Author: signordal

Sweden’s Ice Hotel Reveals This Year’s Incredible Art Suites Carved from Ice and Snow

signordalLeave a comment

The iconic ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, just 200km north of the Arctic Circle, has once again unveiled its annual art suites. As well as being the world’s first and largest hotel made from ice, the frozen kingdom has become famous for exhibiting incredible, fully functional art suites every winter, carved from thousands of tons of ice.

At the first sign of snow, artists come together from all over the world to take part in creating the hotel’s annual art exhibition. “The energy released here when creative people from a wide variety of backgrounds and places meet the ice is almost tangible,” says Arne Bergh, a partner sculptor who’s been part of ICEHOTEL since the beginning. After several months of planning, the selected designs are then made into reality once the nearby Torne River freezes over to supply the ice. This year, 26 artists from 11 countries helped to build the 28th exhibition, which officially opened its doors on December 15, 2017. From a Fabergé egg themed bedroom, to a room of giant snow-snails, the dream-like suites include some of the most elaborate designs to date.

Previously, the entire hotel and it’s sculptural rooms would sadly melt away each spring. However, 2017 is the first year that the rooms will stay intact year-round—thanks to the hotel’s newly implemented sustainability plans, allowing the hotel to stay cool using solar panels. The permanent structure—aptly named ICEHOTEL 365—houses this year’s highly anticipated sculpted art suites. They’re so good, we’re already looking forward to next year’s designs!

Find out more about the ICEHOTEL via their website.

Sweden’s iconic ICEHOTEL has recently revealed their latest sculptural art suite exhibition.

Ice Hotel Sweden
Ice Hotel Sweden

Each fully-functional room was carved from ice and snow and designed by artists from around the world.

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “Monstera” Art Suite, designed by Nina Kauppi & Johan Kauppi. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “Livoq” Art Suite, designed by Fabien Champeval & Friederike Schroth. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “Queen of the North” Art Suite, designed by Emilie Steele & Sebastian Dell’Uva. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “Radiance” Art Suite, designed by Natsuki Saito & Shingo Saito. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

“The invisible (invincible) army” Deluxe Art Suite, designed by Nina Hedman & Lena Kriström. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “Danger Thin Ice” Art Suite, designed by Franziska Agrawal. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Thanks to the hotel’s newly implemented sustainability plans, this year’s art suites will stay open all year-round.

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “Daily Travellers” Art Suite, designed by Alem Teklu & Anne Karin Krogevoll. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “Follow the White Rabbit” Art Suite, designed by AnnaSofia Mååg & Niklas Byman. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “Ground Rules” Art Suite, designed by Carl Wellander & Ulrika Tallving. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “King Kong” Art Suite, designed by Lkhagvadorj Dorjsuren. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “Last Fabergé Egg” Art Suite, designed by Tomasz Czajkowski and Eryk Marks. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “Wandering Cloud” Art Suite, designed by Lisa Lindqvist. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “White Desert” Art Suite, designed by Timsam Harding & Fabián Jacquet Casado. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “Hang in There” Art Suite, designed by Marjolein Vonk and Maurizio Perron. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

Ice Hotel Sweden

The “34 Meters” Deluxe Suite, designed by Luca Roncoroni & Dave Ruane. (Photo: Asaf Kliger / ICEHOTEL)

ICEHOTEL: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
h/t: [Contemporist]

All photos via Asaf Kliger and ICEHOTEL.

Related Articles:

Sweden’s Iconic ICEHOTEL Is Now Open 365 Days a Year

2015 ICEHOTEL Opens Doors for Another Season of Sleeping in a Room Made of Ice and Snow

Sweden’s 25th Icehotel Stuns with Enchanting Frozen Rooms

Fantastic Ice Sculpture Scenes Carved by Alaskan Couple

The post Sweden’s Ice Hotel Reveals This Year’s Incredible Art Suites Carved from Ice and Snow appeared first on My Modern Met.

http://ift.tt/2BKZrmc

Happy first day of winter! ❄️☃️❄️It is a magical time to visit…

signordalLeave a comment

Happy first day of winter! ❄️☃️❄️

It is a magical time to visit Yosemite National Park in California. The silence and beauty of winter at Yosemite is an unforgettable experience as mesmerizing granite formations are dusted with snow and reflected in the glassy surface of the Merced River. 

Check out these amazing photos of public lands in winter: https://on.doi.gov/2Bt6ijV

Photo by National Park Service.

The Real Reason You Don’t Achieve Your Goals (and One Easy Thing You Can Do About it)

signordalLeave a comment

You’re reading The Real Reason You Don’t Achieve Your Goals (and One Easy Thing You Can Do About it), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Do you ever feel like it’s so hard to get things done?

Like you’re stuck in a hamster wheel running and running, but you never get anywhere?

The work keeps coming and you think to yourself, “I can’t wait until the one day I catch up with everything so I can finally get started on what I’ve really been dying to work on,” but the day seems to never come and you have no idea when it ever will. You just hope one day, it does.

You probably have caught on by now how hard it is to achieve your goals let alone make the time to try and complete them. It doesn’t take long from going to the gym for the first few days to missing that first day of your workout to eating the tub of ice cream to comfort yourself from the feeling of failure yet again.

You’re not alone, and fortunately, there is something surprisingly simple you can do to finally achieve your biggest goals and accomplish things you never would’ve imagined being able to do.

When It Comes to Achieving Your Goals, Inspiration is Never Enough

When you hear the underdog stories of people achieving some of the biggest successes who came from nothing, you can’t help but be inspired and experience a little boost of motivation to something about your own life as well.

The problem is inspiration isn’t enough. How many times have you been inspired to make a change in your life whether it’s to lose more weight, quit smoking, or spend less money only to find yourself in the same old bad habits again?

Inspiration these days are easy to find. You can watch a Ted talk at the click of a button, or stream some Netflix to watch an amazing movie. The real problem here isn’t about finding more inspiration or motivation, it’s about the routines you have in your daily life.

You’re Routines You Can’t Get Yourself Out of Are the Key Problem

Maybe you’ve wanted to write your book, but taking care of two kids and providing for your family daily makes it tough for you to find the energy to squeeze in time to write. Maybe you’ve been hoping to eat healthier, but you get so busy at work it’s hard to find the time to get a proper meal. Maybe you want to quit smoking, but the stress at work always makes you crave that cigarette so bad so you run outside to light it up.

The reality of why it’s so hard to break out of old routines is simply the fact that it is a routine. We are creatures of habit. Charles Duhigg explains in his book “The Power of Habit” how the basic structure of our habits consists of a cue (trigger), the routine, and the reward.

http://ift.tt/HOnajH

For example, when you wake up first thing in the morning, you have your phone next to you and your curiosity triggers you to check your email. You want to know if you received any interesting emails so the routine is to browse your inbox, and once you do so, your curiosity is rewarded and a surge of dopamine takes place to makes you feel good.

Duhigg teaches the key to turning bad habits into good ones is when a cue triggers you to start a certain routine, you need to figure out how to change the routine into another one that still produces the same reward.

If you were a smoker and your ten-o-clock break time comes, this cues you to go out to the street and light up a cigarette in order to obtain the reward of relieving your stress by getting that rush of nicotine in your body. The idea is maybe rather than doing the same routine of lighting up a cigarette, maybe you can go for a nice walk or meditate to achieve the same reward and relieve your stress.

I’ve attempted to change my routines, but it was so much easier said than done. Especially when the cues come up so often, it’s so much easier to just stick with what you know or what you have been doing already. It wasn’t until I realized there was one simple thing I could to change up my routines, which was to change the environment that promoted my old routines.

The Key to Changing Up Your Routines: Start making Changes in Your Environment

Science has shown when you change your environment such as when you go on a vacation to a beautiful tropical country abroad, it rewires your brain, which can promote both mental and physical health.

The same applies when you want to replace a bad habit with a good one. If you were to change up your environment even in the smallest ways, it can interrupt your brain from going into the same old habit and develop new neurons in your brain to increase your capability of changing.

The key is to change up your environment in a way to make it as easy as possible for you to partake in the new routine you are trying to set for yourself.

Let’s say you’ve been hoping to read more, but you find yourself too busy to do it. You examine your daily routines and you realized you spend about an hour on your phone every night distracted by random information on your social media feed before you go to bed. A few small changes to make to your environment can be to put your phone in the living room at night and place the book you want to read on the nightstand next to the bed so you have direct access to it when you hop in.

By modifying your environment in this way, the chances of you developing a new routine is much higher than if you were to have your phone in your room next to your bed and your book out of reach on the bookshelf in the living room.

So when you’re feeling down about not achieving all the things you were going for, maybe the simple subtle changes you can make to your environment will lead to the big results you are hoping for.

Let’s test this out! I’d love to hear about any results from the simple changes you make to your environment in the comments below.

You’ve read The Real Reason You Don’t Achieve Your Goals (and One Easy Thing You Can Do About it), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

>

National home prices are expected to take a hit after tax reform…

signordalLeave a comment

The Real Reason You Don’t Achieve Your Goals (and One Easy Thing You Can Do About it)

signordalLeave a comment

You’re reading The Real Reason You Don’t Achieve Your Goals (and One Easy Thing You Can Do About it), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Do you ever feel like it’s so hard to get things done?

Like you’re stuck in a hamster wheel running and running, but you never get anywhere?

The work keeps coming and you think to yourself, “I can’t wait until the one day I catch up with everything so I can finally get started on what I’ve really been dying to work on,” but the day seems to never come and you have no idea when it ever will. You just hope one day, it does.

You probably have caught on by now how hard it is to achieve your goals let alone make the time to try and complete them. It doesn’t take long from going to the gym for the first few days to missing that first day of your workout to eating the tub of ice cream to comfort yourself from the feeling of failure yet again.

You’re not alone, and fortunately, there is something surprisingly simple you can do to finally achieve your biggest goals and accomplish things you never would’ve imagined being able to do.

When It Comes to Achieving Your Goals, Inspiration is Never Enough

When you hear the underdog stories of people achieving some of the biggest successes who came from nothing, you can’t help but be inspired and experience a little boost of motivation to something about your own life as well.

The problem is inspiration isn’t enough. How many times have you been inspired to make a change in your life whether it’s to lose more weight, quit smoking, or spend less money only to find yourself in the same old bad habits again?

Inspiration these days are easy to find. You can watch a Ted talk at the click of a button, or stream some Netflix to watch an amazing movie. The real problem here isn’t about finding more inspiration or motivation, it’s about the routines you have in your daily life.

You’re Routines You Can’t Get Yourself Out of Are the Key Problem

Maybe you’ve wanted to write your book, but taking care of two kids and providing for your family daily makes it tough for you to find the energy to squeeze in time to write. Maybe you’ve been hoping to eat healthier, but you get so busy at work it’s hard to find the time to get a proper meal. Maybe you want to quit smoking, but the stress at work always makes you crave that cigarette so bad so you run outside to light it up.

The reality of why it’s so hard to break out of old routines is simply the fact that it is a routine. We are creatures of habit. Charles Duhigg explains in his book “The Power of Habit” how the basic structure of our habits consists of a cue (trigger), the routine, and the reward.

http://ift.tt/HOnajH

For example, when you wake up first thing in the morning, you have your phone next to you and your curiosity triggers you to check your email. You want to know if you received any interesting emails so the routine is to browse your inbox, and once you do so, your curiosity is rewarded and a surge of dopamine takes place to makes you feel good.

Duhigg teaches the key to turning bad habits into good ones is when a cue triggers you to start a certain routine, you need to figure out how to change the routine into another one that still produces the same reward.

If you were a smoker and your ten-o-clock break time comes, this cues you to go out to the street and light up a cigarette in order to obtain the reward of relieving your stress by getting that rush of nicotine in your body. The idea is maybe rather than doing the same routine of lighting up a cigarette, maybe you can go for a nice walk or meditate to achieve the same reward and relieve your stress.

I’ve attempted to change my routines, but it was so much easier said than done. Especially when the cues come up so often, it’s so much easier to just stick with what you know or what you have been doing already. It wasn’t until I realized there was one simple thing I could to change up my routines, which was to change the environment that promoted my old routines.

The Key to Changing Up Your Routines: Start making Changes in Your Environment

Science has shown when you change your environment such as when you go on a vacation to a beautiful tropical country abroad, it rewires your brain, which can promote both mental and physical health.

The same applies when you want to replace a bad habit with a good one. If you were to change up your environment even in the smallest ways, it can interrupt your brain from going into the same old habit and develop new neurons in your brain to increase your capability of changing.

The key is to change up your environment in a way to make it as easy as possible for you to partake in the new routine you are trying to set for yourself.

Let’s say you’ve been hoping to read more, but you find yourself too busy to do it. You examine your daily routines and you realized you spend about an hour on your phone every night distracted by random information on your social media feed before you go to bed. A few small changes to make to your environment can be to put your phone in the living room at night and place the book you want to read on the nightstand next to the bed so you have direct access to it when you hop in.

By modifying your environment in this way, the chances of you developing a new routine is much higher than if you were to have your phone in your room next to your bed and your book out of reach on the bookshelf in the living room.

So when you’re feeling down about not achieving all the things you were going for, maybe the simple subtle changes you can make to your environment will lead to the big results you are hoping for.

Let’s test this out! I’d love to hear about any results from the simple changes you make to your environment in the comments below.

You’ve read The Real Reason You Don’t Achieve Your Goals (and One Easy Thing You Can Do About it), originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

>

LeBron James is the second highest-paid athlete in the world —…

signordalLeave a comment

Agnes Martin, Richard Tuttle, and the Line Between

signordalLeave a comment

Art history was born as a process of comparison: the stiffness of an early Greek kouros compared to the natural pose of a later figure; side-by-side images clicking into place from whirring lantern slide projectors; the hackneyed term “juxtaposition” that launched a thousand essays. At Pace Gallery’s “Agnes Martin, Richard Tuttle: Crossing Lines,” Tuttle, channeling Martin, introduces a different concept, which he calls “augmentation”—a relationship and exchange between two artists’ works that goes beyond simple comparison.

http://ift.tt/2CNZPja

Fall snow drifts across Rocky Mountain National Park in…

signordalLeave a comment

Fall snow drifts across Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. By now, Dream Lake, Bear Lake and Emerald Lake are frozen, but the frosty beauty of these areas still draw hikers throughout the winter. Swirling clouds and cracked ice make gorgeous pictures, but please be safe and carry the proper gear. Photo by Carlton Fuqua (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl).

How Can Stroke Prevention Save Your Life

signordalLeave a comment

No one wants to think about the possibility of having a stroke, but someone in the United States has a stroke an average of every 40 seconds. It could be life altering or even life ending.

The good news is that it is possible to survive a stroke and it’s also possible to prevent one from happening in the first place. You should take steps to understand your risk factors, make lifestyle changes, and finally plan for your best possible outcome should the worst happen.

Do You Have Risk Factors For Stroke?

There are certain risk factors that make you more prone to developing a stroke. According to the National Institutes for Health, here are some of those risk factors:

  • Increased blood pressure
  • Personal history of stroke
  • Diabetes
  • Existing heart Disease
  • Smoking
  • Malformations of brain blood vessels
  • Age
  • High Cholesterol
  • Gender
  • Race or Ethnicity
  • Family history
  • Poor diet
  • Stress and Depression

See Also: 4 Ways To Overcome Depression Naturally

When you have any of those risk factors, it’s important to check your lifestyle and make the necessary changes to prevent stroke. Eat a healthier diet, be more physically active and quit smoking. Seeking medical treatment for other risk factors is also crucial.

stroke risk factor

See Also: 16 Essential Tips for Quitting Smoking

How To Know If You Are Having A Stroke

When you or someone you love is having a stroke, it isn’t always immediately obvious. Someone having a stroke may just seem tired or even a little drunk, so early warning signs are often brushed off.

According to the American Stroke Association, you should think FAST. It’s an acronym which stands for:

  • Face drooping
  • Arm weakness
  • Speech difficulty
  • Time to call

Another easier method is to have the person stick out their tongue and see whether it is lopsided.

No matter what, if you suspect you or someone else is having a stroke, you must get to the nearest emergency room immediately or call 911.

call 911

Stroke Prevention: Giving Yourself A Better Chance Of Survival

Obviously, getting yourself to the hospital as soon as you suspect a stroke is crucial to your survival. Preventing a stroke from happening in the first place is also a great idea. But if you know you are at risk and you have already done everything you can to prevent a stroke from happening, it’s time to plan for the worst-case scenario.

How do you give yourself the best chance of surviving a stroke once it already starts?

With a little planning, you can identify which hospitals in your area will give you the best chance of surviving a stroke. It starts with identifying the Comprehensive Stroke Centers.

A hospital with a Comprehensive Stroke Center certification is one where the doctors, nurses, and other staff have been trained to work together to ensure the best possible outcome for stroke patients. These healthcare professionals are constantly updating their training to be on the cutting edge of research that will allow patients to recover more quickly and more thoroughly.

This research is not only used to stop your stroke as quickly as possible, but it is also used to put you on the right path toward recovery. It can help you get your life back as quickly as possible.

It’s not always easy to identify which hospitals in your area are certified as comprehensive stroke centers. This is why it is important to do your research ahead of time and talk it over with your family. When you make a plan before anything bad happens, it will be that much easier to get where you need to go in an emergency. It could save your life.

Learn more about Comprehensive Stroke Centers from this infographic. A little bit of preparation could lead to a 7% reduction in death when the absolute worst happens.Comprehensive Stroke Centers

The post How Can Stroke Prevention Save Your Life appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

http://ift.tt/2DewcII