I've Got Butterflies

Dress and boots are from Dotti, tights are c/o Chicwish and bag is c/o Chicwish. Glasses are from Dangerfield and headband is from Japan. I was in the mood for darker hair and makeup today to match this dress and boots. I haven't worn black lipstick in such a long time, and I really need to remind myself to wear it more often - even though the lipstick that I have requires constant reapplication, and if I ever try to eat while wearing it I end up looking like I have a chin beard - which is not the best look haha. I was thinking about writing about butterflies (the creature) for this blog post, because they undergo metamorphosis which is kind of an amazingly cool process (here's a picture of it, anyway). However, I then discovered this insanely cool image of a "butterfly nebula" taken by the Hubble space telescope and knew I had to write about that instead. This "planetary nebula" is in fact the remnants of a dying star. When 95% of stars die, when they have burned away all the hydrogen in their cores, become red giants and then shrink to white dwarfs,  they eject a mass of gasses - like what you see above (the other 5% become supernovas - but to become a supernova, they have to start out life at least eight times the size of our own sun). This butterfly nebula actually has two orbiting stars at the centre of the gas cloud, which makes it even cooler. Planetary nebulae are credited for spreading "heavy elements" - things like carbon, oxygen and nitrogen which are what we ourselves are mostly composed of - throughout the universe. Without these dying stars, life as we know it wouldn't exist. I hope that you're all having a great weekend so far! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Edible Accessories & Waterspout Science

Top is from Forever 21, skirt is thrifted, socks and necklace are from Dangerfield and shoes are from Italy How great is this hamburger necklace?? Though I'm a vegetarian and don't eat actual hamburgers, I'm happy to honor them in wooden-necklace form! I've been wearing it with absolutely everything, and I'm sorry if I wear it in the next 50 outfit posts I do (actually, not sorry, because it's awesome). There are a bunch of them going for $2 at Clear-It (Dangerfield's clearance store on King street) if you live in Sydney ;) It was extremely windy while trying to take these photos - the majority of the photos did not look like the above one, which somehow looks like it was taken with an artfully-placed wind-machine. The rest of the photos feature hair flying everywhere, including my mouth, and I just lucked out with these ones. Still, I should be thankful I wasn't caught up in a waterspout, as cool as they look. Waterspouts, often featuring wind speeds of up to 200km/h (124mph), are a mild type of tornado that occurs over water, and are spinning columns of rising moist air - though they can be very dangerous. In fact, some people think they might explain the "mystery" around some disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. Image by Joey Mole Waterspouts usually form where there are patches of warm water, and a strong current of warm air rises from the surface of the water. Other air then rushes in to replace the rising air, which makes the air spin around and upwards - and as this cycle continues, a waterspout is made. Most of the water in the spout isn't being "sucked up" from the surface, though - moisture is actually sucked out of the surrounding air. (I was imagining fish flying around in the waterspout. Doesn't happen.) Apparently waterspouts are pretty common in Florida, which Google Analytics tells me is one of the states who most reads my blog out of anywhere in the world (California is still winning, though). So can I ask my readers from Florida - has anyone ever seen a waterspout?? Please let me know! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Bright Orange on an Overcast Day

dress, gloves and tights are from Dangerfield clearance store, headband is c/o Milanoo and shoes are from Italy. I moved house! And this wall is part of my new backyard - I have a plain white wall to take photos against! Finally! I was so excited, in fact, to find that I've got endless possibilities for photo taking around my new home. It's a fashion blogger's dream home. Because the best thing is that we're right next door to a big park with all these amazing community murals; there will definitely be some photos taken against those! I couldn't resist this dress from the Dangerfield clearance store "Clear It" (118 King St if you live in Sydney - go, and search through the $5 defective stock bin - it's amazing). The dress was from stock that was going to be thrown out because of some slight defect (in this case, a button that needed to be sewn back on). I also couldn't resist these gloves because they were only $4. It's pretty warm now - we've basically said goodbye to the cardigan and coat season - but I wonder if I can pull off gloves without people looking oddly at me? These photos are my attempt to do so, anyway. What do you think about gloves when it's not the middle of winter? And if you're currently somewhere that's not overcast or raining, raining, raining like Sydney is, then see if this video makes you want to go outside and get some fresh air ;) Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Spring Fling / Meeting Minute Physics and Asap Science

dress is c/o Modcloth, cardigan is Forever 21, bag is thrifted, hat is wholesale. Today I remembered that I entirely forgot to post these shots! Which is great, as I've packed away my tripod and camera for moving house tomorrow, (eek, tomorrow?? I really have to pack my clothes)! Before I get back to packing up, let me quickly tell you about this outfit. These photos were taken on the first day of Spring in this beautiful dress from Modcloth. I'm trying to rewear the "older" stuff in my wardrobe a lot more, and I can't believe I had neglected this dress for so long (in fact, the last time I wore it was on the first day of Spring last year!) For shame! It's got such a gorgeous vintage cut and the super-bold print of sunflowers is magnificent. Today's science story also happens to be some exciting Annika news - please indulge me. And possibly also get jealous. About a month ago, I met the brains behind minute physics (Henry) and asap science (Gregory and Mitchell), whose videos I have featured countless times on this blog before - see here and here for example. I also managed to also palm off blog business cards to them both, though I don't know if they've ever had a look! I met them because they were in Australia for the IFLS Live show (to which I missed out on tickets), but they had a "meet up" in Sydney beforehand to which I enthusiastically attended with about 3 other fans - and then awkwardly said hello because I didn't actually know what they looked like, seeing as their videos mainly feature their hands. They were all such lovely people, though, and my housemate and I chatted to them for almost an hour! Real-life proof that I met Henry (left), Mitchell and Gregory (right). Here's a couple of amazing science videos from these guys. Firstly, asap science aims to destroy any notion that what you see is really real. (I recently made a very similar post about the illusion of reality).   And this is a favourite video of mine from minute physics, which I posted about nearly a year ago now in relation to this pink dress, about how the colour pink doesn't physically exist. I hope you're all super dooper fantastically well, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Night At The Museum

The other night, my friend Clare and I went to the Australian Museum's open night (also known as Jurassic Lounge). I'm currently moving house and don't have much clothing-wise to post for you guys - and I have packed up my camera - so I thought I'd post some photos from the other night (science!) If you're in Sydney, I highly recommend going to Jurassic Lounge while it's still running, which is every Tuesday night until November. There's music, drinks, exhibitions, comedy, performances and science! Plus basically everyone there was super well-dressed. I saw a lot of vintage and modcloth-clad people. It's basically my ideal kind of place. Make sure you check out the turtle skeleton, the walrus skull and the factoids on giant worms in the above photos! I'll be back with more posts when I'm done moving house and not so craaaazy busy! (Currently it's 1 day until moving day, and I haven't packed up any of my clothes yet! *Gulp*) Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Pineapples! (and Watermelons)

sweater and bag c/o Choies, skirt is thrifted, socks are thrifted, necklace is thrifted and shoes are from Asos. Well, I can't say much more about this outfit other than I'm wearing a heck load of pineapples. I also want to point out that this is one of my last posts with sponsored clothes from the companies that I am discontinuing sponsorship with, and now I am endeavoring to make many more of my own clothes (see below)! So I love pineapple and watermelon-printed-anything at the moment, and if you didn't see it on my facebook or instagram the other day, I'm currently in the process of making this: Hand-drawing all those watermelons took a while but it was totally worth it! I can't wait to share the tutorial with you all really soon! So this comic from the Oatmeal about why the Mantis Shrimp is the coolest animal in the world is both sciencey and hilarious - and you should have a read of it! Not only do mantis shrimp have 16 colour receptors (as opposed to our measly three which alone allow us to see some pretty amazing sunsets), but they're also insanely strong. I won't give away much more - you can have a read here. The Mantis Shrimp will either become your favourite animal or the animal of your nightmares. Photo from The Oatmeal What's your favourite animal and why? I hope you're all having a lovely day, Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr