenzy instead! They had fun filming it and I had fun editing it because I had a bit of an insider glimpse into how they play when mums aren’t around as Ceri and I were having a cuppa in the kitchen while they wrapped. It was really sweet.

The next video was a behind the scenes glimpse of the collaboration day. I like this vid because Beg was really into presenting that day and she’s such a pro! Then I was running out of ideas so I made my own ‘Christmas Questions Tag’ which was 8 questions in 5 mins. But my video was actually 8 mins. So you could say I set my own rules and then broke them which was a bit daft but nobody seemed to mind. 😉 Another vlogger, Maria Loves joined in and it was great seeing her answers as she is someone I had watched a lot of throughout Vlogmas. It  felt slightly surreal to communicate with someone I haven’t met in this way. I feel like I know her, and others I watched regularly, better than some people I know in ‘real life’.

 

Day 23 was a video of Beg and her friend from next door making clay snowmen. This was really off the cuff as Beg came upstairs and asked me to film them making them and I asked if it could be a vlog and she said yes. So then the both of them were presenting a little Blue Peter-esque 4 min craft vid all the while having an undertone argument about whether they would make a marshmallow or a snowball next. I will show them that when they’re on their way out to some cool gig when they’re 18.

And then to finish off Vlogmas the last video was a 47 sec montage of us all on Christmas morning opening presents. A lovely easy watch to end 25 (nearly) days of daily uploads.

I had a GoPro for Christmas and there are 2 more vids on the channel since Christmas day. One where we mounted the camera onto Beg’s scooter so check that one out too!scooters YouTube

What I’ve learned from Vlogmas week 3:

  1. Some days filming is just not meant to be and everything will be against you filming! (kids, batteries, road sweepers etc.)
  2. Filming with friends is fun!
  3. There are different output settings when exporting from my video editing programme. Who knew.

Favourite highlights from Vlogmas week 3:

  1. Watching the girls working together to find ways to wrap the funny shaped objects and hearing them having a giggle too.
  2. The end of the wrapping vid Beg goes ‘so yeah’ and we each inadvertently copy in turn, it’s funny.
  3. Beg’s presenting skills.

I’ve loved doing Vlogmas 2016 and will be hoping to join in again next Christmas. Thank you for watching  my videos and all your support in the form of likes, comments and YouTube subs it is really appreciated. Hope you had a fantastic Christmas too!

 

It’s been another busy week of filming for vlogmas in The Hippy Christian household. Click my 3 min vid embedded at the bottom of this post to see what I have been up to.

Check out the highlight reel from week one Week 1 Vlogmas

We have been present shopping, partying and had my mum and her husband down to visit last weekend which was in fact a pretty momentous occasion. It was the first time my mum has met the baby and we had a really nice weekend together. My mum has actually only been married for 3 months so it was nice getting to know her other half a bit better too. It was actually quite an emotional weekend (in a good way) and Beg absolutely loved seeing Grandma as well. I just love the bit of footage where Beg is dancing and my mum is holding the baby.

We went to a party organised by our lovely baby singing group and had a lovely time. Lisa who runs it is so great with the kids and she did the whole party by herself; it was perfect for the babbas. She has been a great supporter of my blog so you will see she says “If you’re vlogging me get me on a good side.” Which just made me laugh but also brought it home that what I’m doing is actually a thing and that people have actually been watching my vlogmas vids! So that was *awesome*! Thanks Lisa! 😉

Rich had a few days annual leave from work and so we got the majority of our Christmas present shopping for the kids done. The baby has about 20% the amount our daughter has but he won’t know will he? He’ll want to play with all the wrapping paper!

The 15th was a baby clothes haul so I haven’t included that in the highlights reel-it was a bit boring. Then the 16th was the first day I hadn’t got a video out. I had nothing prepared and I was wracking my brain thinking of talking to camera about something but what with the 15th being boring I knew I was reaching and so I left it clear. So does that mean I’ve failed the vlogmas challenge? I’m afraid I think it does, but stay tuned as I’m not quitting yet. I ain’t that easy… I gave birth twice I’m hardcore.

Plans for next week include a collaboration with my Blogging Bestie Ceri and of course her daughter Myah both of MyahzineTV fame! Ceri has also been a massive supporter of the blog from the get go giving me encouragement and tips along the way. I’m excited to be doing vlogmas with her and chatting on the vlogmas facebook page with her and we have a couple of fun videos planned with the girls which I think they will have fun filming.

What I’ve learned in week 2:

  1. Landscape filming definitely works better! (thanks Ceri!)
  2. Getting used to doing thumbnails and adding descriptions to my vids.
  3. There’s an overlay feature on my video editing timeline!
  4. Can upload straight to YouTube from my phone.

My favourite highlights of week 2:

  1. Hearing Rich making the baby laugh out of shot
  2. Baby smiling on mum’s lap
  3. Lisa asking to get her good side
  4. The way Beg says “he’s my friend” about Patch the bunny at the end.

Click the vid below for a condensed version of my YouTube channel -you lucky thing! I can’t believe Christmas is next week!

 

Keep Calm and Carry On Linking Sunday

Throughout the month of December you can find me over on YouTube as The Hippy Christian Mum. I have taken up the challenge to post a vlog a day (a video log) in the run up to Christmas. So that’s a video every day including Christmas!

I have never really vlogged before but posted a little video of me ‘unboxing’ the Smiggle goody bag I received at their event and got a bit carried away and bought a video editing suite program! So I thought I’d better put it to some use and I saw the #Vlogmas tag floating about and thought I’d give it a bash.

It’s actually been really fun. I have been filming nearly every day and already am 100% better at editing the film than I was even 3 days ago when I began. I pre-recorded a couple of vids to give myself a head start and so far have not been lost for content. I have also been chatting with and following along other blogger/vlogger’s vlogmas vids and it has been great to see all the different styles of videos. I even got my friend on board at MyahzineTV and she is joining in too.

We are currently on day 3 of vlogmas 2016 and so far I have posted a shopping haul video, where I just show a few things I bought at the shops which doesn’t sound very exciting until you watch one and surprise yourself just how nosy you are (well, if you’re anything like me that is)! Day 2 was a 3 min mash up of us putting up our Christmas tree set to music, made quickly on an app on my phone. On the first day I was talking to camera explaining vlogmas and what vids to expect from me.

It’s surprisingly fun and Beg absolutely loves it, elbowing me out of shot whenever she possibly can. In fact I keep promising her I will set her up with her own channel as she’s always recording vlogs from the back of the car. She is born for the stage I think. I reckon even Rich is secretly enjoying it. He is always right behind me 100% in whatever I do though. The best thing about it though is that it is giving me a great excuse to capture Beb’s first Christmas on camera. It’s really getting me in the Christmas spirit as well, I’m feeling very festive already and it’s only the beginning of December.

Coming up there will be a Christmas car-pool karaoke James Corden sty-lee (I can’t wait for that one, Beg will find it hilarious). Some follow my day type recording as we do advent at church (these are called day-in-the-life I’m learning the lingo!). And hopefully more Christmassy family days out.

There is a Media qualification hidden somewhere in my murky past and while that doesn’t make me any good it does reveal a penchant for this kind of thing.  Apparantly YouTube is the place to be at the moment but I am still in love with blogging and whilst I am having fun messing about filming and editing I think I might stick to the written word after Vlogmas2016.

So if  you’ve ever wondered what my voice sounds like (Welshy) or how my face moves (currently crowd-funding for botox) it’s a limited time offer so click below and have a watch!

Let me know if you are doing #Vlogmas2016 in the comments below and I will come and check out your channel.

Run Jump Scrap!