The Pineneedle Collective

Monday 15 September 2014

Self Love, The Lion King and Your Insides are on the Outside

Shirt, belt and cardigan are thrifted | Lion King brooches gift from Katie (thrifted) | skirt is Paper Hearts | tights are from Clear It | shoes are Naot

Someone once suggested that I write down a list of my achievements and carry it around with me. I thought that this was a pretty silly idea. Like what, I'm going to be standing in the middle of a busy shopping centre one day, reading through this list of how great I am? What if someone saw what I was reading/found the piece of paper? They'd think I was an absolute egomaniac.

But after having a couple of pretty low weeks, I thought I'd give this list-making thing a shot. Couldn't hurt. Well, I just finished said list and I have to say that I feel a lot better. Being a perfectionist, I'm always far too hard on myself when I don't feel like I'm pushing myself to the absolute limit. I was used to writing lists of "things that I should do", not "things I have done". But that's actually not a good way to live. Now when I am feeling like I haven't done enough or that I'm not good enough, I think that looking at this list of achievements will help a lot. I highly recommend it if you're in need of a little bit of self-love.

On a completely different topic, how ridiculously wonderful are these Lion King pins that Katie thrifted me from Estonia?!

So I was listening to a podcast today when I was reminded of one of my favourite facts from first-year biology. Ready to have your mind blown?

The contents of your stomach are technically on the outside of your body.

Wait what?

Your digestive tract is really just a long tube with two openings that lead directly to the outside. The wall of the gut is continuous with the skin, and so whatever is inside your stomach is technically on the outside of your body. And you don’t have to dissect through any of the body's tissues to get to your stomach or intestines.

Mmm... biology.

If you imagine yourself to be a kind of huge, biological donut, your digestive tract is analogous to the donut’s hole - it is inside the donut in a way, but it’s not really “inside” the donut - it's not a part of the dough.

So there you go.

I hope you're all having a beautiful day,

Friday 12 September 2014

Clueless Inspired Outfit - Make Thrift Buy #2

Well hi there! Guess who has a new video out?

For this episode of Make, Thrift, Buy I attempted to tackle this tartan two-piece. I won't tell you how I went - you'll have to find out by watching the video (but I will preface it by saying that I am so excited about this one):

Please help me out & leave me links to any cool/interesting/expensive clothes you've seen on the internet that you'd like me to try out!

Much love,

Sunday 7 September 2014

Make, Thrift, Buy - a new youtube series

Hello! I'm just popping in quickly today to let you all know about the new Youtube series that I've started!

The idea behind this series is to show you that when you see something really cool in an online/real-life store, you don’t immediately have to go and spend all your money on it – because you can often find a very similar thing in thrift shops, or, with a little bit of sewing knowledge and DIY-attitude, you can make the item for yourself.

So the challenge is this - you guys send me pictures of clothes you have found on the internet, and I have to try and recreate the item, either through DIY, thrifting or a combination of the two (without having to resort to fast fashion!)

Let me know what you think, and if you have any links to clothes that you would like me to do this challenge with, please leave them in the comments below!

Saturday 6 September 2014

Anni Long Stockings and Memory Metals

One problem with having a thrifting buddy who has a very similar style as you is that you have to fight over clothes. I found this shirt while thrifting the other day with Katie, and I nearly made her cry because she wanted it so badly. Katie begged and pleaded and I eventually had to give it to her - mainly because she looks exactly like Pippi Longstockings - with the caveat that I got to borrow it whenever I liked. So, being the great friend that I am, I stole it back off her almost immediately ;)

You may have noticed that I titled this post "Anni Long Stockings". Anni is actually what my family and close friends call me, rather than Annika. This stems from me being a bratty 12-year-old who, deciding I loathed the name "Annika", violently attacked anyone who decided to address me so. Soooo, my family basically got this weird pavlovian reaction where they flinch upon accidentally calling me Annika (probably still thinking they're going to get punched by an angry 12 year-old), and the name Anni stuck, even though I actually prefer Annika now. I was a super bratty 12-year-old.

The more you know.

Update: My mum (my blog's biggest fan hehe) just messaged me to tell me that one of Pippi's best friends was called Annika, which I totally didn't know. My mum loved Pippi as a kid, and it could be one of the reasons that I am called Annika!

Top is thrifted | skirt is thrifted | necklace c/o Ginger Pickle | socks are from Clear It | shoes are Naot

Memory metals! They're a thing! I can't actually believe that this exists:

A nickel-titanium alloy, this metal is able to revert back to the shape that it was created in using "heat memory". To create the desired shape, it needs to be heated to a "transformation temperature" - usually around 65 - 80°C. When it cools down, it becomes flexible and can be molded into any shape. However, once it hits that "transformation temperature" again (like being put into a hot water bath), its atoms remember their previous arrangement, and it springs back into its previous shape.

Called Nitinol, the metal has proved useful in medical applications, helping arteries retain their shape and removing clots from deep inside the brain, and has even been used in eyeglass frames.

So cool.

I hope that you're all having a beautiful day,

Sunday 31 August 2014

When Life Gives You Lemons (or Locks You Outdoors)

Me and Katie accidentally locked ourselves out of her house for over an hour this morning. But rather than get annoyed at this less-than-optimal situation, we had a mini iphone photoshoot in her front garden instead, planning to blog the photos later in the day.

I had been obsessing over Katie's outfit all morning, and I think my repeated "oh my god Katie you look so amazing" was starting to get a bit creepy - so I was pretty happy that I got the perfect excuse to further obsess over her outfit from behind the lens of a camera. Click on over to her blog to see the photos that I took of her, and her amaaaaazing outfit! We actually both thrifted our dresses yesterday (on a trip to the op-shop where we were only meant to be dropping off old clothes we didn't want anymore - oops!)

Making the best out of a bad situation. That's something I'm proud to say that I excel in. Certain events in my early adulthood have taught me to be really good at making lemonade out of lemons. Certainly, one of the most positive things about having a chronic illness has been learning who my real friends are.

Before I became sick I would have told you that I had tonnes of friends - people who I would see every weekend and get drunk, dance and have deep-and-meaningful 4am conversations with. All but a handful of these people completely disappeared when I got sick and could no longer live that lifestyle. From most, even people who I considered to be close friends, I didn't even get a "hey, how are you going?", and that was really, really hard. But this isn't a negative story - I am grateful that I have been able to sort through the people in my life in this way, and make much better connections with the ones who stuck around.

So I feel really lucky. I feel like it can often take people until late in their 20s or even their 30s (if ever) to recognise who their real friends are - to work out who is going to stick by them when the going gets tough. I may only have a handful of close friends now, but they're the most wonderful, meaningful friendships I could have asked for. They're there for me on not only the good days, but the bad ones too.

And that brings me to my point - when life gives you some lemons, juice the heck out of that lemon and make the most delicious lemonade in the world! If I hadn't gotten sick, I still don't think I'd know who my true friends are. And this morning, if we hadn't got locked out of the house, we wouldn't have taken these photos and you wouldn't be reading this post. Lemons are totally delicious!

I hope that you're having a really lovely day,

Friday 29 August 2014

Eye Can See You

Today, I am just so grumpy. You know that mood where everything has been going a little bit wrong all day, and you've become so grumpy and irritated by it all to the extent where it actually becomes kind of... funny? And you start making jokes about it? (No? Is that just me?) Anyway, part of that mood features me being like "I'm so damn grumpy I'm going to wear black lipstick. Because it's dark like my MOOD" and, of course, deciding that I hate everything. Like smiling and the sun and tripods and self-timers and posing in photos. Hence the reason I am standing like this in front of this bin: "I'm going to stand here in front of a bin because I just don't caaaare."

Yeah I'm totally hardcore.

Anyway I then cheered up enough to get a couple of nice photos of my face and the stuff I'm wearing, which I actually really like.

Dress is second-hand from Katie (who i think got it from Dangerfield/Clear It) | necklace is c/o Eclectic Eccentricity | ring is c/o Ginger Pickle | tights and shoes are super old, so you can't buy them anymore | jacket is thrifted

POST-LUNCH UPDATE: Ok, I think I just had some serious hangry. Because I ate some food and instantly felt slightly less hate for all things. Just a little bit.

Expecting me to do some cute little science tidbit on what's going on in your brain when you're angry? Haha, NOPE. I'm way too grumpy for that right now. Go on, get out of here. (If you really want some science talk then check out all of the science posts I have already done).

Have a good day. Or not. ;)

Saturday 23 August 2014

A Post of Outtakes

In the age of the internet, instagram, blogs and selfies, it's fairly easy to compose a carefully-crafted version of yourself for the wider world to see. My world appears through a select composite of angles and arrangements, positions and poses, faces and filters.

To the unaware, this can lead to the impression that my life is perfect - that I live in an eternal picnic-world of cute patterns and prints and perfect lipstick; that I never have struggles or stresses; that I never wake up with bed hair or panda-eyes because I've forgotten to take off my makeup the night before.

But life isn't perfect, and it's good to be reminded now and again that everyone else doesn't just roll out of bed at 6am rocking perfect hair and eyeliner.

Besides, some of these photos are just way too hilarious not to share. So, enjoy this post of less-than-perfect outtakes (quickly, before I decide that this is the worst mistake of my life and I take this post down!)

When taking photos, I will inevitably get an unstoppable urge to pull a ridiculous face and completely ruin the photo. Me and Katie didn't even realise that both of us had done this at the same time (in the above photo) until looking at the photos afterwards. And here I am ruining the nice photo below:

Oh Annika... gosh... might I say that you are looking stunning today? Did you do something to your hair? (I didn't even know that my face was capable of doing this; thank goodness for cameras!)

I'm not quite sure what was going through my head when I decided to pose like this...

Again, not the best pose I've ever thought of (...robot girl?):

And, frankly, the next photo just terrifies me a little bit. This outfit clearly brought out the top model in me.

Hi, Annika. That is a good... face... you've got there.

Now I'll share with you guys a few photography tips and tricks. This is how I get all my flawless outfit shots.

There's the flawless hair-flick photos:

The "this is going to look AWESOME" spinning shot:

Then there's the classic "hang on, I can't tell if the camera is working" pose:

Apparently, I also pull a LOT of grumpy faces:

And I am thinking that I might use this as part of my modelling portfolio:

"Oh! This will be a cute pose!" *FAIL*

"The sun has suddenly come out and blinded me" pose:

And the "I'm just looking at this teeeeeny ant" pose:

Good one Annika, that'll make a great photo: because normal people often walk around holding all their hair out at the sides of their head.

Classic vintage pose (aka going to the toilet in the lake):

Elegance:

Okay, I think I have sufficiently destroyed my carefully-crafted internet persona now. Just remember, next time you start comparing your life to seemingly-perfect blogs and instagram accounts - they don't often post the outtakes of life.

I hope that you've all had a lovely week,