Mermaid School

Hey guys! This shoot is one that myself and Ashley Dy are pretty dang proud of, so I really hope you all like it too! This super lovely lady from Candy Kawaii Lover has been in Sydney for the past week, and we have been hanging out for the last couple of days - I've been showing her around my Sydney shopping spots (Newtown and Chinatown), and today we dedicated entirely to photo shoots - as a consequence, we have seven entire photo shoots to share with you guys. This is the first! The unintentional theme of this particular set of photos is "Mermaid School". If you recognise the buildings, yes, it's Sydney University. I wanted to take photos here because this building reminds me of Hogwarts. And you can't go wrong doing a photo shoot at Hogwarts. Annika's dress - c/o Chicwish Annika's headband - c/o Milanoo Annika's bag - Store in Italy Annika's shoes - c/o Yeswalker Ashley's top - Store in Sydney Ashley's skirt - c/o Chicwish Ashley's shoes - c/o Sammydress Ashley is leaving in two days, and we're both really sad because in a perfect world, we'd get together every weekend and take photos and go window-shopping. I'm so happy to have met this amazing person through blogging, though! If you haven't seen Ashley's photos or read her blog before, you can find her here. Much more very soon ;) Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

A Perfect Picnic Dress / Dolphin Talk

This dress has the cutest scalloped design on the front of it, don't you think? I thought that it was definitely the right dress to take on a "picnic" (I didn't go on an actual picnic because I'm doing 20 hours a week in the lab right now and have no time for such luxuries :( but it was a picnic-themed shoot nonetheless). I am planning on turning this picnic basket into a handbag at some point! I think I'll attach a pretty strap so that I can wear it as a shoulder bag. dress - Bonne Chance Collections bag/basket - Thrifted cardigan - Thrifted hat - c/o Wholesale shoes - Yeswalker I learnt the coolest things about dolphins today. Not only are dolphins self-aware (this was worked out by doing a psychological test called the "mark test", where researchers put a dolphin in front of a mirror, then put a mark on its back. If the animal tries to see the mark that the researchers have put on it, it must realise that it can see itself in the mirror and is, therefore, self-aware. Great apes and young children also pass this test, but animals like dogs and cats do not.) Image source But it also turns out that dolphins have different, individual names for each other, and can remember the names of their friends for up to 20 years! Their names are "signature whistles", which the dolphins give themselves at the age of 4 months to a year, and remain their name for the rest of their lives. They use it to identify themselves to other dolphins, and use the whistle-names of other dolphins to call them. This is further proof that dolphins use language, and also great proof of their intelligence! I can't wait until we figure out a way to converse with dolphins. Read the article here. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Sailor Earth / Printing Food

The detachable sailor collar on this dress is basically the greatest idea ever (when it comes to clothing). Being detachable, I can take it off and pair it with other t-shirts and dresses if I feel like my outfit needs to be just that little bit more sailor-esque. Of course, any good sailor also needs a map with them. The map print on this bag is pretty funny - it still lists Yugoslavia as a country - but overall it is a damn good bag. It's the perfect university bag because it fits all my books, labcoat and laptop. It also doesn't seem like it's going to fall apart anytime soon (I've had problems with cheap bags not lasting very long...), so I actually really recommend it if you were thinking of buying it yourself (disclaimer: it is a sponsored item, but this opinion is very much my own!) dress - Glitters for Dinner socks - c/o Sock Dreams bag - c/o OASAP shoes - c/o Topb2c (similar) If you've been reading my blog for any longer than a month, you'll already be very aware of how impressed I am by 3D Printing (see past posts here, here, here and here). Well, turns out it's also going to end world hunger. Image source Well, that's the title of this article anyway, although I'm not so sure that 3D printers will ever be so cheap that they'll be a ubiquitous item of household kitchens. Still, one direction that 3D printing is now going into is creating food. This is done by loading up cartridges of tiny organic molecules containing everything you need in your diet, setting a certain combination of ingredients on the printer, and letting it print out - layer by delicious layer. And if you were able to print out all your food at home, it means that there would be a lot less energy put into growing meat (the same proteins could feasibly come from insects, algae or lab-grown meat), and there would also be a lot less food waste because the "cartridges" of tiny molecules would last for 30 years before you had to throw them out. NASA is currently funding the research so that astronauts can have pizza in space. But the eventual goal is to create something that can be used in people's kitchens, and hopefully turn into something that can feed the projected 9.6 billion people on Earth by 2050. Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Little Spotty Teapot

I wanted to try and do another "miniature" style photoshoot (see my first attempt here). This is actually my fourth attempt though, not my second... but the other two were so embarrassingly bad, that they will never be uploaded here or seen by anyone else, haha.  sweater - Thrifted cardigan - Thrifted overall dress - c/o Sheinside necklace - c/o Merrin & Gussy socks - c/o Romwe shoes - c/o Sammy Dress hat - c/o Wholesale I wanted to set up the scene with a monochrome object. I found this super cute teapot lying around the house, owned by my housemate Kalynda, and thought that it'd go well with my mostly-monochromatic outfit, as well as contrasting my stripey socks. I then spent hours on photoshop trying to get the angles and shadows right - but I think it mostly worked out, in the end. What do you think? In science news, the first synthetic meat was taste-tested! (I'm pretty damn excited about this. Meat with no animal cruelty = awesome). P.s. sorry for the super short science bit today. I just started working in a lab today and I'm super dooper busy - more on that later ;) Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr

Space Age Children & Stardust

I think this is easily the coolest piece of clothing that I have ever owned. In my mind, kitsch clothes are the absolute best - which is why this skirt and my teapot dress are now my most treasured items of clothing. The print on the skirt is a 1956 illustration for biscuits, done in the space-age style (source of image - and check this link out because there is some great 1950s art to enjoy). Choies, where this skirt comes from, has got a whole bunch of wonderfully bizarre, kitsch clothes (LIKE THESE) which I am extremely appreciative of! top - c/o Sheinside skirt - c/o Choies cardigan - Thrifted necklace - c/o Les Folles Marquises hat - c/o Wholesale I absolutely love it when science merges with art. Spanish artist Sergio Albiac uses computer programs to generate his works, and his most recent project "Stardust" uses images from the Hubble space telescope to piece together portraits. For the portraits, he uses images that people from all over the world send to him. Naturally, as soon as I saw this - on IFLS, where else? - I jumped at the chance to have portraits of myself made. This is the result! You can still get your own ones done, and both help contribute to this art project and get your own space portraits - just follow the instructions on the website! "The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff." - Carl Sagan, Cosmos I hope you're all having a marvellous day! Bloglovin' | Facebook | Twitter |  Instagram | Chictopia | Lookbook | Tumblr