I like your BRAIN.

Hello ladies and gentleman! Like my shirt? This aspiring neuroscientist was asked by Dizzy Little Dotty to wear & review a t-shirt, and so of course I decided to choose the brain one. Well, the zombie/brain one, anyway. I thought it was pretty appropriate - I like brains, what can I say?  So when I received the t-shirt in the mail I went through all my shorts and skirts, wondering what I should pair it with. I kept looking at the outfit of the cute nerd-girl on the t-shirt thinking, "damn. I wish I had a skirt like that." Luckily, I then remembered that I have sewing abilities! So I ended up emulating the girl in the t-shirt in my outfit, and making a blue pencil skirt with little heart-pockets and suspenders. I decided not to stop there, and so I put on some knee-high socks and brown brogues as well, just like the girl on the shirt. Now I basically am the girl on my new Dizzy Little Dotty t-shirt. (And this has got the potential to become like the painting of a painting within a painting that goes on infinitely, haha.) Can I also recommend that you check out Lauren Carney's artwork blog?? (Lauren Carney is the lovely lady who puts the artworks on the shirts at Dizzy Little Dotty.) Her illustrations are actually ludicrously cool. Her facebook is probably the best place to see all her artworks. I keep discovering all these amazing artists lately (like these two) that are really making me wish I could draw. Guess I'll have to be satisfied with being able to make clothes... for now...   wearing t-shirt - c/o Dizzy Little Dotty bag - c/o Choies skirt - I made it! socks - c/o Sock Dreams  shoes - Vintage Speaking of brains and zombies, here's a real-life science example of zombification. (Not involving humans, don't worry.) Ants can be infected by a species of fungi called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, that actually turns the ants into zombies by altering the ant's brain chemistry, changing their behaviour and causing them climb up the stem of a plant and clamp on for dear life until they die. Then the fungus continues growing inside the ant until it sprouts out the top, releasing spores of itself onto the conveniently placed plant below it. Here's some of the innocent-looking fungi that have these mind-altering properties (that sentence could be taken out of context very easily). I cropped the picture because a zombie-fied dead ant was a little too grusome for a fashion blog, but if you want to see the whole picture then click here (don't worry it's not horrific or anything, it just features a poor dead ant with some fungi sticking out of it), and if you're interested, you can read more about parasitic fungi here. And if you're worried about an analogous parasite-zombie relationship occurring in humans, well as far as we know fungi can't do this to us - but if you want to sleep tonight, then don't look up toxoplasma. That is all.

I'm back, baby! (& my DIY Tapestry Shorts)

Well hello there! It's so nice to be back! I feel like I've been gone forever, even though it's only been 10 days. And oh boy, has it been a long 10 days. I'm really happy with how my exams went though, I feel like my crazy non-stop studying session paid off; now my first year of university is behind me and I am looking forward to being able to specialise in some neuroscience next year! However for now, I am definitely looking forward to the start of the summer holidays and not studying for the next three months. So this is the second time in just three posts where the title of my post has also been a pun  (because the first picture has involved me turned around, showing off some feature of the back of my outfit, and I am also "back". So clever). What can I say. I guess I'm just a really lazy writer. Unless you're like my dad or brothers and you consider the ability to make puns to be the height of wit and intelligence, then you probably think I'm some kind of genius. I've basically lived in this Sheinside sweater the entire past week. It's the perfect study sweater for me - it allows me to be comfy, but I like that the heart patches on the elbows stop me from looking like a bit of a slob. Yes I care what I wear even when I'm studying. This is why this is the perfect study sweater. A plain grey sweater would be a bit daggy, but the addition of the subtle heart patches at the elbows turns it into a cute layering piece. And then there's my shorts! I made them about a month ago - remember how I suddenly came into the possession of a very large lot of fabric? Well this was the first thing I made with them. You can see my past DIYs for shorts here. I made these socks myself as well! I'll have a tutorial up on how to lace-ify your socks real soon. I took these photos a couple of weeks ago before I started studying, but if I got to take the photos again I would have paired it up with this bag from OASAP instead (which unfortunately arrived in the mail a day after I took these pictures.) I've used this bag exclusively for the past week, and it is my new favourite. It was the best for my exams because it's the perfect size for A4 study notes and can be converted from a satchel bag to a backpack. Expect to see this gorgeous thing in an outfit post real soon: Anyway, as for my outfit, I am wearing... sweater - c/o Sheinside shorts - DIY socks - DIY hat - c/o Wholesale belt, shoes and bag - vintage I hope you've all been very well! I've missed blogland! No science item for today... I've already talked on enough. Tomorrow I will have an awesome science item for you though. One more thing - I'm sorry for freaking everyone out with the title of my last blog post. Yes... it was intentional. I thought it would be funny... but I didn't think everyone would freak out as much as they did! I particularly liked this comment for it's dramaticity (if that's even a word): Dying is pretty extreme. It's nice to know I am appreciated, and thank you Lauren :) Much love and thanks for reading!

Dearest blog readers, farewell.

...for 10 or so days. I am taking a brief hiatus for about a week and half while I study my ass off. After this hiatus, I am going to be on a 4-month uni break and I promise that I have the most amazing DIY's planned that you are all going to love, and I'll hopefully be posting other interesting things and outfits near daily. (Also, any sponsors who sent me items to blog about, I will make sure to blog the heck out of the stuff you sent me - it'll just be after the 18th of November. I hope you understand.) Just let me become a crazy study hermit for the next few days. Thank you so much for all your love and support, particularly those of you (you know who you are) who have taken the time to send me super nice personal messages/drawings/fan art/love. You are the best ever. Here's some of my favourite links/outfits from my corner of blogland from the past few months, to keep your need for anything Pineneedle-related satiated for the next 10 days: My favourite outfits from recent times (click to see the full blog post): This fan-art sent to me by lookbooker Bruno Harryson. My attempts to brainwash inspire you guys with science and the latest addition of a science-related fact to my outfit posts, including this awesome video explaining "Why is it dark at night?" My DIY rompers (here and here). My pinterest board full of inspiration for things that I'm going to create after my exams. And the start of something magical... (this will be the first thing I finish when I am on holidays! DIY tutorial to come.) (and a sneaky "I'm procrastinating on my study" update on 9 november: this fan art as well. Well, it's too good not to show off here.) This fan art sent to me by Kat at LookBookIllust. And I will also leave you with some of my favourite outfits, posts, links and DIYs from around the world: Besty McCall paper dolls from the 50s - 60s (I have plans to base a bunch of outfit posts around these). This lookbooker, Shuxi W. Anything posted by Jessica Celebre from the Tragic Sense. These magical pictures from the Paulie's Antique lookbook photoshoot by Polly Bland. One of my favourite bloggers Megan from the Briar Rose wearing new creations from one of my favourite stores, Mod Dolly, as a collaboration with one of my favourite ideas for a website, Sketch Street (this was almost too much, I'm telling you). & Kate Gabrielle's handmade sweater clips. See you guys on aroundabouts the 18th of November! Wooowhohowhooo! p.s. apologies if I inadvertently gave anyone a heart attack with my tricky blog post title ;)

I Heart You Back

I love any item of clothing with hearts someway incorporated into it. I'm pretty sure that no one could find any item of clothing or any accessory that would be an exception to this rule. Anything with hearts = awesome. Anything. Another thing - Someone please nominate me for a blog post title award. They're just too good and only getting better. "I heart you back?" Amazing! I must be some kind of literary genius! wearing dress - c/o Romwe tights - c/o Choies bag - c/o Choies belt - Vintage shoes - Wholesaledress Science factoid for the day: This amazing representation of the blood vessels inside the human head. I figured this related to my outfit because of the heart-shaped back of my dress. Heart = pumps blood = blood vessels carry said blood around body, including the head. YEAH. (source: Neuroscience Research Techniques) Who knew you had so many blood vessels running around up there? The ones in the brain area don't surprise me so much, but the incredible amount of blood vessels around the face and front of the skull? I had no idea. Much love,

Burgandy, Black and Theoretical Physics

wearing all vintage except for shoes (c/o Chictopia), hat & sweater (wholesale) For today's interesting science related factoid, here is a photo of a very dapper young scientist. Now 70 years old, he is one of the most brilliant physicists of all time. Can anyone guess who this is (before cheating and looking at the answer at the bottom of the photo?) Yep, it's Stephen Hawking, at around the age of 21. He was some seriously babin' geekiness. In addition, he is of course one of the most incredible theoretical physicists of all time. You should also definitely read A Brief History of Time - I am about halfway through and it is mind-blowing. Hope you're all doing wonderfully,

Why is it Dark at Night? (Alternatively, Ponies!)

I'm so very colour coordinated today! My sweater matches my shorts and even my lips match the black bits of my outfit. Also, I really like this new black lipstick. What do you guys think of it? wearing sweater - c/o Sheinside blouse - Vintage shorts - I made them (kind of)! - DIY shoes - Vintage lipstick - Ebay So you know what? Being a scientist/science nerd and all, and in an attempt to make outfit posts a little bit more than "so I wore this sweater today because I like it and I think it looks cool... *awkward shuffle*", and also in an attempt to convince/brainwash you guys into thinking science is cool, I've decided to include an amazing science thing at the end of my outfit posts. If you're not into that, then feel free to skip right past it, but if you think it's worth your while then you may just learn something :) I'm also going to try and relate it to my outfits somehow... this following video has a lot of bright yellow and black so... yeah. That totally counts. I've got another clip from Minute Physics today, because they make the cutest little science videos. Have you ever thought about why the sky is dark at night? Because the sun isn't shining - well, yeah. But if we didn't have an atmosphere, the sky would always look dark, night and day. So why is space dark? Why don't all the stars light up space? The answer to the question is not as obvious as you might think. I hope you're all having a marvellous week. I really need to start studying for my uni exams so I can become an actual proper scientist, so I'm going to go do that now. Much love!