I'm Madeline!

You guys have no idea how long I've wanted a cape coat! So when Faith & Lola asked me if I wanted anything from their store to try out I had to choose this! It's got a peter pan collar, the cutest little buttons and some super pretty crocheted lining around the sleeves and bottom of the cape. I'm completely, completely in love. Luckily I also happen to live in a place with a totally bizarre and unstable climate (it's about 20 degrees colder than when I was complaining about the heat yesterday), so it was easily cold enough to layer up today and wear my new coat. This cape also happens to go perfectly with these sunflower sweater clips (which you can buy from my store here!) wearing cape coat - c/o Faith&Lola collar clips - The Little Pineneedle sock cuffs - The Little Pineneedle blouse - c/o Oasap ring - Ebay shorts - ?? boots - Asos bag - Vintage Today Phil Plait shared his pick of the best Astronomy images of 2012 - and they are mind-blowingly awesome.  My favourite is this one that the deep-field Hubble space telescope took - the astronomers decided to point the telescope at a part of the sky which they thought was empty, do a set of super long exposures... and came up with this. Each bright "star" you see is actually a whole galaxy - and some of the galaxies it captured are 13 billion light years away. That means we are seeing them as they existed 13 billion years ago, almost as old as the universe, because of the time it takes light to reach us. I can't even wrap my head around the fact that we are able to see things like this. Go science! Much love to you all!

Neutrals / Neuroscience

At the moment I love wearing different shades of browns together. It has a vintage-photography, antiquated feel to it. I matched this dark brown bowler hat from Oasap with a honey-coloured skirt and warm brown vintage satchel bag, and a beige lace shirt also from Oasap. Add my new Chelsea boots from Asos in the mix and I think this ended up being a pretty nice outfit. The only frustrating thing about today's outfit was that I took these photos in 35 degree heat - not so much fun - and when I finished, my memory card decided to die. So I had to retake all the photos and I think it's amazing I managed to not look totally grumpy in them all. wearing blouse - c/o Oasap hat - c/o Oasap bag and belt - Vintage skirt - Wholesale shoes - Asos So here's some neuroscience for those who are interested: today I want to share with you all what I find to be one of the most fascinating diseases affecting the brain. Blindsight refers to the phenomenon in neuroscience where a person is either partially or totally cortically blind (ie can't see), but can still "see" movement. In effect, someone can throw a person with blindsight a ball, and while the person may not be able to see the person or the ball at all, or even know that the ball is being thrown to them, they are still able to reach up and snatch the ball out of the air. While appearing to be blind in a number of tests, people with blindsight will still blink if you clap your hands in front of their faces. One of the most amazing documented cases of blindsight involved this study. The reason this occurs is due to damage to a specific part of the brain called the visual cortex (V1). When light enters your eye, it is converted into chemical signals which then travel into your brain, and after reaching a kind of optical control centre, these signals travel down different paths. One path, hypothesized to be the more recently evolved, "mammalian pathway" leads to what you see - which is what is damaged in people with blindsight. However, the visual signals from the eye are also thought to travel down a faster, but unconscious, "primitive pathway", allowing the signals to bypass the V1 visual cortex entirely. This is what leads to people with blindsight being able to see without being aware that they are seeing. (If you're interested in the specific anatomy, read more here). And for anyone who was wondering, the old black and white anatomical drawings are available to buy as prints at the gorgeous etsy store Maps and Posters.

Cosmic Unicorns and the Scale of the Universe

Hey guys! I bought this ASOS bodysuit the other day as soon as I laid my eyes on it - basically as a unconscious knee-jerk response to the ON SALE signs and the fact that it's got unicorns on it - then had immediate regrets (immediate as in 1 hour later so it was too late to cancel the order) because it was a petite-sized item. I started stressing that it wouldn't fit me as I am quite a bit taller than the recommended height for petite clothes! LUCKILY, I must I have an oddly short torso or something, because it fit perfectly! I also needed to show off the whole print in all it's spectacular, cosmic unicorn glory: And I just checked, but unfortunately they're all out of stock now :( wearing bodysuit - Asos tights - (worn backwards) c/o Oasap boots - Asos skirt - Wholesale After attempting to make you all feel small and insignificant about your place within the universe yesterday, I figured why not do it again? 'Tis the season! This is an old favourite, that I'm sure some of you will really enjoy if you haven't come across it before: The Scale Of The Universe (2). I just spent about an hour clicking on all the different stars and planets that they use as comparisons and learning all about them. Also the minecraft world is bigger than Earth. Also apparently this site was made by two 14 year olds (!!). Go check it out - it encompasses the entire universe and makes you feel very very big and then very very small all at the same time.

A little bit of Christmas creepin' in / How big is space?

I love finding a good swooshy dress. You may have noticed I got a little bit carried away swooshing around in this one in those last photos... haha. This is my first Christmas inspired outfit. I forced myself to try and wear some green, because I always have trouble styling green and often avoid it - but being Christmas, I figured it'd be a good time to start trying (especially with this amazing red and green satchel backpack)! This awesome lace dress from Koogal, however, had the perfect shape for pairing with my favourite green vintage blazer, so I was able to put together my first Christmassy outfit of the year! wearing dress - c/o Koogal blazer - Vintage tights - Vintage shoes - Label shoes c/o Chictopia shop necklace - c/o Oasap bag- c/o Oasap OH! And I also want to say thank you for the super nice responses to the video I posted the other day! I totally forgot that I would have an accent to most of you, then started stressing out that I sounded horribly Australian, like this: "maaaayyyte c'mon and throw some shrimp on the baaaaarbie mayte! Fair dinkummmm, maaate." Haha, but apparently I actually sound NOT like that. So, basically, thanks for saying I sounded nice :) Any suggestions for future vlogs are welcome! I also found this really cool  page today, created by the Information is Beautiful Studio, and I wanted to share it. If you're stressing out about Christmas please stop for a moment - and try and think about how big the universe is instead. So it's called "How big is Space", but ends up finishing on the edge of our own solar system (and you're glad when it does! Every time it changed scale my sense of self shrunk about 100 times). I had no idea our own solar system was this big, and I blame text book images like this that make the scale of our solar system seem pretty small in relation to the Earth. Well, it isn't. Have your mind blown. Click here. And I hope you're all having a lovely Tuesday.

Adventure Time Giveaway update - I'm now giving away TWO pairs of Finn & Jake sweater clips! // CLOSED

You guys are so awesomely creative - and so many of you have entered my Adventure Time giveaway - that I've decided to make and giveaway TWO adventure time sweater clip sets as thanks :) I've been blown away by some of the amazing entries, and want to give an honourable mention to the wonderful people who have taken part in the 10-point entry and drawn a picture of one of my outfits - Adventure Time style! See their entries showcased on this page here. I basically wanted to double their (and everyone elses) chances of winning because I have been so stoked with the effort they've made! If you want to enter, you've got 8 more days to do so! Enter here. p.s. If I get heaps more entries, I might just have to give away three... ;)

Winner of the US Trendy $100 Giftcard Giveaway!

It's time for me to choose a winner for the US Trendy giveaway, and I've got to say that you guys sure didn't make it easy for me! Honourable mentions go to Amy, Kelsey, Marissa, Sydney and Jade for putting together some really pretty/themed outfits and making it really hard to choose a winner! However, after a looooong decision, I'm awarding first place to Becky Bedbug's board - not only is every item on there something I would die to own, the entire board is both colour and style coordinated - in a rainbow hue as you go down the page! It's like I've stumbled across the most wonderful, colourful, fantastical wardrobe in existence. For that, and the amazing amount of effort clearly put into it, I had to choose Becky as winner. I hope you really enjoy your prize lovely lady, and that it can go towards buying some of the amazing stuff on your Pinterest board! If you didn't win, please don't be too disappointed - all your entries were really amazing (seriously though guys quit being so creative - you all made it so hard to pick a winner) and I enjoyed going through them all. I wish I could give you all some sort of prize for entering!! Love love love,

DIY Bear Pinafore Dress

Hey guys! This DIY design has been pinned on my wall for around 2 months now, and today I was finally inspired to create it, not least in part after seeing Kathryn from Kitsune-kun's amazing Raccoon dress and hence also getting the idea for putting claws on my pockets! This little bear-face pinafore is my current favourite DIY creation (although basically every new DIY I do ends up taking place as my favourite, haha). I also kind of decided to change my clothes halfway through taking these photos, and now I can't decide which outfit I like best, so lucky you guys, you get to see both :) wearing first outfit: pinafore - DIY shoes - Ebay bag - vintage second outfit: shirt - forever 21 shoes and bag - vintage Hope you're all having a wonderful day. Right now, I'm heading off to see the Sydney Metropolitan Orchestra play songs from Dr Who and I am SO excited (River Song is going to be there, OMG) #supergeek. But before I go, here's a super cute science item sent to me by my friend Brenton. These awesome chemists Chanteau and Tour, in order to interest kids in Chemistry, synthesised and anthropomorphised an organic molecule and made it look like a little dancing man, dubbing it "The Nanokid". If you saw my "science of cute" post from 2 days ago - isn't it weird that even stick abbreviations of organic molecules can look cute?? I mean, awwww! Look at that little dancing man molecule, just happily dancing away there! So cute! If you know anything about chemistry, it's pretty interesting seeing all the steps they took to synthesize this molecule - and you can read the paper here. If you don't know much about chemistry: all the straight lines are carbon atoms in chains with hydrogen atoms coming off the sides, and the O's are oxygens annnd that still probably doesn't mean much to you but at least you can kind of pretend to know what's going on now :)

Wig review (In the form of a vlog! See me in motion!)

I've had a few requests for this, so here we go, I'm reviewing all of the wigs that I own in the form of a vlog! You guys can see me in motion for the first time (OMG) Here are the links to each one as promised: Ebay - Dark Brown Wavy Wig $10.87 rating: 6/10 Ebay - Half Pink/Half Brown $16 rating: 4.5/10 Ebay - Pastel Pink and Super Long $18 rating: 5/10 Choies - Natural Curly Orange $33.41 rating: 8/10 Ebay - Curly Lilac $19.79 rating: 6/10 Choies - Medium Brown Wavy $32.61 rating: 9/10 Other very useful wig accessories that I mention/are good to have: Wig cap - $1 Wig brush - $3 Please also note that the Choies wigs were sponsored. This has not, however, affected my review of them - I have rated them more highly here as they are better quality wigs than the ebay ones, but they are also slightly more expensive. For some reason I had the idea that making a video would be easier than taking photos (as my camera's wireless remote is broken). That was very much a fantastical idea, video editing takes ages! Yikes! I'm also quite scared of putting something on youtube because the commenting culture is basically the polar opposite of fashion blogs. Negative comments are basically NOT A THING on fashion blogs, whereas I can't ever bring myself to look at comments on youtube videos as most are usually along the lines of "I hate you and you're worse than hitler, please go die" (and its like on a video of baby ducks or something). So what I'm trying to say is: please be nice to me youtube :) Also, I always freak out when bloggers I follow for ages upload videos and their voices and affectations aren't anything like I imagined them to be. I want to know if my voice is anything like what you might have imagined and/or if I freaked you guys out ;) haha. Hope you like it and hope it helps your wig purchasing :)

Triple Kitten Part 2 & The Science of Cute

This dress is so completely cute and amazing! I think it went out of stock and restocked about 3 times before I managed to snag it from Romwe. A word about wearing this dress though - if you're thinking of buying it, you'll need to also have a stick-on, nude-coloured bra. The cut of the dress is pretty darn scandalous. But if you love dressing adventurously, it's awesome ;) This is also the second wig which I got from my sponsor Choies! It's actually a really good wig (and on special right now) because it looks very real and is soooo soft, and I can brush it without it all falling apart so hooray - no more scuzzy, balding wigs for me! I'll have a post up reviewing all my wigs very soon, as some people have requested it :) wearing wig - c/o Choies dress - c/o Romwe tights - c/o Oasap bag - c/o Oasap boots - Asos So here's a good science question for a fashion blog on which I often try and wear super cute dresses. What is the science behind the concept of "cute"? Youtuber Vsauce attempts to quantify cuteness and explain why we might perceive things as "cute" from an evolutionary behavioural point of view. This is why the internet is now basically 90% cat, puppy and baby animal photos. (Image source) Speaking of, if you're looking for cute animals, look up baby pygmy hippos. I just discovered these the other day and I think they're now my favourite animal.