Jollifiers: Fun Free Apps

Happy Friday! Wishing you a fun-filled first weekend of December! I am going to Stephen's company Christmas party tonight, meaning I had to buy XXXXXXXL tights this morning at Target and pray to God they're long enough. They won't be. Even on the back of the tights it said I was basically buying tights for people who were, you know, essentially obese and were between 5' 7" - 5' 11". BECAUSE EVERYONE JUST STOPS GROWING ONCE THEY HIT FIVE ELEVEN. Duh.

Flashback Friday to when I wrote an entire diatribe against pantyhose. I actually tried on a jump suit to avoid wearing the annual Christmas party tights this year. The jump suit was (shockingly) not long enough in the torso. Aka it was like buying a $100 wedgie from Shop Bop. I passed. Ill-fitting tights it is. I'll never understand why the entire fashion industry (which chooses to use exclusively tall models) doesn't make clothes that fit IRL tall girls.

ANYWAY. Jollifiers is just when I share little things that bring me joy in my life :) Aka NOT TIGHTS.

This week, I wanted to share a few fun (and free!) apps, I have these on my iPhone or iPad, but I assume they work on Android products as well:


1. DUOLINGO: Learn a language!

This is an awesome app with the cutest little owl coach where you can take language lessons in the form of games! If you've always wanted to learn a language, this is a fun way to start. You can set goals for how many minutes you want to spend per day on your language. I'm working on Spanish (to be honest, I've kind of been on a long break from it at this point...) but hope to get back into it soon.

(I can't remember who told me about this one...maybe Clark. If so, thanks Clark! If not, thanks whoever and hi Clark!)

2. WUNDERLIST: Conquer (and share!) all types of lists.

I believe my friend Meaghan told me about this one -- it's the coolest! You can make lists and then share them with others. For example, Stephen and I have one "Groceries" list. Gone are the days of "remember to write that on the list when we get home" or "oh shoot! I forgot the list on the fridge!" On our most recent grocery store trip, we just split up and actively checked off items. It was then really easy for me to find him -- I went to the aisle of the only thing left on the list :)

It can also be used for fun thing as well! I have a "Movies to Watch" "Places to Go" and "Books to Read" List. Obviously, you don't have to share your lists. My Movies list is shared with Stephen since we'll watch those together, but my books list isn't since I'll read those alone :) A very fun app that I highly recommend. Thanks for the recommendation, Meaghan!

3. OVERDRIVE: Audio books......for free!

My friend Fran told me about this one (thanks, Fran!) Lots of people have heard about Audible, where you can pay to listen to audio books. Well, Overdrive takes that concept and library-izes it. Literally. This one's free but you need a library card. You find your library, find a book, enter your library card number, get it for 7 days, and listen away.

The app just automatically "takes it back" from you, so you don't have to worry about returning it. I checked out Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and listened to it on my drive back from Chicago a few weekends ago. It was a cool way to get exposed to Tolstoy without actually reading Tolstoy ;)


That's it for today! Any other cool apps I should know about that I don't? Free is good, but I'm also willing to drop like $1.99 for something exceptionally cool ;) Happy weekend, friends!

p.s. My favorite app? Probably instagram. I'm on quite the gramming kick lately. (Mostly cat pics.)

Tywin also wants you to have a happy weekend, and also doesn't understand tights. (I'm fully expecting him to basically claw them to pieces, as he sometimes does with my jeans. haha)