Results tagged “photos” from The official blog of Vat19.com

I'm sure the White House is impressive enough on a regular day, but during Christmas it must be particularly amazing to see all of the elegant holiday decorations. In Christmas at the White House by Jennifer B. Pickens, you can check out 500 photos taken from 9 different administrations.

This would be an awesome "coffee table book" to give someone (like me!) for the holidays. It's pretty pricey at $75.00, but it has over 400 pages of decorating perfection. Not wanting to flip through this book would be un-American. Just kidding! But still, I think it would be really interesting to see how different administrations decorated the same house differently.

Photofetti might be the neatest confetti ever. You can upload any photo and have it printed onto confetti. If you don't want a photo, you can also choose to have words printed. What makes them extra cool is that they are double sided and you can have a different photo on each side. This is great because then you don't have to worry about which side lands face up as you sprinkle it around.

Sure, confetti is a mess to clean up, but it's fun! For more unique photo gifts, visit the Vat19.com store.

Halloween is just a few weeks away, so if you are one of those people (I am!) who carve a pumpkin, you better start thinking of what design you are going to do. Carving a pumpkin is tedious, time-consuming, and messy. Nonetheless, I think it is totally worth it when you are done, put a candle inside, and see how cool you made a boring pumpkin look.

If you like to use patterns when carving your pumpkin, this site has some neat (and free!) patterns for all skill levels.

You might find some inspiration from these awesome jack-o-lanterns. I can't say that I have carved pumpkins as creative as some of these....yet! Maybe this year!

Here are four fabulous Flickr finds.

1. Smiley Pumpkin

This looks awesome even when it isn't lit up!

2. Ampersand Pumpkin

It is such a simple design, but I've never seen an ampersand carved into a pumpkin, so that's cool.

As a bird lover and owner, I may be a little biased when I say that a yawning bird is one of the cutest things you'll ever see. But really, it is. Below, I've compiled a number of images and clips that show birds (including babies) yawning.

This baby cockatiel looks a bit like a yawning, uncooked chicken wing:

Judging by the fact that he can't stop yawning, I'm guessing this adult cockatiel is probably viewing this thread. If it hasn't made you yawn yet, this video will do the trick.

Even yawning, these bald eagles look kind of terrifying.

This Rose-Breasted Cockatoo looks awfully alert to be yawning.

This may be the laziest sun conure ever.

This image of Bluebell yawning comes from The Bird Forums.

The yawning seagull comes from this site.

This yawning cockatiel comes from a feature on yawning animals over at Let's Go Bandito.

Just as we humans have freaks in our ranks, the plant kingdom has plenty of plants that are incredibly strange. Below, we've profiled a few of our favorites:

1. Wolffia plants, aka watermeal - These tiny flowers look like floating specks, but they're actually the tiniest flowering plants in the world. They'd make adorable bouquets and corsages for little ants and bees.

2. Welwitschia mirabilis, a plant whose nicknames sound just as foreign as its scientific name (and thus, are not listed here) - The welwitschia is an incredibly strange desert plant that can live for hundreds and possibly even thousands of years. Each one has two leaves, a stem, and roots. That's it. As they get old, they just get more and more tattered.

3. Makahiya, the bashful mimosa - These mimosas are much like all the other mimosas, with one key difference. They fold up their leaves when you touch them.

4. Amorphophallus Bulbifer - These strange plants get their name from the greek amorphos, "without form, misshapen" and phallos, "penis". It's also said to smell like dirty socks.

5. Solanum Mammosum, aka "Cow's Udder Fruit" - Just because people refer to them as fruit, that doesn't mean you should eat them. They're poisonous.

We all know pretty much any image can be created and altered with Photoshop. Sometimes the image looks so real you don't even have a suspicion it's a fake. The SelfKiss collection is an impressive example of Photoshop magic used to create photos of people kissing themselves.

Pupsam's website is in French, and the translated page isn't so great. But, the general idea seems to be that these photos capture a single moment of a kiss that will never exist, since it is impossible for it to ever happen.

It probably took a lot of time to make the two photos mesh so well together. If you don't have hours of time and you don't have hella Photoshop skills, maybe you could buy yourself a Gorillapod, set the timer on your camera, and make out with a mirror. (I kid, I kid! Please don't actually do that.) For those of you with an identical twin, don't get any incestuous ideas. Gross.

Call it creepy, narcissistic, homosexual, or whatever else if you want. But, after looking past the unusualness, I actually think these photos are creative and intriguing. It's interesting to see differences in posture, facial expression, hand placement, degree of closeness, lips together or apart, tongue in or out, eyes open or shut, clothes on or off, etc.

You can see 27 SelfKiss photos at Pupsam's website. You know you're curious.

We usually don't blatantly promote our products on our blog, but we are so excited about the Doodlebook Picture Frame we couldn't help it. It is a unique gift, but you'll probably also want one for yourself!

The Doodlebook is a 4x6 picture frame that has an 80-page notebook where the frame would be. If you want to create a new "frame", simply tear off the top sheet and start a new one! Decorating possibilities are endless with the Doodlebook, but here's a few ideas to get you started. After all, you've got room for 80 ideas!

• Doodle, of course!
• Label who is in the photo and where it was taken.
• Write quotes, poetry, or song lyrics.
• Play games, such as Tic-Tac-Toe or Hangman.
• Leave love notes.
• Write reminders or To Do lists.
• Create a flip book. Flip books are awesome, so it'll be well worth the work.
• Want to make fun of a bad photo? Let the frame say it.
• Invite your guests to draw or write. Don't allow lame things you'd see on a bathroom stall like "Beth was here".
• Take down phone messages. Just make sure you remember to tell the receiver to check the frame!
• Let the kids color on it and give as a gift for Mom, Dad, Grandma, or Grandpa. If your kids can't contain their masterpieces to a frame, you might want to get them a larger Art Cabinet for display.
• Solve math equations, geek.
• Write down the website from an infomercial.
• Let the kids decorate with stickers. What kid doesn't loooove stickers?

The Doodlebook Picture Frame is available from our website, www.vat19.com for $14.95.

Twenty years ago, there were basically two ways to enjoy the interesting photography of complete strangers. You could either find it in print somewhere, or you could attend classes and gallery showings in your area. Today, the Internet offers more photos than any of us could ever hope to look at. In an effort to narrow things down a bit, we’ve selected a few of the best photo series we’ve come across.

The Danvers State Asylum - Dark tunnels, eerie lights, and a tortured past make this photo series worth a look.

Deep Sea Creatures - To survive deep below the ocean’s surface, animals have adapted in strange ways. The creatures in this photo series look like they could just as easily be Star Wars Cantina patrons.