My Favorite Photo Editing Apps

I get asked fairly often about what apps I most like using to edit my photos for Instagram! Since there are so many that I love, I figured I’d just make a list and put it out there for anyone who might be looking for a couple of new app downloads! 🙂 We all know that a filter can make a mundane picture look waaaaayyyyy cooler when applied correctly… Blemishes disappear… Your house looks cleaner… The weather looks nicer… Are you with me or are you with me?!

Cheers to great apps!

So here we have it…

My favorite photo editing apps!
(Some of which are free, and some of which cost a couple of dollars!)

(1) LETTER GLOW

Letter Glow is a fabulous app that my sister-in-law Katie told me about. It’s great for creating graphics with words for promotional material, cool quotes, and anything else you can think of where you may need to put words and a picture together real quick!

The above image was actually created with Letter Glow. Here’s what the background photo looked like before I got Letter Glow involved and slapped some shapes, effects, and text on there!

This really is such a fun app to play with! It’s probably one of my two most used apps! There is SO much you can do with this baby if you take some time to get familiar with all of it’s features, and it’s well worth the few bucks that it costs! (Bonus: They update often with fun new fonts, new embellishments, etc…. So yeah, definitely worth the money!)

(2) VSCOCAM

My other top most used app is probably VSCOcam! I love this app! I kept seeing the hashtag #vscocam on cool pictures I liked, so I had to get it for myself. I love it! Here’s a before image, then what it looked like after I took the VSCOcam to it!

You can crop and adjust temperature, exposure, and contrast, as well as have the ability to add some great filters (which are also adjustable once you pick which filter you like most!) I LOVE this app so much! It’s a great way to add a subtle, vintage feel to your photos.

(3) PICFX

PICFX is pretty neat because, unlike VSCOcam, you can layer filters! This app has some filters that are very similar to VSCOcam, so you can still get that cool vintagey feel, but you can also add layers and adjust things like light, cross processing, texture… And that’s just to name a few! As far as I can tell, there is no limit on how many layers you can add. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Here’s a PICFX before and after:

I especially love the light filter options on this app. That little orangey red light leak on the right is one of them! 🙂

(4) A BEAUTIFUL MESS

The number one thing I use this app to do is to put a landscape or portrait picture that I don’t want to crop onto a white background. But that is just skimming the surface as far as what all can be done with this fun, whimsy app!

You can add borders, phrases, a few filters, text, and so much more to a picture using ABM! Here’s an example:

All of the preset doodles and phrases are a little bit “cartoony,” so they’re great for fun, light-hearted pics! But you CAN also keep it sophisticated if you use it right. This app is super versatile!

(5) BOKEHFUL

My friend Sara Beth, my Lovely Buzz partner, told me about this app! It adds fun little light orbs to pictures in a variety of color palettes and shapes! For this example, I used all 4 shapes on the same picture to show you how they all look. Here’s the before and after! (And I did end up using VSCOcam on this picture as well before I used Bokehful!)

See how fun the little light spots can be!? They just add an element of dreaminess to a picture to me! 🙂 This app isn’t super versatile, but I still love it and use it fairly often!

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So there you have it! My favorite photo edit apps!

What are YOUR favorites?! I do love a great recommendation! 🙂

Thanks for stopping by today! Hope you’ve had a great one so far!

Went to Market

I mentioned yesterday that the reason I was M.I.A. for a few days was because Friday through Tuesday I was in High Point at furniture market with Marty and Lisa from SummerHouse! I got to document the whole trip, learn lots about how social media helps businesses like SummerHouse (or any business, really. But more on that later!), and gaze at gorgeousness everywhere I turned! Here are a few snaps of things that caught my eye on the trip!

Loved this angled book shelf!

This big canister of marbles grabbed my eye! Not only did I think it was pretty, but it made me think of corny jokes about losing your marbles… See? Corny…

Loved the window with the black panes and all of the random potted plants on a rustic table next to it. Gorge!

We had some killer pulled pork tacos from the food truck that sets up at market every year! And those fries… Don’t even get me started!

I wanted to travel back in time and buy a bunch of these beakers for our Breaking Bad finale party! But, obviously… That was not an option… They’re cool anyways!

Loved this vignette at the Vanguard Furniture showroom. All that black, white, and gold just melted me! Love!

1985… A good year… 😉

These pink and gold cigarettes were a prop in the Hickory Chair showroom. I’m not a smoker, but if I was… I would definitely sport pink and gold cigs! Much classier than white ones…

Loved this random chandy hanging in Hickory Chair. Heck, I love everything about Hickory Chair! Here’s the Always Summer post about that showroom!

These are snaps from Natural Curiosities. They do AMAZING work! If you’re not familiar, I recommend becoming so! Their work… You will die!

Be sure to check out Always Summer (permanent link in sidebar!) for a more in-depth look at the trip! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed! 🙂

And have a GREAT WEEKEND!!! Thanks a million for stopping by! XO!

Signs of Spring

Is anyone besides me glad that Mississippi weather has decided to finally normalize a little bit?! If I’m not mistaken, it’s supposed to stay semi-warm for the next week at least!

I’ve loved seeing our yard perk up because of the beautiful warmth!

Our Japanese magnolia has been blooming…

… and I’ve enjoyed collecting fresh greenery from outside to use around the house!

A sign of spring that I didn’t expect was the mint from last year’s garden reappearing out of nowhere! Turns out that mint is a tough herb!

I tried to get semi-creative with some of that mint by uprooting a little section of it and putting it in a vase on our bar! Sure, this is unconventional… But I don’t care! I love having greenery over there anyway, so why not have functional greenery?! It’s right there ready to pick a tad for the garnish on our next cocktail! 😉

Not only do I like how it looks, but it smells good too!!

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I hope to have some pictures of our newly planted garden up for y’all this week! We had so much fun getting it going (and re-planting our mint from last year!) 🙂

Y’all have an awesome week!! Tell your family you love them!!

Lovely Lately

Lately, I’ve been surrounded by so much LOVELY that I wanted to share a few highlights / things that make me happy / things that I just find wonderful!

1. Hitting the washi tape jackpot at Target.

My sweet friend Mary Kathleen let me come over and help play with setting up the nursery of the baby boy she’s expecting next month, and she needed some washi tape for a certain project, so thanks to her, I knew to be on the lookout for some!

2. Getting a glittery wedding invitation!

Price is in a wedding on New Year’s Eve this year, and we got the invitation in the mail last week. The glitter lining made my day! How gorgeous is this invitation?!

3. A little C. H. Spurgeon wisdom

Came across this Spurgeon quote while doing a little reading the other day and loved it.

4. Noticing something I’ve passed 1,000 times for the first time.

As I was driving through Fondren earlier this week, I was at a stop light and noticed something I’ve never noticed in all my years of driving through this area… The window panes on the top floor of the building across from Ramey are painted yellow! Made me realize that I need to be more observant and take note of cool little details like that more often… 🙂

5. Airstreams + awesome food in Pensacola…

A couple of weekends ago, I was in Pensacola visiting a friend, and she and her hubby took me to al Fresco, which is basically a little food truck park. The best part? All of the food was served out of AIRSTREAMS! (I’m a little obsessed.) The second best part? The food was awesome.

6. More airstream + food fabulousness in Memphis…

Last weekend, my friend Avery and I went to Memphis for the day to spend some time with our sweet friend Elizabeth. As we were walking around, we came upon a mini Airstream that served froyo! Although it wasn’t in service at the time we found it, we still thought it was pretty awesome. (Ok, I thought it was awesome… Not sure the other two share my love for Airstreams!)

7. Drinks atop The Madison in Memphis

Also while in Memphis, Elizabeth took us to the top of the super swank Madison Hotel! We had a blast, and got a gorgeous view of the city. Good times!

8. Getting my Merry Christmas stamp in!

After taking a caligraphy class with some friends last month, I decided I’d put some of my new-found skillz to use! I wrote out Merry Christmas in calig, had it made into a stamp, and plan to get my stamp on with all The Lovely Bee Christmas cards I’ve been working on lately!

9. Doing the Anthro Christmas Display Workshop

Mary Straton signed me up for a fun little workshop at Anthropologie where we got to help them do crafts for their Christmas window display! Although we didn’t get to take anything home with us, I got some ideas, and we were rewarded with champagne punch and snacks! We were happy girls 😉

10. A little B&V wisdom…

I’ve had so much fun getting to do the social media for Blithe and Vine in Fondren! Their motto is “Life is short. Dress cute.” so I’m going with it… Life is short, so why not dress cute?!

I hope you all have a FANTASTIC weekend!! Thanks so much for stopping by! XO!

Color Crush Guest Post

So when you get a minute today and are looking for something fun to do…. Why not head on over to my friend Mary Straton’s blog Olive You, Darling and check out the guest post I got to write for her! It’s all about my favorite hue. The in’s and out’s. The nitty gritty on the spectacular color of yellow!

Hope you enjoy it! I really enjoyed writing it! (But who wouldn’t love a good excuse to compile a story about their favorite color??)

Gone Scandi In Boise

As I was conducting my bi-monthly Rue Magazine perusal (I know, I know… I’m a couple of weeks late…), I fell head over heels in love with one particular home and now I cannot get enough of it…

The title of the piece is called Gone Scandi In Boise. It features a home that belongs to a blogger named Rachelle, her husband Mark, a youth minister, and their little girl named Kensington. (What a great name!)

The style is super scandinavian, and it’s mostly black and white, but to me, it is absolutely GOR.geous. I literally think I flipped through these digital pages about twenty times! Here’s the spread, but I highly recommend viewing the original source here, where the pictures are much larger and where you can read the words 🙂

Isn’t this house fab?! I particularly love the living area and Kensington’s room.

Speaking of kids rooms, or anything kid related, if you have children, you might be interested in checking out the homeowner’s blog, Kenziepoo. It’s absolutely adorbs! I know one day I will find it as a great source of info! : )

So did you like this minimalist black and white home as much as I did?!

Star Bright

The newest issue of one of my FAVORITE online magazines is out! Rue Magazine has had my heart ever since the very first issue… I’m a MAJOR fan…

There is one spread in particular that I am LOVING in this issue!
It’s a fashion spread called Star Bright.

That little quote is so cute!

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the mix. How beautiful is this girl, and how perfectly is she styled?!

The whole issue is killer, so be sure to check it out!

Darling Bee Things

I’ve come across several really lovely bee items lately that I’m just crazy about! I know there are a few of you who love bees just as much as I do, so this post is for y’all! 🙂

Right now, Target has some fabulous little white glazed terra cotta honeycomb canisters that I’m seriously in love with. The inside of them is green! And I’m smitten with the little bee on the top!

This gorgeous book with the gold bee on the spine was a gift from a very sweet friend, Elizabeth, who found this at Annelle Primos’ shop when she was out looking at some art. I’ve moved it around 50 times trying to find just the right place for it! 🙂

This last little gem is from Anthropologie! It was handmade in a country that I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard of… And now I can’t find the tag to tell you what country that is! Anyway, it’s really vintagey looking and so super pretty. I’ve only had it a week and I think I’ve worn it three times already! 🙂

Hope everyone has a great day!