Favorite Blogging Apps - Pictures

There are a tons of different apps that I use for making my blog look presentable, or at least half-way presentable.

Today I'm going to talk about these three free picture editors because let's be real - not everyone has Photoshop.

PicsArt Photo Studio - Available for Android

All credit for finding this app goes to John. He was the one who first introduced me to it and the app is so full.of.stuff that I've never needed, or looked for, another app.

The app lets you edit, draw, and layer. You can add clipart, add pre-made quotes, stickers, and text. You can make your own collage or use their frames to put everything together. It is seriously the best photo app ever. The buttons and layout are very intuitive. Give yourself about ten minutes and you'll be a pro.

Even though the app is free you can purchase extra clip-art, fonts, and frames. I've bought a few of them when I get GooglePlay credit.  They have tons of different themed clip-art: baby, wedding, tattoo, Valentine's day, Christmas, hippie...there are tons to choose from. You can mix and match from different themes to make your photos come alive a little bit more.

These are just the selections in the Effects tab. If you were to click on each one of these, another menu would pop up below (like you see here) and every single one of the effects are customizable!

What makes PicsArt different than other photo apps is that you can create an account and join in on their community. It's similar to Instagram but obviously used with PicsArt. I don't visit their gallery as often as I do Instagram but I do use it to get some ideas and inspiration. It's really amazing what some people are able to do. If you're looking to challenge yourself, photo-wise, the community also does weekly hashtag challenges and contests.

Canva - Online. 

Canva is the best when it comes to designing...anything from scratch.

They already have pre-made templates and dimensions for most of your social media. No more wondering what size you should make your Facebook cover photo!

They also have a Stream tab that gives you inspiration and ideas from other Canva users.

And if you're like me and you're having a hard time understanding why something doesn't work, you can always check out their Design School tab. They have little mini tutorials on tons of stuff! Not only on how to use Canva but how to make your graphics stand out and be beautiful.

Using the web app is free if you use free elements (or upload your own). Some of their elements do cost a dollar per but I've been using it for a while now and I've never had to pay. Just get creative! It's pretty simple to use and has some awesome features like leading and kerning but it doesn't have a crop feature which annoys me. I'll end up making something and then just cropping it in MS Paint later. When you're finished designing you can download your project as a photo or a PDF file.

PicMonkey - Online

PicMonkey is an online photo editor and designer. You can edit a photo you already have, design a graphic from scratch, or make a collage. You can upgrade to become a Royale member and get some extra features.

What's cool about PicMonkey is that it allows you to use fonts that you have downloaded on your computer. I have a ton of fonts of my computer so if I need a specific font I have to go to PicMonkey to use it (Canva only allows you to use their fonts).

They also have a textures tab which can turn a boring background into something more interesting.

I feel like if you compare PicMonkey to Canva, you'll think it looks childish or amateur but it's all about how you use it. Again I say, get creative!




The more you mess around with these apps, the more you'll figure out what works best for a certain project. It is not uncommon for me to use all three just to get one photo. I love these apps and I use them on a regular basis.


Here are some examples of what I've done with them.

Effects, cropping, and both borders were done with PicsArt with the free features. 

Done on Canva with free elements. 

Done with PicMonkey with free elements. 

Now, how about you - do you use any of these apps? Which ones are you favorites? Which ones should I try out?

Every Day - David Levithan

Every Day
Author: David Levithan
Published by: Knopf Books for Young Readers


"If I woke up in a different body every day - if you never knew what I was going to look like tomorrow - would you still love me?"

This is the question at the heart of the novel. In his 16th book, Levithan introduces us to A, a non-gender being who is thrust into a different body every day. As part of A's body-inhabiting, A has set up rules: A's not supposed to become attached to anyone, knowing that no one gets inhabited more than once. A also vows to respect each body while within it - A never deviates from the person's normal rhythm or routine. But when A meets Rhiannon on Day 5,994 of his life in the body of her boyfriend Justin, everything goes out the window.

Realizing that Justin ignores her and takes her for granted, A decides to act in every way the opposite of Justin. A convinces Rhiannon to ditch class, sing in the car, and spend the day at the ocean. A day that is memorable for them both.

A's love for Rhiannon is quickly-formed, strong, forceful, and eventually all-consuming to the point of obsession. Breaking his own rules A takes Nathan, his inhabited body, to a party A knows that Rhiannon will be at. Another day when A is a girl named Amy Tran, he visits Rhiannon at school and pretends that she will be transferring next semester.

All may seem necessary for A who will never be able to talk to Rhiannon as a normal person would but when A finally decides to tell Rhiannon the truth, A's obsession with her doesn't lessen, it intensifies. Rhiannon, to her credit, is suspicious in the beginning but then becomes hopeful that their relationship can somehow work itself out.

This is where the lessons start in. Since A is in a new body every day, Rhiannon has to get used to seeing A as male, female, short, tall, fat, & skinny. There are some facades she is more comfortable with even though she knows that A is within them all. Here, Levithan makes it a point to show each person, as an individual, with their own problems.

Some of the bodies play out as after-school-special PSAs. A inhabits someone with depression, someone who is obese, someone who is gay, and even an illegal immigrant. Yet, for all A's claims at learning valuable lessons from inhabiting different types of people, A is still a boring one-dimensional character and the reader is left unaffected by the hardships of those we viewed only momentarily.

While the novel is ultimately about the idea of loving the mind and soul of a person and how their appearance or gender plays into your ideal of them, the body-inhabiting should be a fascinating subplot adding a healthy amount of drama to the novel. Unfortunately we never find out what causes it, if there are others like A, or what the purpose is. To some, this may merely be superficial extras, things that do not matter in the grand scheme of things but if, in love, you do all that is in your power, wouldn't the first thing be to understand what you're up against? Instead of keeping the reader interested in the history of A, the body-inhabiting is used mainly to force the story forward. At about 320 pages the middle is nothing more than A shifting from body to body while always looking for a way to get to Rhiannon.

Levithan had all the perfect elements for an engaging, thought-provoking novel: love, acceptance, understanding, and a unique science fiction problem to overcome, however he missed the mark where it truly mattered and in reading it you feel short-changed, unaffected, and bored.


I give it one out of five cateyes.

Ruby - Cynthia Bond

Ruby (Oprah's Book Club 2.0)
Author: Cynthia Bond
Published by: Hogarth



Summary from Goodreads:
Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby Bell, “the kind of pretty it hurt to look at,” has suffered beyond imagining, so as soon as she can, she flees suffocating Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. Ruby quickly winds her way into the ripe center of the city--the darkened piano bars and hidden alleyways of the Village--all the while hoping for a glimpse of the red hair and green eyes of her mother. When a telegram from her cousin forces her to return home, thirty-year-old Ruby finds herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. With the terrifying realization that she might not be strong enough to fight her way back out again, Ruby struggles to survive her memories of the town’s dark past. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy.


I had such a hard time reading this book. I really wanted to like it because 1) It's an Oprah Book Club selection and 2) It has a 3.71 rating on Goodreads but...I just couldn't. 


The book is slow. Sooooo slow. In the beginning, Ephram is trying to take Ruby some cake. It takes him over 100 pages to get it there. 

The scenes, though beautifully written, don't always make sense. 

For example: Bond writes a flashback to when Ephram first saw Ruby, when the two of them were children. Ephram was at a lake and Ruby and her friend are around there as well. As soon as Ephram sees Ruby he falls for her. It starts to rain and Ruby's friend thinks that they should all go to this voodoo woman's house to get out of it. While there, the voodoo witch makes Ephram and the friend wait outside while she dispels whatever Ruby has within her. We don't actually know what is going on. And what I don't understand is why the friend wanted to take Ruby to this witch in the first place. We don't really know what is within Ruby. And we don't really know how the friend knows, or why she even trusts, this voodoo woman since no one else in the town seems to. The voodoo woman herself seems overly cartoonish. She is described as having yellow eyes and seems like what one would think a voodoo witch is in a fairytale or something. 

The characters didn't invoke any feelings in me. I don't feel compelled to feel anything for Ephram and though the book is called Ruby, by the time we actually learn anything about her I've wasted too much time not caring that conjuring enough emotion to care just seems too tiring. 

Which brings me to  what we find out about Ruby's past. It was pretty horrible. This is where I would like to warn people who need a heads-up when reading dark or violent material. The summary does not really describe what takes place within the pages. There are very graphic scenes of rape, violence, and murder. I have no problem with reading these things as long as there is some kind of point, moral, or if it helps to further the book and the characters along. This didn't seem to be the case in the book. What makes it worse is that Bond mixes these horrific experiences with a voodoo-esque supernatural quality that doesn't work for me. Perhaps it was her way of trying to water down the details but I absolutely hated it. 

The only redeeming quality of this book is the way Bond  weaves her words. It's almost like poetry. Her words and sentences are lyrical and very easy to envision. 

"He wanted to tell her about the knot corded about his heart and how he needed her to help to loose the binding." 

"Some folk say after time she come to love him. Others say she jes' give in to shame. Me, I don't know much, 'cept that he chased her all the way to lonely."

All in all, I was disappointed in this book. Anytime I put it down it took a great deal to pick it back up again. By the end I was reading the words without really taking them in or putting any emotions behind them. I could not care about any of the characters and wished that the entire plot, whatever it was, would have ended sooner.

I give this book 1 out of 5 cateyes.

*I received this book free from Blogging for Books. All opinions are my own.*

Honey Lemon Chicken

When we go with my parents to Costco we buy their chicken breasts in bulk. It's cheaper and it's so much easier just opening up the freezer and knowing there is something to make.

Unless of course you open up the freezer, see all the boobs staring back at you and have no idea what you're going to do to make them tasty.

That's where this book comes in. I love this book! I bought it on sale at my favorite Half Price Book store. I've made quite a few recipes from it already and they are all so easy.

Taste. One Pot Over 100 mouth-watering recipes

Take this for example:

Honey Lemon Chicken

Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts
• 2 lemons
• 2.5 fl oz honey
• two stalks lemongrass
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 cloves garlic

Cooking Directions

1. Add the oil and chopped garlic to a pan. 
2. When the pan is hot, add your chicken breasts. You're just going to let them brown on either side. 
3. While the chicken is browning, mix your lemon, honey, and your sliced lemongrass. 
4. Take your browned chicken out of the pan and add the saucey mixture. Simmer so that it thickens a bit
5. Add your chicken back to the pan and let it sit in the pan for about a minute. Flip the chicken so that both sides get nice and coated in the sauce.
6.  Dump everything into an oven proof dish. Heat the chicken for about 25 - 30 minutes at 375 degrees F, turning them over halfway through cooking.

I know that the book is called one pot but I didn't have a pan that would work in the oven as well. All my pans have plastic handles but even with two dishes - it's not labor or time intensive. The book calls for you to use tarragon but I couldn't find any fresh at my grocery store so I went with lemongrass instead for an even more lemony flavor. But you can use any spice or herb you want. What's great about this dish is that it's so easy to manipulate to your liking. I always add garlic to everything I make and this dish was no exception. I've made this dish twice now and it's already become a dinner staple. 

Give this one a try on your next busy night. You'll end up with an easy and delicious no-sweat dinner. 

Dessange VoxBox Review

I received my third Influenster VoxBox recently and I was pleasantly surprised with its contents. I actually made a video of my unboxing which you can view below.

It's been a couple of weeks that I've been using the entire Oleo Collection so I feel good giving my opinion on this system.


First, let's get the prices out of the way. These babies are not cheap.



Dessange Paris Oleo Miracle Replenishing Shampoo - 24.23


Dessange Paris Oleo Miracle Replenishing Conditioner - 24.95


Dessange Paris Oleo Miracle Replenishing Oil  - 24.39



You're looking at a total of $73.57 if you were to buy the entire system from Amazon.

Now I want to say that I am a cheapskate. I don't spend 25$ on my hair care products. Mostly because I have to use so much of it that the money versus amount of uses just isn't worth it. I'm not adverse to paying $10 - $15 for some good products but I also have a very temperamental scalp. It flakes really easily with most shampoos and conditioners.

So under normal circumstances I would have never bought this complete system but I'm so glad that I was given a chance to try it out.

This stuff totally works.

I found that my hair was less tangled, more easy to manage, and felt ten times as soft as it usually does.

As I mentioned in the video, I'm not a fan of the scent but it's not so off-putting that I couldn't use it. I really wish it came in another scent...but oh well.

The shampoo lathers really well, rinses clean and easily. The conditioner is really thick. It's almost like a hair mask. I was scared that it would leave my hair heavy with product. The first time it did but I think it's because I didn't wash all of the product out. As easy as the shampoo is to rinse, the conditioner is a bit trickier. It is so thick that you will have to stand underneath the shower and make sure that all of it is completely rinsed off before getting out. I use mousse to style my hair but wanted to incorporate the oil into it while it was damp to see if it would help. I didn't notice any real difference to my style after it air dried but when I used the oil to smooth fly-aways and tame the ends, it really worked its magic.


I'm really happy I got this product because it seems to have undid a lot of damage that my hair has from my hothot environment. Unfortunately I wouldn't buy this again on a regular basis.

I am already almost out of the conditioner so that, to me, is way too expensive a product.
The shampoo will probably last me another month or two, if I switch it out with another shampoo on other days. I might buy this once a year and use it every so often when I feel the need to revitalize my hair. The oil, even though it's the smallest of all the bottles really is where you get the most bang for your buck. You only need a drop or two for your entire head so it will last you quite a long time. I can see myself buying this to keep my ends from splitting and to tame my fly-aways without the added weight of another product. But then again there are a lot of oils coming out on the market and I know that the Dove Dry Oil Nourishing Treatment works as well and it's half the price.


If you have seriously damaged hair and a great job where dropping 75$ for hair products ain't no thang...then go for it. It really does work and I'm sure that if you continue using it, you'll have super pretty commercial-ready hair. If you're on a budget opt for the oil - works well and will last a while.


Let me know if you received this box, if you tried it out, and what YOUR opinions were on it. I'd love to hear about your experience.

Burned - Ellen Hopkins

Burned
Author: Ellen Hopkins
Published by: Margaret K. McElderberry Books


Pattyn's extensive reading of books has made her a fiercely independent thinker. Seeing what women are capable of has made her rethink the Mormon way of life she was born into. With an abusive, alcoholic father, and a constantly there but never present mother - Pattyn starts to question everything she's been taught about who she is. When her teen rebellion proves to be too much for her father and her pregnant mother to handle, her parents send Pattyn to live with her father's estranged sister on a ranch in Nevada. There, Pattyn's eyes are open to a whole new way of life. One where she is in charge of her future and one where the future isn't so scary or unwanted.

Told in beautiful verse, the novel tackles some very tough themes including; abuse, alcoholism, sex, self-confidence, and family.

The verses that describe Pattyn's father's addiction to liquor and his quick temper resonant deeply. Though the scenes aren't graphic, the verses and lyrical way they are written make you want Pattyn to leave and never return. But when a letter from home arrives, Pattyn's unburdened, carefree summer comes to a halt when her younger sister tells her that their dad has moved from hitting their mother to hitting her instead. The explanation of why those who are abused do not seek help right away most likely comes straight from Hopkin's own world. As a victim in an abusive relationship, Hopkin's gives Jackie the ability to speak the truth about the real strength it takes to finally seek help and why many people don't.

To see Pattyn struggle with her wanting to stay at her Aunt's and needing to go back to look out for her sisters was very emotionally taxing. Hopkin's does an amazing job of telling a complete story in a relatively short amount of pages. By using verse instead of prose, Hopkin's allows readers to see the story for it's most important parts. There isn't a lot of extraneous detail. What has to be told, is, but you don't feel cheated out because of it. You're getting all the information and your brain puts in the rest.


The romance between Ethan and Pattyn seemed a bit rushed and a little unbelievable. Though the two of them are great together, Pattyn has only dated one other guy. Not only does she have nothing else to compare Ethan to, she barely knows herself yet. These are important factors when it comes to love. With her dysfunctional family, it's expected that Pattyn can't know this but she is trying to figure it all out.


Hopkin's ability to bring to light a myriad of issues in one dysfunctional family is quite a feat. The fact that she can do it without preaching and in a beautiful, fascinating novel is nothing short of amazing.

I give it 4 out of 4 cateyes.