Check out these beautiful images of snow flakes and other ice structures thanks to Russian photographer Andrew Osokin. On his LensArt profile he has some really beautiful pictures, and over 480 of them so take your time and look.
Photo: Rampkins
At only $575 dollars this steampunk keyboard is just almost worth it. I mean it's a steampunk Buccaneer Mk2 keyboard. It has a leather embossed backing, wooden keys, a solid walnut frame with antique finish, intricate brasswork and all other kinds of steampunky goodness.
Photo: Rampkins
Link | Via Nerd Bastards
Photo: MaboroshiTira
Deviantartist MaboroshiTira really likes Game Boys. So much so that she built a giant cardboard one, I don't really know for what purpose but it's still cool. No it doesn't work, you can't play Dragon Warrior 3 on it, but all the buttons are push-able and the on/off switch and volume dial both turn.
If you could play with a giant (working) Game Boy, what game would you play?
Photo: MaboroshiTira
Link | Via Obvious Winner
Photo: Today I Learned Something New
I checked the office twice, no one here is British so I can't confirm exactly how accurate this is. That being said, I am picturing all my favorite English movies and characters and it plays out pretty well. Like Simon Pegg from Shaun of the Dead or Stanley Kubrick from A Clockwork Orange or even Harry Potter from.. well you know. I don't know about you guys but I read this out loud (without thinking) and in my best British accent. My favorite line is probably "could we consider some other options."
Any English followers out there that can confirm this guide?
Photo: Sograph
The Berlin wall came down in 1989, for Bulgarians that meant finally escaping the clutches of Communism. In Sofia, that capital city, things were a challenge with high rent prices and opening up new business with a store front was no easy task. So what to do? Open a business in a basement, that's what!
"Klek" shops are small pop-up convenient stores that operate out of basements, using a small window as a means of doing business. These aren't new, klek shops have been around since the fall of the wall, but they are starting to disappear. Luckily Deviantartist Sograph has put together a great gallery of the shops around Sofia before they are all gone.
Photo: Sograph
Link | Via Web Urbanist
Photo: Baked Ideas
What is more quintessentially American than a 3-foot-tall Abraham Lincoln Gingerbread Statue? It's completely edible and made with rice krispie treats, chocolate, fondant, royal icing, cookies, and peppermint sticks. This was completed by Patti Paige of Baked Ideas.
Located at Le Parker Meridien in NYC, it's a good thing the statue is some 2,800 miles away from the Neatorama offices. While I would feel very guilty about eating the 16th President's bow tie, eat it I would.
Via Foodiggity
Photo: Angela Mercedes Donna Otto
From splotches of tea, coffee, and juice, Angela Mercedes Donna Otto was able to create these astounding works. The beauty in a lot of art comes from the naïvety of people assuming on approach that "oh I could do that." Upon further examination, the realization usually dawns on them that they indeed could not.
At the base of Angela Mercedes Donna Otto’s art is “apophenia”, a term used by psychologists to describe the pursuit of the human mind to construct meaning, order and forms even from chaotic structures (e.g. seeing faces and shapes in clouds). She starts the creative process by making random splotches of coffee, tea and various fruit juices on a paper canvas, to create all kinds of chaotic patterns. Then, she spends hours on end in her studio, contemplating the stains and using her imagination to identify meaningful patterns and shapes. Finally, the motifs she finds in the visually stimulant material are extracted from the patterns by drawing with colored ink.
I love the idea of art as apophenia. We have all caught ourselves at one point or another trying to connect the dots (figuratively) on some pattern that doesn't really exist. A cynic might say religion to some extent has a level of apophenia in it. All that being said, I don't necessarily think falling into this pursuit of constructing meaning is an inherently bad thing. We got these beautiful works out of it after all.
I wonder what sorts of juices she was using. Pomegranate, cranberry, and grapefruit would all have some nice colors. Tasty too.
Photo: Angela Mercedes Donna Otto
Link | Via Oddity Central
We all know the Holiday season is a time for indulgence. Who can say no to a candy cane, let alone a Jumbo Bacon Candy Cane? No one - that's who. I know that sounded like a rhetorical question but it wasn't. I love being indulgent.
First of congratulations to Matt for getting a cat, he probably needs it after that terrible terrible week of depressing comics from Cyanide and Happiness. I wonder what would happen if I brought my dog with me to work.. que Scrubs-esque day dream. I probably wouldn't get a whole lot done, end up playing let-go-of-that for most of the time.
Photo: Occupy Christmas Party
Okay, maybe not so much a minimalist Christmas tree as a cheap bastard Christmas tree. Aptly named the "Real Steel" Christmas tree after the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots movie with Hugh Jackman. It was found as part of a list of some great examples of people being indifferent about the Holiday Season.
Link | Via Hyper Vocal
Game of Thrones has released a first look trailer of the upcoming Season 3. I am really freaking excited. Normally I refuse to see a movie / TV show because I am too dedicated to the book, well it works the other-way-round with Game of Thrones.
I didn't know about the series until I watched the first HBO season, and I was hooked. I love the characters and the especially the actors too much to read the books- if I read them, their characters will take on a life of their own and I feel like I would be slighting the people I have come to love. Seriously Emilia Clarke, I will marry you.
The problem with that is I have to wait like a whole year until I can learn what happens next! What a bummer. Thankfully, as time marches on, we are getting closer and closer to the most promising season yet. March 31, 2013 - save the date.
Via Flavor Wire
Photo: Inn at Laurel Point
Canada has a National Gingerbread Showcase every year, apparently. This year one of the entries was a beautifully delicious looking Millennium Falcon titled "Canoe Wars" and made by the Canoe Brewpub.
As one person commented, Santa can indeed deliver presents much faster in a Millennium Falcon.
Link | Via Nerdalicious
Photo: ShutupLori
Want to keep your beer cool in style? Look no further than the Pirate Chest Cooler. Just an ordinary Igloo cooler, some ordinary wood and paint, turned into an extra-ordinary pirate booty beer cooler. See what I did there? Thanks to Redditor ShutUpLori you can have one now too.
Via Foodiggity
Photo: BARAD-DÛR BOX SET
I watched Elf last night, you know the movie with a young Zooey Deschanel and Will Farrell, this reminds me of a scene from that movie. Buddy (Will Farrell) stays up all night beautifully decorating a Christmas store, well I am sure some gleeful employee of whatever store this is was doing just about the same. Only when this employee woke up I am sure there wasn't a beautiful Zooey Deschanel singing in her raspy voice while showering in the women's locker room. What department store has a locker room?
Link | Via Obvious Winner
Photo: Theo Jansen
Dutch artist and designer Theo Jansen creates miniature Strandbeest kinetic sculptures, his latest is called "Animaris Geneticus Ondularis." Don't worry folks, he has been doing this for a while. This little guy was produced by the 3D printing servie Shapeways and you can even buy one for yourself.
Link | Via Laughing Squid
