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

Polar Bears and Telescopic Eyes

I looooove cropped tees! They're my favourite trend to come out of the whole 90s-revival that's been going on, because they're the easiest thing to wear. You can pretty much style them with anything - as long as it's not low-waisted pants. They look great with high-waisted-anything (shorts, skirts, jeans and leggings), layered over dresses and especially cute when worn underneath pinafores. Add a cute animal face, and you've definitely won me over. t-shirt - c/o Romwe skirt - Thrifted necklace - c/o Les Folles Marquises belt - Thrifted shoes - Asos hat - c/o Wholesale Here's something amazing - have you ever used a zoom lens on a camera? Or thought about using coloured eye contacts?  Now imagine putting the two together. The world's first telescopic contact lenses have just been developed. Obviously, the lens has to be really thin to fit comfortably on your eye. This is where the technology has been hard to develop - making something this thin also have decent magnifying qualities is pretty difficult. The image has to bounce 4 times inside the lens, using mirrors, before being projected onto the back of the eye (the retina) where it is "read". Users can switch between normal and telescopic vision simply by putting on a pair of polarised 3D TV spectacles - the contact lens also has a polarising filter on its surface, and so can interact with the 3D glasses. Zoom vision through the contact lens. (Image source) The glasses are intended for people suffering from macular degeneration, who find it harder to make out fine details in their vision, however you could wear them if you have healthy vision, to give yourself super-human zoom vision. Read more here. I hope that you're all having the best of days! p.s. these photos were taken back in Sydney, if they are confusing you with their non-Italianness. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Bunny Print & The Science of Fireworks

This baby-blue-and-pink bunny print dress was handmade by the completely amazing  Freckles and Ginger. After seeing a couple of her handmade dresses on instagram, I checked out her etsy store, Freckles and Ginger - and after discovering that she gives 100% of the money she makes from the dresses to a charity called Edgars mission, which provides a home for animals who have been abused, and not to mention that the clothes she makes are freaking amazing, I knew I had to have one for myself. dress - Freckles and Ginger shoes - Asos bracelet - gift from Freckles and Ginger belt - Thrifted necklace - c/o Les Folles Marquises I really liked this post from IFLS about the science of fireworks, so I'm going to repost it here (hey, I'm on holidays). This is how you get different kinds of fireworks! "Sodium produces yellow/gold colors. Barium creates green, copper compounds produce blue, strontium salts give you red and titanium metals give you silver coloured sparks. Other commonly used chemicals are carbon which provides the fuel, oxidizers which produce oxygen for burning, magnesium which increases the overall brilliance and brightness, antimony that gives you a "glitter" effect and calcium which deepens the colors." via IFLS (if you're not already following this page on facebook, go and follow it! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

DIY Stripey Cropped Tee

In the week leading up to my Italy trip, I was avidly following garypeppergirl (Nicole Warne) on instagram, because she happened to be travelling along the Italian coastline at the time and her posts were making me super excited for my holiday! Anyway, in one picture she posted she was wearing a stripey cropped t-shirt, and I immediately thought - damn, I really want to gallivant around Italy in a stripey cropped tee. For some reason, stripes scream "Italian Summer Holiday" to me, and so half my suitcase ended up being filled with stripes. I didn't own a cropped stripey shirt, though, and wasn't about to pay 138 euro for this one - so I made one. I went on the lookout for a stripey shirt at my local thrift stores. I found the perfect DIY candidate after hardly any searching (because thrift shops are full of these kinds of shirts): Now, a striped shirt makes this DIY incredibly simple. All you need to do is fold the shirt up to the length you want it, then go down one stripe, or about one inch (important, because otherwise it'll be too short after hemming!) Using the edge of a stripe as your guide, cut all the way across with fabric scissors. Ta da! Then, fold the fabric up into the shirt one-stripe's width, all the way around the bottom of the shirt (or about 1 inch, if your stripes are wider than mine), pin, and sew using a straight-stitch. And if you don't own a sewing machine, you could do this step by hand - it wouldn't take that long. You could easily stop here if you like the look of cropped shirts with long sleeves - however as I was going to be heading into the middle of summer, I decided to make it short-sleeved as well. On both arms, I counted down from the shoulder seam 10 stripes - then cut along this line. Then I just did the same for the arms as I did for the body - fold up, pin and sew! And there you have it - a simple, stripey cropped tee, perfect for some summer adventuring! (And see my last post where I wore it around an Italian village). Much love, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr