February Favorites

Hey guys! It’s almost March, and although February has not been a very great month for me, it still deserves a run down of random things I loved about this month! Wanna know what they are? – then just keep reading!

First up on my list this month is my new found love for Poetry. ❤ I have never been a very big reader of poems ever since the history of me being a reader. I mean, yeah – I do appreciate them but I haven’t really developed an inkling interest, until now. The recent poetry books I got is Milk and Honey and Chasers of the Light – which I both LOVE.

If you know me (well not all of you do obviously, haha) you’ll see that I am always inside the four corners of my room being the introvert gal that I am. I rarely go out these days which is something that I am trying to change. So my few escapades this month really made me want to see more of the world, lol. Seriously though, life is too short to spend in bed. (but bed days are great too of course 😁)

Well if you’ve been a frequent visitor of my blog you probably noticed that I regularly post and update weekly spreads. I’m quite proud that i’ve been keeping up with this so crossing my fingers that I continue to do so until this year ends. Love love love journaling.

OMG I love my bluetooth earphones like SO MUCH. I use this every single day. Music is my daily dose of vitamins so this gift from Sudio Sweden is just perfect – perfect for my iPhone which for some reason does not have an audio jack, like wth. But seriously, this earphone is life. Check out their products here.

 

Speaking of music, well this song is on repeat for the nth time most of this month! It’s not a new song, but I just recently appreciated it so..

Anyway, I just love it so much. And yes, my playlist’s name is “PlauUntilIHateIt” – lol, because that’s what I do. I play a song a gazillion times until I realize i’m hating it already. I am so weird, I know.

 

 

 

 

Okay. Can I just say that I literally do not know what to do with my life after i’ve finished all the seasons of Game of Thrones. I mean I literally cannot function as a human being. I swear this show took over my life. I just love it! I cannot believe I waited this long to watch it – but yeah, better late than never because Jon Snow is bae.

I am not a big mobile gamer (is that a thing? lol) but as I said, I need to divert my attention to something after my GoT addiction so I asked my friends from Instagram to suggest to me a game I can play and one of them suggested this one. I have downloaded a bunch of games that they suggested but this one made me really hooked. I loved it! Won’t be too long now until I abandon it and look for something else though, haha. My attention span is short. Btw, you can download this from the App store for free. I think Android has this game too 🙂

And there goes my February Favorites! None super exciting so far but still it has been a pretty good month to me, and I hope you had a lovely one too!

Talk to you soon!

 

 

Weekly Journal Spread (February 6 to 12)

Told you i’m making it up for you for being late in my journal spread posts, so two in a week it is! 😀

click photo to enlarge

You know my life isn’t that exciting when you realize one of the highlights of my week is finishing all the available seasons of Game of Thrones. Haha. Whatever, I was so happy to finally dive into this show, I’ve resisted for so long (because I wanted tor read the books first – but ain’t happening soon, so). I am freaking obsessed with Jon Snow. 😍

Well at least something exciting did happened this week, haha. Escaping my boring life and in to the mountain! Check out my adventure blog here. 

That is it! Hope you had an amazing week! ❤

Talk to you soon!

How I Edit My Instagram Photos (Update)

You asked for it and I love you guys, so here it is! This is How I edit my Instagram Photos version 2.o! 😄

If you haven’t seen yet, I have already made a blog post like this last year and a lot of my tips and tricks haven’t changed so you might as well check that out first before diving in to this one. Here’s the link.

My tips there in Instagramming in general from taking photos, proper lighting, to photo types are all still valid and I still practice up to this day so take note of those pointers alright.

My theme though has changed over the course of time and right now, I can say that I am really happy with my current feed *pat my own back*

I am now going for a warm, earth-toned, vintage-y photos and it took me quite a while to be contented with the theme I want, but here I am so hooray! 😛

Now, let’s get going with the bloody detail of how I edit my pictures, shall we?

Here’s an update to the apps I’ve been currently using:

I mainly use VSCO for editing my photos, this is where I get my filters.

From my last blog about editing IG Photos, I told you I was also using the app called Phonto, that one was mainly for watermarking my photos which I don’t do anymore.

Additional apps that you see here are Filterloop – which I use for overlays sometimes;

Snapseed and Lightroom for fixing inconsistencies in photos like lighting, dark spots, over-exposure, etc.

Touch Blur for blurring out parts that I don’t want to show in my photos (like personal entries on my journal, etc.)

I’m telling you again if you haven’t, to check my last blog about editing photos because quite the same process remained the same. Check it out here. (I have a legit tip on natural lighting there and things that will add character to your photos).

I use VSCO for filters and nothing more, and these are the filters that I am currently using:

Fact is, I don’t really use a single filter in all my instagramming years. I always consider the lighting of the photo if a certain filter would look good on it or not. But these two series in VSCO are the ones I use most of the time – it’s the Aesthetic and Moody series. The Aesthetic I believe is free for download in the app, the Moody however I think I paid for it 😀

As you may have seen on my feed right now, I am going for a shadowy, warm and cozy vibes, so I don’t actually just rely on the filters itself, I also adjust the Exposure, Contrast and Temperature in VSCO settings per picture. I adjust all of these things according to my liking and test if it will look good on my feed, then go back again if not.

A lot of people are asking me this, “what is that snowy thing on your photos”, “what are those white dust I see there”, etc. I’ve seen a lot of accounts doing this already but if you still didn’t know yet, you could use the app called Filterloop for this.

Just import your photo and go to Textures then click Dust – you’ll see different options there that you can choose from.

I sometimes use Adobe Photoshop for overlays if I’m not feeling lazy though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editing of photos doesn’t stop there though. Sometimes, lighting is not on my side so I use Snapseed to fix any inconsistencies and flaws that I see in my photos.

The app has a Selective tool to adjust a portion of your photos’ Brightness, Contrast and Saturation.

It also comes with a Brush that edits the Exposure, Temperature and Saturation of your photo.

Love this app (not a promotion, lol).

 

 

Here’s a bonus tip for you guys! I’ve been using an app that let’s me plan out my feed for the entire day – or even week (if you have taken quite a lot of pictures). I’ve got 2 recommendations for you, either use an app called Preview or Unum (both are free I think in the App store). It both works well and have the same purpose. I also recently discovered an app called Planoly which pretty much does the same only, it also schedules your post – I might as well give that app a try. 

I personally use Preview (because I downloaded it first, lol) and satisfied with it to be honest. You can “upload” pictures in it and drag photos to change their position – and it looks just like an Instagram feed so you can kinda see if a photo will blend well with the rest of your pre-uploaded pictures. It looks like this (really just like an IG feed):

As I always do, here I am to remind you that your account is YOUR feed so you do what makes you happy BUT….but, please, always be YOU. We have seen a lot of blatant copying in Instagram (not to mention outright stealing) that it honestly makes me sad because people who have passion in what they do only to be literally copied, will feel disrespected. I have no problems in sharing what I know and what I do but I also want to see people create a content they could call their own 🙂 I’m glad I inspire people and that they sought for my advise and I appreciate it, but sometimes, other people just do not know when they’ve already crossed the line.

So, in EVERYTHING that you do, always put your heart in it and it will reflect who you are. ❤

It took me years of countless changing of themes and filters, experimenting on pictures, looking for inspirations, combining pegs and all that – until I came to this. I suggest you do the same. 🙂

And that is it! I hope you learned something again from this post, let me know what you’d like to see next!

Talk to you soon!