I Hate the Marvel Comics App

Living within my body is every kind of geek you can imagine. Each day I struggle to hold them all inside. Often they escape when I come across a fellow Doctor Who fan, or when I find an interesting gadget in the kitchen section of John Lewis. My comic book geek had been kept dormant for a few years now. I hadn’t bought anything but the occasional Fables trade paperback since I was a teenager. However when I got my iPad and downloaded the Marvel Comics app. My bank account was not happy.

The App is extremely easy to use, you create an account with Marvel if you’d like but otherwise you are free to buy ay comic via your iTunes account – which is where the problems lie for me. It is far too easy to download great comics at the touch of a button. There are so many great stories, past and present available to read. The Avengers Vs X-Men event was happening which I jumped aboard and now that the dust has settled I’m reading several titles that have been spawned from the huge event. As well as this I’ve been able to go back and read some stories that have piqued my interest for some time. For example I am now a major fan of both Runaways and Young Avengers – which I do recommend. I have also read X-Men: Days of Future Past in preparation for the upcoming movie in 2014 so I can sound smug when I’m leaving the theatre.

You can read your comics page by page as normal or you can view it panel by panel, which highlights each speech bubble and is a great way to follow the story if you like to be surprised as you read or if you struggle to find your way around a complicated spread. (It happens to us all.) If I’m honest, I don’t hate the Marvel Comics App – I adore it. It allows me to read the comics that I love but not have to make the trip to the comic book store every Wednesday, and that works for me. I just wish it wasn’t so easy to keep reading and reading!

Keeping Life #WellPacked

I have a weakness for making sure everything I carry on my person is packed appropriately. Most recently I purchased two items that have brought me great joy and I would highly recommend.

The first is an iPad Mini case from Mujjo. I bought the Smart Cover immediately when I bought the iPad Mini. For me, it is kind of a necessity. However unlike its bigger brother, there is no Smart Case for the Mini, just the cover. So what was I going to do about protecting the back of my precious tablet computer whenever it wasn’t safely in my hands?

I knew I wanted a simple, elegant but protective sleeve that I could slip around my iPad while it was in transit. It had to be big enough to fit the iPad with the Smart Cover attached and it had to be affordable for me because let’s face it if I could afford a Smythson case I would get it. So my budget was about £40, stretching to £50 if it was a case I really fell in love with that also blew my mind. I searched etsy, and while there were a few cases I liked a lot – the price for getting something that was handmade was beyond my upper budget. However on etsy I did see the trend for cases made of felt and leather. This is a combination that really appeals to me. It’s somewhat organic. When the two materials are brought together they are wonderfully complimentary.

I found my star case with Mujjo. They are more commonly known for their touchscreen gloves but have expanded with a line of electronics cases called The originals. The line uses felt and leather to great effect and I knew the iPad Mini case was the one I was after. It was wonderfully designed and was completely below my budget. When I tried to order a case I was faced with the problem that there was no iPad Mini cases to be found in stock anywhere on the internet unless I wanted to pay huge shipping fees. This was a hindrance but it informed me that these cases were popular, I was onto a good thing. So I waited, and I couldn’t be more happy with the result.

When wrapped in the Mujjo case, I completely happy to toss my iPad Mini into my bag. I am also completely happy to carry the case alone. With a second pocket big enough to store some earbuds and a couple of pens within the case too, I’d happily be spotted on the street. It’s so chic I’m sure some style blogger would have to snap me simply because of my great iPad Mini cover.

I lug my lunch into work every day on the tube. My over the shoulder bag is attractive but does not fit a lunch box, water bottle, diary, notebook, iPad, kindle and so on. I needed a backpack that was well made and fit with my personal style. The day my Herschel bag arrived was a happy one. The print is modern, different and fun. I really feel confident with this on my back every day and it is a comfortable fit.

The Claim style bag in the camp print I’ve got is ridiculously spacious. The pretty red fabric lined inside can be filled to the brim with plenty of stuff. The front pocket is also large and has plenty of organisational components built in to keep all your gear in check. This year I’m going to be doing a lot of travelling and I’m really pleased and comforted by the fact I will have this great bag to carry everything safely. My one little gripe comes from the fact the main pocket has a drawstring enclosure. It’s charming most of the time but sometimes when I want to pull something out of the main pocket really quickly I can’t do it. A zip compartment would be quicker but it’s not such a huge issue. Perhaps I have to take everything in my life a little slower.

Studio Life: Creating Different Spaces in One Room

This post is part of my series on living in a studio apartment. With the help of my Partner, Tom, we have created a space which may be small but is completely beautiful and a pleasure to live in. Read on to find out how we managed it.

Even before we moved into our Studio Apartment, I was adamant about making sure we had all the “rooms” a normal apartment would have. We should have a bedroom, living room, dining room and kitchen. When the space is so small careful planning needs to be done to ensure everything slots together and creates harmony. So allow me to present you with a very not exactly to scale floor plan of our Studio Apartment.

The door that leads to our small hallway, bathroom and a closet is to the left and the windows are both to the right. We knew the second we viewed the apartment where the bed would be going as we wanted it to be as far away from the kitchen as possible. I then researched a way to divide the space using a shelving unit from Ikea called an Expedit. This created the “bedroom” which is enough space for our bed and two bedside lockers. This was the easy part, finding the best place to fit in the other rooms a regular house or apartment would hold proved more difficult.

The kitchen could not be moved so the dining room, living room and wardrobe space were all left to play around with. The corner to the right of the kitchen and next to the door could easily have contained the television with the couch facing it at a slant but instead we used the back of the couch as the fourth wall to the kitchen and plonked it in the middle of the floor. The “wardrobe” section moved to the corner closest to the bedroom and the dining table (which came with the apartment and I despise because it’s ugly, heavy and huge) took the opposite corner.

Overall we’re pretty happy with how everything is placed. It boiled down to figuring out where to fit the pieces that came furnished with the apartment and buying a few pieces to define the spaces strongly. I would love to find some space to fit in a little desk to work at but finding a desk that squeezes into the 70 or so centimetres I have to spare is proving very difficult. Also trying to fit a “home office” room into my studio apartment layout may be asking for too much.

Always Accessorise, Even while Brushing.

I have a new love in my life. It was love at first sight and we’ve been seeing each other for nearly a month now. Things are going great between us, every morning when I wake up and each night right before I go to sleep I am happy to see and use my Philips Sonicare DiamondClean. This tooth brush is the top of the line and rightfully so. It is beautifully designed, comes with many different cleaning settings and leaves my teeth looking and feeling better than ever. I spend more time rubbing my tongue across my smooth shiny nibblers than I do anything else these days. This should be enough of a recommendation to get you to invest in this toothbrush – but dear god the accessories are so fantastic and geeky I can barely contain my nerd jazz hands when I talk about them.

First of all, the toothbrush comes with a very fetching glass to store it in while it is at rest in your bathroom. To charge the toothbrush, you pop the glass on a little silver pedestal and it does the business as if by magic. It must be black magic because it is by the the coolest and craziest charging method I have ever come across.

But dear God wait there’s more! The toothbrush comes with a lovely hard case for when you’re traveling with it. It has a slot for the handle and two slots for your brush heads. Wait, what’s this USB mini port doing at the bottom of this end of the case? Shut the front door – you can charge your toothbrush via USB without even having to take the thing out of it’s travel case. I can’t handle this! Why doesn’t everything electronic have a mini USB port in it’s travel case? It makes so much sense! I can barely handle this toothbrushes genius anymore. Let’s talk about something else before I pass out from the brilliance of it all.

This past Christmas I discovered the wonders of Etsy. I always knew the website existed and appreciated what it did for crafters but I never actually shopped on it. That is until I realised it is the best place to find gifts. I ended up getting to presents for a couple friends on Etsy, and of course I gifted myself something too. The Etsy shop is called hajimedesign and it is choc a bloc with incredibly charming ceramics that would be welcome to any home. I picked up the single bug porcelain vase. This is a tiny vase made for a single bloom or a tiny piece of flora. I have it currently sitting on my windowsill and I love plucking little bits when I’m out walking to display in it. I highly recommend this shop, they have great customer service. When I move to a bigger place I will definitely be investing in more of their designs. Visit their website for more info!

My Milk Frother Makes My Life Better

For Christmas I received the Nespresso Aerocinno 3 and now everything is better. While I am not a huge coffee drinker, I am a fan of other milk based hot drinks. I experimented first with a tea latte which was an idea I found on the teapigs website. I used their Darjeeling Earl Grey which I brewed for a good 5 minutes in a little water and then added my freshly warmed and frothed milk from the Aerocinno. I like my tea milky anyway – and the tea latte was a different experience that I really enjoyed. Of course I have made some delicious hot chocolate, the Aerocinno can heat milk without frothing it and for me, the temperature is perfect to gulp and warm your tummy without scalding your tongue.

The Aerocinno looks beautiful on my work top and is designed beautifully. Operation is simple and cleaning is an absolute breeze. The “flask” separates from the base and is waterproof so it takes just seconds to clean everything up. My only gripe is that there is no lip to the flask when you need to pour into a mug. A confident pour will not cause any spillages but if you want to make a Macciato a nice, slow pour is necessary which the Aerocinno flask struggles with.

Speaking of aesthetics and design, as a pairing gift to my new Milk Frother I was also given some Bodum Pavina Double-Wall Thermo Glasses. These beauties are hand blown glass that are feather light and hold your hot drinks without burning your hands. Anything you put in these things looks spectacular – maybe it’s the magic effect of floating liquids within the glass but I can’t get enough of it. Serve me everything in a Bodum Pavina glass, nothing else will do.

However the king of drink receptacles that I have received this past Christmas is the one shpaed like the best time machine I know from a friend who knows me best.

Instant Photography Forever

I have been taking pictures with the Fujifilm Instax Mini 50S for nearly a year now, and while the experience has been completely brilliant – there are some things you really need to get used to when operating the camera. The first thing is that you need to do is love every photo that you take. There is beauty in every single frame – even if it only teaches you what not to do. I had never owned a film camera before – I have grown up using digital since I was a teenager. When using film, particularly instant film like this which is expensive, you have to make every shot count. However do not take this to mean the camera is all serious, it has a whimsical side to it that I adore. With every click and flash the camera noisily whirrs and spits out a credit card sized photo which slowly develops in front of your eyes. The anticipation, excitement and physical photo you’re left with is what make this camera such a joy to wield.

This camera definitely takes some getting used to. The problem with this compared to digital cameras is that it costs you money to figure out how best to use it. You could go through an entire pack of film (which contains 10 frames) just figuring out the settings. The most important thing to note is that the flash always fires. No matter what setting you place the camera on, the bright light will always shine. This is because if there is not enough light, the film will not develop so Fujifilm probably thought it best to make sure you always got some sort of a picture – even if it is a really washed out one.

This brings me to my second point. The camera has a feature to either lighten or darken the film as it develops. My advice is to never not have it on the darken setting. Once in a while I forget to do this and I’m left with a hazy, washed out colour on my prints. But I love practically every photo I take with this thing and I can’t help it. I was gifted a pair of Mini Photo Albums for Christmas this year and every picture has a place in those albums. I haven’t even managed to fill one completely yet but I look forward to shooting hundreds of photos instantly with this camera because it’s fun, addictive and strangely satisfying.

I have been obsessed with using this camera, almost as much as I have been obsessed with my new boots. They were a Christmas present to myself. From Bershka, it’s my second pair of boots from this brand and hopefully they will last as well as the pair I got last year did. This pair weren’t as difficult to break in either – which my feet were thankful for. They’re good because they can be worn with a smart outfit on a night out or with something more casual – which I appreciate. All my clothing items should be able to do double duty.

Studio Life: Editing Your Belongings

Welcome to the first post in a series about my life and lessons learned while living in a Studio Apartment. With the help of my Partner, Tom, we have created a space which may be small but is completely beautiful and a pleasure to live in. Read on to find out how we managed it.

The most demanding issue of any studio apartment is a lack of storage. If you are considering moving into a Studio Apartment you need to make sure it can fit everything you own. If not then you need to either consider a larger space or edit down your belongings so it will fit comfortably in your new Studio!

1. Clothing

Too many clothes is an issue many people struggle with and it can take up a lot of space in any dwelling. Before we moved to our Studio, Tom and I did a massive clear out of our wardrobe – getting rid of anything that was too old or that was never worn. This process needs to be vicious and cruel. If you don’t think you have the strength, get a tough love friend or family member to help you through it. You will feel better after it I promise. However once you move to your new Studio you must continue to stay strong. Adopt a one in, one out policy with your closet doors. Pretend it is the busiest, most exclusive club in town and only the most fabulous fashion pieces can get in the door.

2. Books, DVDs, Games, Magazines

We all can’t have a library in the east wing of our palatial manor. Books and their buddies envelop the space in a Studio Apartment very quickly. I would never encourage you to throw away books, but your glossy magazines don’t need to stay around for more than the month they were published, unless you’re hardcore into collage.

I enjoy having my books in my house as much as the next bibliophile but you need to assess how necessary they are to your everyday life. How often to you reach for that book you read half of for that exam in college? Exactly. Edit your little library down to the books you really love, the ones you would take comfort in reading my candlelight if all the power was switched off. Those are the books worth keeping, displaying and recommending to visitors.

3. Knick-knacks

This is a broad category but it must be included because we all accumulate stuff. Stuff which may have little of no purpose or a use that has been long forgotten. I am a very sentimental person, and I attach my sentiment to the most random items which I will cling to for years. These kind of knick-knacks are not required for me to live a full and happy life and therefore have no place in my home. Humans gather naturally but when you live in a studio apartment this has must be curved. Don’t think of it as living sparingly but living exclusively!