Living in a Pink Bubble~ School Supply Edition

The school year has finally started and I’m starting my third semester! I feel like I’ve finally gotten into the flow of things and feel comfortable enough to share my education staples. Of course, in typical ‘me’ fashion, I grew my collection to match my pastel lifestyle. I quite enjoy things that are visually appealing and yet still serve a valid function, deciding to invest in pieces I love makes studying a joy.

My main piece is a Samatha Vega, under Samatha Thavasa,  a4 tote bag. I struggled with backpacks the last 2 semesters and realized after ditching my backpack for my reusable canvas tote that sits in my car every other day, that I feel more comfortable carrying my school items in a tote bag. The standard ‘a4’ tote size (named such because it can fit a4 sized folios and binders within it) is perfect for my needs. Samantha Thavasa makes some beautiful a4 tote bags that also have wide bases which could comfortably hold as many school supplies as I needed. 

I also invested in a printer to save me the stress from my school’s computer lab, which is always packed! I bought a cute Bluetooth enabled pink printer, second hand, that syncs beautifully with my iPad and mobile device! (I know, I also have a pink Nintendo switch hiding out back there, but I’ll be devoting a full blog to that down the road!)

The cheaper books, if not available 2nd hand or for rental, tend to be available for purchase in loose leaf style. I lucked out this semester and needed to purchase 2 books that came with access codes to do my homework. So, I needed some sturdy binders to contain my text books. I found these cute binders by russel+hazel.

Now, onto the fun stuff! Folders, folios, and stationary!

For my classes this semester, I’m taking mathematics and science courses, so I need a notebook for working out my formulas. All my teachers recommended that keeping a ‘problem’ notebook would be advantageous in their courses so, I have 3, one for each class. Right now, I have an older Laduree notebook that I had laying around, that I use for math. For my other two courses, I use some basic bullet style notebooks which I find more convenient to write in. My math notebook is just more photogenic;; 

I also have an accordion style folder, that I’ve used every semester to keep all my loose leaf papers, hand outs, homework, scantrons, and anything of the like. I find the fan out style folders are so useful in keeping everything together and neatly filed! Also, mine is made of plastic so it’s quite durable. It’s hands down one of my most important items I keep on me and readily available. I bought mine [here]

A fun little fact is that my pencil case is actually a makeup brush holder! I bought this travel makeup brush organizer second hand since it’s an older piece from Liz Lisa’s retired line, Chambre a Coucher.  Shockingly it fits everything I need, keeps everything organized, and sits wonderfully flat which makes it fit nicely into my bag or on my desk.

As for my stationary supplies, I have three different collared highlighters, two 3 ink colored pens + ink refills, a mechanical pencil + lead refill (I should also have a #2 pencil, oops), two erasers that resemble macaroons from Laduree, and miscellaneous washi tape that I use in my planner or to bookmark pages. 

My most used items in my stationary station would be my Uni a-gel mechanical pencil, Uni Style + Fit multi chamber pen (which I actually have 4 of, 2 in my pencil holder, one in my planner, and one that I keep in my room~ I just adore them and how well they write!) I like to use the smallest pen refill size in them which would be the .28mm, and for my highlighter I like the Zebra midliner which is easily found locally and I can pick up a refill easily.

I also use my Ti-30 calculator for every class. It also came highly recommended by all my instructors as it works with log and sin functions as well as with exponents. It also don’t have memory storage, which is not allowed in any of my classes.

With me always, is my planner and my bkr water bottle. In my planner I write down everything; classes, what I need to do, upcoming assignments, due dates, etc. It contains my life and one of my other Style + Fit multi-ink pens. Without my planner, I think I would fall apart! 

My last big piece is my tech folio. I was lucky enough to come across this leather bound one on eBay [available here] It fits everything from my ‘problem’ notebooks, iPad Pro + keyboard case, and all my gadgets, neatly and securely.

Snugly in my folio I keep my Apple Pencil, my rose gold mophie powerstation, lightning port/usb/usb-c enabled flashdrive (which has been a lifesaver for PowerPoint presentations),  misc cables, and my student ID card.

I also replaced the zipper with a Samatha Thavasa x Disney’s Little Mermaid charm that I thought was too cute, and which gave my folio a little personal touch. 

My main tool for school is my iPad Pro + Apple Pencil. I write all my papers on it, take notes, access and turn in my homework from it, and get onto my school’s app on on small and portable device. 

The main apps I use are Canvas (which is where my teachers post the homework, lecture notes, and my grades), Word documents, PowerPoint, Quizlet (digital flash cards), Ginger (which is a proof reading app and how I was able to get the highest grade my english professor gave out last spring), and Notability (the note taking app that I rely on for everything).

I switched over to notability last semester, mainly because I had an intensive lecture class and needed to record what my professor was saying for review. At first glance notability looks like every other note taking app, but what won me over was the fact that I can also record audio while I write notes and it date/time stamps each recording. Also, it directly links with canvas and it’s pdf files and I can load up my professors’s lecture files straight into the app and write notes on top of the files. It just makes note taking so easy!

My last little bits in my bag are my personal items. I keep a reusable straw, tissues, a card holder, small wallet, SPF hand cream, the best Bluetooth headphones from TaoTronics (seriously), my phone [custom case from TheAmethyzt] , and my YSL tint-in-balm and a small vial of my Lolita Lempicka L perfume. 

I wanted to show off my cute pink glass boba straw from DrinkingStrawsGlass, and my protective casing from CashandDella. My city is making plastic straws unavailable so a good reusable straw is a necessity, especially for milk tea stops! I hate the taste of stainless steel, so glass was the best route for me and I love it!

Down the road I would love to be even more compact, but these are the items that work best for me! Maybe it’s good inspiration, or for a peek into how someone else lives their school life, maybe there’s something of interest that can inspire a modification to someone else’s school supply list? Regardless of the reason I hope that this entry was an enjoyable read!

<3CarisseIris

What's on my NEW Phone~ Samsung Note 4

I've had a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 for a few months now, and I absolutely love it.

My previous phone was a Galaxy S3, so I'm quite familiar with it's features and already had an attachment to Samsung technology.

I am particularly fond of the larger screen, especially since I edit a lot of pictures on my phone and enjoy the expanded space. Also, the HD screen is to die for if you take advantage of it, I've used it to view a few high definition photos and videos and they are quite impressive~ but I will say for photos that aren't in HD, the screen can warp the colours and contrast a bit on them;; But it's kind of something you get used to after awhile.

I 'm not sure if it's Note 4 specific or other smart devices have the same features, but I really appreciate you can have multiple windows open at once, and you can crop and resize each window to your liking too and at the same time you can scroll, type and click on item within those windows while they're resized and/or cropped. It makes life a lot easier~ Or, me lazier? Something like that.

Also, the quick view button that shows all active windows makes flipping though open apps or pages really convenient. I actually take advantage of that option quite a lot, more so than having multiple windows open on my screen at once.

I also noticed that the battery retention of the note is a lot longer than my S3, which is pretty great.

Last but not least, I can't forget the stylus. I LOVE having a stylus, it makes typing with long nails a thing of the past, and it makes editing photos super easy.

So, onto my apps.

Above, is my main screen and lock screen, I went with a Daisy Duck theme to match my case, which I'll cover at the end of this post. I used a Dodol Launcher theme for my phone's main layout, and a Style Locker theme for my lock screen. Since I was set on a Daisy wallpaper to match my phone, I created my own on Meitu~

All the apps I use are free, unless I mention a price in it's description.

Customization:

To customize my phone, I use an app called PhoneThemeShop

It's a Korea based app, but it's pretty easy to navigate because the main features are translated to English. The app and most all the themes are free and if you want a paid theme, which are few and far between, you buy beans which are a steal, and you get a lot of beans for your buck~ You can download full packages, or search for your needs; icons, widgets, lock screens, keyboard themes, wall papers, SMS themes and contact themes. If you're unsure if you have the required launcher for a theme you want, PhoneThemeShop will link you directly to the app you need to download and makes the whole customization process extremely easy. 

To customize my keyboard, I used to use Phone Theme shop's keyboard but since I needed a Kan/Hira keyboard besides English, I upgraded to Simeji keyboard which I customized with my own Meitu creation that matches my theme.

Chat:

I actually use LINE over  the standard SMS, since the program is so easy to run and the themes are so clean, pretty and there's a good few to pick from. I also really enjoy the group chat functions and you can create basically your own facebook type feed for the members of your chat where you can store and share photos and files. Also, the Line stickers are addictive and extremely emotive and custom for your personality. I have and use a TON of them in my chats, so I take a great deal of advantage of them. I like them over standard emojis any day.

Camera/Photo Editing:

 

 I replaced the phone's standard camera with Camera360, because I have an addiction to their Sweet filter and I need to use it on everything.

To photoshop my photos, I use Meitu BeautyCam app, instructions on how I use it are in my blog post [here]

 After everything, and if I feel I want to add stickers to a photo, up the clarity or create a collage, I use LINEcamera. It's the perfect camera and photo app because it can do anything and everything and has a huge assortment of filters, stickers, photo editing tools and basically, anything you can think of~ If anything, this would be my go-to camera application.

Misc Apps:

Besides my what I consider 'standard' apps of; Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook and MyFitnessPal~ 

I have the above applications on my phone:

Coletto Calendar- A cute and girly schedule keeper and calander

Waze- A much more fun and interesting social based version of Google Maps/GPS [if you use it, you should totally use the Boy Band voice for navigation, it's the most entertaining thing to my friends and I.]

Eat24- making ordering delivery or take out a breeze, and without any social interaction, because who needs that.

Snapchat- kind of like intagram? but you can control how long a friend can see a photo and it dissapears, and the receiving company can't save a photo and if they print screen you are notified of the fact. If you want to follow me, my sn is CarisseIris.

LINE PLAY- my favourite social app, and kind of my addiction. [blog post inspired by it here][my tumblr lineplay tag] My user name is Carisse Iris if you want to add/find me. I actually actively update my diary on the app too.

TsumTsum- a cute Disney game where you connect like items and compete against your friends.

Yelp- my most used app when I'm with friends, you can look up and leave reviews of cafes, shops and even parks and beaches. It's a great app if you don't know where to go or are curious about places near and around you.

Hulu/Netflix-  monthly paid apps I use to watch tv shows and videos on my device

I also bought a wonderfully cute Daisy Duck phone case on eBay. I buy all my phone cases on eBay because there's a huge assortment to pick from. My phone cause is pretty bulky but I got used to it very quickly. The whole case is silicon and pretty sturdy and because of the bulk, it is a great case that keeps my phone safe when I drop it, which is embarrassingly quite a lot. The case also came with a chain and hole to attach said chain if you want to use the case as a purse to carry around your phone, great for days when you don't want to carry a purse or wallet. On those days, I actually just stick my credit card or a $20 bill behind my phone and tucked in the case for safe keeping.

But there you have it, my apps I use and what I think is a pretty good overview on my phone.

Hope you found it useful!

<3CarisseIris