Friday Five: App-y Edition

In preparation for my trip and because of my new found creative spark (better milk it while it lasts), I've been searching for fun apps to use for Project Life, which is the way I'm scrapbooking my trip photos.  It turns out there are MANY to choose from.  I won't be downloading them all, because if I have to worry about updating things on 30 different apps, I'm so neurotic that I'll miss the whole trip buried in my phone.  However, there are some quite cool ones that I've downloaded or will be downloading very soon.

1. Daily Weather: This one is purely fluff but it's cute fluff so I don't mind.  You can enter any city into the app and it will "print" a newspaper like printout with the weather information that you can screenshot and drop into any album. Much cuter than just using the iWeather app and therefore will look nicer in the smaller pockets of my soon-to-be masterpiece.

2. A Beautiful Mess: My new favorite app and I've only just downloaded it 10 minutes ago. It's from the creators of A Beautiful Mess online.  It's basically Instagram, however you can add text, doodles, phrases and borders to the pictures as well as change exposures.  It comes with a ton already but there are also in-app purchases too, if you go for that sort of thing. 

3. PicFrame + Costco: Since my initial download of Instagram, I've been completely baffled as to what would be a good way to print them.  Apparently sending them as is to Costco, completely distorts the image (learned that the hard way...)  However, I read this article this week and found it to be a revelation!  If you stitch the pictures together using PicFrame, you get an image like the one above, which just happens to be 4x6.  Then you just upload it to Costo Photocenter, and voila!  Perfect print every time!

4. MindSnacks: I've mentioned this one before.  As Paris has now been added, I REALLY need to learn at least a little French, at least enough to get me to the nearest macaron. Luckily I have this handy dandy little app to play with in my free time.  I'm pretty sure it's geared towards 5 year olds but at least learning a new language is fun instead of painful!

5. Edinburgh Book Trail: How can you not be in love with an app that tells you exactly where the closest book store is?

Bonus:  Some others that I'm contemplating buying are:
Day One vs. Momento: Both are journaling apps that you can add photos to.  They let you keep track of what happened when.  But I'm hearing mixed reviews so I can't decide which to purchase.
InstaWeather: Allows you to overlay weather information (in cutesy typography) onto pictures you take.  If I didn't already have the Daily Weather app, I'd be all over this.  As it turns out, I might still be all over this: it really is adorable!
London Travel Guide (with Offline Maps): It's the offline maps that really sell this one, though I've done so much research, I may not need it...