The Pineneedle Collective: Melbourne

Saturday, 11 October 2014

Brighton Beach | Why is your brain inside your head?

Here's some photos from the vault! These shots were taken back when I visited Melbourne in July, while me & my mum were being touristy-tourists at the Brighton Beach bathing boxes.

It was a typically-overcast, freezing Melbourne winters day, and I think that the amount of clashing patterns that I ended up wearing was more out of necessity (I didn't bring enough un-patterned clothes with me), than me making a fashion statement! Regardless of this, I'm always going to love wearing a ridiculous amount of clashing-patterns, so I didn't mind this forced fashion statement at all.

My mum decided that she wanted to get in on taking outfit photos too, so I present to you all: my mum's very first outfit post!

Can you see where I get my love of pattern-mixing from??

My mum would definitely have to be one of the biggest style influences in my life. She's never been afraid to rock up to work or any event wearing cute mary-janes, a gorgeous thrifted dress and the craziest/coolest patterned tights she can find! (p.s. you should all leave some super nice comments about how stylin' my mum is; she is my blog's number one fan and you will make her day, I guarantee you!)

So: embedded below is my favourite science video of the week!

Some things are just so ingrained that you don't even think about questioning them. Have you ever thought about why your brain is inside your head before?

No? Me either.

But the more you do think about it, the stranger it seems. Why isn't your brain tucked away inside your torso with your other vital organs like your stomach, heart and liver? What's it doing all the way up there, wobbling around on your neck, so far away from all the organs it has to communicate with?

Let this video blow your brain!

I hope that you've all had a great week,

Monday, 28 July 2014

Melbourne ♥

If you follow me on instagram then you may have already seen some of my photos from my trip to Melbourne last week! The polar opposite of my home city of Sydney, I completely fell in love with Melbourne in my short 4 days of visiting. It's such a pretty, interesting city, so I just wanted to share some of my favourite photos and places!

As all my friends had abandoned me for the uni break, I went with my mum - who suggested that we rename the trip "the Instagram holiday" because we basically just ended up visiting places suggested by lovely people on Instagram (and were never disappointed, thank you SO much alexvandenbroek, fentonjulia, sallylandillustration, frombelle, thatgirlinthatdress, misspolkadot_, sparklemiss, maevekerrc, ellielilac) and by my wonderful friend Leila.

The first place that I need to talk about is De Jour Jeans (542 Sydney Rd, Brunswick). They sell custom-fitted jeans for $53, and have the cutest shop assistants of all time! Even though it might not look like much, Dejour Jeans is extremely popular, and if you go on a Saturday there's usually a queue out the door! We were smart and went early on a Monday morning (and it was still really busy).

But the best bit: you pick out a pair of jeans, and if they don't fit perfectly they tailor them for you for free!

Me wearing my new jeans!

Savers (330 Sydney Rd, Brunswick) - the largest op shop I've ever been in. I was a little bit overwhelmed. LOOK AT ALL OF THIS.

St Kilda/Brighton Beachhuts

I really felt like I was on a beach in England, especially because most of the time that we were there, the weather was quite gloomy!

Fitzroy/Collingwood

One of the best things about Fitzroy was the street art! This was all found along Johnston St:

But of course, the absolute best thing about this area was all the vintage and handmade shops. Sadly I couldn't get to them all in one day, but I tried my hardest!

Above, Sally's Retro (203 Smith St Fitzroy). Below, Vintage Garage (318 Smith St, Collingwood).

The two streets to go to for some heavenly window shopping (and sneaky changing room selfies in dresses you're never going to buy) are Smith St and Fitzroy St (Gertrude St was also suggested to me, but it's more cafes!)

Messina Icecream (237 Smith St, Fitzroy)

Okay, so although Messina is something you can find in Sydney, I just thought the wall here was really cool.

The Laneways & The CBD

Lady Petrova (237 Flinders Lane)

I nearly died of excitement when I stumbled across Lady Petrova's real-life store. It was like stepping into pastel heaven. I took a billion pictures, talked to the cute shop assistant (Me: "OMG! You guys are amazing and you sponsor my friend in America aoifnsodginodffggjk" shop lady: "Yeah, sure we do....." *crazy lady*) and I also tried on a very pretty dress. The first thing I did upon leaving was to message Kailey about 1,000 pictures of the place, as she is the one who introduced me to the brand!

Quick Brown Fox (262 Flinder's Lane)

I bought myself the cutest little apple earrings from this store. I wanted ALL the earrings, though.

Kinki Gerlinki

One of the coolest designers I have ever come across! Those tapestry shoes above have CLEAR platforms. There are a couple of stores scattered across Melbourne, and while it is pricey, I recommend you visit one just to look at all the pretty things.

Clementine's (7 Degraves St)

This store stocks the best handmade goodies, all made in Melbourne. The above brooch set is from a Melbourne designer named Bok Bok B'Gerk.

Retrostar Vintage (1/37 Swanston St)

The number of pretty dresses here nearly killed me - but somehow I was overcome by this incredible restraint, and I only bought 1 ring(???)

I am kind of regretting not getting the stripey red dress though, even if it was a little bit too big...

On our last night we went to Soda Rock Diner (257 Toorak Rd, South Yarra), an authentic reconstruction of a 1950s diner! The thickshakes and cheesy fries were phenomenal!

I hope you enjoyed my little travel post! If you live in Australia and have never been; or if you are thinking of visiting Australia - GO TO MELBOURNE. That's all I can say. I seriously loved it almost as much as I loved Japan (and do you guys remember how much I loved Japan??!)

All of the love,