Do We Miss Summer Yet?

Meanwhile, it's winter back in Sydney. And it is damn cold. I wish I had had this cropped camisole with me while I was facing the European summer heatwave just a couple of days ago - it would have been perfect! It's actually part of a two-piece suit and it's ridiculously cool. I can't wait for the weather to warm up, and to wear it with a very wide-brim hat/floral wreath and a pair of jellies. cropped top - c/o Choies shorts - c/o Choies tights - Kmart necklace - Claire's hat - c/o Wholesale This is slightly old news by now, but on the 19th of July NASA's Cassini spacecraft, which is currently orbiting Saturn and touring its moons (including ones which might have life like Titan) took this beautiful photo. The arrow in the photo is not a massive arrow-shaped alien spaceship orbiting Earth, but rather indicates Earth and our moon, which together make up that tiny blue dot in the photo. That's what Earth looks like from 1.5 billion kilometres away! (Image from NASA) Everyone who reported on this image in the news focused on Earth (gosh, we're egocentric), but I think the really really amazing thing about the photo is Saturn (hello! It takes up a good two-thirds of the image!), how it is eclipsing the sun, and the shot of its rings! The photo will end up being stitched together with many other photos taken of Saturn, and released in a few weeks time. I'm pretty excited for it! If I could be any type of photographer, I think I'd most like to be a spacecraft ;) Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Covergirl!

As much as I enjoyed the amazing adventure I had in Italy and Croatia, I was pretty excited to come back to Sydney. I missed my family, my housemates, and my house in the city. I'm also really excited to get back into studying science - this semester I get to work on some pretty awesome genetic research - and for the month that lies ahead, which includes a visit from my good blogger friend Ashley Dy!  But one of the things that I was really excited about getting back home for was seeing myself on the cover of Young Vagabond magazine! Having done a short interview with Young Vagabond and sending them a couple of pictures, I was already super excited for my first-ever magazine appearance (unless you count this). Then, when I was in Italy, I got an email from Young Vagabond asking if they could also use my photo as the cover image for their magazine! I almost immediately sent back a reply saying "ARE YOU CRAZY OF COURSE YOU CAN!!!!!?!!!@$*&@" until I remembered to be (semi) professional. Anyway, of course I said that it was okay, and this was the result! I decided that doing the same pose in the same place and wearing a pink wig like in the cover photo was appropriate for this post (I'm a dork and you all know it). So not only was this my first cover appearance (yes, first - I'm hoping for more ;) ), but Young Vagabond is exactly the type of magazine that I would have wanted to have my face on, if I had had the choice. The magazine is aimed at high-school-aged girls, but has none of the vacuous vapidness of magazines like Girlfriend, which is aimed at a similar audience (sorry, but, well, this) and celebrates the achievements of women in every kind of field (for example in their first issue they interviewed an astrophysicist!) On their "pledge", they encourage readers to think critically about the world they live in, which is a statement I couldn't agree more with. I'm honoured to be on the cover of Young Vagabond. hat - c/o Wholesale shirt - c/o Sheinside skirt - Paper Hearts tights - Kmart cardigan - Thrifted necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy And if you want to get yourself (or a teenage girl that you know) a copy of Young Vagabond magazine, you can pick it up from the Body Shop and I think Mag Nation in Australia, or order it online here. If you don't live in Australia, you can still get your hands (or eyes) on an online version here! I hope that you're all very well! There will be many more regular posts again (as soon as I get over my jetlag! And probably before then, too.) Much love, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Istria

These photos were taken in Istria, in Croatia, on my last day there. I am now back in Venice for two days before heading home again :'( Though I'm sad about going back, I'm fantasising about winter weather and layering, and with being reunited with my wardrobe! I am getting pretty sick of the very small amount of clothes that I brought with me - if I were to pack again, I probably would have just brought two suitcases with me and a tonne more dresses, rather than a trying to do a "capsule wardrobe". These photos are from the tiny town we stayed in. While wandering, we found an old crumbling building, right near the farm that we trespassed to take backlit photos on. It was like an old castle, and too pretty not to explore. Only later did we realise that it wasn't as abandoned as we thought - people were actually living inside, the front of the building having been restored. I hope that they leave the back of the building as it is, though - it's pretty gorgeous in its dilapidated state. top - Sportsgirl dungarees - "Internet Shop" in Haymarket, Sydney shoes - Yeswalker socks - Tutuanna I'll leave you all with that. See you when I'm back in Sydney! Ashley Dy is coming to visit me and I'm very excited - hopefully we'll have some sweet collaborative posts for you guys :D Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

There Are Real Life Unicorns in Croatia!

See? Two of them, right there! Oh ho ho. I'm pretty funny. I hope I got you all with my hilarious title. There are a lot of goats here though. Really big goats - and some of the them have quite large horns on their heads and they just wander around the streets casually. I tried to get some pictures of them, but there was this big alpha-male goat who was walking towards me more quickly than I felt comfortable with, so I jumped on my bike and rode madly away, imagining the whole way that it was chasing me (are goats even that dangerous? I don't know. I didn't want to stick around to find out.) bodysuit - Asos (sold out - but here's another unicorn shirt) belt - Thrifted skirt - Paper Hearts shoes - c/o Yeswalker And here are some photos taken just a short time afterwards, on an Istrian marina. Sunset in Europe lasts for about 3 hours - bizarre for me, because in Sydney the sun sets extremely quickly! I love Croatia more than I can even describe. The night ended with cocktails at what is possibly the coolest bar I have ever been to, sitting on cushions on rocks right next to the crystal-clear sea water. It's pretty mad to think that I only learnt last year why the sky is blue (light of the entire visible spectrum - white light - comes to us from the sun, and the atmosphere of Earth scatters the blue light - the light with the shortest wavelengths - more than the other colours. And that's why the whole sky appears blue). But I never even questioned why the sky turns orange or red at sunset. Thanks to this fantastic video by "It's Okay to be Smart", I now know why sunsets are so pretty! Have a great day, p.s. I'm having an ad sale to help fund a slightly expensive hair-style change that I'll be getting in the next month ;) If you'd like a Large Ad Spot for August to promote your store or blog, use the promo code AUGUSTADSALE at the checkout for $5 off all Large Ad spaces. Use the promo code ANNIKANEEDSNEWHAIR for $1 off all Small Ad spaces. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Miniature Annika

Hello all! Yesterday Luci's family was having a day of "recovery" after meeting about 10348 Istrian relatives, so we didn't get up to much. I didn't want to spend the entire day merely relaxing beside the pool (I hate wasting my days, even on a holiday), so after reading one of my favourite photography/fashion blogs "Introvert's Introduction" (and in particular, this post) I was inspired to do a "miniature composite" outfit shoot. It was my first attempt ever at doing one of these so some of the shadows and lighting probably looks a little bit off, but you get the idea! I would like to try and do some more outfit posts in miniature version - I think they'll go well with my more doll-like outfits. The full version of the photo is below (see an enlarged version here). Let me know what you think! And if you'd like to suggest any miniature scenes that you think would suit my outfits, leave me a comment :) dress - c/o Sheinside belt - Thrifted shoes - c/o Yeswalker necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy I hope that you're all having a great day, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Hello from Croatia! (plus glowworms)

The last couple of days involved me (and Luci's family) travelling to the western coast of Croatia from Venice. Currently, we are in what is known as the "Italian" part of Croatia (Istria), where people are ethnically Italian and mainly still speak Italian as well. It is extremely beautiful here in Croatia. I feel a little bit like I am coming home, as my heritage is Eastern European, and every night we have been eating gnocchi and desert cakes not unlike the kind my Hungarian grandmother used to make. Wardrobe-wise, I am getting pretty frustrated with my very limited amount of travel clothing (and there are only so many outfits that I can wear because this summer heat doesn't allow layering at all) and I can't wait to do some proper thrifting when I get back to Sydney! OUTFIT 1 shirt - c/o Sheinside (sold out - similar) skirt - c/o Sheinside (sold out) necklace - Claire's OUTFIT 2 bikini - Asos (sold out - similar) On the way back from dinner yesterday night, we discovered this little glowing guy peeking out of some bricks (this is a terrible photo of it - the worm had cute little glowing eyes and everything - but bear with me): What makes glowworms, fireflies and jellyfish glow? A property known as bioluminescence, the glowing is created by special proteins in the animals (usually called luciferins). Luciferins undergo a chemical reaction with an enzyme called luciferase. Luciferase causes the luciferin to meet with oxygen, causing a reaction which releases light (there is a good diagram of this on How Stuff Works). Just a couple of days ago, scientists from Brazil and Japan discovered the evolutionary link between non-glowing enzymes and bioluminnescent enzymes. This is really important because bioluminescence is used a lot in scientific and medical research (making things glow makes them a lot easier to see), and means that researchers will be able to make luciferases which glow in different colours and are up to 1000 times brighter (read more). Image via Science Alert, by Doug Perrine And here is a photo of bioluminescent plankton lighting up a beach in the Maldives, just to prove how cool it is. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr