FAIIINT / Dark Fashion, Lifestyle & Travel Blog

Kennedy Space Center

August 20th 2012 Adventure, Style

Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Rocket, Shuttle, Asymmetric, Dress, Skirt, Black, Casual, Outfit, OOTD, WIWT, Cross, Necklace, Gold, Cat Eye, Sunglasses, Sandals

Topshop Tank Top / A Wear Asymmetric Skirt / CC Skye Crosses Necklace / AJ Morgan Cat Eye Sunglasses / GAP Sandals / ASOS Bag

If it wasn’t for the fact that my maths skills are beyond horrendous, I would most definitely have gone into physics instead of art & fashion. I would have loved to have studied cosmology, but I knew I’d never be able to pass the entrance exam when I struggle with even basic mathematics! I can easily grasp the ideas & principles, but when it comes to the formulas I’m totally lost! I’m sure most of you are aware by now of my fascination with the cosmos, so it’ll come as no surprise that Kennedy Space Center was another day I seriously enjoyed. It was a really nice change from all the Disney parks we’d done the week before too.

This was one of the last places we visited & it was the only time I actually remembered to take some outfit photos! Sorry about that! How stunning is the ‘Rocket Garden’ though? Things like this always really overwhelm me, it’s so awe-inspiring standing at the foot of these ginormous machines & seeing just how massive & what a feat of technical engineering excellence they really are.

There were so many amazing pieces on display too, I especially enjoyed the little Apollo 14 exhibit they had. There were chunks of moon rock, astronauts diaries, prototype spacesuits & even Alan Shepard’s actual space suit from the mission, still covered in a silvery layer of moon dust! I got pretty excited about that one, I know it’s just dust, but it came from the moon, how amazing is that?! They also had the actual Apollo 14 capsule there, which I loved! The Hubble exhibit was another favourite, huge back-lit images from the telescope covered the walls & it was really quite magical to see them at such a large scale & felt almost as if you were amongst it all.

Like the big kid that I am, I had so much fun playing around with all the interactive exhibits they had too! I got to touch a real (3.7 billion year old!) piece of moon rock, rode the space shuttle launch simulator (not as good as the one at Epcot, sorry NASA!), sat in a mockup Apollo capsule, experienced what a shuttle launch was like from the control room & got to look around a replica cockpit!

Vehicle Assembly Building – The flag painted on is 209 feet high & the red stripes are wide enough to drive a bus up!

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, Rocket, Space, Shuttle, NASA, Launch Site

View from the top of the observation gantry with Shuttle launch pads in the background

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, Rocket, Space, Shuttle, NASA, Apollo, Capsule

Testing out the mock-up Apollo capsule!

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, Rocket, Space, Shuttle, Launch, Nasa, Control Room

Watching a reconstruction of the Apollo launch – all the equipment is from the original launch

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, Rocket, Space, Shuttle, NASA, Engine, Apollo, Saturn V

Restored entire ‘Saturn V’ rocket on display!

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, Rocket, Space, Shuttle, NASA, Robot, Lego, Hubble

LEGO mars exploration rover, reminds me of WALL-E! / Hubble telescope photography

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, Rocket, Space, Shuttle, NASA, Lunar Module, Cock Pit, Replica

Full scale replica ‘Lunar Module’ cockpit

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, Rocket, Space, Shuttle, NASA, Spacesuit, Prototype, Apollo

Prototype space suit / Alan Shepard’s space suit from the Apollo 14 mission – still covered in moon dust!

Apollo 14 capsule

Kennedy Space Center, Florida, Rocket, Shuttle, NASA, Cape Canaveral, Space suit, repair, kit, moon, rock, display, apollo 14

Space suit repair kit given to the astronauts! / Chunk of moon rock

Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, Rocket, Space, Shuttle, Nebula, Hubble, Orion, Portrait, Silhouette, Telescope, Photography

Photograph of the Orion Nebula from the Hubble Telescope

Sharing The Love

August 19th 2012 Inspiration

This was going to be my usual Sunday inspiration round up, but a few days ago the lovely Xixia sent me an email to say she’d featured me on her blog as part of her ‘Liebster Blog Award’ post. She asked if I’d be able to take part too by answering a couple of questions & then tag a few other bloggers to take part as well.

I don’t usually take part in these pass around questionnaire type things I often see on blogs, but I thought the idea behind this one was really lovely & I’d actually been meaning to do a post on some of my newly discovered favourite blogs after Becky featured me in her own roundup. I was super flattered & felt inspired to share the love too with my own post, but with holiday organizing I never got around to it! So I’m taking this opportunity to combine the two!

Below are my answers to Xixia’s questions & then afterwards some of my newly discovered favourites!

Who is your favorite celebrity?
Andy Warhol. He is my absolute idol, I love the way he turned fine art on it’s head & made people see the beauty in even the most mundane. Most people can marvel at the beauty of a DaVinci, but few stop to admire what an amazing piece of graphic design the label for Campbell’s soup is! And it really is! His wit, ambition, kookyness & the fact he is insanely quotable are just a few of the many other reasons I love him so much.

What is your favorite quote?
“To see a world in a grain of sand, And heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour.” William Blake is one of my favourite poets, and artists, this is the opening verse of the poem of his I love best “Auguries of Innocence”.

What is a pet peeve of yours?
People who are far too easily offended & those that seem like they’re just looking for an excuse to be offended so they can whinge about it! I find that so irritating!

Sunlight or moonlight?
Oh this is so hard, I guess I would have to say moonlight though, as I love nothing more than gazing up at the night sky, it’s so beautiful & it just fills my head with so many questions.

What is your favorite movie?
I’m going to have to cheat a little on this one, I’m such a movie nerd that I could never pick just one, so instead I’m going to list my 10 favourites (in no particular order)! Sorry!
Pulp Fiction, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dawn of The Dead (original), Oldboy, The Fountain, Princess Mononoke, Ichi The Killer, Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliette, Pan’s Labyrinth, Moon.

What could you eat everyday and love it?
Pasta or pizza! I actually do pretty much eat one of those every single day anyway, as I’m a very fussy vegetarian!

Modern or vintage?
Definitely modern. I love to take inspiration from vintage fashions, especially the tailoring of the 40s & the teddy boys/girls of the 50s, but I very rarely buy vintage myself. I think mostly because the era’s I find most inspiring all catered towards a totally different body type to mine, I have no tits or ass to fill out those lovely hourglass jackets & dresses!

What is your guilty pleasure novel?
I’m not sure I have any that could be classed as a ‘guilty pleasure’, but maybe Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I can still read it over & over again! I guess my love of graphic novels is probably quite a guilty pleasure too!

Who is your favorite cartoon character?
Oh, another hard one! I love so many cartoons, it’s so hard to choose! I guess, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, she was my favourite growing up, I totally related to her awkwardness & I so longed to be a mermaid just like her!

What wardrobe item can’t you live without?
My battered black boots!

World Cup or Olympics?
I’m not a sporty person at all, but I really can’t stand football, so this is easy – The Olympics!

5 Newly discovered favourites…

Define Delirium
I adore Mika’s outfit posts, she does minimalist, effortless dressing so perfectly. I love her writing style too, so well written but also full of personality.

Love For Schoolgirl
Full of lots of beautiful examples of Rae’s photography, her travel posts leave me feeling insanely jealous of all the wonderful places shes been able to visit or live in & I love the way she’s constantly changing up her style for her outfit posts. One moment shes a sweet schoolgirl, the next retro 50’s, preppy or laid-back surfer chic.

Melissa Araujo
I love Melissa’s mix of minimalistic, sporty style with an edge. She is also super talented making a lot of her own clothing & also has a clothing line too!

Josie Loves Shoes
I love the way Josie writes, her posts seriously crack me up & she has such a knack for finding the funny in any situation. She also has that simple, effortless kind of style totally nailed & if you can say you’re not jealous of those never-ending legs, then I’m sorry, but your lying!

Chocolate Cookies & Candies
I’m a sucker for gorgeous photography & Marlene’s lovely blog is packed full of it! I only recently came across it, but as soon as I saw the photography I knew it would quickly become a favourite. I also love the ‘Pass It Forward’ series she does, showcasing 3 of her favourite blogs each time & I have found so many new blogs to love because of it! The posts are always packed with wit & charm too, it’s hard not to love!

It would be great if you 5 could carry this on & do a post answering my questions & then tagging a few other bloggers take part too! I think this is such a nice idea & a great way to spread some love around!

My questions to you are:
What is your favourite song?
If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
Who is your favourite artist or what is your favourite artwork?
Sweet or salty?
Sum yourself up in 3 words?
Who is your favourite fashion designer?
What would you do if you had 24 hours to live?
What is your favourite movie?
One fact about yourself that not many people know?
If you could be someone else for a day who would you choose?
What is your favourite quote?

PS: I wish I’d had time to include more awesome blogs, but do go check out the links page for a whole list of my favourites, new & old!

Discovery Cove

August 17th 2012 Adventure

In the previous post I mentioned that Epcot was my favourite Disney park, but our day at Discovery Cove was easily the one I enjoyed most from the whole trip. The park only admits around 1000 people per day, meaning there are no queues & with the tranquil atmosphere it feels more like a little private getaway than a theme park. The park also provides everything you could need for the entire day, from unlimited food & drinks to your wetsuit, snorkeling gear & even animal friendly suncream! Styled to look like a perfect island retreat, the park is covered in flawless white sandy beaches, lush tropical plants & crystal clear blue rivers & lagoons. It is such a beautiful place & one of the best experiences of my life, I could have easily spent my entire two weeks here!

The ‘Dolphin Swim’ & ‘Sea Venture’ packages are additional extras you can add to your standard admission ticket, we decided to do both as it seemed a shame to go all the way there & not do everything! All of the other animal encounters & attractions are included in the price of admission.

Swimming with the dolphins was obviously my favourite part of the day, I have always adored them right from childhood & getting to interact with them definitely lived up to my expectations! Our dolphin was an almost 1 year old baby boy called Axle (his mother was Rose!) who was starting to be taught the routine of interacting with the guests. We were asked if we minded, as he wasn’t fully trained & offered a chance to do it with an older dolphin if we preferred, but there was no way I was turning down the chance to cuddle a baby dolphin! As expected he was extremely cheeky & naughty, swimming off to beg for fish from the other trainers & trying to join in with the other older dolphins interactions! We had plenty of strokes & kisses with him though & he even showed us some of his tricks! We thought he was absolutely adorable but his trainer thought he was being way too hyper, so he was sent back into the enclosure half way through our slot & instead we had the pleasure of meeting two other dolphins Jenny & Luna to finish off the interaction! They are such amazing creatures & it was truly an honor getting to interact with them so closely.

We also did the ‘Sea Venture’ experience where using a diving bell you get a walking tour along the bottom of the huge coral reef. The helmets were hard to get used to at first, but I was soon totally immersed in the experience once I began walking amongst the schools of beautiful fish & rays that would glide right past your face. It was surreal walking along the floor instead of swimming, it makes you kind of forget you’re underwater & I guess it feels more like some sort of alien planet! The reef is teeming with coral & plants, thousands of multicoloured fish, huge rays & all sorts of other undersea life, there are even sharks – safely behind an underwater glass wall! You don’t have to do Sea Venture to experience the reef either, you can snorkel alongside the animals anytime you like & I must have spent most of my day exploring here & diving in amongst the rays.

My other favourite part of the day was the free-flight aviary, there are so many stunning birds here & they are all more than happy to come sit on your shoulder & be stroked for a piece of fruit! I also got to meet a parrot, who I accidentally assisted in its escape plot, she had great pleasure flying around taunting her trainer before finally coming back!