The Pineneedle Collective: February 2014

Friday, 28 February 2014

House Purse & Astronauts!

That bag I'm wearing right there? It's only a MOTHER-FLIPPIN' HOUSE PURSE! I know, I know - best thing ever, yes? Well, if you're anything like me and obsessed with novelty items then yes, it is indeed the best thing ever. I thrifted it from some market stalls, from these gorgeous rockabilly girls, for only $10. The bag didn't have a long-strap when I bought it - only a really short chain - so I just added one and... bam! It's a shoulder-bag! It's also completely wooden and so a little bit impractical for everyday use, but I don't care, I'm going to try and wear it out as much as I possibly can!

I don't wanna just wave this house purse around in your faces without helping you find your own - search for house purse on ebay and you'll actually find a few like this (I found some here, here, here and here!)

I really went all-out in this outfit, novelty-wise. I'm also wearing an astronaut around my neck from Ginger Pickle, and a bowl of fruit loops from Tash Tash Jewelry on my fingers. There's really no theme going on here apart from "wear weird stuff" - all of the items are fairly incongruous! But I really like that about this outfit.

So of course, what would be more appropriate now than to have a science item about an astronaut? This video is unlike any other hair/beauty tutorial on youtube - Astronaut Karen Nyberg, while onboard the International Space Station, shows you how she does her hair in space!

Karen Nyberg is one of my heroes because she's also a sewer, and brought sewing stuff up to the international space station in order to do some quilting!! Apparently, sewing in space is fairly difficult - cutting and stitching in weightlessness makes everything very different!

I hope that you're having a marvellous day,

Oh! And p.s., my DIY circle skirt dress tutorial is now up on curious.com! It's super useful if you're watching the video while you MAKE the dress, because it's been broken up into segments for each step! Check it out ;)

Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Unicorns & Collars / How to Slow Down Time

Dress is thrifted | Handmade unicorn pin c/o Ginger Pickle | socks and bag are thrifted | sock cuffs are DIY

I am thoroughly fed-up with what has seemed to be the longest summer ever here in Australia, because it's prevented me from being able to wear patterned tights and layer up with cute cardigans (which, if you have been following my blog for a while, you will know that these are my "things" when it comes to clothing!) So I've been having to find ways to make my outfit more interesting, while still wearing as little as possible to deal with the heat. One solution I have found for this has been to wear interesting brooches/pins, like this unicorn pin from Ginger Pickle! Ginger Pickle is one of the stores that I listed on my Ethical Fashion Directory back in September last year, so I'm pleased to now be collaborating with them on my blog; they're a store that I really believe in and want to support! They also stock the CUTEST STUFF - go and check them out, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Today I have a video from Discovery News (presented by the wonderful Laci Green) about ways in which you can both alter, and have altered, your perception of time! Enjoy.

I'm also going to add that my perception of summer being the longest ever has totally been affected by not being able to wear patterned tights. Somehow. Yes. So scientific.

Have a great day, guys!

Monday, 24 February 2014

Clown College / The Four Percent

Dress is DIY | bag is vintage | hairclips from my friend Katie

I absolutely cannot wear my hair down while wearing this dress. If I do, I am 100% a clown. Red curly hair plus this very childish dress = a children's entertainer outfit (not that there's anything wrong with clowns or children's entertainers, but it's simply not the style that I aspire to).

This is the first dress in which I attempted my new circle-skirt-dress-plus-sleeves-plus-a-collar pattern (you can find the entire thing on my youtube channel), and I thought that this discounted Michael Miller fabric was as good a fabric as any to try it out on (it's still on sale for 2 more days if you want to buy some for yourself)! I did, however, sew right through my finger while making this dress. Sewing is just so wild. *Sew* wild, even. #YOLO. One of my fingernails has turned a lovely shade of black as a consequence, and shall probably fall off soon. Oh, the joys of sewing.

So this is absolutely crazy - did you know that 96% of the universe is made up of stuff that we have never, ever seen? We don't even know what it is. Everything that we do know about - matter and atoms and molecules, everything that makes up both our bodies and the Earth - only accounts for 4% of the "stuff" within our universe. The below video is part of a 60-second-lecture series from Penn University, and I highly recommend that you check it out!

Saturday, 22 February 2014

Before & After: A jumpsuit to a cute dress!

Just like in my post about those tricky skirt-shorts almost 2 years ago, I have been tricked once again by some strange item of clothing at an op-shop. I thought the thing below was a nice long floral vintage DRESS - until I got home, tried it on, and was thoroughly confused/disappointed:

Oh boy. Not my style, sorry.

I had bought the "dress" with the intention of shortening it into a cuter dress, anyway, so I figured that the sudden appearance of pant legs would just provide an additional challenge!

Dress is DIY (restyled) | necklace is thrifted | shoes are Naot Kedma's

It was actually really easy to turn this into a dress (and yes, I filmed the entire process for anyone who is interested, it'll be on my youtube channel within a couple of days!) So now I'm actually on the lookout for weird old jumpsuits in op-shops because it turns out that they actually make really great dresses!

How is your day going?

Friday, 21 February 2014

Musicality / Relativity

Top is thrifted | skirt c/o Sheinside (old) | socks and belt are thrifted | shoes c/o Chicwish (old)

Thank you very much to the girl who was selling all her clothes & old fabric at Glebe markets the other weekend! This scalloped blouse is absolute perfection, I love it so much! Not only can I layer it under dresses, but it looks cute with a simple skater skirt like this music-print one I'm wearing today.
I've never talked about music much on my blog before, but it is has been and still is, to some extent, a very large part of my life. While I was growing up, I learned how to play the drums (and bass and piano as well, but mainly drums) for several years. I learned when I was in my mid-teens when I was very into hard-punky-rock (haha) so I had a pretty full-on style of drumming at the time, though I did mellow out and learn how to do quieter, slower things like jazz drumming. Although I've stopped now, I still love playing the drums whenever I can get my hands on someone's kit. I'm also that annoying person who is constantly drumming on everything they can get their hands on, from tabletops to the seats on the bus. Are there any other lady drummers out there? Leave me a comment, let me know!

This is what I'm going to leave you with today:

This comic is by Calm Blue Oceans (check them out, they're pretty funny!)

I hope you're all having a great day,

Tuesday, 18 February 2014

Cherries & Blueberries & A Pile of Viruses

Dress is Forever 21 (years old) | bolero is thrifted | shoes are old | ring is DIY (made using this tutorial) | cherries c/o Sarsparilly

This ring is dangerous. Everytime I wear it, I get some intense cravings for apple-and-blueberry pie, which is completely full of sugar and not something one should be consuming on a daily basis. (My pancake stack ring is even worse). If I'm going to start wearing food clothes all the time, I'm definitely going to develop a terrible diet! Maybe I could remedy this by wearing solely health-food-themed clothes. E.g. a spinach-patterned shirt. A broccoli brooch. Quinoa-print pants. Kale socks. Sound like a good idea?

So if you haven't heard of XKCD's What If before, you're really missing out ;)

People send in psychics/biology/mathematics/general science questions featuring ridiculous hypotheticals (such as "Is there a way to fire a gun so the bullet can safely be caught by hand"?), and they're thoroughly and seriously answered, all necessary mathematics included. Anyway, I wanted to share this brilliant one with you all: "What if every virus in the world were collected into one area? How much volume would they take up and what would they look like?"

Viruses are tiny, tiny microscopic things. They're much smaller than the cells that make up your body, much smaller even than bacteria. In fact, your own body is home to 3000000000000 individual viruses (YES, INSIDE YOU RIGHT NOW), and this is actually fairly low compared to other environments. And even with all those viruses, all the human viruses in every 7 billion human bodies in the world would fit into 10 oil drums.

But the question was, how much space would all the viruses in the world take up?

Read the answer on What If!

Have a wonderful day, and try not to catch a virus.

Monday, 17 February 2014

And I'm Feline Good

Dress is c/o Romwe (old) | blouse is thrifted | tights from Daiso | Shoes from Asos

Hi guys! Hope you're all FELINE great! Do you these great puns will CATch on? I think so. They're pretty pawesome. Just like this dress! It's purrfect! I also figured out a way of wearing it without having a boob-CATastrophe (because of the mostly-sheer top) by layering a simple vintage blouse underneath it. I'd be lion if I said I wasn't a little bit proud of my innovativeness here.

Okay, okay, I'll stop with the cat puns now. Stopped.

Pawsibly.

I may have shared this before, but I think it's time to share it again. Thanks to AsapSCIENCE, you can now learn the science of cats. Do you know why cats always land on their feet?

Have a pawsitively great day,

I'm Selling My Clothes! (Round #2)

I have just listed 40 new items in my shop! Some items are reserved for people who asked for them, but these may become available again if those people decide they don't want them anymore (or I don't hear from them), so keep an eye on these things too ;)

Again, I'm selling a lot of my favourites here, that either don't fit me anymore, or that I think that I have hoarded for long enough and want to pass on to someone else! Also, if you want to browse through my past outfits and you see something that catches your eye, and it's not listed in the store, email me (annikavictoria@gmail.com) and I might just sell it to you, as long as I'm not too attached to it.

Click here to shop.

Sunday, 16 February 2014

DIY Peter Pan Collar

I'm too tired for words right now. Let me know what you think, though :)

Friday, 14 February 2014

Cherry Pancakes (DIY Dress) & Confirmation Biases

Dress is DIY | bag is thrifted | shoes are thrifted | ring is DIY | cherries c/o Sarsparilly

Say hello to my brand new pancake dress! I've been planning this particular dress for months, then spent two days sewing it up all perfect, and right now I couldn't be happier with it! And you'd better believe that I wore it with my pancake-stack ring. You can never have too many pancakes. Only problem with this outfit is that I AM CRAVING FOOD ALL THE TIME. It's basic stimulus and response - I see delicious pancakes all around me, I want to make and eat delicious pancakes. All. The. Time.

I also filmed how to make sleeves and how to make a peter pan collar, the first of which was uploaded to my youtube channel the other night and the latter coming soon!

So you all know how one of my favourite science topics on this blog is the psychology of human perception, and I repeatedly tell you how you can't ever trust that your own brain is giving you an accurate representation of reality (examples here, here, here, here, here and here).
But if it's the case that our perception of reality is actually pretty awful, how is it that we can ever "know" anything? How can scientists, for example, ever "know" that one theory is better than another?

The Scientific Method & Confirmation Bias

Image source

An example. One day, your phone is ringing and for whatever reason, what immediately pops into your head is "that must be Gary*". When you answer, you are pleasantly surprised to find out that it is indeed your friend Gary calling you.
"Hey! I knew it was going to be you!" you tell Gary.

The next time your phone rings, you have the same thought: "That's Gary."
And you know who's on the other end of the line? It's your friend Gary again!
"This is getting seriously weird," you think.

A couple of days later, when your phone rings, you immediately "know" that it's Gary calling you. And guess what. It is! "Oh my gosh," you tell Gary, "I don't wanna freak you out, but I think that I'm psychic. I always know when you're calling me".

In fact, it seems like you're always getting it right whenever Gary is calling you. Thus, you develop the theory that you have psychic-phone abilities exclusively for your friend Gary.

But what you actually have is confirmation bias.

It turns out that throughout the past couple of days, other people have also called you. A couple of these times the thought of "Hey, that's Gary!" also crossed your mind, but when you picked up the phone it was actually your mum, and once, a telemarketer. But because these instances didn't confirm the above-mentioned theory, you simply forget about them. This is a case of "counting the hits and forgetting the misses". For each case that confirms your belief, you place a big fat tick against the theory. But you simply ignore the times when that didn't happen. Don't feel bad - we all fall victim to this trap, and it's an extremely human thing to do. And it's yet another reason to always second-guess your own brain.

But how can we make sure that this doesn't happen, for example, in an important scientific experiment? Well, how could we test whether or not you're truly phone-psychic for Gary? This is where the idea of "blinding" comes in.

A "Blinded" Study:
Being keen to get to the bottom of your "psychic" abilities, you invite four of your friends, including Gary, over to your house. Gary and two friends go into a separate room, where you can't hear or see them. They all have their phones with them, and they're going to take turns in calling your phone at random. Another friend sits with you - they're there to make sure you don't cheat. You have a pen and a piece of paper. "I'm ready", you say.

Your phone rings. One of your friends is randomly calling you from the other room. Obviously, you can't see a number or the caller ID. You don't answer. You write "test number one", and then write down whether or not you think it's Gary calling you. Your friends in the other room have also written down "test number one", and written down who has called you.
Your phone rings again. You write "test number two", and again you write down whether or not you think that Gary is calling you.
You repeat this 50 times.

You then meet up with your friends, and compare results.

After a statistical analysis of your results, it turns out that you were actually correct in guessing that Gary was calling you only 14.28% of the time. With these results, you abandon your psychic-phone theory.

And this is how scientists avoid confirmation bias in studies as well. A simple "blinded" test, in which you, the subject, doesn't know which condition they're in (i.e. who is calling them), but is still able to respond, can help to eliminate this very human thing we do called confirmation bias.

Read more about blinding in studies (and double-blinding) here.

*Gary bears no resemblance to anyone I know in real life; I named him after Spongebob's snail.

I hope that you have a great day!