The Pineneedle Collective

Sunday, 21 September 2014

The Thirty-Minute Skirt!

Today I'm sharing with you how something that I call my "30-minute skirt" - although in reality, it can often take me up to an hour to make :P But it's a really quick & easy skirt to make - a great project for a beginner, if you're just trying to wrap your head around a sewing machine!

I hope you're all having a wonderful day,

Giveaway! - Dressed // CLOSED

Hi all! It's been a little while since I've done a giveaway on this blog here, so today I am bringing you a giveaway from Dressed! 5 people will win, so your chances are pretty good!

Designed by a marine neuroscientist and her husband, Dressed is an app for apple devices that allows you to put your entire wardrobe into your phone, then dress a mannequin up with every possible combination from your wardrobe! This is extremely useful for me, because my wardrobe is so full that pulling clothes out to decide what to wear in the morning is actually a really tiring task.

IT'S A MINIATURE VERSION OF ME.

WHAT EVEN IS TECHNOLOGY *___*

The way technology is going, soon I won't even have to take proper outfit photos - I'll just have a robot representation of me on my computer, all my clothes uploaded to the interwebs, and I'll just post outfit posts like this:

Hehehe. I am beyond amused/excited by this :') The seasonal backgrounds are just another part of the app... and I spend way too much time playing around with them.

The app is really intuitive, simple to use and super fun to play with. It lets you add each item of clothing in about a minute, then dress up a customised mannequin with clothes that fly in and out and move around just like real cloth! You can take pictures of your own clothes, or find images on the internet (so you could technically make yourself a fantasy wardrobe, too).

The giveaway is open for 2 weeks internationally. And if you can't wait, you can download the app here. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

***Disclaimer: I have not been paid to run this giveaway. I just genuinely think that this is a really cool app.***

Monday, 15 September 2014

Self Love, The Lion King and Your Insides are on the Outside

Shirt, belt and cardigan are thrifted | Lion King brooches gift from Katie (thrifted) | skirt is Paper Hearts | tights are from Clear It | shoes are Naot

Someone once suggested that I write down a list of my achievements and carry it around with me. I thought that this was a pretty silly idea. Like what, I'm going to be standing in the middle of a busy shopping centre one day, reading through this list of how great I am? What if someone saw what I was reading/found the piece of paper? They'd think I was an absolute egomaniac.

But after having a couple of pretty low weeks, I thought I'd give this list-making thing a shot. Couldn't hurt. Well, I just finished said list and I have to say that I feel a lot better. Being a perfectionist, I'm always far too hard on myself when I don't feel like I'm pushing myself to the absolute limit. I was used to writing lists of "things that I should do", not "things I have done". But that's actually not a good way to live. Now when I am feeling like I haven't done enough or that I'm not good enough, I think that looking at this list of achievements will help a lot. I highly recommend it if you're in need of a little bit of self-love.

On a completely different topic, how ridiculously wonderful are these Lion King pins that Katie thrifted me from Estonia?!

So I was listening to a podcast today when I was reminded of one of my favourite facts from first-year biology. Ready to have your mind blown?

The contents of your stomach are technically on the outside of your body.

Wait what?

Your digestive tract is really just a long tube with two openings that lead directly to the outside. The wall of the gut is continuous with the skin, and so whatever is inside your stomach is technically on the outside of your body. And you don’t have to dissect through any of the body's tissues to get to your stomach or intestines.

Mmm... biology.

If you imagine yourself to be a kind of huge, biological donut, your digestive tract is analogous to the donut’s hole - it is inside the donut in a way, but it’s not really “inside” the donut - it's not a part of the dough.

So there you go.

I hope you're all having a beautiful day,

Friday, 12 September 2014

Clueless Inspired Outfit - Make Thrift Buy #2

Well hi there! Guess who has a new video out?

For this episode of Make, Thrift, Buy I attempted to tackle this tartan two-piece. I won't tell you how I went - you'll have to find out by watching the video (but I will preface it by saying that I am so excited about this one):

Please help me out & leave me links to any cool/interesting/expensive clothes you've seen on the internet that you'd like me to try out!

Much love,

Sunday, 7 September 2014

Make, Thrift, Buy - a new youtube series

Hello! I'm just popping in quickly today to let you all know about the new Youtube series that I've started!

The idea behind this series is to show you that when you see something really cool in an online/real-life store, you don’t immediately have to go and spend all your money on it – because you can often find a very similar thing in thrift shops, or, with a little bit of sewing knowledge and DIY-attitude, you can make the item for yourself.

So the challenge is this - you guys send me pictures of clothes you have found on the internet, and I have to try and recreate the item, either through DIY, thrifting or a combination of the two (without having to resort to fast fashion!)

Let me know what you think, and if you have any links to clothes that you would like me to do this challenge with, please leave them in the comments below!

Saturday, 6 September 2014

Anni Long Stockings and Memory Metals

One problem with having a thrifting buddy who has a very similar style as you is that you have to fight over clothes. I found this shirt while thrifting the other day with Katie, and I nearly made her cry because she wanted it so badly. Katie begged and pleaded and I eventually had to give it to her - mainly because she looks exactly like Pippi Longstockings - with the caveat that I got to borrow it whenever I liked. So, being the great friend that I am, I stole it back off her almost immediately ;)

You may have noticed that I titled this post "Anni Long Stockings". Anni is actually what my family and close friends call me, rather than Annika. This stems from me being a bratty 12-year-old who, deciding I loathed the name "Annika", violently attacked anyone who decided to address me so. Soooo, my family basically got this weird pavlovian reaction where they flinch upon accidentally calling me Annika (probably still thinking they're going to get punched by an angry 12 year-old), and the name Anni stuck, even though I actually prefer Annika now. I was a super bratty 12-year-old.

The more you know.

Update: My mum (my blog's biggest fan hehe) just messaged me to tell me that one of Pippi's best friends was called Annika, which I totally didn't know. My mum loved Pippi as a kid, and it could be one of the reasons that I am called Annika!

Top is thrifted | skirt is thrifted | necklace c/o Ginger Pickle | socks are from Clear It | shoes are Naot

Memory metals! They're a thing! I can't actually believe that this exists:

A nickel-titanium alloy, this metal is able to revert back to the shape that it was created in using "heat memory". To create the desired shape, it needs to be heated to a "transformation temperature" - usually around 65 - 80°C. When it cools down, it becomes flexible and can be molded into any shape. However, once it hits that "transformation temperature" again (like being put into a hot water bath), its atoms remember their previous arrangement, and it springs back into its previous shape.

Called Nitinol, the metal has proved useful in medical applications, helping arteries retain their shape and removing clots from deep inside the brain, and has even been used in eyeglass frames.

So cool.

I hope that you're all having a beautiful day,