My top 5 Iphone Apps

A few people have asked me recently what phone Apps I use to edit my photos.  There are so many awesome ones out there, but I have a few old favourites that I just love.  I'm actually a bit of an App hoarder and have far too many on my phone at the moment.  It's just shoes - I don't wear half of what I have in my wardrobe but I just can't bear to throw any of them away.  My iphone home screen is FULL of Apps, and even though I only probably use a quarter of them I just can't bring myself to delete the others, as you never know when I might need an "App for that!!".

There are a handful of Apps on my phone that I use over and over again and so I though I would share with you. Apart from my social media Apps (Facebook, twitter, instagram, Pinterest and google+) which I use everyday, several times a day, here are my top 5:

1. A Beautiful Mess

I love this App.  You can just have so much fun with it.  Once you're either taken or chosen a photo on your phone you then have the option to add doodles, ready-made quotes or a even pick your own font.  I use it to add a little 'fun' to my photos as well as to send cute b'day txt images (which is much cheaper and quicker than sending cards!!).  I think it's a total steal at just $0.99 to download.  The initial download contains loads of doodles to choose from but you also have the option to buy more if you want to (which of course I did).  Here is a whole bunch of creative ideas you could use this app for and it really couldn't be easier.

2. Insta Pic Frame Pro

This is a great App for quickly putting a collection of photos together into a collage.  There are so many different options to choose from and it's so easy to use.  You can easily upload your pictures to any of your social media sites with just the click of a button or you could save it to your camera roll and then use "A beautiful Mess" to scribble all over it.  The great thing is that this App is FREE.

3. Afterlight

This really is a cool App and at just $0.99 to download it's a must have if you love photography. It is again super easy to use and with just a couple of taps of your finger you can instantly change any photo into something really eye catching and fabulous.  There are a huge range of different filters to choose as well as great set of instant editing tools.  You can also change the shape of your photo, add a boarder or lettering and then instantly upload it to your social media sites.  One of the best features of this App is that you can have your photos printed and sent as a postcard to anywhere in the world with your own personal message on it.

4. Jango Radio

Jango is just an internet radio which I use ALL the time!!  It's free to download, but it will eat into your internet quota unless you stream it through wifi or bluetooth as it uses the internet.  I love having music playing when I'm at home but I hate all the adverts that come with normal radio stations.  I also get bored with the music on my ipod, which is why Jango is perfect!!  You just select an artist or genre of music you like and it will play that artist along with others that are similar - continuously, with NO interruptions.  You can create your own stations by adding in the artists that you like, and the more you listen to it the more it remembers what you like.  If a song or artist comes on that you don't like then you just tap the 'thumbs down' and it will remember not to play it again.  I've created a whole list of different stations that I listen to depending on what mood I'm in.  You can also download Jango to your computer so you can have your favourite music playing while you work.  Give it a try!!

5. Snap Recipes

Do you have that problem where you see recipes online or floating around facebook and you think "ooh I must try that" and then when it comes around to - you can't find the recipe!!!  Well that's me, and it's soo annoying!!  Until I found the Snap Recipe App.  It's a bit like a personalised cook book where you can store all your favourite recipes in one place.  If you see a great recipe you can either just take a quick photo of it or take a screen shot and then follow the simple instructions to save and file it.  I've got so many filed now that I need to actually start making some of them!!

6. Pocket

I've added in a sneaky number 6 as this App is just awesome.  It used to be called 'read it later' so you may have heard of it by that name.  I am so busy during the day that I hardly ever have time to sit down and read the articles that I see come up on my facebook and twitter news feeds.  I used to make mental notes to go back and find them - or 'like' them as a way of reminding me to go back and read them - but do you think I ever did??  Nope!!  Besides my lack of time I am convinced my memory has holes in it!!  I discovered pocket and am now totally addicted to it.  It's a bit like having a kindle or news reader on your phone or tablet or even your computer.  You can store and file any article that you want to keep or read later - be it a blog, a news article, a recipe or some research you're been doing on a family holiday.  You can tag everything under handy little labels like 'recipes' or 'finances' or 'parenting', making them really easy to find when you're ready to read them (hopefully with your feet up and a glass of wine, or a good cuppa).  It's so easy to save them too.  Once you have installed pocket, a little icon will appear where you would usually save something to 'favourites', but instead you just tap 'save to pocket'.  It's great if you don't always have the internet as once they're downloaded and saved you no longer need the internet to read them.  Genius!!

So those are my top 6.  What Apps do you have on your phone that you couldn't live without??  I sure I could be persuaded to add a few more to my ever growing list!!