I've been making videos since January of 2010 and have been loving every minute of it. I started off just talking about my natural hair journey but my channel has evolved into something greater. It has basically become my own set of commercials for my crafts. I'm apart of two groups Fresh Off tha Hook (FOTH) and Gifted Hands (GH). They are sister groups but FOTH focuses on nothing but crochet and GH lets us showcase all other handmade items.
Even though I've only been making videos for a year, I've been watching YouTube videos since 2006. The videos I make incorporate some of the things that I've learned from watching other video vloggers.
Sometimes I miss writing but one day I'll figure out a way to incorporate my love of writing into my new love of making videos. Ideas are floating around in my head but I'll keep them to myself until the time is right.
Here are two of my most recent videos if you want to check them out.
When I'm not crocheting my fingers to the bone, with mountains of yarn scraps surrounding my desk chair, the kid and I have been making weekly YouTube videos. Haven't done too many natural hair videos lately because I've been wearing a lot of hats to work. You know, slick advertising and what not (and it's working, YES!).
I used to sneak and do my videos when the kid was asleep, sometimes I even did them in the car. But when I realized that having the kid's participation made for a better, more fun-filled video, I decided to include him. If he wasn't feeling to honery of course (which is hardly ever). He's been addicted to getting his picture taken since he came into the world so making videos was just a natural progression.
Of course, if he ever gets to the point where he doesn't want to be bothered, I completely understand. Hey I can be funny and entertaining all by myself. I don't need no cute little smart alek 4 year old to make my videos fantastic... Well, it wouldn't be as much fun. So I'm going to milk this for all it's worth. LOL
Hey, some people may think that I'm taking advantage of my son and using his cute face and silly antics for my own personal gain. You know what I say to that? Times is hard and the kid is going to have to get a job one day so he might as well figure out how to market his skills now.
{crickets}
It's not like he's really doing a whole lot. He's just being himself, which would be great for ratings if we were on a real tv show. But as it stands, he takes some of the pressure off of me when I'm attempting to make a not so boring show and tell type video for my crochet items.
Cyber family time is the new black.
Not sure what that means. It just sounded good in my head.
Around this time last year, I was getting ready for NaNoWriMo. For those of you that don't know, that's an acronym that stands for National Novel Writing Month. I have several blog posts about it if you want to learn more. Anyway...
I'm not doing NaNo this year for a couple of reasons. Number one, I have three novels in progress in various stages of completion. One of them, I am ashamed to say, has been on my to do list since 2001. Now I've revamped it a number of times by changing the title and practically changing the whole story line to fit what I think someone would really want to read. Quintina Mitchell's story, Her Leftovers, is the book that has plagued me for a decade. From the responses I've been getting to the excerpts that I've posted, I think I have a pretty good story, I've just got to make up in my mind to just be done with it already and let the readers tell me if they like the whole thing.
The other two works in progress are my NaNo projects from the two previous years. Sassy Johnson, the private detective and Cole Slaw, the bounty hunter, have been battling for attention the last couple of years. They both want me to finish their stories ASAP but I haven't because well... I don't know why. Probably because I keep going back to Her Leftovers. So if I can't decide which one of these books to focus on, what's the point of starting another one. Since I like all three main characters, the next book would probably be a part two to one of these projects.
The next reason why I'm not doing NaNo this year is because of my crafting business. It's getting cold and everyone is hounding me about hats and scarves. I've been getting a lot of orders for the jewelry too so my spare time is usually spent surrounded by beads or yarn. It's tiring but I love it. You can check out some of my Youtube videos (www.youtube.com/suzyquzy) and the photos on my Facebook(http://www.facebook.com/susienmccray) page if you want to see the different items I have made.
Speaking of YouTube, I have been trying to document my hair growth since I've been natural. My hair is now longer than it was right before I started growing the relaxer out. My goal is to get it to the length and thickness that it was in high school. I'm almost there, yayyy! Maybe by next May I will have reached my goal, which will be the 2 year anniversary of being completely natural.
Despite all of these things I'm doing besides writing, I still think about writing. Writing was my first love and I will always go back to it (Hence this blog post.) One day I'll slap myself upside the head and complete at least one of these books. If I do it before next October, I will definitely start prepping for NaNo.
Boy
Who can I talk to about adding more hours to my day? Mary J. Blige is loving her man 25/8 (25 hours/8 days a week) so maybe I can get 29/12. Just a thought.
To all of you who will be NaNo-ing this year, I wish you the best of luck.
Yes, I know, I haven't blogged for a while. Please believe that I have not just been sitting around twiddling my thumbs. Before my addiction to social media, I was a very avid crafter. From crochet, to cross-stitch to working with foam sheets to scrapbooking, I never had a dull moment. Most recently, I took an interest in jewelry making. I have a few videos dedicated to it on my YouTube channel (click the "I love YouTube" button to the left).
Until the last few months, I wasn't that into jewelry but a coworker of mine began selling beaded bracelets and earrings. I became one of her most loyal customers until I requested something that she didn't have time to produce--hoop earrings. Having been patient for several weeks I decided to buy some wire, tools and beads and made my own earrings.
After I made that first pair I went crazy making earrings to match the clothes in my closet. Then I thought, "Hey, I need some bracelets to match all of these earrings."
Now I never set out to start a business but I seem to be heading in that direction. Everything I wear to work, I get one or two or ten people that want the same or a similar item. So far I've only been making custom jewerly that the customers request but I'm probably going to start doing a feature item a week where I make at least six of one items to see how many people will buy it..
One thing I'm going to have to learn is to not give everyone credit. I try to do POD (pay on delivery) but some folks don't pay when I deliver. Yeah, I know everybody's money is funny, but I don't have the money to make stuff for free. I mean if it was for advertising purposes, and the person referred a few people to me, I could give them a free item every so often. Otherwise, I need my money honey.
To avoid not receiving payment, I'll just let people know when I have their items and tell them I'll deliver it whenever they are ready for it. People with common sense know that means, "have my money ready". I'll see how this jewelry making thing pans out over the next couple of months.
I plan to start making hats and scarves again for the winter. The last time I did that was maybe 6 or 7 years ago. I stopped because I was working two jobs and got overwhelmed with orders. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep up with the demands this time.
Whew!!!
I promise I haven't completely stopped writing. Sometimes I have to live a little bit to have something to write about. Stay tuned.
Please don’t be silly enough to let Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks contribute to the ruin of your relationship.
I saw a tweet (That’s a Twitter update if you’ve been living under a rock.) Sunday that mentioned how people shouldn’t let social media destroy their relationship. I had heard this before, but hadn’t thought much of it. But after reading that tweet, I decided to see what other people had to say about it. So I posed this question—“Can someone please explain to me how a social network can ruin your relationship?” The first response I got was from my friend Shannon (@youngshay112).
“A social network can broadcast selfishness, expose infidelity, but it can't create those flaws.”
To me, this means that people put too much of their personal business (both positive and negative) in their tweets and Facebook status updates. The whole world can see what’s going on in their lives. Now, if you don’t know, here’s a tip. If you are always talking about what you and your boo did; what your boo bought you; what your boo said to you to make you smile, I guarantee there is someone out there that wishes you weren’t so damn happy. So whenever given the opportunity, they are going to say little things that will make you question your relationship.
For example: Valentine’s Day just passed and you posted that you and your sweetie had a great time at (insert restaurant or wherever) and you really enjoyed your (insert present received). Some jealous chick or dude saw this and commented, “Humph, he did all that? I wonder what kind of dirt he’s trying to make up for.”
You may respond one or two ways. You may shoot off on the person and tell them to keep your boo’s name out of their mouth or that they need to stay out of your business. Or, you may say that your sweetie hasn’t done anything wrong and you may question the person asking them why they would say such a horrible thing.
Whichever way you respond “out loud”, in your mind, even if you are just a little insecure about your relationship, you will begin to wonder if your prince charming is really a frog-legged, two-timing cheater in disguise.
Let’s say he is messing around with some Facebook floozy, keep in mind that this wasn’t a matter of the busy body speaking this negativity into existence, but a case of something in the dark coming into the light.
This takes me to the next response I got to my question, my namesake, Susie (@SusieWriter) said, “people become obsessed with comments & w/e and become paranoid that that's a sign that you're cheating.”
This means that dude is always “stalking” his girl’s social media accounts to see who responds to her tweets or whose statuses she comments on. If it looks like she’s talking to this one dude a little too much, he sees that as a cause for alarm. This brings to mind a YouTube video that I saw some years ago titled “Facebook Breakup”.
To be fair, I asked my Facebook friends what they thought of this subject. Catherine stated: “I honestly can't see how, but perhaps I lack imagination. I mean, maybe someone could find out something you meant to keep a secret, but then wouldn't it just be your own behavior that's ruining the relationship? Blaming FB or Twitter because you got caught doing something or were indiscreet would be silly imo”.
That’s my opinion as well. People have been messing around for years and getting caught, way before the advent of the internet let alone social media. It used to be where you would get an anonymous phone call from someone saying they say your boo with the next door neighbor or your sister. Now a days they sneak and take a picture of the creeping couple and post a link to it so you and all of your friends can see the drama unfold.
The last response is from my friend and coworker, Amanda. “Insecurities.. jealousy ..lies. FB should b fun...”
There are a lot of insecure people that seem to always wonder if their mate is messing around on them, whether they are or not. Jealousy can come from two angles. First, one partner or both partners are jealous are always looking for dirt so they can accuse the other of doing something wrong. Second, other people outside of the relationship could be jealous and try to throw some salt in the game. Which leads me to the next point--lies. Some folks just lie on you for no damn reason and what better place to spread those lies than Facebook and Twitter? People love drama, whether it’s true or not. Social media, both Facebook and Twitter, should be fun. If you take some of the goings on too seriously, you will end up being a very unhappy person. Take everything you read on the internet with a grain of salt. You don’t want to be breaking up or getting a divorce because your boo comments on someone else’s updates or tweets more than they do on yours.
I’ve said all of that to say this— 1) Stop putting all of your business on the internet if you don’t want anyone saying something to you about it. 2) If you’re in a relationship, keep your goodies between you and your mate. This will keep the drama status to a minimum or it will be non-existent. 3) Let’s say (God forbid) that you’re going through a crisis (mid-life or otherwise) and you’re anxious to see if you still got it, and you see some pretty young thing or pretty old thing that can get it, make sure there are no pictures taken that could incriminate you. (shaking my head)
I read a blog post a couple of weeks ago where this woman talked about all the things she would never do to her hair. The main thing that she said she would never do that stuck out to me was color. She said that she would never color her hair, say blond, because none of her ancestors had blond hair. I found that kind of funny because almost every African American in the United States has some white ancestors whether it was the slave owner that crept into the bed with great-great-great-great-grandmother or there was a “real” interracial couple on the family tree.
Anyway…
I’ve been coloring my hair since I was in the 9th grade, because hey, I was sick of my two-tone hair. Of course when I did it, I didn’t think that I would have to color it so often to keep it from being chemically two-toned. Over the last six or seven years my reason for coloring my hair has changed, it’s because I have a whole lot of gray hair. At first it was just one string here and there, now every week I spot two or ten more.
I love changing my hair color, even though I try not to do it too often. The main colors I rock besides black or dark brown are honey blond and red. My hair has been honey blond for almost a year so now I’m itching to get some red. I’m going to have a red afro, cool. I think it’s going to look great but if I don’t like it, I may end up wearing a wig for a while until I feel comfortable putting a rinse in it to tone it down until either the color grows out or I get sick of it and cut it off. I’m hoping it doesn’t get to that point but I’m prepared for whatever happens.
In my recent video, I do address my hair color but the main objective is getting my hair straight. Check it out and let me know what you think. Advice or recommendations are welcome as well.
I decided not to rant about anything today because, hey, I'm in a good mood. Instead I will be paying homage to a very special entity--YouTube. If you have never taken advantage of the many uses of YouTube, you should start today.
If YouTube was a dude, I'd marry him.
I'm in love with YouTube because it has so many uses and I have learned so many things from it. Plus, when I want to hear a certain song, all I have to do is type in the title, or just a few lyrics, and it plays the song for me.
When I'm trying to find a new hairstyle to do with my nappturally (nappy and naturally) curly hair, I search for styles and watch the tutorials.
I listen to YouTube when I'm at work to drown out all of the foolish talk going on around me so I can concentrate on my work.
When my son is begging to see a certain cartoon that he hasn't seen in a while, I check YouTube and there it is. Yayyy! (He watches it for 5 minutes then goes in the other room to watch some other kiddie show.)
YouTube even has videos on how to make videos and how to upload them. I put together a few pictures and some music in Windows Live Movie Maker and TADAA a video. It's only a little over a minute long, but I'm proud of it. The music's kind of loud so you may want to adjust your volume (I haven't mastered that yet).
Alexa ranks YouTube as the third most visited website on the internet, behind Google and Facebook. I kind of agree with the ranking except I think Twitter should be a lot higher than number eleven, but that's a story for another day.
Do you use YouTube? If so, what interesting things have your learned from it?
