Ladybirds (Everywhere!) / A Call for Guest Bloggers / The Scientific Power of Thought

As I was racking my brains as to what to wear to Sydney rental inspections last week (notoriously one of the most difficult rental markets in the world), this awesome care-package from US Trendy with a Miss Patina dress inside arrived in the mail, along with these fantastic cat collar clips from Lady Bird Likes. (Funnily enough, the dress also had a lady bird print on it, which was a weird co-incidence as the collar clips are from an etsy shop with lady bird in their name!) And I have some really exciting news! The outfit must have worked a treat, because we were accepted for a really really (I mean, for the standards of a first-time-renting student) lovely property! So, for the next week or so, I'm going to be moving house! But I'm also going to university at the same time, and in between packing, it means I'm not actually going to have time to blog. I was wondering, if there were any super lovely bloggers out there who wanted to write guest posts for me, to be put up over the next week or two? I'm particularly looking for DIY, crafts, vintage style or science-themed posts (but am open to any other idea as well)! Shoot me an email at annikavictoria@gmail.com with your ideas first, if there's anyone out there who feels like helping me out! :] Also, if you can see them, please excuse my dodgy nail colour polish - I had my nails painted by a 6-year-old the other day and she was really proud of it (she actually did a pretty good job for a 6-year-old I think). dress - c/o Us Trendy clips - c/o Ladybird Likes socks - Tutuanna (Japan) shoes - c/o YesWalker It's no secret to anyone who's been reading my blog for a while that I'm really into brains. Well this video from ASAP science is an awesome exploration into the ways that just thinking can physically change your brain. Let me know your thoughts on it! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Panda Bears and Flowers / Clever Hans

Yep, it happened again, I murdered another plush toy to make a cute bag out of it. Inappropriate-guilty-feelings aside, I am actually so happy with this panda bear backpack. And I bought him for $3 from an op shop (yes, it's a male panda bear), so at least there were no sentimental attachments there. If you missed it the first time around, I wrote up some instructions on how to make a DIY plush toy bag here. The only difference with this one is that I added two straps (thrifted belts) instead of one! My pretty floral blouse & red skirt are both from Sheinside! Many thanks to Sheinside for providing them to style! blouse - c/o Sheinside skirt - c/o Sheinside socks - Shop With Romi shoes - c/o Yes Walker bag - DIY hat - c/o Wholesale If you're a casual reader of science stories (or have joined IFLS on facebook) you may have heard people talking about "blinding", or that an experiment was not reliable because it wasn't "blinded" or even "double-blinded". You may have thought, what on earth does "blinding" mean and more importantly, how on earth does anyone know what's happening if no one can see what's going on?? Well "blinding" is one of the most important concepts to science. Human beings, clever as we may be, are unfortunately very susceptible to something called bias - that is, seeing what you want to believe. That's where the story of Clever Hans comes in. Clever Hans was the name of a horse who lived in the early 1900s. His owner claimed that Clever Hans could not only count, but could also do complex maths problems and understand German. His owner would ask him questions, and Clever Hans would answer by tapping his foot. His owner paraded his horse around Germany, showing off his apparent skills. Clever Hans performing in the 1900s in Germany. Also check out all them boater hats - I'd be so trendy if I were to go back to 1906 ;) (Image source) Clever Hans was investigated by veterinarians and teachers. They removed the audience to make sure Clever Hans wasn't getting cues from them, and they even used different questioners (other than the horse's owner) to rule out the possibility of fraud. Then they made a realisation - if the person asking the questions knew the answer to the questions, then Clever Hans would get the right answer 89% of the time. But if the person asking the questions didn't know the answers themselves, Clever Hans was only right 6% of the time. It seemed that Clever Hans was clever in a way, although he didn't know how to count or do maths - he had learnt to tap his foot whenever the questioner expected the horse to tap its foot. Take away the expectations of the questioner, and the horse had no idea. This was a very important observation for science and where the idea of "double blinding" comes from. Now scientists make sure, especially in fields where animals or humans are being measured, that not only does the participant not know what condition they are in, but the experimenter is also "blind" to the conditions of the experiment as well. Only at the end of the experiment, when all the tests have been done, are both the subject and experimenter allowed to know what was really going on. And that's your neat science fact of the day. p.s. I announced another giveaway earlier today! Enter here if you haven't already. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Giveaway: Cichic - win an item of your choice! / CLOSED

Brand new online webstore cichic is generously donating an item of clothing to my blog for this giveaway! What you need to do to enter is (via rafflecopter): Register an account with cichic here (you don't need to put in your proper last name if you're worried about that, I never do hehe), "like" their facebook page and leave reviews on cichic.com on your two favourite items. Please use the rafflecopter widget below to enter! Details must be entered in the rafflecopter widget (as well as commenting below) or they won't count! a Rafflecopter giveaway There are two mandatory entries and four additional entries. Please make sure you do them properly, or your entry will be invalid (I do check!) [EDIT 7/04/2013] Please note that I made the giveaway easier since launching - but any entries you have already made will not be invalid and still count :) So if you've already entered, don't worry about the small change :D So what's the prize? Well, each winner will get to choose an item of their choice from cichic. If 100 people enter, there will be 1 winner. 200 entries = 2 winners, etc. So feel free to tweet about the giveaway, share it on your facebook wall, etc - the more people who enter, the more winners there will be! Open internationally until the 30th of April. Good luck! p.s. I'll also be having a 1-million pageviews giveaway soon! Thank you all so much for your love and support. p.p.s. if you're on a mad giveaway binge now and you don't want to stop, make sure you enter the other giveaway I also have running from TNK vintage! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

30 Days of Dressing Up: April 2013

Featured accessories: Oasap Tights | Lady Ties | Pocketwatch Necklaces | Boater Hat | Shop with Romi Socks | Claire's Headbands I hope you all enjoyed my April 2013 "Dressing Up" challenge! Hopefully this will help inspire your wardrobes for this transitional month (we're heading into winter here, but for most of you reading this, you're probably right in the middle of Spring!) You can get a lot of different outfits out of only 12 items. Also, check out March's "31 Days" here. What's your favourite combination? Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Yep, that means small ad spaces are only $1 each (small now sold out - sorry!). You can buy an ad by clicking here. Just put in the promo code "HappyEaster" for $5 off all ad spaces. If you're looking to promote your blog or your brand to 1000+ unique readers per day, then this is for you ^_^ Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr