[intro music plays]
Hello, welcome!
Today I am doing a question and answer....
What do I call this again?
An "Ask an Answer and an Alliteration with Annika"...video
Now someone did point out in my last video that this is not technically alliteration
because it's a vowel
but to that person I say: too bad, I'm keeping the name. Most people think of it as alliteration.
So it came to my attention after a bunch of you posted photo's of you wearing, uh, my new RealStyle t-shirt designs
that I had promised a giveaway.
So I thought I would do a giveaway in this video but also combine it with a Q&A.
Because there are 25,000 more of you
than there were last time I did a Q&A video.
So it gives a chance for the new people to get to know me, and the old people to get to know me a bit better.
So lets get into these questions!
Uh, So a couple of people wanted to know: What I go to Uni for and what classes I do.
So i'm studying a Bachelor of Science. I'm doing it part-time at the moment because of illness.
But I'm majoring in Molecular biology and Microbiology.
Which is basically just like, tiny biology.
Um, it's the biology of things that you can't see with the naked eye.
So things you have to see under the microscope, like: bacteria, and virus's, and fungi, and proteins, and gene's,
and DNA.
I get to do a lot of cloning which is awesome.
Cloning of single gene's and into bacterial cells not...cloning people
But it is so much fun, and apart from sewing it's my other great passion in life.
And couple of people wanted to know where I see myself in 5 or 10 years, um...
In 5 years I will be...
I'll be doing my PhD, hopefully.
I want to go and do more research, and stay at Uni forever.
If I'm doing a PhD, It's going to be very hard to keep up with the YouTube and fashion thing
but some how I'm going to keep doing that as well.
And in regards to fashion
I would like to have this whole fashion/teaching people how to sew things kind of be, um
a part time job
That would be awesome,
and have it help support me through doing a PhD, and post graduate work
Which I either want to do in medical research or synthetic biology.
Ok then! A whole bunch of you sent me hypothetical questions which is fantastic because I love hypotheticals.
"If you could go back in time for one 24 hour period what would you do?"
Like, anytime in history?
Being a biologist I think I'd want to go to when the first cells arose.
I'd take my microscope with me. I'd really like to be able to study those cells.
And hopefully that the cells that I take weren't, you know...
the ones that were going to become all life on earth
'cause...Whoops that would kinda suck.
I'm the biggest nerd ever [chuckles]
"Would you rather eat only pizza or chocolate for the rest of your life?"
Ooh okay, that's a hard question because I like chocolate better than pizza
But! If I had to eat it for the rest of my life I would go with pizza because
you can make pizza more nutritional than you can make chocolate.
Like at least with pizza you can add different vegetables and cheese and stuff on the top.
So it would keep you alive a lot longer than if you were only eating chocolate for the rest of your life.
So, I'm gonna have to go with pizza.
"If you could only wear three colours for the rest of your life what would they be?"
Orange, dark blue and grey.
Because on a day when I feel like dressing up I can wear bright pop of orange with some grey or some blue
But on a day that I just feel like blending in or if I have to work or something I can just wear blue and grey.
So...
Yeah. Yeah!
Okay, "how big is your wardrobe?"
Lets go look!
This is my wardrobe. I would describe it as an organized mess.
My dresses all hang up here
My bags go up here
My bags with faces get hats on them
Tops are here
Skirts are here
Pants are here
It's not huge but there is a lot crammed in there, and I do need to...downsize.
"Whats your favourite fashion era?"
The late 1950's
"What colour is your hair naturally?"
Like a...ashy blondie brown colour?
"Do you have a favourite brooch that you own?"
Yes!
My best friend Katie got this for me from Estonia and it's a Soviet era vintage Mickey Mouse brooch.
"What is your favourite pajama t-shirt? I think everyone has one that tickles us but can't be worn in public"
Yes I absolutely definitely do.
Okay this is my favourite pajama t-shirt.
My friends got it for me overseas,
and i think it's adorable.
"What's the most money you have ever spend on a piece of clothing and what was it?"
About $200, and they are my
My Naot shoes
The shoes that I'm wearing in basically every single blog post and video post if you see my feet.
They're the most comfortable shoes that I've ever owned and they were such a good investment.
They're basically like walking on clouds
I'll link them in the description below if you want to get yourself a pair
I'm not sponsored by them by the way.
I just think they're awesome shoes.
"Would you ever want to start a clothing line?"
Well I mean, I kind of did? But like, they were just t-shirts.
One day I would absolutely love to get the chance to design things that were more than t-shirts.
That would be awesome.
Yes. I would want to start my own clothing line.
"What's the biggest sewing mistake you've made?"
About a month ago I tried to make a t-shirt.
I used to the same technique that I used in this tutorial, but my fabric....
It was stretchy...but not quite stretchy enough
and I made it from the same size
I managed to get it on some how and then I got completely stuck [laughs]
and I almost couldn't breathe, and I had to get a pair of scissors and actually cut myself out of the fabric
So I destroyed about a meter of fabric doing that and almost killed myself.
So, yeah, that's the biggest sewing mistake I've ever made.
"Do you have any advice for someone who has a lot of different ideas for sewing projects, but can't afford to buy materials very often?
Yes I absolutely do because I am in the exact same boat as you.
I don't have a lot of money and I have billions of sewing ideas.
And my way around that is to instead of going to Spot Light or fabric stores and
buying fabric for like, $30 a meter
I mostly get my fabric from thrift shops and sew using bed sheets.
So this top for example was made from using a bed sheet that I got from the thrift shop for...
I'd say about $3? And that was for about three meters or so of fabric
So for finding bed sheets at thrift shops is a really good way to be able to sew if you don't have a lot of money
A lot of you wanted to know what my absolute favourite D.I.Y. piece is that i've ever made
Probably my functioning telephone hand bag.
Mostly because it's ridiculous and also because it works as a telephone.
"Would you ever do any more Adventure Time inspired clothes? Your Lemongrab jumper was super cute."
Thanks!
So I did a Lemongrab jumper a while back where I embroidered Lemongrab just on the a simple plain black jumper.
And I actually have made more Adventure Time clothes.
These are some shorts that I hand painted
a couple of years ago
Unfortunately they don't fit anymore! Which is really sad so I can't actually wear them.
But no I'm not giving them away to someone smaller than me I'm just going to like frame them or something 'cause
They took way too long and they're too good.
And maybe i'll fit in them again one day.
"You've mentioned before that you battle with chronic illness, what keeps you going when you feel like giving up?"
So, um, yeah-- I have a chronic illness called
Takayasu's arteritis which is extremely, extremely rare.
So it's been really difficult to treat and it is something that I'm going to live with for the rest of my life.
And I do feel like giving up very often,
but the things that keep me going: craft.
For the past week I've actually had to mostly just be in bed.
So I couldn't even sew which is sucked but I discovered paper crafts!
Making things, cute things out of paper.
So even when you have no energy and have to lay in bed there is a craft for you
So like I made this puppy, and this lemon.
I made this tiger, I think most of these are for kids but it was a lot of fun to do, and really relaxing.
And stop my from just lying in bed feeling sorry for myself
The other things that keep me going is that, I've had to learn to be really kind to myself.
I mean this is really important for anyone but especially if you have a chronic illness.
Like at the moment I can only do one subject at Uni,
but you have to learn to tell yourself that that's okay, and not get angry at yourself for being able to do less.
And that's not easy! It's taken me a good two or three years to learn how to do that.
And...Well I'm very lucky I have some really supportive family and friends.
One more thing that keeps me going is the interactions I have with you guys
When you let me know that I've helped you out or that you like something I've created.
It really...It really does make me feel like what I'm doing is worth while and keeps me going.
So thank you.
That got serious! So lets some weird questions.
That some of you sent me
"Do you love me?"
I don't know you, but we can be friends.
"How many cats is too many??
I would say...
If you're rich and you can afford to feed...200 cats then 200 cats isn't too many.
I don't think any amount of cats is too many.
As long as they all have places to sleep, and get cuddles, and love, and you spend your entire day cuddling 200 cats
then 200 cats is fine.
"Annika you changed your hair colour"
Like two years ago
"Where can you buy transfer paper in Ireland?"
I don't know because I don't live in Ireland, but you should look on ebay
"Are you half Asian?"
No.
I'm not
I'm-I'm very white
I'm half eastern-European.
Which may be why you're referring to exotic features, that are not very exotic
I'm just very angular.
I'm very white
"What is your opinion on the Andromeda Galaxy colliding with the Milky Way Galaxy in 3.9 Billion years?"
Yeah I'm not really that concerned about it.
I think it's really cool that astronomers know that's going to happen, that's awesome.
But it doesn't really keep me up at night
"How many people have stopped you out and about and been like 'holy beep you're littlepineneedle/Annika' before?
It's probably happened about ten times, and it's been really weird/fantastic.
People haven't been like, "holy beep" they've been more like nervously coming up to me being like,
"I'm really, really really sorry for bothering you"
like I'm just going to be like
"Yeah, god, don't you see that I'm busy. Get out of my face. What do you think you're doing?"
No I'm always really really excited when the few times it's happened when people come up and say hi to me.
It's awesome.
It makes me like a celebrity,
and I love getting to meet people and talking to people about crafts.
A lot of people want to know if I'm doing any collabs, and who would I like to collab with.
Collab.
It sounds like a disease like, that your dog would get.
"Oh yeah my dogs been really sick."
"What's he got?"
"Collab"
But, um, I'm not doing any collabs at the moment
but hopefully I will be doing one with CraftyAmy in the future, and also
I have a ridiculous dream (which will never happen) of doing a collaboration with Hank Green.
Because he's just super nice and we could chat about science...Yeah!
"What do your friends and family think about my YouTube situation?"
Ummm
They think i'm famous.
Which is weird? 'Cause I'm not.
My mum is my number one fan and watches all of my videos.
Hi Mum!
But it is something I...
Don't talk about with them a lot too often because it's this whole weird world that they don't really understand.
"Have you traveled outside of Australia?"
Yup!
I have been to Hong Kong most recently,
I've also been to Italy, Croatia, and Japan.
My favourite place in the world is a suburb in Japan called Shimokitazawa.
It's the greatest suburb of all time. It's just packed full of vintage shops. The cutest cafe's.
They have a hammock cafe, I think they have a Darwin cafe? And lots of live music. fantastic street fashion and it's just the greatest.
So where do I want to go next?
I really want to go to America.
"What's your favourite Harry Potter book or movie?"
Favourite book is number 3, favourite movie is number 6.
"How many marshmallows can you fit in your mouth?"
Well, I don't know.
So, lets find out!
So among my friends I'm known for having a particularly small mouth.
I don't know why I'm telling you this
because it's something I'm really self conscious about because they tease me about it all the time.
I know it looks pretty normal when it's closed but look this is the widest I can open my mouth
I don't know my friends find it hilarious.
Anyway, so, to answer your question.
[music plays with a sound popping sound effect for the marshmallow count]
[music stops]
That's it.
[chuckles]
What was that, like 11?
That was pathetic.
I seriously
[catches breath]
I thought i'd be able to fit the whole bowl in my mouth! [laughs]
Ahh
Dammit, marshmallows!
I don't want to eat these anymore.
I'm going to throw these in the bin.
I'm really disappointed in myself right now.
I do have a tiny mouth.
And on that note, I'm going to finish this video now
BUT! Before I go, giveaway!
I'm giving away one of the t-shirts that I made.
Unfortunately RealStyle doesn't ship to call countries so check the country list in the description box below
to make sure it ships to your country before you enter.
I'm really sorry about that.
Annnd that's about it from me!
See you next time! Bye!