Tatá

Today is not Thanksgiving. As a matter of fact, it’s not even close. However, taking daily doses of gratitude helps fight the disease of taking all of life’s important things for granted. We can all find things on this list for which we are thankful. If there are people on this list who make you thankful, make it a habit to let them know!

There are so many other things to be thankful for! See more here: 60 Things To Be Thankful For In Life

You woke up this morning

The MOST important thing to be thankful for on this list. Whether you woke up at 5:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m. (which isn’t technically morning), waking up gives you the opportunity to face the day and anything that comes with it.

You can laugh

Laughter relieves stress, boosts the immune system, decreases pain, and shifts your perspective. It truly is the best medicine and something to be thankful for! In the words of Charles Dickens,

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

You have the ability to read

The ability to read is a gift often taken for granted but used everyday. The world literacy rate is at about 84% (people age 15 and over). So if you find yourself in that number (and I assume you are, otherwise you wouldn’t be here!), be thankful!

Your teachers

If you love (or know how) to read, #ThankATeacher! We have all had teachers, whether they be parents or employed by a school. Teachers pour massive amounts of time, energy, and effort into their students and that is definitely something to be appreciated.

National Teacher Appreciation Day is May 7, but take time to appreciate a teacher today!

You have common sense

Someone once told me, “Common sense and the ability to reason are things I am thankful for every single time I come across someone who does not posses them.” I couldn’t put it any better.

Your job

Although you may not be particularly pleased with your hours, your pay, or your boss at the job or jobs you currently have, being employed is definitely something to be thankful for. Having a method of providing for yourself and/or your family is an essential key to life.

Your talents and skills

I am grateful and thankful every time someone shares or appreciates something I write. I am thankful, not because it means I am great, but because it means that my skill of writing has communicated a message that has connected with someone else. And everyone reading this has skills and talents of their own, not to be compared with anyone else’s, but to be honed and used to the best of their ability.

Your public servants

Imagine a world without the post service, police officers, medics, your representatives and congressmen, and the people who work to clear those long lines at the DMV. Not a fun place to live without these services. You can be thankful for the contribution each and every public servant makes to maintain your way of life.

Your emotions

What would life be without emotions? Would being happy or glad be so rewarding if there was no emotion of sadness? Emotions, whether they be good or bad, add flavor and variety to life. Take time to appreciate each emotion for what it is telling you. And share in the emotions of others! Shared sadness makes it bearable, and shared happiness is that much sweeter.

You can see

The human eye can see approximately 10 million colors. TEN MILLION! The palette of colors, shapes, and sizes, much like the variety of emotions, makes each moment in life different if only we would pay attention. And not only sight, but the rest of the senses as well! Take the time to be thankful for the feel of plush carpet between your toes, the sound of your kids’ laughter, and the smell of freshly baked banana bread!

You have food

Speaking of banana bread….

Be thankful that you have food to eat, food in your refrigerator, pantry, cupboard, or even a taco truck across the street.

At least 50 million Americans were unable to afford food at some point last year. and 842 million people in the world do not have enough to eat. These striking numbers should incite not only a spirit of gratitude, but encourage you to help those 842 million in any way you can.

You are healthy

Be thankful that the doctor can’t remember your name! Being in good health is something that is assumed, taken for granted until it is no longer there. Being grateful for good health doesn’t just mean celebrating no trips to the doctor either. One of the best ways to be thankful for good health is to maintain it. Get the right amount of sleep, drink water, exercise, and keep up a proper diet to ensure that this stays on the list of things you are thankful for.

Your true friends

Your Facebook friends may reach high into the thousands.

You may have 800 followers on Twitter.

British anthropologist Robin Dunbar proposed that a person can only maintain stable social relationships with about 150 people.

These are all very nice, but it is your true friends, the number you may be able to count on one hand or finger, who you should be the most thankful for. The friends who you can call at 2:30 a.m., the loyal, non-judgmental, brutally honest true friends. Be thankful for them and do all you can to maintain those relationships!

Your family

Family is family. While friends have been called the ‘family’ you choose, nothing can replace your family. Your brothers and sisters, your parents and grandparents have all played an intricate part in helping you get to where you are now. Take the time to keep in touch and let them know how much you appreciate them!

You are loved

No matter the situation with your friends, or with your family, know that you are loved. Just knowing that someone out there cares for you makes getting through a tough day or situation a little bit easier.

You have clean water

Water is life. But 783 million people do not have access to clean water, and almost 2.5 billion do not have access to adequate sanitation. Approximately 8 million people die annually from the consequences of disasters and water-related diseases. Be thankful.

You have a place to live

Be thankful for your home, whether you have four garages or four simple rooms that you share with your four simple roommates (trust me, I’ve been there). Having four walls and a ceiling above you is not to be taken for granted, especially in these winter months, when depending on where you are, temperatures can dip below zero.

Also, take the opportunity to help the homeless in your neighborhood! What better way to show that you are grateful for what you have?

You can be thankful for some of the negative situations in your life as well!

Your exes

They were here, and for whatever reason, they’re gone. But what they left behind, besides their bad taste in CDs and old t-shirts, are lessons that you can take and apply to the next relationship you enter into to make it better than any that came before. Your future thanks your exes.

Your struggles

“It shouldn’t be easy to be amazing.  Then everything would be.  It’s the things you fight for and struggle with before earning that have the greatest worth.  When something’s difficult to come by, you’ll do that much more to make sure it’s even harder – or impossible – to lose.”  ―Sarah Dessen

And if you have read through this list and don’t connect with too many things listed here, whether it is because they don’t exist for you or have not been present in your life, these last few are especially for you:

You have the ability to change your situation

Be thankful that you have the opportunity to make positive changes in your life.

Do you have an estranged relationship with your family? Think about any small steps you can take to fix it.

Not currently working? Make unemployment your job. Search, apply, and interview until something changes.

Don’t think you have true friends? Be a true friend to someone else.

You are a survivor

You may not have a home, you may not have had a good family, and you may not have had good teachers.

You might be in a period of prolonged unemployment, and you may have recurring health issues.

But you have survived it all to make it this far, and each breath is a reminder of the fact that….

You are alive.

Which means everything else in this list is still a possibility.

What else are you thankful for? WHO are you thankful for? Share below in the comments.

The post 22 Things Everyone Always Forget to Be Thankful For appeared first on Lifehack.

Em setembro do ano passado pegamos uma carona com a Architectural Digest para visitar a mansão de 1.300 metros quadrados da Gisele Bündchen e do Tom Brady em Los Angeles, lembra? Ah, apostamos como lembra sim! Aliás, tem como esquecer?
Alguns dias mais tarde vimos mais algumas imagens da casa da über modelo, em uma reportagem com todas as suas dicas de construção ecológica e de como ficar de olho no consumo e economizar em casa. E depois de tantos meses, eis que a revista finalmente liberou todas as imagens da visita na casa da família Bündchen-Brady! Já está curioso, não é? Agora você pode conhecer a sala do café da manhã, de jantar, de jogar sinuca, a biblioteca e até a banheira no terraço do quarto da modelo! Chega de curiosidade: é só clicar na galeria abaixo!

Fotos: Architectural Digest.

• PauloGabriel's blog

Sometimes we find ourselves trapped in our homes, completely at a loss for how to use our time. Maybe we feel that we have too many options to even begin to pin one down, or maybe we feel that we have too few due to a lack of time or resources. The fact of the matter is there are a great many number of ways we can entertain ourselves at home for free or on a budget. Having fun does not necessarily mean forking over tons of money. Here are is a creative list of ideas for you  have a good time without leaving your house.

1. Watch a program on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc.
2. Read a new book. Half of the fun of reading a new book is finding it. eReaders are a great resource for browsing scores of contemporary titles, as well as free classics, such as Tales of the Brothers Grimm.
3. Reread an old book.
4. Watch YouTube animal videos.
5. Exercise (It’s free and it’s good for you).
6. Turn to Pinterest for D.I.Y. and inspired upcycling ideas.
7. Play your favorite music and get up and dance. Tom Cruise did it in Risky Business.
8. Write reviews for your Amazon purchases. It’s oddly addictive to do and helps your fellow buyers.
9. Write a poem. Turn to the internet for how to write haikus, limericks, ballads and more.
10. Draw, if you are artistically inclined.
11. Take some photographs around the house or of the world outside your window using either a stand-alone camera, or the one built into your phone.
12. Skype or Face Time with someone you don’t normally see.
13. Start an Instagram or Twitter for your pet.
14. Try out a new cocktail recipe with ingredients around the house.
15. Bake some cookies.
16. Create your own nut butter, be it almond, peanut, or walnut. Get creative!
17. Create your own pesto with a fresh green (basil, spinach, arugula, etc.), olive oil, your nut of choice, fresh parmesan,  and salt and pepper.
18. Make a collage with magazines and newspapers sitting around the house. Frame and hang it for cheap, D.I.Y. wall art.
19. If you know an instrument, play it.
20. Go window shopping online. It’s like window shopping at the mall, but the multiple checkout steps are a deterrent for actually buying anything.
21. Make a sock puppet with an old sock and odds and ends around the house.
22. Brew and enjoy a cup of coffee or tea. Take time to savor the beverage, and pick out flavor notes.
23. Run diagnostic, clean up, and maintenance tasks on your computer, such as running an antivirus software and making sure your computer is completely up to date.
24. Collect clothing and nonperishable food items you no longer want for donation. This idea is double duty: You are giving to those in need and de-cluttering your home.
25. Take online quizzes on websites like Buzzfeed.com.
26. Explore your phone or tablet’s app store and make use of free apps.
27. Create a blog on a website such as blogger.com or wordpress.com.
28. Organize a cluttered area of your house, such as your closet or your junk drawers. It’s cathartic and sometimes fun going through your belongings and paring down to only those that you need and use.

This is a solid list to get you started. Entertaining yourself sometimes takes loads of creativity. Next time you are bored, take a look around your space and find something you haven’t used for a while, or something that needs to be organized and get to work. And with a plethora of free and cheap entertainment options on the internet, there is no end to the ways to entertain yourself at home.

The post 28 Free or Cheap Ways to Entertain Yourself At Home appeared first on Lifehack.

In today’s smaller “efficiency” kitchens, conserving counter space is important. That’s why every kitchen should have the Blechk and Dorkier cabinet-mounted cat. This space-saving new design keeps kitty out of the way when not in use.

Via RocketNews24.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Kittens

The color is lovely, and the pattern is just too too! I can only find them in white in my size — you simply must tell me where you shop, darling!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Bears

Architect and freelance illustrator Maja Wrońska (previously) continues to amaze with her beautifully executed watercolor paintings of iconic cityscapes from around the world. From London and Paris to Prague and even Disney Land, the Polish artist brings a colorful, dreamlike perspective to everything she paints. Wrońska has been extremely active since we first covered her work here back in 2012, see much more on Behance, and pickup prints and other things on Society6.

Faz duas semanas falamos do interesse da Apple no mundo dos automóveis. Agora é oficial, a Apple anunciou que o seu sistema operacional iOS e seu assistente virtual Siri vai chegar a 18 fabricantes de carros.

O nome do sistema é CarPlay (apple.com/ios/carplay ), a primeira aparição da Apple mundo do motor que vai nos permitir ter carros capazes de se conectar diretamente com nossos iPhones. O painel desses veículos será capaz de acessar o Apple Maps (não Google Maps), músicas no nosso iPhone, nossas mensagens, etc. assim como dar comandos de voz ao Siri durante a condução para nos dar instruções ou ler mensagens para nós.

Teremos esta integração de iOS em veículos da BMW, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Jaguar, Land Rover, Kia Motors, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Peugeot, Subaru, Suzuki e Toyota, que lançarão seus novos modelos para CarPlay ainda em 2014.

Podemos gerenciar chamadas, mensagens, música ou mapas, mas até agora não foram anunciadas integrações com outras aplicações.

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Artigo escrito no br.wwwhatsnew.com

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Acompanhe também as notícias pelo twitter: twitter.com/pooldigital ou pelo RSS

É extremamente importante criar imagens para poder divulgar mensagens nas redes sociais. Os posts com imagens são mais atrativos no Facebook, no Twitter, no Google Plus… mas é necessário conhecer as ferramentas adequadas para poder criar bons resultados sem ter muito conhecimento de programação e design.

Para isso lhes recomendo estas três opções que, disponíveis de forma gratuita na Internet, podem ajudar bastante:

- clippingmagic, aplicativo que ajuda a eliminar o fundo de qualquer fotografia para obter um elemento específico, semelhante ao que faz a varinha mágica do Photoshop, mas com resultados mais rápidos e sem necessidade de instalar nada.

- picmonkey é uma excelente solução para criar banners com efeitos, texturas, stickers, tipografias variadas, marcos e muitos outros elementos que permitem construir um banner em poucos minutos.

- canva, aplicativo muito completo que ajdua a encontrar milhares de trabalhos já realizados por designers do mundo todo para usá-lo em nossos banners. Muitos dos componentes são gratuitos, mas esta ferramenta precisa sim de cadastro.

E vocês, o que usam para criar banners na Internet?

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Artigo escrito no br.wwwhatsnew.com

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Acompanhe também as notícias pelo twitter: twitter.com/pooldigital ou pelo RSS

Off to The Land Of Maru and Hana. What have we here? This big thing is a cat bed, believe it or not. Mugumogu says “I bought this cat bed for Hana, because she is sensitive to cold. I forecast that Maru did not like this. Because he does not like warm beds.” OK, fair enough.

Well, The Circle may not like warm beds, but those are Maru ‘Tocks.

[It's mine. What is Fatso doing in there?]

[Some help?]

[Mwah ha ha.]

[Later.]

[HA! I knew I'd get in here eventually!]

Spotted by Cuteporter Andrew Y.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Maru

When you hear the term flower photography, it probably doesn’t inspire a particularly powerful reaction. There are plenty of gorgeous images of flowers — from wildflower fields to beautifully-lit bouquets — and so the genre isn’t somewhere we usually look for inspiration.

That is, until we ran across photographer Mo Devlin‘s stunning shots of frozen flowers.

Devlin isn’t primarily known for these shots. In fact, if you Google him, you’ll immediately come up with some beautiful photos of fish (that are well-worth taking a look at, by the way). For some reason, however, it was the frozen flowers that captivated our imagination.

He’s photographed everything from posies, to daffodils, to roses; all frozen in blocks of ice. We’re not sure why, but the ice just adds a certain something to the photos that draws you in. We caught up with Mo to ask about the project, and he was kind enough to answer a few questions about this work:

PetaPixel: What inspired you to embark on this project in the first place?

Mo Devlin: I’ve always enjoyed photographing flowers. The idea that has now developed into an ongoing project actually started when I tried to freeze an old Seiko watch. At the time I also froze a single rose in my wife’s flower vase. The vase froze and broke, leaving me with more or less a column of ice with the rose frozen inside… and an upset wife. I took some photos of the flower and liked the way they looked.

PP: What kind of challenges have you faced trying to capture these images?

MD: The problem that I had was that the ice that encased the rose was for the most part, cloudy with clear edges. I did some research and found that ordinary tap water, when frozen, captures all the minerals and impurities and clouds the ice. I tried boiling the water, but had mixed results. I ended up using distilled water and had some of my best results. I continue to tweak the aquatic formula to improve clarity.

Clarity comes not only from the liquid, but also the shape and size of the container. I started calling the frozen creations “flower pucks” primarily because the majority of my initial attempts were done in small Pyrex custard bowls. Over the past year I have frozen blooms in containers as small as an ice cube and as large as a one gallon plastic container. Each freezes differently.

PP: Have you run into any surprises along the way?

MD: One of the things that was most interesting to me was the various frozen bubble trails that escaped from the flower. I noticed that sometimes the trails were longer. Curious, I did some research to try and determine exactly why this was occurring.

The answer was in the science of freezing. Water freezes at 32 degrees. As it gets colder the molecules in the water slow down and become denser. At 39 degrees it is actually denser than the ice it will form when solid. This contraction basically compresses the object in the water — in this case, the flower — squeezing out oxygen. As the water gets colder, approaching the freezing point, it begins to expand. As it expands it slowly “stretches” out the bubbles to form those beautiful trails.

PP: Can you describe what exactly we’re looking at in these images?

MD: Many of the photos are macro close-ups of sections of the flower puck. Some of the images are of clusters of flowers. Other of flowers that I have taken the time to dye by putting the cut stem in a container of colored dye. And still others were of plants that were close to near dead, frozen to capture one more gasp of the beauty of the flower as it decayed.

With all of my photos I strive to maximize the color and composition. I think I like the experimentation as much as I do taking the photos. I know that I have become somewhat obsessed with my frozen posies because when I bring flowers home, my wife asks, “Are those for me or the freezer?”

PP: What sort of gear do you use to capture the photos?

MD: For all of the shots I used a Nikon D800E with 60mm VR Nikkor lens. Most often I utilize a polarizing filter. The puck, for the most part, is suspended over my stainless kitchen sink (a perfect reflector) and lit from below with one or two Nikon SB-910 flash units. The light is diffused with a Gary Fong light sphere and directed either up or at an angle through the bottom. A piece of opaque Plexiglas holds the puck. I use two or three Nikon SB-200 kicker speed lights alongside or above the puck.

The nice part about all of the light is that I am able to shoot at a very low ISO (25), shutter speed (1/320th) and a very high aperture (f/30 – f/40). All of the photos are hand-held. I manually focus where I want to set my composition and make slight adjustments in my position to bring the area into focus. I do adjust the aperture slightly as indicated, but never change the ISO or shutter speed.

Here’s a look at some of the photos in Devlin’s Frozen Posies series, which you can see in full over on Zenfolio:

A bit thank you to Mo for answering our questions and creating something awesome. To see more of his work or follow him as he continues to experiment with frozen flowers and other interesting photography ideas, head over to his website or follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

(via Northeast Photography Club)

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Image credits: Photographs by Mo Devlin and used with permission

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Thanks for sending in the tip, Vaibhav!

 

So Valentines Day has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean we should stop telling the people closest to us how we feel about them. Here’s how you can do just that in 99 different languages. Granted, I have no idea how you would even begin to pronounce a good chunk of these but hey, love is about putting in the effort. Te amo!

How To Say I Love You In 99 Languages | Euro Talk

The post 99 Ways To Say “I Love You” appeared first on Lifehack.

Kitteh, a leetle higher up please – the knot in my back is keelink me.

As seen on Bits and Pieces. CO Butt Bed bunch begins here or here!

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Kittens, Sleppy

Final de semana super prolongado chegando e muitos vão aproveitar para beber cerveja. Mas essa bebida – consumida com moderação, claro – tem os seus benefícios para a saúde. E esse infográfico criado pelo pessoal da Box1824 revela alguns dessas qualidades:

Interessante não? Mas não custa nada reforçar a velha máxima: “Se beber, não dirija.”

O post INFOGRÁFICO | Os Benefícios da Cerveja apareceu primeiro em Comunicadores.info.

• paul0v2's blog

Não é nada incomum uma menina, ainda bem criança, gostar de vestidos, sapatos e de se emperequetar toda com as roupas da mãe. Mas existe um jeito muito mais legal de canalizar tudo isso do que aquelas crianças precoces que vemos no Instagram vestidas como adultas com peças de grife dos pés à cabeça.
A Angie, mãe de uma menina de quatro anos que ela apelidou de Mayhem (Baguncinha, em tradução livre), ao ver que a filhota adorava customizar vestidos de princesa e roubar suas roupas, teve uma ideia ao mesmo tempo simples e incrível: ela sugeriu que as duas começassem a fazer vestidos de papel. Alguns de criação delas mesmas, outros copiando peças do tapete vermelho. O resultado é uma verdadeira doçura:

Reconheceu os looks de Jennifer Lawrence, Taylor Swift e Katy Perry? Mas as criações mais fofinhas mesmo são as da própria dupla:

A Angie diz que não é nada pouco ligada em moda, e que todos os vestidos são criados igualmente por elas duas, mas que Mayhem produz bastante: “Uma das coisas mais legais desse projeto é que a vejo aprendendo novas habilidades a cada dia. Hoje ela sabe exatamente de quantas folhas de papel precisa para fazer uma parte de cima e quantas para uma saia. Ela sabe montar tudinho e ir colando com fita adesiva. Claro que os mais complexos têm mais ajuda minha, mas ela está sempre ao meu lado aprendendo algo novo se não está rasgando ou colando enquanto eu faço o mesmo”, disse Angie em entrevista ao blog Mommy Shorts, revelando que Mayhem chega a fazer vestidos sozinha enquanto a mãe está na rua, como esse:

Angie conta ainda que além vários tipos de papel (ofício, laminado, de presente…), elas também brincam com lenços de seda, tule, papel alumínio e afins: “O que tiver solto pela casa e for dobrável tá valendo”. Para colar tudo, elas usam fita adesiva e cola. Se Mayhem vai crescer apaixonada por moda? Angie não faz ideia, mas confessa estar surpresa com o fato de que nove meses depois do início da brincadeira, a filha segue cada dia mais motivada. Para conferir todos os vestidos criados por mãe e filha, vale visitar o Instagram da Angie. Claro que Mayhem é a fofura mor da história, mas parabéns à essa mãe, que explora o interesse da filha de forma tão produtiva, fugindo do que vemos tanto hoje em dia: consumo desenfreado sendo estimulado desde cedo. Ela pode dizer que não tem nenhuma ligação com a moda, mas entendeu direitinho o real espírito desse universo: criatividade e diversão.

Fotos: Instagram 2sisters_Angie

Ponzu, the Golden Retriever, has a BFF; Best Feline Friend.

And, Ichimi, the rescued kitten, has a Furrever Friend!

They have been together since last fall.

Ichimi may not know it but Ponzu already has a nose for Best Feline Friends.

Once upon a time, Wasabi was Ponzu’s BFF too.

But Ichimi is there for Ponzu now, and Ponzu is there for Ichimi.

Looks like the beginning of a beautifulz friendship!

Ichimi sez, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!”

Synchronized Snoozers!

What’s a little love bite between friends?

Complete deets via Bored Pand-awww.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Interspecies Snorgling, Kittens, Pups, Sleppy, The Marc Anthony Experience

Alguma vez na vida você já deve ter se perguntado como seria se a sua celebridade ou personagem de ficção favorito pareceria se fosse coberto de tattoos (ou não.)

Nesse caso, graças á Shopped Tattoos, uma galeria no Tumblr, seus sonhos podem virar realidade. A Shopped Tattoos funciona como uma curadoria para fotos dos ídolos photoshopados com tatuagens. Eles cuidadosamente selecionam ou criam as imagens, não só com um olhar atemporal, mas também levam em conta quem é quem antes de tatua-las.

| via

We’ve seen all matter of snow and ice photography here on Colossal, as well as time-lapses of melting snow and snow drawings, but this is the first video individual snowflakes forming I’ve ever come across. Created by filmmaker Vyacheslav Ivanov this microscopic short shows the intimate details of fragile snowflakes as they form in their miraculous hexagonal forms. Robert Gonzalez writing for iO9 gives us an idea of what we’re looking at:

The ice crystal(s) in snowflakes owe their six-fold rotational symmetry to the hydrogen bonds in water molecules. As water freezes, water molecules bound to other water molecules crystallize into a hexagonal structure, where each point on the hexagon is an oxygen atom and each side of the hexagon is a hydrogen bonded to an oxygen. As freezing continues, more water molecules are added to this microscopic six-sided structure, causing it to grow in size into the six-sided macroscopic structure that we recognize as snowflakes.

We have a line into Ivanov to see how he filmed this and will update as soon as we hear something. Music by Aphex Twin.

(via Kuriositas, PetaPixel, i09)

Update: Ivanov confirms from his home in St. Petersburg that the video is indeed genuine (non digital) and was filmed through a microscope with a “lot of effort and patience.”

Plants are a common item in many homes and workplaces, but do you know about all of their amazing benefits? The biggest benefit of indoor plants is definitely cleaner air. They can remove up to 87% of air toxins, and can eliminate a minimum of 300g of carbon dioxide. They also help to create a more comfortable humidity level.

If you have a stressful job, you can really benefit from a desk plant since it will help to lower your stress levels – especially after completing a task. A few things you may not know about plants in the workplace is that they not only reduce absenteeism, but also help increase creativity and work speeds when it comes to computer tasks.

The infographic doesn’t just stop at the benefits in an office environment, it also shows the power of plants in hospitals, schools and hotels. Do you have plants in your workplace and if so, have you noticed any of the above-mentioned benefits?

The Power of Plants in the Workplace | Ambius

The post The Power of Plants in the Workplace appeared first on Lifehack.

A lot like Betty Boop, only boopier. Boop-boop dee doop!

The Meta Picture.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Kittens

Human photographers aren’t the only ones dragging their cameras to every corner of the globe in search of the decisive moment. As it turns out, a little LEGO man spent a year doing the same thing as part of life-sized human photographer Andrew Whyte‘s fun ‘The Legographer’ series.

Being a whimsical series, all of the photos were shot on Whyte’s aging iPhone 4S using the 645Pro (and, later, the 645Pro Mark II) app to take the pictures and Snapseed to edit them.

When we caught up with Whyte (a professional long exposure photographer by trade) over e-mail, he told us why exactly he chose to use his iPhone rather than his expensive Nikon gear:

For my first attempt at a 365 series I knew it had to be portable and spontaneous — my commercial photography, long exposures at night, is rarely either of these. My mobile phone fitted this agenda perfectly and had the added bonus of having a much closer minimum focusing distance than any of my Nikon gear. That’s how I get up close to the figure and force the perspective to make him look life-sized.

The phone did pose some challenges; low light performance, for example, was a real hurdle. Still, thanks to 645Pro, he was able to generate 20Mb TIF files each time he took a photo, and the print quality that resulted really “blew him away.”

In addition to the low-light challenges, another major hurdle Whyte had to deal with was the weather. Towards the end of his year-long project, the weather began making it difficult to photograph the little 2″ high, 1oz bit of plastic without some double-sided tape or, at times, more drastic measures.

Challenges aside though, Whyte says he would definitely do it again. “For a year, the minifigure was like my own model whom I could pose and compose — something that’s seldom needed in my real work,” he tells us. “So despite occasional frustrations, honestly I had so much fun and I continued to learn a lot about photography throughout.”

Here’s a selection of photos from the series:

With the fun little series being so popular, Whyte has received a lot of questions from people wanting to do similar projects. Here are a few ‘top tips’ he shared with us for those of you who would like to try your hand at this:

• Look for a story: small-scale items work well as you can crop tightly around the scene and pose the figure appropriately. Similarly, grand vistas can also work, with the minifigure acting as a foreground element.
• Get down low: to manipulate scale you need to get right up to the minifigure, sometimes as little as 3 or 4 inches away. I almost always worked at ground level but a low surface can work if you get the positioning right and take time to line up the horizon.
• Manage your expectations: if you’re using a smartphone there are limitations. Low light capability is usually one downside but a torch/flashlight can often add illumination to the scene. When it’s raining, look for reflections in puddles. If it’s contrasty lighting, try a silhouette to overcome issues with dynamic range.
• Double check your focus: sharpness on the figure is high up the list of things that make these shots work. Don’t dismantle your scene ’til you’ve checked your pic.
• Be ‘Appy: 645Pro (for iOS) allowed me to focus in one area and meter from another, along with giving me high quality input files for processing. Snapseed (and recently Faded) were two apps I’ve used to tune my photos — you pretty quickly get a feel for latitude, even when viewing only through the phone’s screen.

To see more examples from the series, or if you’d like to check out some of Whyte’s commercial long exposure work, head over to either the Legography webpage or follow him on his website and Twitter by following the corresponding links.

(via ABC News)

While you may be very proud of your flat screen TV, there may come a time when you prefer it to be a bit more decorative than it actually is. Whether you want to hide your TV away at times or you just want to spruce up how it looks in general, we have found 10 genius ways that you can disguise it.

From building a cabinet to hide the TV completely to simply putting a DIY frame around it, you can make that television look like you spent a fortune on it, even if you bought it at a yard sale.

There are many ways to add a bit of elegance and glamour to your home without spending a lot of time or money. These ingenious TV disguises are both beautiful and practical and the best part is you can do them all yourself and most of them take very little time and just a few supplies that you may already have on hand.
Post divided into 5 projects/page. Use the the navigational buttons to navigate.

Frame It In Fencing

You can build a beautiful rustic looking frame around your TV using old fencing. If you have some wooden fencing lying around or you can pick some up at a yard sale somewhere, you can use those boards to build a very interesting frame around your television and it will look like you had it custom built.

Tutorial Link – Remodelaholic

Trim It

With some door casing trim, you can put a beautiful spin on your television frame and make it match any décor. This entire project costs less than $25 from start to finish and you can complete the entire thing in less than a weekend. Pick up the casing trim and shelving at your local hardware or home improvement store and the other supplies you probably already have on hand.

Tutorial Link – Tommyandellie

Hide It Behind Art

If you prefer to have beautiful artwork gracing your walls instead of the TV most of the time, you can easily build a bracket that will allow you to actually hang your artwork over your television to hide it away. When you want to watch television, you simply raise the artwork up and the TV is right underneath it.

Tutorial Link – Johnsjournal-Maria

Mix It In With Silhouettes

By displaying your flat screen on the wall with various artwork, it will virtually be hidden away while it is actually in plain view. You just have to choose the frames that you want and select images to fit those frames. The key is in making all of your hangings look like they belong together and then the TV just magically fits in.

Tutorial Link – Bhg

Put It Behind Closed Doors

Put it behind closed barn doors, that is. Making sliding barn doors to cover your TV is probably a lot easier than you think. The doors are installed on tracks so that they actually slide to cover the television when it is not in use. When you want to watch, just open the barn doors and let the fun out.

Tutorial Link – Kristendukephotography

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