Planner Decorating

You probably know by now just how obsessed I am with my Erin Condren life planner. I'm on my third one, and I absolutely adore them because you can personalize them and they are so high quality that they still look brand new even after using them for an entire year!

This is what my planner looks like this year - I love this design!

About a month ago I was on YouTube and stumbled across a video where a girl was doing a tutorial on how she decorates her planner.

And it kind of blew my mind.

I had never thought to decorate my planner before because it's pretty darn cute to begin with. The weekly spreads are colorful with a different color scheme each month. But as I was watching this video and realizing how cute this girl was making her planner, I was totally inspired to do the same thing!

She suggested getting some washi tape, which I had honestly never heard of. Essentially it's crafting tape that is see through with different designs on it. You could use it for just about anything, but it works perfectly in a planner.

She also had a bunch of stickers that she used to decorate some of the pages as well, which I thought was a super cute idea.

So I went to Hobby Lobby and Michael's and got some supplies. I bought 4 different kinds of washi tape (which was WAY more than I needed but I wanted some variety). The prints I got were pink chevron, floral, pink and white polka dot, and cupcakes. I also got some beach, Paris, and Christmas stickers. I had a few Halloween, Disney, and puppy stickers already, so I ended up using some of those as well.

I was dying over these Paris stickers - why have I not thought about doing this before?!

Then I went through each week of my planner and decorated it with stickers and washi tape. If something special is going on in a certain week, I tried to put stickers that went along with that. I have a bunch of pumpkin stickers in October, with Halloween ones the week of Halloween. I have dog bones around Coco's birthday, and a TON of Christmas stickers during December. Seriously - how stinkin' adorable is this elf sticker I have on the night I'm going to see the play Elf?

I had to put this Eiffel Tower on the week of my birthday because duh!

This is the cupcake washi tape. It is SO me.

I think decorating my planner has made it so much more personalized and fun. I love turning the page to a new week and seeing a different sticker theme for the week. If you have a planner, you should think about decorating it - it was so fun to do, and I just love how much cuter each week is now!

Themed Playlists

I am the queen of playlists, especially themed playlists. I counted all up all of the playlists on my iPod, and I currently have 35. THIRTY FIVE. That seems like a lot, but I love me a good playlist.

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My specialty is themed playlists.

Take this summer one for example. It has all of my favorite summer songs on it. I can't listen to this playlist and not feel like it's summer. I also listen to this one all year round. Sometimes you just need a little taste of summer in February, am I right?

But I don't just have a summer playlist, because that's pretty easy to put together. Kind of a no brainer - everyone needs a summer playlist.

One of my other favorite playlists is my Road Trip playlist, filled with all driving themed songs. Life Is A Highway? Check! Highway Don't Care? Of course! Shut Up and Drive? Duh! There is nothing better than driving down the highway listening to this playlist.

Another one of my favorite themed playlists is called Home. I made this at the end of April when I was going on my Montreal trip. I started thinking about all of the songs that have to do with being home, and I realized that they would make a pretty awesome playlist. This is the perfect one to listen to on your way home from a trip!

Even though I absolutely love my summer, driving, home, and many other playlists, my all time favorite ones to put together are for a trip or vacation. Pretty much every single trip I go on has to have an accompanying playlist. I love to make trip themed ones because I always listen to them while on vacation, but then I'll continue to listen to them afterwards and every time I do, it reminds me a fabulous trip!

I usually try to find songs that have to do with the place I'm going. That was super easy for my California playlist because there are a TON of songs about California! (Funny story about this playlist - I made it right before I was going to book a flight out there, and then the trip fell through. So I don't listen to this one a ton because I'm still a little bitter about not going to Cali - ha!).

When I went to the Dominican Republic last year, I made this playlist. I can't think of a song that has anything to do with the Dominican, so I went for a summer/flying theme since we were obviously flying there. This is probably my most favorite playlist because I listen to it all the time - it turned out so good!

I also really like this playlist from my New York trip. Again, it was super easy to find songs about New York, but I also went in December, so I included some Christmas songs as well.

I do have a couple of more random playlists, but my themed ones are my favorite. And not to brag, but I think I'm pretty good at coming up with a themed playlist ;)

Here's some of my tips to come up with a themed playlist of your own:

1. Come up with a theme. It can be broad or more detailed, but think about events in your life that other people tend to write songs about as well.

2. Start looking through your iTunes library for songs that fit the theme. You may be able to just think of some off the top of your head. Otherwise, think of some keywords that you can use to search for related songs. For example, when I was creating my "Road Trip" playlist, I searched "road", "car", "highway", etc. I have a big enough library that I can usually find a couple good songs that I hadn't initially thought of.

3. Do a search on Google for "songs about ________". Google is always a good place to start if you're having a hard time coming up with some ideas.

4. Search iTunes! For pretty much all of my themed playlists, I usually end up buying a few songs off of iTunes if they seem perfect.

5. If you need some filler songs to make your playlist a little longer, I usually download a few songs off the iTunes Top 100 list and add those in as well.

And that's it! Like I said before, I love making my vacation themed playlists because even if I listen to them years later, they always take me right back to my trip.

A Few Favorites

I've been meaning to do a post on some of my new favorite things, and I'm just now getting around to it!

Here are some recent things that I have been LOVING lately.....

My new favorite lipgloss is the Buxom Full-On Lip Polish in Celeste. I just bought it a few weeks ago, and I've been using it like every day. It stays on forever, is super shimmery in a really flattering way, and smells so yummy!

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A few months ago I bought the Too Faced Chocolate Bar Palette, and I have been absolutely obsessed with it. It's pretty much the only eyeshadow palette I've been reaching for. The colors are all gorgeous and the entire palette smells like chocolate since they use cocoa powder as one of the ingredients.

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Last summer I bought a really cute Michael Kors shirt on sale, and I ended up falling in love with it. They brought it back this year, and I found it on sale again, so I scooped it up in another color. I now have it in hot pink and navy blue. This shirt is the absolute best!

About a month ago, my dad went to the dentist and they recommended that he use the Arm & Hammer Whitening Booster. Now I use it too! You just apply a little bit of the gel on top of your toothpaste and brush like normal. It's supposed to whiten your teeth (and I think it has a little), but it also just makes your mouth feel a lot cleaner!

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I have been absolutely obsessed with this J.Crew Factory necklace since I bought it last month. It's a great statement necklace that goes with pretty much everything. I've been wearing it with both t-shirts and sundresses. I love the way it just makes an outfit feel put together. Plus it's on sale for under $20 - you should totally buy it!

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I can't talk about necklaces without mentioning my hands down favorite necklace of all time. I probably wear this necklace 5-6 days each week. During the school year, I wear it every single day to class. It's my Return to Tiffany heart pendant. I love it because it's classic and goes with everything. It was also a Christmas present from my grandpa several years ago, so it has some sentimental value too. I have the matching earrings too, and I love those as well!

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And finally, I can't do a favorites post without mentioning my favorite pair of shoes - my Hunter wellies! I went back and forth on these for a long time before I bought them. They're more expensive than I would usually spend on a pair of shoes, and would I really wear them that often since you only wear them when it rains? I ended up reading a ton of positive reviews on them, so I decided to go for it, and I got the pink ones (which I don't think they have anymore - I literally bought the last pink ones from Bloomingdales). And I LOVE them. They were totally worth every penny because I wear them all the time. If there's a chance of rain, my Hunters are probably on my feet. I've been wearing them even in the summer sometimes if it's cool enough. I also think they are the single piece of my wardrobe that has received the most compliments. I get compliments on them pretty much every time I wear them. Plus they just make me so happy every time I slip them on. I also have the special lining socks for them, so I wear them to class in the snow too! They're actually super versatile!

Those are just some of my favorite things!

Currently.

I've seen this float around the Internet before, and I thought it would be fun to play along today!

Current Book - It's a toss up. I'm in the middle of re-reading the Harry Potter series, and I just finished the Prisoner of Azkaban yesterday. I'm itching to start reading the Goblet of Fire, but I have a few chapters I need to read out of some business books for a project I'm working on. I know I should I probably get through the business books first, but I would much rather move onto the next Harry Potter - ha!

Current Playlist - I am usually a playlist junkie, and I love to make themed playlists. Lately though I've been taking a break from listening to any playlists and have instead been listening to my entire iPod on shuffle. That's always fun to do from time to time because I've already found some songs on my iPod that I really like but had never listened to before. I did find a new playlist on iTunes radio last week though that I've been enjoying - it's the Country Summer Songs Memorial Day station. It plays a lot of good upbeat summer themed songs, like this one that I had never heard before but really liked.....

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure - I guess that would be a tie between either wanting to watch a movie in bed every single night or usually spending every day off work at home in my pajamas the entire day, which is exactly what I did yesterday.

Current Color - Teal! I recently got a new Coach crossbody purse in teal that I absolutely love.

Current Drink - Water. Literally that's all I drink aside from a glass of milk with breakfast. I hate any kind of pop, so water it is.

Current Food - Anything summery! I'm really loving fruit, burgers off the grill, and soft-serve ice cream lately. I feel like I've been doing nothing but eating sweets ever since school let out :) Of course my favorite summer time treat is always Zip Dip!

Current Favorite Show - Nothing. I'm not a TV show person. I don't have Netflix or Hulu or any of those streaming sites either. I've never sat down, got hooked on a show, and watched all 10 seasons in two days like most people these days seem to do. I'll take laying in bed watching a movie over a show any day.

Current Wishlist - Just about anything from Jane.com (I need to stop visiting that site because every single time I'm on there I'm tempted to buy something). I've also had my eye on this Kappa Delta shirt for a while, but I've decided to try to avoid ordering anything online until the end of June because I went a little overboard last month.

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Current Bane of my Existence - Allergy season. It's always bad in the morning, and I'm ready for it to be over!

Current Slang or Saying - I don't really have a current saying.

Current Outfit - Anything that looks good with my new J. Crew necklace I bought a few weeks ago. I was a little hesitant to buy it at first because I wasn't sure how much use I would get out of it, but I've already gotten my money's worth and I've only had it a little over a week! I think I've worn it more days than not since I got it.

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Current Excitement - My upcoming travels! If the quality of a year was based solely on how often you traveled and the places you traveled to, 2014 would be the best year of my life so far. I've still got a few fun trips planned for the rest of the year that I cannot stop thinking and talking about.

Current Mood - Relaxed. I think this summer has been just SO relaxing. My family usually does a lot of stuff during the summer (going shopping, meeting for lunch, walking around the zoo, swimming, etc.), but since everyone is still in school and my mom still has work, my days off of work mean days where I have absolutely nothing going on. And I love that. So great after a busy school year and what is sure to be a busy rest of the summer.

Have a great Wednesday!

Because We Could All Use a Good Laugh....

I absolutely adore Pinterest, and I love looking at their humor section for some good laughs. Here's some of my favorites that have made me laugh recently.....

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Hope you all are having a great week. It's been a crazy past few weeks for me. Hopefully one of these days I'll get back to regular posts :)

Photography Apps

I get in grooves when it comes to apps. I'll love an app for a few weeks, then I won't use it for a long time, and then I'll start using it again. I've got a bunch of photography apps that I tend to do the same thing with. Sometimes I'll edit a photo I take on my iPhone, but sometimes I won't.

But today I thought I'd show you all the photography apps I have and which ones are my favorite. Maybe you'll find a new app to download!

I'm not big on using the folders to organize my apps, but I do have a photography folder just since I have so many photography apps.

I have a few that don't fit into my photography folder, so those are just kind of scattered throughout the rest of my apps.....

First I'll show some of the apps that I have and like but aren't my favorite.

Snapseed - FREE!

You can do a lot of basic editing with this app. Straightening, cropping, and adding filters and frames are all things that are easy with this app.

Camera Awesome - FREE!

This one is similar to Snapseed in that it has a lot of basic editing features. However, what makes it different is that you actually take the picture through the app instead of through the basic camera that comes on the phone. Personally, I don't like that as much, which is why this app isn't my favorite.

Cinemagram - FREE!

I have actually never really used this app, but it's on my phone for some reason. The idea behind this app is that you create really short videos and then share them. I think it could be fun if a lot of your friends were on it, but mine aren't.

SplitCam - FREE!

This is an app that I think is really neat but I always seem to forget about it. The app allows you to take two pictures and kind of blends them together into one. I love the idea behind it!

Insta Booth - FREE!

This one doesn't get used that often, but I think it's such a fun app to have. It allows you to take lots of silly pictures with tons of different special effects.

Now these are my top photography app picks and the ones I would definitely recommend that everyone should download......

BeFunky Photo Editor - FREE!

This one has tons and tons of filters and things you can do with your pictures, and most of them I just ignore completely. My absolute favorite feature of this app is the Vibrance filter. It really enhances the colors of your picture and makes it look 10X prettier!

Big Lens - $0.99

This one is SO fun because it makes your iPhone pictures look like you took them with a DSLR camera. You can choose what parts of the photo you want in focus, and then it blurs the background. Love it!

TouchRetouch - $0.99

This app makes photo editing a breeze. If you have a picture that has a telephone pole, unwanted people, wires, or anything you don't want in the picture, all you have to do is highlight over it, and the app takes it out. It's so much easier than photoshop.

360 Panorama - $0.99

This is one of my all time favorite apps and the one that I use to create those 360 pictures. I love doing them when I'm vacation, and then you can upload your panoramas to Twitter, Facebook, or your blog. I absolutely adore this app.

TrueHDR - $1.99

This app is neat if you're trying to take a picture of something with a really bright background that would normally result in a dark foreground. This app takes 3 pictures and fuses them together to make a picture that looks perfectly exposed. The only downfall is that the subject can't be moving since it has to take 3 photos.

Diptic - $0.99

This app is the absolute best for creating picture collages. There are tons of different layouts (some of which are really different and unique!). I love using this app.

Bokehful - $0.99

This app is neat because it allows you to add bokeh to your pictures in whatever colors you want, wherever you want!

A Beautiful Mess - $0.99

This is my newest photography app, and I am absolutely obsessed with it. You can add filters, borders, graphics, and text (my favorite!) to your pictures. It makes it so easy and cute.

And my favorite photography app ever is.....

Instagram - FREE!

I'm sure you are all familiar with Instagram, but it is my very favorite. I love the filters, I love posting pictures, and I really, really love looking at my friends pictures. Such a fun place to share photos (and videos now too).

What are some of your favorite photography apps?