The Modern Renovation of Prahran Hotel

The Prahran Hotel and pub was recently resigned and renovated by Australian-based architectural firm Techne. The designers replaced the old design  that was built in the 1970′s with a very unique and modern one by using large concrete pipes as both the pub’s seating and outer facade.

The building is a two-story and the tubes are stacked on top of each other and there are 17 pipes total to cover the two-story building. This allows enough natural light to enter the building.

The Famous Shoes of Famous Icons

Federico Mauro is an  Italian multimedia designer and art director whose Famous Eyeglasses became popular in the web and so he decided to create another series, which is the Famous Shoes. This is another minimalist series that gives emphasis to the famous footwear of iconic and popular personalities.

“The minimalist series shows only a single shoe and the name of its wearer beneath it, although some of them are so well-known that they need no introduction.” - Federico Mauro

Creative Designed Sugar Skulls

Can you imagine yourself having a coffee with a skull and bones swimming in your coffee? Well, of course I’m not talking about skulls and bones literally but rather a detailed skull sugar. Snow Violent is the one behind this creative and detailed skull sugar and find this a great way to start a day. The artist develop this spooky skull and bones sugar.

Cute Toddlers Tasting Lemons For The First Time

These photo series is a combine project by photographers April Maciborka and David Wile which they named it as “Pucker”. This photo series features different toddlers who tasted lemons for the first time.

The Oval House In South Korea

“The Oval” house is the sixth and final seaside mansion as part of the Jeju Airest City resort in South Korea. It has open structure that hopes to seamlessly incorporate nature. This house was designed by the Seoul-based architects Planning Korea. The goal for the design of this house is for the residents to enjoy the four seasons of the year.

The trademark of this house is it oval-shaped atrium in the living-room. There are tress that lives in the said atrium. The house is flooded with natural light and it is surrounded by plants inside and out of the house.

Papakolea Beach: The Green Sand Beach

The Papakolea Beach is one of the four known green sand beach in the world. It is located in Hawaii and also called as the Mahana Beach. Talofofo Beach in Guam, Punta Cormorant on Floreana Island in the Galapagos Islands, and Hornindalsvatnet in Norway.

But what makes the sand green in Papakolea Beach? The sand color is due to the presence of a mineral called Olivine. Olivine is a silicate mineral containing iron and magnesium, and is a common mineral component of Hawaiian lavas, because it is one of the first crystals to form as magma cools.

Louise Caola’s Cakes That Looks Like Savory Dishes

These photos can definitely make your mouth waters but looks can be deceiving for these food that look like savory dishes are not what they seem. These are cakes design by an amateur baker named Louise Caola.

The London-based baker has been helping her mother in the kitchen ever since she was a kid and she literally fell in love with baking at such young age. She studied fashion marketing at a university and had a job in advertising but still, she was still able to do her passion for baking cakes during her free time. It was her friend’s birthday when she first baked sausage and potato mash cake. Her food artwork received a lot of praises and this fueled her passion for baking.

She then started creating more cakes and decided to upload photos to her social media accounts like twitter and Instagram. This became a medium for many people to know her food artwork and she has received a lot of orders. She then started taking her passion for baking seriously and even quit her job. She named her cake brand as Poppy&Lulu.

Missing My College Friends

It has been almost a month since we graduated from college. But I am already missing their presence. For the past four years, they have been my constant companion through my ups and downs. They think of me as the leader of the group maybe because I have always been there to help them with academic matters.

But of all the things I did for them, for letting them copy my assignments, for doing their reports, for writing speeches for them, and a lot more, never did I ask for something in return. But I have seen how they tried to return some favor to me. No matter how people say that they are very much dependent on me, I would not mind because they are my friends. Many people think that they are benefiting from me but little did they know that they also have helped in several ways. Whenever I can’t attend school and missed some of the lessons, they usually send me through email those topics that has been discussed in school. And whenever I feel unwell during school hours, they immediately go to our clinic and ask for some medicine. They also bring a lot of food in school and share them not only with me but to all of our classmates.

I consider my friends as sisters that I never had. They know everything about me but never did they judge me and condemn me from those wrong things I did. But they do scold me when I did such wrong things and I do the same with them. This is for us to know and improve ourselves for the better. We serve as mirrors with each other.

And since we are now facing another chapter of our lives, it is now very hard for us to be together, but I will see to it that we will not lose communication. Some of them already flew outside the country for work and some are already on their probationary period in their local work. I am looking forward to our reunion by next year and seeing them successful in their own field is definitely also an achievement on my part.

Friends, so long..

My Top 5 Morning Rituals

I would like to share with you my top 5 morning rituals. Almost everyday I do these morning rituals of mine as longs as I am at home.

1. Praying

I never forget to thank God for giving me another day to live in this earth. Waking up every morning is the best gift that God gave me because this only shows how much love He gave me for giving me the opportunity to experience a lot. For me, praying in the morning is the best time to communicate with God. During this spiritual moment, I am not only asking for my personal benefit but also for my family and friends especially for those people who are away from their home.

2. Jogging

I usually jog or walk around our street around 6 o’clock in the morning. It usually take me about 30 minute to 45 minutes jogging around our street. Sometimes I go on my own but sometimes I go with my cousin who want to lose weight and she think that jogging in the morning is the best and ideal time for her to burn the fats in her body. Another thing why I love to jog is because I want to see the sun rise in the morning. There is a certain area in our village where the sun rise beautifully. This is one of the things that made my day.

3. A Cup of Coffee With Dad

It is always good to talk with dad early in the morning. We usually talk about the things happening in our country especially in the economy and in politics. It is very enlightening to know his views with these topics. When the impeachment trial trial of the Chief Justice Corona is on going, we usually talk about it. We laugh how the prosecution deliver their case and we love how the defense team rebut all of the evidence presented by the prosecution. Though sometimes we do not meet in some point, but we do respect each other’s opinion.

4. Taking a Bath

Right after an enlightening conversation with dad, I then headed to my room and take a bath. It has been my ritual to take a bath in the morning and in the evening. I always dream of having a bubble bath but we do not have a bath tub at home. I just hope we can have one in the future.

5. Breakfast While Watching Movie

After taking a bath, it usually follows a healthy breakfast that has been prepared by mom. And me and my brothers usually watch movies in the living room while we are taking breakfast. I prefer a romance movie but my brother want an action and a thriller one. So I just stick to what they want and watch my favorite movie later in the afternoon.

Insect Sculptures Made From Matchsticks

These intricate and handmade insect sculptures made of matchsticks were created by artist Kyle Bean. The said artist who is based in Brighton has this passion for reconstructing everyday materials to turn them into a form of art. He says his work fuses “our human relationship with science and technology and the everyday materials that are around us.”

His artwork conveys minimalistic art form. When he present his work, the insects were mounted in frames while others where hung. For documentation of his artworks, he worked with photographer Owen Silverwood.

Tug of War With Tigers

In Changsha Ecological Zoo in China, visitors can have a great and unusual experience of having a tug of war with a tiger. According to the staff of the zoo, the animals in the zoo seem lazy and they were just lying around and do nothing while they food are being serve and eventually they become overweight and they lose interest when it comes to any physical activities. This is why the staff thought of something like this to keep the animals alive and too make them in shape.

 

In the tug of war, a chicken is serve a bait for the tiger that is tied in a rope pulled by the visitors. For 45 yuan/$7, you can experience this unusual experience. And so far, the tiger won most the games.

 Photos © www.china.org.cn

The Paradise In San Antonio Prison

In the Margarita Island of Venezuela lies the San Antonio Prison, a not so typical kind of prison for it features a paradise inside. The armed guards make rules in a typical prison but in this unusual prison, the prisoners are the ones who make the rules. The prisoners have this freedom to do what they want to do like watching TV, surfing the internet on their laptops, cooking their own food, and they can even manage a business on their cellphones. But there is only one thing that they cannot do and that is to escape the prison because this can lead to their instant death since there are sharpshooters in the prison towers.

 

Prisoners received a lot of privileges like having jobs and earn money while inside the prison. Some of them are barbers, and some operate a cock fight club that generates a revenue for them. Even their wives and girlfriends are allowed to come and go as they please. Their children can also enjoy having a great swim in one of the prison’s four pools.

The prisoners at San Antonio owe all their privileges to one Teófilo Rodrigues, also known as “El Conejo” (The Rabbit) because of his reported addiction to carrots. Rodrigues, a convicted drug trafficker, is the prison’s “pran” – the inmates’ top leader. His trademark, the Playboy logo, appears on numerous prison walls as well as tattooed on some inmates’ bodies as a sign of allegiance and loyalty to him. He has established himself as the true leader of this place by improving living conditions and making San Antonio weirdly safer than other prisons. Along with his bodyguards, El Conejo also imposes some rules of conduct and those who disobey are allegedly severely punished.

Leandro Granato Paints With His Eyes

An Argentinian artist Leandro Granato made use of his eyes to paint. He has done this kind of method by snorting the paint through his nose and push the paint out of his eye socket. He uses 800 ml of paint for each piece. This talent of his was discovered by him during his childhood. “Ever since I was a kid I knew I had a special connection between my eye and my nose,” he explains. “As I grew up I started realizing air and liquids could go out of my eye if I put them through my nose.”

This is now new technique of painting which he called eye-painting.  “When I decided I would do this for a living my whole family thought I was going crazy – as well as many other people”, says the artist. But he prove them wrong and now, each of his artwork are sold for $2,400. Each artwork can take him between 10 minutes and 10 months to finish.

According to him, the artist Jackson Pollok is his biggest inspiration. Pollok is known for his abstract works using the drip technique. Granato says “Jackson Pollock is one of my inspirations mainly because at first nobody understood him, and he was pointed out to be crazy.” But it wasn’t until the death of his grandfather that he actually began exercising his artistic talents as a coping mechanism. He says that “My motivation to become an artist first came when my grandfather died because of cancer” adding that “After this loss, I started painting to overcome this pain.”

“Some say I’m crazy, but my technique doesn’t hurt my body,” Leandro Granato explains, adding that “I’m constantly being examined by expert doctors, and the formula I came up with is harmless. It will not cause me any health problems in the future.”