Head-To-Toe Florals & A Handmade Pinafore

Just popping in today with a really quick outfit post, because I've missed doing these regularly! Hopefully I can do outfit posts a bit more often now that I have a nice backdrop to pose in front of.  SO basically, I am super dooooooper proud of this pinafore that I made. It's probably the most professional-looking thing I've ever created - seriously, I can't stop looking down at my neat top-stitching and seams and feeling super proud of myself. Check it out: As for the rest of my clothes: my shirt is thrifted, my tights are suuuper old - can't remember where they're from - and my shoes are from Naot. Also, the pinafore is made out of a thrifted bedsheet and thrifted buttons! p.s. It's National Op Shop week in Australia right now, so there's never been a better excuse to go visit your local thrift shop. Even if you don't live in Australia, you're allowed to celebrate it too ;) Not only are you saving clothes from landfill, this is where your money goes when you buy from an op shop. Have a lovely day, Bloglovin' | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

DIY Tartan Heart Pinafore & An Announcement

You see this pinafore that I'm wearing? Well... it might just be a prototype for something I might be selling in the future. Maybe. (You heard it here first.) Now that I have a proper dress-making mannequin, industrial-sized bolts of fabric and am confident enough with my sewing skills that I've started making pieces for other people, I am seriously considering taking the next logical step and creating a little line of clothing. (^_^;) This idea is all very much still in the baby-stages of planning, but I'd like to know what you all think! I've been working on a number of designs over the past couple of months, and, well, I am awful at keeping secrets. I have been bursting to let you guys know. So, this is a little hint of what will (hopefully!) be a thing in the not-too-distant future! Blouse - Vintage | Skirt - made by me | blazer - thrifted | hair clip - c/o Sarsparilly | shoes - Naot But I also wanted to reach out and get your opinions before blindly embarking on something like this. Please give me your honest opinions about this particular piece - what do you like, what don't you like, what could be done better? (This is just the prototype, and obviously I will be doing things like the hemming a little bit more neatly!) All the love in the world, Bloglovin' | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

DIY Lace Waist Dress

Look! I made a thing! Dress is DIY | necklace is c/o Ginger Pickle (Eclectic Eccentricity piece) I am really happy with this DIY that I came up with the other night to revive a couple of old stretchy tank dresses that I had lying around! I made a few failed attempts before getting it right - let me just say that when I say to use stretchy lace, USE STRETCHY LACE. Otherwise you'll make something that looks really nice, but you'll be massively disappointed when you can't actually get it on over your shoulders. Enjoy :) p.s. if you missed it earlier today, I'm selling my wardrobe ;) Bloglovin' | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Eggs, Oranges and Billion Story Buildings

Annika: everything is thrifted except shirt (c/o Sheinside (ages ago) and shoes (Naot)) and handmade egg brooch Katie: Everything is thrifted except for handmade egg brooch and earrings (made by us!) Hi all! I am posting this with a very heavy heart because Katie is just about to hop on a plane to Scandinavia for the whole of July, and I'm at a complete loss as to what I'm going to do without her! Over the last 6 months we've grown incredibly close, spending much of our spare time hanging out, making crafts, talking about feminism, anthropology and science and dressing up like weirdos together. I cried even more after we said goodbye than when my boyfriend left the other day (also for a month-long holiday in Europe *grumble jealousy grumble*). So we spent all of yesterday hanging out and taking photos, our outfits becoming progressively more ridiculous as the day went on. I styled both of our outfits here - for some reason I was feeling Autumnal even though it isn't Autumn anywhere in the world right now. Autumn and... eggs. Because eggs are awesome. Yep. I also forced Katie to buy these cute chilli suspenders the other day because I thought they suited her perfectly - what do you guys think? So I've posted about What If before (a website where a physicist takes ridiculous questions completely seriously), and I really liked this particular one so I wanted to share it! This question actually comes from a 4-year-old, so it's also super cute. If you were to build a skyscraper with one billion stories.... just how big would it be? This is also happens to help you get your head around the concept of a "billion" - it's just so large! The illustration above (by XKCD's What If) shows a skyscraper that's only 10,000 floors high. Still much smaller than a billion! Click here to see what a billion-story building would look like! I hope that you're all having a lovely day. Bloglovin' | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

A Picnic in my Backyard & Spellbound by Space

Blouse, skirt, cardigan and basket are thrifted | space shuttle necklace c/o Eclectic Eccentricity | astronaut necklace c/o Ginger Pickle | shoes were c/o Sammy Dress (years old) | socks from markets | cherries c/o Sarsparilly (actually a hairclip) | earrings are handmade by me If you gave someone the task of creating "Annika's dream jewelry store", and this person knew me well, they would make it 1. Science-themed 2. Vintage-inspired 3. Handmade 4. Kitschy/novelty and 5. An alliterative brand name (pun optional, but highly recommended). So when I visited Eclectic Eccentricity for the first time, I was fairly sure that I had made their store up in my head - because they are all of these things. And then! - I found out that they wanted to work. with. me. And send me all the cute stuff. Eeeep! Yep, I thought, I have definitely dreamt this all up. So can you all please do me a favour - visit their website, and tell me if they really do exist? It still seems a little too good to be true! The two space-themed necklaces that I'm wearing are pieces from Eclectic Eccentricity, though I actually got the astronaut necklace from Ginger Pickle a few months ago. I always wear the two necklaces together so I can pretend that the astronaut is Sandra Bullock, and the intense scenes from Gravity are playing out on my chest. Yeah. I have way too much fun with my clothes. Image credit - European Space Agency via NASA TV So this seems appropriate considering my outfit - did you know that you can live-stream the Earth from space, from a camera mounted on the international space station (ISS)? The ISS is a station (in space, as you may have guessed) where astronauts go to hang out, 410 kilometres above our heads, in orbit around the Earth. While there, the astronauts are usually involved in different biology, physics and chemistry experiments and observations. Anyway, you can watch a live HD stream of the Earth below! If you just see a black screen, that means that it's currently night time for the ISS because the sun is on the other side of the Earth - but don't worry about waiting a whole 12 hours for it to get light again, because the ISS goes all the way around the earth in just 90 minutes! So if the screen is blank, come back in about 45 minutes, and you'll see some amazing footage. I just watched the sun set behind the Earth and IT WAS AMAZING. Hey, you're down there, somewhere. Wave for the camera! Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream This page shows exactly where the ISS is at any particular time of the day (so you can see if it's just about to pass over you!) p.s. I made the earrings in my outfit. If I were to sell these (and these cute mushroom ones), would anyone be interested in buying them..? Bloglovin' | Youtube | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Slushee Cup Drawstring Bag / Chemistry is Amazing

Top is thrifted | shoes are thrifted | bag is from Twinkie Chan | skirt is c/o Choies (way old) Okay, Sydney weather. Let's make a deal. How about we start going into autumn now? In return, I'll... wear the cutest jumpers and tights and coats you've ever seen! Okay... DEAL! So I'm not sure if non-sentient weather systems respond to deals/threats (or if they're into fashion, hmm), but I would really like for it to be winter now. It's been summer for far too long here. Dammit, Australia, stop being such a stereotype! At least I have this crochet slushee cup bag to trick people into thinking I'm way "cool" in the constant 28°C heat (something I most certainly am NOT right now). Isn't this bag the greatest?! This bag and my house purse make me so happy - who needs "normal" bags when you have bags like these? Twinkie Chan is an absolute genius and I'm so excited to now own one of her amazing crochet pieces! Okay you guys, what would you say if I told you that it was possible to freeze and boil water at the same time? No I'm not just asking a random hypothetical question. Because it's possible. Check it out: When you remove atmospheric pressure, there's a point where ice and gas are a simple step away from each other (no going through a liquid phase!) You just need to get it to the exact right temperature... and... this happens! Read more about what's happening here. I hope that you're all having a wonderful week so far, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

DIY: Turn a Jumpsuit into a Dress

I have a new video on my youtube channel today, showing you all how I turned a full-length jumpsuit into a cute lil' dress! You can see the outfit post featuring this dress here. From the looks of the tag, my jumpsuit was originally from the late 70s/early 80s, and it had some fantastic shoulder-pads to boot (I may have removed these). However, I really liked the fabric, the pleats and the overall fit of the jumpsuit – everything, really, apart from the whole… jumpsuit-thing. So I turned it into a cute floral dress. p.s. please excuse the bad hair in the video - I made this while I was letting my hair dry! I hope that you're all having a great day! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Dress is DIY | bow is DIY | tights from Daiso | shoes are Naot Kedma's | lipstick is MAC (Ruby Woo) Ever since I made this caterpillar dress, and was made aware of the existence of real hungry caterpillar fabric by some lovely blog readers, I have been trying to get my hands on some to make another dress with! I eventually tracked down a few different hungry caterpillar prints at fabric.com. I'm really happy with how the back of the dress turned out (I basically tried to copy the back of this dress without the scallops) BUT I feel like something is missing, and so I'm not completely happy with it yet. I think that I probably need to add a waistband to break up the middle section, but I'm not sure what fabric I should use for it. The top or the bottom fabric? A different colour? Or is it missing someting else? Throw your ideas at me, I'd really appreciate your input! (And I'll totally mail the person/people with my favourite ideas a hungry caterpillar hair bow, too. Incentive! Yeah!) I learnt something which I never knew about caterpillars the other day! I was actually listening to the Radiolab episode "Black Box" when I learnt this (which was a really, really good episode - you should listen to it if you have the time.) Image from Radiolab When caterpillars become butterflies, they undergo a period of metamorphosis in which they shed their skin and wrap themselves up into a chrysalis, which I knew. But what I didn't know was that during the process of metamorphosis, the caterpillar itself literally turns to mush inside it's chrysalis. Enzymes digest the body of the caterpillar into a "soup" of fluids and cells, and from there, it reforms into a butterfly. This in an excerpt from How Stuff Works on the process: Much of the body breaks itself down into imaginal cells, which are undifferentiated -- like stem cells, they can become any type of cell. The imaginal cells put themselves back together into a new shape. In the 16th Century, after observing this process, naturalists believed that caterpillars were actually dying and then a completely new life form - the butterfly - was arising from the goo, so degraded did the original caterpillar appear. We now know that the butterfly is, genetically, the same animal that went into the chrysalis, and that even though the majority of the body turns into goo, it can even retain its memories of its life as a caterpillar. The story on radiolab about the metamorphosis of caterpillars is amaaazing and I recommend that you listen, right now (click here if you can't view the embedded player below). It gets all metaphysical and less science-y in the last four minutes, but it's definitely still worth a listen. (Go to ~0:20 to skip the ads) I hope that you're all having a woooonderful day! p.s. The winner of the $200 Sarsparilly giveaway is Nancy W.! Thank you so much for everyone who entered. I so look forward to bringing you more giveaways just like this, with amazing handmade and smaller online stores such as Sarsparilly, in the future! Thank you for supporting them! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr