Wayuls.

Taken on the Sony Xperia Z3 compact.

Word of the day

Boondogge
Work of little or no value, done to appear busy.

Onomatopoeic in this post.

Ikea hack: Picture Board

Recently I moved home, and in doing so, realised that I'm a hoarder. I have stupendous amounts of pretty things squirrelled away in drawers and cupboards - It was time to do something about this.
So, I constructed a... thing?... that would display them in all their emotional glory.
Okay, so only emotional to me. But still glorious to anyone else.

This is super simple - The frame is from IKEA, as is the material on the back of the frame. The fabric dept in IKEA sell offcuts of their materials for about five quid for a huge sheet, I chose this one as the colours go with my room brilliantly, and I enjoyed that it made the frame look like a little indoor window. The supports across the frame are simply branches, it was nice to bring a little nature inside.

To construct I just removed the back of the frame, and the glass, sealed in the treated branches with black silicon sealant, glued the material to the back of the frame and nailed it in for security. It didn't feel that simple when I was doing it, and I definitely nearly glued the whole thing to the floor, but the actual process as a whole wasn't too arduous. It helped having the moral support and unmatched logical advice of my two housemates, sat in my bed in their pyjamas watching me as I constructed it, of course... 

The patterned clips I used to attach my images are from Tiger - If you've never experienced a Tiger store, find one. They're full of pointless items that you'll never need, but you'll want all of it, and it's super cheap.

So there you have it - My Sunday afternoon activity... Not difficult, but highly rewarding, creating something unique for my wall with nothing but an old frame and some cheap material!

Keeping an eye out for other IKEA hacks to try out, as this was actually really enjoyable to see completed. Watch this space!

Word of the day

Petrichor
A smell that you notice after the rain.
Particularly notable on a hot day.

Somebody get me one of these bags.

Fashion designer Lemaire had these leather boob bags as a not-so-subtle little touch at Paris Fashion Week... I definitely want one. They're totally ridiculous, and may fill me with feelings of inadequacy every single day.

Ping [App Review]

‘You’re going to like me.’

Now, when I read that sentence, I don’t know what me is. But me holds a lot of promise, so I’ll probably give it a go. This statement is the only explanation we’re given by app developers ‘Secret, Inc.’ – About their new(ish) app Ping. So with my intrigue piqued, I give it a download.

Upon launch, I’m immediately impressed by the monochromatic, minimalist style of it. 

Although, simplicity on the eye doesn’t always translate to simplicity of use, and it takes some wild thumb stabbing before I realise that I should probably press the dot in the middle of the screen.

Maybe I’m just a bit slow.

I’m instructed on the following screen (that I’m led to through the slightly disarming instruction of ‘touch me’) to jab at the things that interest me. 

To the joy of the designer in me, each of the options I choose light up a pretty colour, and every time I touch the screen, the colours change. Very exciting. It’s little touches (pun not intended) like this that amaze me in an app, it doesn’t have to be all singing all dancing… just nice. Oh, and I still don’t know what me is.

Once I’ve told it what I like in life, I hope that I’m presented with something that blows my tiny mind… What actually follows is this:

Oh.

But, you know what, it’s right. I do like this, but I don’t really know why. It slowly feeds me content to engage my brain and amuse my eyes throughout the day, in a really sweet, friendly manner. It really is just a bit of what I like. It doesn’t bombard you, and the slow trickle of information provided is just enough to make having a phone that bit more interesting.

So if you’ve got a spare bit of space on your phone, and want casual distractions throughout the day for no particular purpose other than to amuse you, this is one to download. Oh, and one of the options is to get occasional anonymous secrets from their original app ‘Secrets’, which are generally pretty amusing… Review on that one to follow...