A Colourful Mermaid

This is a very colourful outfit that I have been planning in my mind for quite a long time - I just had to wait for all of the pieces to come to me in the mail (all the way to Australia, so it's been a while!) I'm very happy because it turned out exactly as I imagined. I'm going to save this outfit for an overcast, rainy day. blouse - c/o Oasap tights - c/o Oasap shoes - c/o YesWalker skirt - c/o Faith & Lola necklace - c/o I Love Crafty Some days, I just want to post pretty outfits on my blog. The science I'm really focusing on at the moment at uni is all about eukaryotic transcriptional and translational regulation and how cells regulate their mRNAs, eIFs and other proteins to control gene expression. While I am finding it very fascinating, it's not the easiest thing for communicating here (in fact I showed it to Luci, who just said "yeah... that was all gobbledegook. Like, I got some words were in English, but that was all I understood.") So I hope you all don't get mad at me for missing out on a science fact today. Alright... a little science fact then. Many of you were interested by my Synaesthesia post the other day, and said that you also strongly associate colours with numbers or letters, but don't actually see them. Have a look at Ideasthesia. Probably, the majority of people have some form of this (just look at the "Kiki and Bouba" effect, for instance. Why would most people associate a spiky shape with the word "kiki" and a rounded shape with "bouba"? Do we all have a predisposition to synaesthetic-like-qualities?). Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Synaesthesia

Beige, stripes and a bow-tie! These are some amazingly cool new stockings from my sponsor Oasap. Though pricey, I'm happy to recommend these ones because they are thick and don't seem like they'll ladder easily (I've also worn them for a few days, and they're all good so far!) There's also a black & white version instead of the so-called "nude" version for anyone with darker skin - I've always though it's pretty unfair that standard "nude" colour always actually means "nude white person" colour, because there's a heck of a lot more skin types out there than this so called "nude". Anyway. They're still cool tights. blouse - c/o Choies skirt - Wholesale tights - c/o Oasap shoes - Chicory (Japan) hat - c/o Wholesale bag - Vintage After talking about colour perception in my last few posts, a number of people brought up synaesthesia.  Synaesthesia is one of the first things to get me interested in neuroscience and the study of human perception, and it's an incredibly wonderful and weird phenomenon! Synaesthesia is a rare neurological trait, leading to the crossing over of perceptual information: that means people with it can "see colours" in numbers or letters, "taste" words, "smell" days of the week, or "feel" that certain words or numbers have distinct personalities. It can involve any of the senses. Someone talking, for example, can simultaneously be perceived as sounds and as a taste on the tongue by someone with synaesthesia. The most common form is what is called "grapheme colour synaesthesia", where individual letters and numbers are associated strongly with different colours. This type can often help synesthetes with memory tasks where long strings of words, letters or numbers need to be remembered. It's unclear which parts of the brain are involved in synaesthesia, although a leading theory is that it's due to "cross-wiring" in the brain: neurons (brain cells that can conduct electricity) that are meant to be in sensory system cross over into another sensory system. There is also a theory that all babies are born with "cross-wired" brains, which as we grow, are "pruned back", and that synaesthesia is a failure of the brain to do this properly. (Though the word "failure" puts synaesthesia in a negative light, which I don't think it should be at all. I think it would be a pretty cool thing to have - although experiencing the taste of  mouldy detergent every time you heard a particular person's voice wouldn't be so awesome). The wikipedia page on Synesthesia provides some pretty sweet reading. Hoping you're all feelin' fine, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

30 Days of Dressing Up: April 2013 (preview)

It's almost April, which means that I'm doing my "Month of Dressing Up" series again! Make sure you check out my last one, March 2013, if you missed the series the first time around! Anyway, this time I thought I'd make it more interactive for you guys. Below are the items I have chosen to style, and I was wondering if you could suggest any killer combinations. I've already thought up a whole lot, but it's very possible I've missed a few, so if you want your suggestions to appear in my 30 Days of Dressing Up for April, then let me know what you think! (Try and stray away from the super obvious ones if you can. Some unusual combinations that just might work are particularly what I'm looking for.) Links to the items:  a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | k | l My previous 31 Days of Dressing Up is here for inspiration. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Giveaway: Win an item of your choice from Tomorrow Never Knows Vintage / CLOSED

Hooray for giveaways! I have another giveaway for the lovely readers of my blog - one item of your choice from TNK Vintage! An adorable and very well-priced vintage boutique operating out of Toronto, TNK Vintage is also offering the readers of my blog a 50% off discount code until the 15th of April - just put in at the code 26790 at the checkout to use it! So if you want to grab something before it disappears... it might be a good idea to use the code and get the item now. a Rafflecopter giveaway Please use the Rafflecopter widget above to enter this giveaway. There is one mandatory entry and a bunch of additional entries to boost your chances of winning! Please make sure you do them properly, or your entry will be invalid (I do check!) This giveaway is open internationally until the 15th of April. Good luck! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Fairy Bread, Sleepy Head

Check out these Oasap tights! *Droooool*. Aren't they awesome? (They're not super dooper thin either, if you're thinking of purchasing them!) And yes, I cut a fringe into my new wig - and I'm not sure if I made it better or worse. Time will tell... blouse - Vintage sweater - Vintage necklace - Claire's (Japan) tights - c/o Oasap skirt - Vintage shoes - c/o Yes Walker hat - c/o Wholesale Why do we yawn? One of my new favourite science bloggers, Katie from the Molecular Circus, tried to answer this question on her blog the other day. It's a really interesting read! There are several theories as to why we yawn, and science still doesn't really know - my favourite theory is the empathy one, but it's likely there are a couple of reasons for the existence of yawning. (Click here to read her post!) Also, did I make all you guys yawn with all this talk of yawning? No? How about a photo - will that help? *YAWN* Hope you're all having a happy day! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Lace & Hearts / Mind Reading & Barnum

As promised yesterday, here is my new Choies wig and Yes Walker flats together in an outfit! It is super dooper hot weather today (Australia doesn't seem to understand that it is autumn yet), but I really wanted to wear these tights, so I paired it all with this simple, summery lace dress from Koogal. dress - c/o Koogal tights - c/o My Tights shoes - c/o Yes Walker necklace - c/o Oasap wig - c/o Choies Okay, guys. For something different today, I'm going to tell you, yes you, reading right now, some things about yourself. Before you read below, just read this list of qualities, and take tick each one off if it applies to you. And then ask yourself - does Annika know me? Has she read my mind?? (Didn't you guys know that I can read minds now?) So, here goes - Most of the time you are positive and cheerful, but there is a time in the past where you were very upset. At times you feel very sure of yourself, whereas other times you are not as confident. You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. At times you have serious doubts whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing, but generally you have had a positive influence on the people in your life. You have just experienced what is known in psychology as "The Barnum Effect". Popular with astrology sections in magazines and psychics, the Barnum effect shows how easily we can be manipulated into believing that the vaguest statements are actually meaningful insights into our own lives. Think about the above sentences. Did they apply to you? They probably also applied to most of the people reading this post. Okay, so it's likely you thought this test in particular was silly, because it's obvious that I, Annika, am not going to know all about you and your personality through some kind of psychic blogger powers. But this test, when given by some kind of authority figure (or by someone who claims to have 'mysterious powers') works extremely well. In fact, the original "Barnum test" was masked as a "personality test" (just like a self-test you might find in a trashy mag), in which psychology students in the 1940s had to answer some questions on their personality. They were then all given pieces of paper with "feedback", and asked to rate how well it applied to themselves. Most gave it a rating of 4 to 5 out of 5 for accuracy. Only afterwards was it disclosed that all the "feedback" given was entirely identical to everyone elses. (original image source) Our brains are interesting things, and it's good to know how your own one can be fooled ;) I hope you're all super well, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr