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