Little Spotty Teapot

I wanted to try and do another "miniature" style photoshoot (see my first attempt here). This is actually my fourth attempt though, not my second... but the other two were so embarrassingly bad, that they will never be uploaded here or seen by anyone else, haha.  sweater - Thrifted cardigan - Thrifted overall dress - c/o Sheinside necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy socks - c/o Romwe shoes - c/o Sammy Dress hat - c/o Wholesale I wanted to set up the scene with a monochrome object. I found this super cute teapot lying around the house, owned by my housemate Kalynda, and thought that it'd go well with my mostly-monochromatic outfit, as well as contrasting my stripey socks. I then spent hours on photoshop trying to get the angles and shadows right - but I think it mostly worked out, in the end. What do you think? In science news, the first synthetic meat was taste-tested! (I'm pretty damn excited about this. Meat with no animal cruelty = awesome). P.s. sorry for the super short science bit today. I just started working in a lab today and I'm super dooper busy - more on that later ;) Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Space Age Children & Stardust

I think this is easily the coolest piece of clothing that I have ever owned. In my mind, kitsch clothes are the absolute best - which is why this skirt and my teapot dress are now my most treasured items of clothing. The print on the skirt is a 1956 illustration for biscuits, done in the space-age style (source of image - and check this link out because there is some great 1950s art to enjoy). Choies, where this skirt comes from, has got a whole bunch of wonderfully bizarre, kitsch clothes (LIKE THESE) which I am extremely appreciative of! top - c/o Sheinside skirt - c/o Choies cardigan - Thrifted necklace - c/o Les Folles Marquises hat - c/o Wholesale I absolutely love it when science merges with art. Spanish artist Sergio Albiac uses computer programs to generate his works, and his most recent project "Stardust" uses images from the Hubble space telescope to piece together portraits. For the portraits, he uses images that people from all over the world send to him. Naturally, as soon as I saw this - on IFLS, where else? - I jumped at the chance to have portraits of myself made. This is the result! You can still get your own ones done, and both help contribute to this art project and get your own space portraits - just follow the instructions on the website! "The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff." - Carl Sagan, Cosmos I hope you're all having a marvellous day! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Covergirl!

As much as I enjoyed the amazing adventure I had in Italy and Croatia, I was pretty excited to come back to Sydney. I missed my family, my housemates, and my house in the city. I'm also really excited to get back into studying science - this semester I get to work on some pretty awesome genetic research - and for the month that lies ahead, which includes a visit from my good blogger friend Ashley Dy!  But one of the things that I was really excited about getting back home for was seeing myself on the cover of Young Vagabond magazine! Having done a short interview with Young Vagabond and sending them a couple of pictures, I was already super excited for my first-ever magazine appearance (unless you count this). Then, when I was in Italy, I got an email from Young Vagabond asking if they could also use my photo as the cover image for their magazine! I almost immediately sent back a reply saying "ARE YOU CRAZY OF COURSE YOU CAN!!!!!?!!!@$*&@" until I remembered to be (semi) professional. Anyway, of course I said that it was okay, and this was the result! I decided that doing the same pose in the same place and wearing a pink wig like in the cover photo was appropriate for this post (I'm a dork and you all know it). So not only was this my first cover appearance (yes, first - I'm hoping for more ;) ), but Young Vagabond is exactly the type of magazine that I would have wanted to have my face on, if I had had the choice. The magazine is aimed at high-school-aged girls, but has none of the vacuous vapidness of magazines like Girlfriend, which is aimed at a similar audience (sorry, but, well, this) and celebrates the achievements of women in every kind of field (for example in their first issue they interviewed an astrophysicist!) On their "pledge", they encourage readers to think critically about the world they live in, which is a statement I couldn't agree more with. I'm honoured to be on the cover of Young Vagabond. hat - c/o Wholesale shirt - c/o Sheinside skirt - Paper Hearts tights - Kmart cardigan - Thrifted necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy And if you want to get yourself (or a teenage girl that you know) a copy of Young Vagabond magazine, you can pick it up from the Body Shop and I think Mag Nation in Australia, or order it online here. If you don't live in Australia, you can still get your hands (or eyes) on an online version here! I hope that you're all very well! There will be many more regular posts again (as soon as I get over my jetlag! And probably before then, too.) Much love, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Miniature Annika

Hello all! Yesterday Luci's family was having a day of "recovery" after meeting about 10348 Istrian relatives, so we didn't get up to much. I didn't want to spend the entire day merely relaxing beside the pool (I hate wasting my days, even on a holiday), so after reading one of my favourite photography/fashion blogs "Introvert's Introduction" (and in particular, this post) I was inspired to do a "miniature composite" outfit shoot. It was my first attempt ever at doing one of these so some of the shadows and lighting probably looks a little bit off, but you get the idea! I would like to try and do some more outfit posts in miniature version - I think they'll go well with my more doll-like outfits. The full version of the photo is below (see an enlarged version here). Let me know what you think! And if you'd like to suggest any miniature scenes that you think would suit my outfits, leave me a comment :) dress - c/o Sheinside belt - Thrifted shoes - c/o Yeswalker necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy I hope that you're all having a great day, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Velvet Feet & Supercooling

Aren't these shoes (sent to me by Sammydress) the best things you've ever seen!? I really wanted to wear them with a blue coat that I was going to turn into a cape - like the red one in these photos - but I ran out of time to do most of the sewing projects I had planned before my overseas trip! But I kind of like the clashing colours here anyway - I like it when there is something just slightly odd about an outfit. (Oh! And if you have a keen eye, you might have noticed that these photos were taken back when I was in Sydney). top - Cotton On skirt - c/o Sheinside (similar) cape - DIY necklace - c/o Les Folles Marquises shoes - c/o Sammydress (sold out, but similar here, here, here and here) Firstly I should apologise to the (apparently) many arachnophobics who read my blog! I am also someone who is extremely uncomfortable around spiders (which is great for living in Australia when a giant one jumps out at you basically every day) but because the picture of the underwater diving bell spider I used in my last post didn't make me feel ill, I thought that (me being the most arachnophobic person I know), it would be okay for most people!  Anyway, I promise that there will be no more pictures of spiders on this blog without due warning. To make up for it, I will leave you with this video of supercooled water. Supercooled water is water which has been cooled below its freezing point (0°C), but remains in its liquid form (yup, what you learnt in school that water always freezes at 0°C (or 32°F) isn't always true!) To turn into a solid, liquid water needs "crystalisation" to occur, for more ice crystals to effectively "grow" on. However this process, called "nucleation", might not happen if there aren't any impurities in the water for the ice crystals to "grow" on. In fact, you can get down to temperatures of -41°C before the water freezes - if it is really pure. (Read more here). Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

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! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Rabbits in High Heels / Blood Vessels

These photos are super summery, but they were actually taken just a couple of days before I left for Italy, on a strangely warm winters day in Sydney. I am so in love with this shirt that was sent to me by Sheinside - it's the perfect amount of bizarre, as I've come to expect from the clothing at Sheinside (you can't see it in these photos, but these rabbits are also wearing giant red high-heels. Of course). blouse - c/o Sheinside skirt - Paper Hearts shoes - Yeswalker socks - Cotton On Body belt - Thrifted hat - c/o Wholesale Today I will leave you with this awesome image of the blood vessels in the human body, via the Bodies Revealed exhibition. The model is made by the process of "polymer preservation", which involves using liquid silicone rubber to preserve real tissue from human beings. This preservation process can take up to a year to complete. image source Because your lungs is where the transfer of oxygen into the blood stream, and carbon dioxide out of the blood stream occurs, there are a lot of tiny blood vessels (called capillaries) hanging around there, as you can see! There is also a lot around your digestive system in the stomach area, to pick up all those nutrients that you consume, and of course, in your brain, to feed all the billions of neurons (and glia) that help you do your thinking! While showing my boyfriend Luci this blog post, he said: "How do people not just burst all over the floor?? How is there room for anything else!?" It's amazing to think that on top of the blood vessels, there is room for all your cells, proteins and enzymes as well. Look at the head - there is room amongst all those blood vessels for billions of neurons and glial cells (which make up the brain) as well, not to mention that every cell in your body contains about 2 meters of DNA. The body is really good at compacting things, that's for sure - so don't worry about bursting all over the floor. I hope that you're all having a beautiful day so far. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr