The Pineneedle Collective

Monday, 19 May 2014

Oranges & Polka Dots

Crop top - DIY | pinafore - thrifted | socks - Dangerfield | shoes - Naot | brooch - DIY

I have found the ultimate pair of shoes, and I am never going to buy another pair.

Alright, so that's a little dramatic and I'm sure that I will cave eventually, but this pair of shoes is so freakin' comfortable that I never want to take them off. After giving myself tendonitis from merely walking around, I had to finally admit that I needed supportive shoes, and this ultimately led to this comfortable-shoe revelation. But it wasn't easy because most comfy shoes are, for some reason, completely hideous.

Why must it be the case that all cute shoes also happen to be horribly uncomfortable?? ;__;

There was also no way that I was going to resort to sneakers, or worse - crocs (I don't care how comfortable my dad says they are, they're not happening).
Frustrated, I tried adding padded-insoles to all my shoes, but this didn't seem to help me much on the tendonitis front, and it was getting so bad that I wasn't even able to leave the house because it was too painful to walk. So I went back to my search, and after hours of looking for "non-ugly orthopedic-style shoes" on google, I finally came across Naot. Considering that I wasn't able to leave the house because of my sore feet, I convinced myself to see the $200 that they cost as an investment in my wellbeing, and crossed my fingers that they would be as comfortable as all the reviews said they were.

And - oh my goodness. Wearing them is like walking on clouds. They're also very durable - considering I've worn them basically every single day for the last 3 months, they don't even look that worn or scuffed. And although it was difficult to find out much about the production, they appear to be made in Israel (who seem to have decent working conditions/wages etc), with raw materials from Italy - so they were probably not made in a sweatshop, which is always a bonus.

Anyway, I just wanted to write a little review on them because I struggled for so long with sore feet but didn't realise there was any kind of solution (without giving up on fashion entirely). BUT THERE IS, and it's not ugly! Woo hoo! You can find them here (or if you live in Australia, here).

I hope you're all having a beautiful day!

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

A Little Red Cape and a Tiny Cottage / Tiny Planet

Cape is thrifted | blouse, belt, purse and skirt are thrifted | Mushroom clips are c/o Ladybird Likes | Shoes are Naot

LOOK WHAT I FOUND AT THE OP SHOP ;__;

I can't believe my luck at op shops lately (although it's probably helped out by the fact that I visit one at least once a week. Shh. I don't have a problem - it's the way that I bribe myself to study really hard).

Anyway, I found this amazing cape at the op shop the other day, and I paid about $1 for it, thank you very much. I got this vintage skirt at the same time, too! And because I felt like this is the kind of outfit should have been photographed in a pretty forest full of deciduous trees and toadstools (which is pretty much unlike any landscape in Sydney, damn it), I also wore these cute toadstool pins that were sent to me as part of a collaboration by handmade jewelery-maker Ladybird Likes! I have been IN LOVE with everything Zoe makes for a long time now, so make sure that you go and check her store out, there's a lot more cute stuff where these came from!

And what adventure in a forest doesn't also include you coming across a cute rundown cottage? (In my fantasy of visiting a pretty forest, this definitely happens). So I topped this outfit off with my house purse. I really love my outfits to tell a story and I feel like this one achieved that. I also happen to look like some kind of Little Red Riding Hood-forest-nymph-hybrid, and I am okay with that.

So, space is big, we are tiny, and this is an awesome video.

The video starts out focusing on Earth (and imagine what a tiny speck of dust you are compared to all the big things on Earth), and then zooms out to compare us to the rest of the planets in our solar system. The biggest planet in our solar system is Jupiter, which is 142,980km across at its widest point. Earth is only 12,756kms in diameter.

But that is nothing once you get to our sun, which at 2,785,368km across, totally dwarfs the planets.

And then you feel really tiny when you compare our sun to the biggest known star, which is 4,595,857,200km in diameter. That's 1,650 times bigger than our own sun.

If you're starting to feel small, don't even try and contemplate all the SPACE in between those massive objects!

I hope that you're all having the most wonderful day,

Sunday, 11 May 2014

Sunset Boulevard | Print Your Own Make Up

Dress is Hell Bunny | hat is Vintage | shoes were found on the side of the road | ring is thrifted

Hey you guys! So is anyone else completely as obsessed with polka dots as I am, or is it just me? Every single time I go op-shopping, I end up with an armful of anything I've found that has polka dots on it, basically regardless of what it is. I then have to force myself to remove things like giant polka-dot pants that I'm "totally going to resize into cute shorts" (because I know that I never, ever will). It's seriously becoming a problem - yesterday I was wearing a white polka-dot bodysuit underneath a black polka-dot pinafore with polka dot socks (a stranger actually commented on my outfit and said it made them really happy, so, whatever, head-to-toe polka dots for the win!)

In case you didn't see it yesterday, I've uploaded a new youtube video! Stick around 'til the end for a blooper reel ;) I'm enjoying making videos so much lately that I keep doing it instead of my uni work, which is a little bit problematic! I'd also love to get an idea of if you guys would like to see things things like outfit/lookbook videos - let me know in the comments!

"We're going to live in a world where you can just take a picture on your friend's lipstick, and then print it out."

Image is from Tech Crunch

Fusing fashion and science, Grace Choi claims to have created the prototype for a mini-3D printer that can print makeup in whatever colour you want. With this product, called Mink, you can apparently take any image - for example, someone wearing an amazing lipstick on pinterest - select the colour from the image, and the Mink printer can 3D-print you that exact colour of lipstick (or eyeshadow, or foundation, or any type of make up you want).

Not only is this a cool application of science, it's also going to allow for a lot more make-up experimentation, regardless of whatever coloured make up products are trending. As Choi says, "The definition of beauty is something they [referring to us "young people"] should be able to control, not our corporations."

Choi estimates that a Mink printer will cost about $300 to start with - but if you're someone who buys a lot of expensive make up in multiple different shades, and you can replace this habit with something that can print you whatever colour makeup you want, it's pretty quickly going to be a money-saver.

Now before you all get too excited… I’m skeptical about the actual production of Mink and whether or not it’ll be available within a year (and for only $300!) as Choi has predicted – and it’s also quite mysterious as to what the “raw materials” themselves will be made of. But regardless as to whether Mink works out or not, I think that something like this is totally possible. I mean, we’re currently also working on the technology to print out houses, food, limbs and organs. ORGANS. How hard could makeup be compared to that?? I recently wrote a much more in-depth analysis of Mink at Birdee magazine, which you can read here.

[Thanks to Katie for the photos.]

Saturday, 10 May 2014

DIY Egg Brooch/Hair Clip

Hello! Because we are both free from uni, Katie and I have decided that every Tuesday is now going to be Craft Tuesday (we really need a better name. Any suggestions?) Anyway, we have wanted to make these clay fried eggs (I wanted a brooch, Katie wanted to make a hair clip) for a while now, so on our first ever Craft Tuesday we decided to give it a go! The original tutorial that we used is from Girl Guts, but it's always nice to see things in motion too, so we decided that we would make a short little video tutorial on what we did!

The materials that you will need are listed in the video's description. Enjoy!

Monday, 5 May 2014

Mendl's Patisserie

I needed to find some outlet for my love of the new Wes Anderson movie The Grand Budapest Hotel, and this apparently involved me dressing up like an extra from a Wes Anderson film and setting up a miniature photoshoot on top of my kitchen table.

I nicked this Mendl's box from my local cinema as we were leaving the movie (don't worry, there were about 200 of the things and they were probably just going to be thrown out at the end of the promotion), the whole time feeling an affinity with Zero Moustafa and Mr Gustave as they stole the Boy with Apple (because the stakes for my theft were definitely as high as they were in the film).

I desperately want to live in a world with the aesthetic of the Grand Budapest Hotel - really, of any Wes Anderson movie. But while seamless virtual reality is still a good few decades away, I'll have to make do with my outfit posts and photoshop to pretend that that world exists.

Sweater is vintage | top - can't remember | belt and skirt are thrifted | socks are handmade | shoes are from Naot

I think I might also have to do a Moonrise Kingdom inspired shoot now. With that pink dress. You know, for consistency, and definitely not because I want to be Suzy Bishop (I do, though the person I know who comes closest to achieving that is Polly Bland).

I hope that you're all having the sweetest day!

Friday, 2 May 2014

DIY Crop Top

As promised, I have made a tutorial on how to turn a loose-fitting, long-sleeved top into a cute crop top! For this project, you can basically use any stretchy shirt that is either in your size, or is up to a few sizes too big for you. Have fun!

Much love,