Thursday 11 July 2013

Venice & Underwater Arachnids

Venice being the city of Carnevale, and wanting to avoid the obvious horizontal-stripes à la the gondaliers, I thought it was appropriate to don my carnival-esque dress from Sheinside, featuring carousel horses, for my brief trip to the Venetian island the other day. I even wore some little gelato earrings (thanks to Freckles and Ginger), to honour the most popular product being sold at every second store that I pass (the other half are pizza/pasta joints). I'm so lucky to be here, and am loving Italy so far! Today we are going out on the Adriatic sea on two boats owned by Luciano's relatives, right next to Venice. I am super dooper lucky!

dress - c/o Sheinside
shoes - Asos
socks - Tutuanna
earrings - Gift from Freckles and Ginger
bag - Thrifted
necklace - Claire's (Japan)

When we were staying at the Italian vineyard a few weeks ago, we were in awe of (and a little freaked out by) these spiders that seemed perfectly content living underneath the water at a nearby swimming pool. They moved around really quickly underneath the water, and never had to come up for air. I finally found out what they are, and they're really really cool.
A particular type of spider called the Diving Bell spider is able to spin a web which it fills with air. They don't need to keep coming up to the surface to get more air, either, because the web acts like the gills of fish - taking oxygen from the water, and sending out carbon dioxide, so that the spider always has fresh air to breath. And they don't exist in Australia, either - which is why I had never seen them before.
Image via IFLS

These spiders can live out their entire lives basically underwater - mating, laying eggs and catching prey.

I feel pretty bad for the spider that was in our pool, now. It was a pretty boring environment for it to end up in. I hope it found a new home in a pretty river or stream instead!

Heaps of love!









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29 comments:

  1. I adore that dress! It's so cute!

    x Angela / bouncingbrunette.wordpress.com

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  2. I always love the things you wear. Your closet must be awesome, filled with all of these lovely clothes <3 I also love these photos of Venice. I only went to Rome last year and I surely want to visit more places in Italy :)

    http://chamomiledealer.blogspot.com/

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    1. It's extremely full! Haha. But I am very lucky :)
      Ahh, you have to, every different area of Italy have all been so different to each other! I highly recommend traveling to at least a few different areas :)

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  3. That dress is a complete knock-off of a Sugarhill Boutique dress.

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    1. I can't afford sugarhill boutique dresses at about $100 each, and they are still made in China & India. Having a label just marks it up 5x the price, even if it's (as is often the case) manufactured in exactly the same factory. So yeah, it may be a knock-off, but it's actually more complicated than that.

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  4. I love your hair Annika! It's been ages since we saw your short hair and it looks awesome. The dress is lovely too. I did a post ages ago where I talked about how much I love carousels. They are so magical. You should read the Thief Lord, which is a fantasy book set in Venice and which features a magical carousel! It would be the appropriate book to have read in that outfit. :)

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    Replies
    1. Ohhh ohoh thank you :) it sounds fantastic. I also am so in love with carousels - There is just something about them.

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  5. Aaah, Venice! I went there for the first time last year and it was absolutely amazing, so beautiful! I love the dress you wore too, super cute.

    I have to say I'm still recovering from the unwelcome shock of seeing a spider up close - totally freaked me out! *shudders*

    Jo x
    www.woobered.com

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  6. Your dress is gorgeous and so is Venice!
    It sounds and looks so beautiful in the books and movies that I really want to go!
    xx

    The Craziest Paradigm - a 'lil bit of rust & stardust

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  7. You look beautiful (that close-up of you is especially gorgeous!). I have this same dress and I was super sad because the zipper broke before I even had a chance to wear it! I'm going to have to replace it, sigh. Iiiiii really dislike spiders, so I can't read what you wrote about them, but the photos of Venice are so stunning!

    xox Sammi
    www.thesoubrettebrunette.blogspot.com

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    1. :( That sucks, I hate it when that happens. That's only ever happened to me with store-bought stuff so far - I guess I've been lucky, because a LOT of my clothes come off the internet.

      Haha, I'm sorry! I am massively afraid of spiders myself, and I thought that if that picture didn't even freak me out that much, then maybe everyone else would be okay, too. Oops :(

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  8. I don't think I like the idea of spiders living under water (or anywhere, to be honest). But I like your dress, and these photos are wonderful!

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  9. What a gorgeous city! Great dress, too.

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  10. Wow! You look flawless... and so does Venice.

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  11. Such lovely photos! Your dress is really awesome. The spider... not so lovely. Still cool, but not lovely.

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  12. Beautiful photos and super cute outfit =) I wish to go to Venice one day, too !

    ...and at first I read the title as "Underwear Arachnids" and freaked out that there are some tiny little spiders in Italy who can sneak into underwear and live there =D

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    1. Hahahaha, ahh no! That's horrible, haha. No, underWATER arachnids are much cooler :)

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  13. your dress is lovely and i especially like that picture of the masks! i've always been a fan of them and those are so awesome. the photos of the place you've taken are incredible and i'm feeling extremely jealous at the moment!

    Sarah
    xoxo

    http://absolutelysarahx.blogspot.com

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  14. Your dress is so appropriately Venezia! Love it! And holy wowzers, those spiders are incredible!

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  15. Totally love your photos of Italy-- it looks sensational! And this carousel dress is perfection on you!

    Xo, Hannah

    sweetsweetnoir.net

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  16. You are my dream come true. Miss you! Can we please do another remix? ;DDDDD

    love, polly :)

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  17. I am very happy to see this nice picture

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  18. I am really loving your hair short! It suits you so well!
    Great you're enjoying Italy too! I've never been to Venice, but it's somewhere I should really visit!

    I actually never heard of spiders who can live underwater, that's interesting!

    Annettibus |Irish Fashion, Beauty and Art blog.

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  19. Hello gorgeous! I've been reading your blog for a while but I've only recently joined. I love it! I love the interesting science things you put at the end of the post, I love your DIY's, I love your style... OMG I JUST LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU! Golly.. haha

    I put a button of yours on my blog and linked it to your site :)

    Please keep up the wonderful work! :)

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  20. wow I've always wanted to go to Venice, sounds so beautiful :)
    I think it is so cool that your boyfriend is italian, you must have had some great summers in italy :D xx

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  21. Oh, I really like that print on your dress and earrings are such a cute detail :D

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  22. que lindo seu vestido, muito amor! <3

    beijos

    xx

    cabecanasnuvensz.blogspot.com.br

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  23. such a cute dress! i was looking the same (or a really similar one) on ASOS for the longest time. i just checked the measurements on the site you linked to thought and unfortunately for me the bust isn't big enough even in large, SIGH. :( hope you're having a great time away, venice looks beautiful!

    little henry lee

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