Super exciting annoucement: Grand opening of the Little Pineneedle!

Guess what guess what guess what guys?! I've decided to open a store! It's called the Little Pineneedle and will be selling cute handmade outfit accessories including sweater/collar clips and lace sock cuffs! If you know the lovely Paige Joanna, you may have noticed that she has recently posted about a pair of collar clips I sent her to try out! Read her post here. But firstly, this is what I have in store right now: ~ Sunflower sweater clips ~ There's only THREE of these available to ship right away. And for these first three that I sell, I'll also customize the tag like Paige's as way of thanks, and you can feel super special and loved :) And if all goes well, I'll start making many more! You may have noticed me sneakily wearing these clips in a bunch of outfit posts recently: And here's the lovely Paige wearing them! (her full post here) ~ Lace Sock Cuffs ~ The second thing I'm selling are these lacy sock cuffs! I've been sneakily wearing these  in my last few blog posts as well because they're kind of perfect to add to any pair of unfrilled socks, and I haven't been able to resist: ~ Mushroom Garden Sweater Clips ~ AND if I get my way with the post office ($15 for international shipping? No miss post office lady, I don't think so), hopefully you'll also be able to buy these super cute mushroom sweater clips soon as well. Unfortunately I can really only sell these to people in Australia right now (unless you're totally in love and must have them and are happy to pay $15 for shipping)! I've got two of these ready to ship. Hopefully my little store might actually start running a profit one day, but really I'm just going to be pretty content if there are some people in different parts of the world  wearing and getting some joy from something that I made! WITH MY OWN TWO HANDS. (eep!) I can't wait to hear your thoughts! (I'm very very excited and very very nervous!) You can visit the Little Pineneedle here! Much love!!

Golden Foliage

Isn't this dress amazing? From the baroque print to the heart shaped cut out on the back and the circle skirt, it's a combination of a bunch of awesome on-trend elements and it really works. wearing dress - c/o Koogal cardigan - c/o Sheinside sock cuffs - DIY shoes - Oasap belt - Vintage hat - c/o Wholesale I'm not feeling so well today and my brain is rather sluggish, so I may save an awesome science fact til tomorrow. Hopefully today you can just enjoy the outfit photos :) Much love,

DIY Ice Cream Pockets Skirt

Hey guys! This is what I made today - and another idea for pockets if you want to give my DIY skirt a go! (Thank you so much to the ladies who have made & blogged about this DIY skirt! I've loved seeing what you're coming up with!) I made the pockets a little larger than the blue gingham skirt, and appliquéd on some ice cream shapes, using slightly different patterned fabrics for each ice-cream scoop. I really like them :) wearing t- shirt - Forever 21 skirt - DIY tights - c/o Oasap shoes - Raben footwear hat - c/o Wholesale Onto some science - if you needed any more proof that science is awesome, then please take a look at these nail designs from Cosmetic Proof. Scientist and fashionista Jayne creates molecular nail designs, and then explains the biological funtion behind the chemical structures she draws! These are by far the coolest mash up of science and fashion that I've ever seen: Amino acids are the "building blocks" of what make up proteins in your body (proteins being what makes all your different tissues, skin, organs etc). There are 20 naturally occurring amino acids in humans, and each amino acid has both a name and an abbreviated letter. These nails represent the stick drawings for each amino acid (the red dot shows oxygen and the blue dot is nitrogen, and the black lines are how chemists draw carbon that is linked in chains). So the super awesome thing about these is not only did she paint amino acids on her fingernails... she placed each amino acid so that, read left to right, the abbreviated letters spell out a secret message: These are actually the nerdiest and best thing ever, I am so impressed. Also seeing as I want to be a brain lady one day, I'm crazy for these neuro nails: Check out Jayne's blog Cosmetic Proof here for more amazing nerdy nail designs. Yay for science!

Black Lips, Blue Docs & Immortality

Okay, so look what I got at the op shop on Thursday! I mentioned these in yesterday's blog post, but I still can't believe my luck so I'm mentioning them again. Super good condition dark blue Dr Martens made in England. For $12. In my size. BEST HAUL EVER! I'm also so happy with this blazer! I'm not a big blazer wearer, but this one suited this outfit really well! I LOVE the plaid orange colour. I actually think it would also work really well paired with lilac in an outfit that isn't so dark. wearing blazer - c/o Sheinside dress - Chicabooti boots - Dr Martens (Vintage) socks - Wholesale belt - Vintage You guys already know how much I love jellyfish (even when they're not really jellyfish), but the coolest hydrozoan that I think I've come across thus far are the species Turritopsis nutricula, who are only immortal. (source) These jellies are the real-life equivalent of Benjamin Button - basically, once they reach old age, they can revert back to being babies again. This reversal process is part of their natural life-cycle and the fact that they can continuously do it again and again makes them biologically immortal. Read more here, they're amazing creatures. Another animal who I've always been fascinated with, who is also considered somewhat biologically immortal are the flatworm Planarian. This worm can be cut in half, in quarters - in fact, up to 1/279ths, and each bit will regrow into a whole new individual worm. Because of this regeneration, and because they also maintain telomere length (a process thought to be a causing factor of aging in other organisms), they can also effectively live forever. This is why science is awesome. p.s. I recently joined up with re.mu! They're an online style-sharing network where you share photos of the clothes in your closet. Anyway, I need some friends! If you guys join up I'll follow you right away :) You can sign in easily through facebook, and find my profile here! Let me know if you do sign up, and leave a comment with your profile below.

Restyler (giant old dress --> cute vintage number)

I had the best luck at the vintage stores I went to yesterday. Not only did I get this awesome dress (which I had to resize, but still) and orange sweater, I also scored a pair of dark blue Dr Martins, in super good condition. And then I got my university results back and found out that I got two High Distinctions in the subjects I really wanted to do well in, which means I can do the advanced neuroscience courses I wanted to do next year! (I'm actually on the way to becoming a real scientist!) I then spent the rest of the night sewing, attempting to alter this dress into something wearable, and succeeded!  It was a very good day :) I also have to let you all know what happened the entire time I was altering this dress. Bomfunk MC's Freestyler started playing over and over in my head, except instead of the main word being "Freestyler", it got replaced with "Restyler". I'm not sure why. Possibly because I'm mad. I embedded the song here for anyone who wants to know what my mad brain subjected me to all night. Luckily I happen to have a massive soft-spot of nostalgia for this song so it really wasn't all bad. I even got into it and started singing along as I was sewing, being a total bad ass mutha-f**ker restyler (from the 90s). Anyway, here's a before and after shot of my dress! My process of alteration was: making the bodice smaller, shortening the sleeves, removing the shoulder pads, shortening the skirt then bringing in the bodice again with some darts. If anyone who alters vintage dresses has any tips for resizing, I'd love to hear them - I'm really just making it up as I go along and I'm sure there's better techniques I could use! Still, I'm pretty happy with how my dress turned out. There's no way you could leave a dress with these buttons and collar alone in a thrift store.  No way. wearing dress - Vintage (restyled) bag - Ebay shoes - Vintage socks - Cotton On clips - The Little Pineneedle sock cuffs - I made them hat - c/o Wholesale p.s. No science fact for today - I haven't stopped, don't worry! I just didn't want this to turn into a monster blog post.

Little Jellybean plus a Scientific Christmas Gift Guide

I bought some super pink lipstick the other day and I'm loving it! I'm feeling pretty lucky that I now have a whole THREE lipsticks to choose from, oh my! (Although I wouldn't mind a bright blue and maybe a dark violet and a lovely lilac..) I also love my new jelly shoes but wearing them the last few days has made it clear (I unintentionally wrote that pun then went back and noticed I'd done it, oh dear) that I'm going to have to start a super cute sock collection because now you can see my entire foot! These lilac socks are pretty cute, but I need more patterned ones I think! Anyone know some really cool sock stores? I'm on the lookout for ice-cream patterned socks in particular... wearing blouse (actually a dress) - Vintage Skirt - Vintage bag - c/o Mochi Beaucoup shoes - Jellybeans lace sock cuffs - I made them socks - Cotton On I've been seeing the coolest, nerdiest science-themed christmas presents all over the internet in the last few days, so I thought I'd make you guys a little Science-themed Christmas Gift Guide. I love art/science mash ups. Microbiology pendant necklace from ctrl alt deviant Test tube flower vases from Urban outfitters these personalised Chemistry prints (I want to point out they've written the chemical symbols wrong - always big letter then little letter! - but it's cool anyway) The nerdiest ever vintage-print chemistry pendants (featuring an orbital and chemistry apparatus) from Left Brain Right Brain Glow-in-the-dark(!!) Marie Curie portrait ring from The Science Boutique Galaxy in a pendant from The Pendant Garden And if you're feeling super ambitious, there's always this DIY project: Test tube chandelier by Pani Jurek By the way, thank you so much to everyone who's entered my two giveaways in the last few days! (Find them here and here). I've tried to make them a little more interesting than your average giveaway by asking you guys to be creative. I've really been enjoying your entries :) Hope you're all super dooper well!