Come on, get Happier

About a week before we left for Mexico, I wasn’t doing much. I had been given 8 hours of work that week.
THAT WHOLE WEEK. So I had a lot of time on my hands to do, well, nothing. During one of my morning iPhone binges, I saw a recommendation for an app called Happier on my Facebook News Feed. I usually skip these suggestions
(so often dating apps), but this one stood out for me. I clicked on it and became a convert.

What is Happier? Immediately, I would liken it to your Twitters and Instagrams.
It’s social media, however it is specifically focused on happiness, gratitude, and appreciation of life.
When talking about it, I feel like I may come off a little preachy and annoying, but I think that’s because we are so used to our social media outlooks focusing on the negative. I know this because I DO IT.
If I feel like publicly bitching, I go to Twitter and rant for 140 characters (and sometimes more, in additional tweets). I think of people I follow on Instagram, celebrities or models or nail artists who get hateful comments or get reported just because. For some reason, people see social media, a place meant to share things we love, as a place to dump on people.

Not Happier! Happier is actually meant to be a practice in gratitude.
The more you focus on the things around you, on the positive of even the most negative situation, the happier you might find yourself being. This is something I needed. Many people need, but I know that I especially did, for myself.
I am the queen of worrying about what hasn’t happened yet. I get lost in moments that I feel will never end.
So I decided, why not?

What do I love about this app?
You don’t have to post if you don’t want to, obviously, but when you do, there is a little “confetti celebration” for posting. It might sound super cheesy, but it seriously will make you smile.

As you can see on the screencap, there are a few different pages to look at. On your personal page, it shares your name, a little profile pictures, and what makes you happy. What I really love about it is that there is nothing about how many followers you have. I don’t keep track of this on my Instagram or Twitter, but I know many people do. A lot of people care about how many people like their things (hey, I use tons of hashtags for my nail art posts, hoping people will like it!), but this makes it hard to. You’re notified when someone starts following your little page, but there’s no number count. Happier is not a popularity contest, and that makes me a little happier!

There’s absolutely no pressure to post multiple times a day, or once a day for that matter, but there are push notifications three times a day (you can change this in the settings) that remind you to look on something happy that happened to you that day! It’s a nice reminder to ponder the good things.

The community is really lovely. Everyone just wants to share their little moments or pictures, some share inspirational quotes (and there’s always one on the Featured page, a different one every day from the Happier crew, along with a tip on how to be happier, from complimenting people to exercising for 20 minutes), and when you enjoy their moment you “smile” it. You can comment or even share it if it makes you happier, too!

If you’re ever scratching for something to say, the Today page will list a little happy challenge. Name something about the weather you love. What was the last beautiful thing you saw? Et cetera. If anything else, it will remind you of something great, even if you had a bad day.

I truly feel like this app has helped improve my outlook on life. I got this before Mexico, and while I had some wonderful things to be happy about over there, I also had to leave. Instead of feeling sad about coming back, I was excited to get into projects that were put on the wayside (like my Project Life, which is currently finished for January!), or nail art I got behind on, and, of course, seeing my family. It has helped me look at the bright side of the situation. It’s also a great reminder that we are all looking for a little bit of happiness, and that we all have it, we just have to actually look at it.

A Long and Lovely (Birthday) Weekend

I had a fantastic three-day weekend, hence me posting about it today, Tuesday!
This past Sunday, I turned 26. Late 20s, here I am! Brad has been super-awesome with my last two birthdays. Not sure if anything will ever top the 20s extravaganza of last year, but this year we did a brunch party. Mimosas, Bloody Marys, the best bagels, yogurt parfait station (courtesy of my sister) and so much more. And, as always, the lovely people in my life joined together for laughs and good times.

We had a few tables set up together in the backyard with little cacti and succulents but it ended up raining most of the day. We utilized the set up for about 2 hours altogether? But it was still a nice touch and we still have the precious little plants.

I’m an extremely lucky girl. My friends got me some nail polish and a bunch of Ulta gift cards because they know me all too well.
Brad and Lauren also acknowledged my sudden and extreme obsession with Adventure Time. I have some really awesome and thoughtful people in my life. Sometimes it takes a silly party to remember how much people know you and how many good folks in your life you have, but I never want to forget.

As for the rest of the weekend, I spent lots of time with Brad, eating Chinese food and drinking mimosas and just enjoying the good, lazy life.
Back to reality today. But hopefully with a new year (for me) comes a new outlook.

A Beautiful Mess: The Photo App

If you’re an avid blog reader like I am, then I’m pretty sure Elsie and Emma’s A Beautiful Mess is on your bookmarked daily must-reads. The blog has everything…DIY tutorials, fashion and style tips, recipes, photography, little inspirational slices of life…it’s kinda perfect.
So when the news broke about a week ago that they were releasing a photo editing app, I knew I would immediately be purchasing it and using it. It took a while, but the moment I saw people talking about it on Instagram, I downloaded it from the store.
It is .99 cents, and there are a variety of in-app purchases to expand the experience, but the app is fine as is.

Here’s what I did while playing around yesterday (and maybe a little bit at work…it was quiet!)…

In this picture, I utilized one of their borders. The rest was edited on Afterlight and Instagram.

This picture, one from the wedding we attended a few weeks ago, was already edited in Instagram.
I added a border and a cute heart doodle…ya know, cuz we’re in love and all.

This one has one of several phrases written in Elsie’s handwriting. It’s so cute.  This is a watermelon margarita I had a couple of weeks ago.
I love that arrowed border as well.

This one utilizes one of the several fonts they have to offer, I chose what to write. And, of course, another border.

A purple dotted border and some hot pink arrows to point at my Julep collection. Not sure why the photo itself is blurry, I did edit it on Afterlight before using the ABM app but it still didn’t come out for me.

A hand-drawn border and one of my favorite sayings, which I typed as well (so it wasn’t a pre-written phrase).

What I Like:
This app is adorable, just like you’d expect from A Beautiful Mess.

Pretty/funky borders, plenty of colors to choose from, and about 8 additional add-on packages to expand the experience.

You can also change the size of the doodles, phrases, and text.

It’s not just filters and light adjustment…you can add words and symbols to really personalize and amp up a photo.

What I Don’t Like:
This app is like, less than 48 hours old so I think it’ll only be going up from here. These are just face-value.
The borders can be placed wherever on the photo, but they can’t be expanded or collapsed, unlike the text/doodles. Maybe I’m doing something wrong? I would just love if I could make one of the pretty borders (like the one in the coffee, which I would’ve liked around the cup as opposed to into it) bigger or smaller, depending on what I’m emphasizing.

There are a total of 6 filters (3 in color, 3 in B&W) with no expansion pack just yet (although I think that should be automatically included in a future update without additional payment if they choose to add more). Considering there are so many ways to add filters to photos, and you can use photos from whichever app you choose, I guess it’s not that big of a deal. But I like a full experience, and the filters (aside from the gorgeous saturated B&W filter, Vampire) just aren’t doing it for me. I’ll most likely be using Afterlight first.

I’m slightly worried about originality. Elsie’s handwriting and doodles are wonderful but I feel bad taking them for some reason?
I don’t want my photos to turn into posts from their blog…I still want them to feel like me. So many of us edit with filters or use apps like Overgram that allow us to add type/font to pictures. But using someone’s handwriting? It’s so specific, and I feel weird. I’ll still use it, truthfully, but I don’t see it becoming a massive part of my personal space (i.e. this blog)…I still want that to reflect me.

.99 cents is a great price for the app, and I would’ve supported them regardless and purchased it. But 8 additional in-app purchases right off the bat? If you want the full experience, you’re spending nearly 10 bucks in one shot. I know apps like Hipstamatic do this, but it’s over the course of time. They also offer free-paks too. The good thing about this, though, is that the additional packs aren’t necessary to the experience.
They are very specific, and pretty much all the stuff you would want is in the basic app.

And those are my opinions! I do enjoy the app, and I can’t wait for more updates and news about it.
I’m a sucker for all photo apps, and while I’m not sure this will always be a go-to, I think it will be fun for the occasional pop!

My Must-Have Apps: Social Networking

As you all may know…I’m a little bit SUPER OBSESSED with the iPhone. That fateful August day in 2010 was the end of my complete attention to anything aside from that tiny electronic beast. We could go on about the dangers and distractions that come with such a tiny piece of technology, but let’s be honest here…we love it. Why run away? Embrace it.

I’ve decided to compile a list of my favorite apps…but there are so many, I’m going to sub-categorize them. Let’s start with the obvious: SOCIAL NETWORKING APPS.

The obvious would be Facebook. And Twitter, of course. I probably wouldn’t have Twitter if it weren’t for the iPhone making it so easy.
So here are some less obvious (but super awesome) must-have social media apps!

Okay, Instagram is just as obvious as Facebook and Twitter at this point, but it has only been around for a little more than 2 years. A free app that allows you to share the little photo moments of your life like Facebook status and tweets? No wonder it has taken over the world!!!
If you don’t have this, even to look at the photos of your friends and favorite celebrities…I don’t know why you are avoiding this?

Vine is this super-awesome, fairly new video app along the lines of Instagram…but it’s short videos instead of photos! The videos are super easy to make…you tap the screen and hold for however long you want. There are some really awesome videos on there, posted by celebrities, bloggers, and lots of talented people.. Lots of smart, funny videos. A fun new way to document your life in less than 10 seconds!

Here are some of my latest Vines: 1 / 2 / 3

Untappd is the perfect app for all you beer lovers out there. It’s like FourSquare for your brewskis. You check-in to whatever beer you’re drinking, collect badges (Like Johnny Appleseed for drinking a certain amount of hard ciders or I Believe in IPA! for, duh, IPAs!), and toast or comment on your friend’s drinks. It’s also a great way to discover new beers you might like and entices you to try something different.

Soundtracking is an awesome way to share the tunes you’re listening to, and you can share them on Twitter and Facebook too.
It’s also a great way to find out the song that’s playing on the radio/in the store/at da club. 

Goodreads is an excellent website, but their app is simply perfection. I have it on my iPhone and my Kindle, which is perfect. I’ve posted my profile on my various Recent Reads posts (it’s how I’m keeping track of my 52/52 challenge). You can scan the ISBN number on any book and save it to a list of books to read. I use it to automatically log any books I read about/hear about so I don’t forget. And I get to see what my friends are reading or what the general consensus is for a book I want to read (at least 3.5 is safe, I’d say)!

Those are my top Social Networking apps! Any I should add to my list?