Wednesday, October 30, 2013

New TV shows worth watching

It's the season of new TV shows and now, that most of them already have at least one or two episodes, I decided to make your life easier. I sacrificed my precious time and watched the most promising ones. I must say that I did found my replacement for Gossip Girl (its NBC's Dracula) and a few other shows that I'm quite interested in.

  • Dracula, my new favourite show, that I already dedicated a post to =)

  • The next on the list is CWTV Reign. It's a story about young Queen Mary of Scotland. I like the cast, especially the male part (the guy playing Bash is super hot) and story is also interesting. But the thing I like the most are the dresses that they are wearing. Whoever is responsible for costumography did an amazing job so far and I would love to say this to him personally (in the hopes to be allowed to try one on). 

  • The Tomorrow People is also a CWTV new show about a new spices - Homo Superior. They are the next step in human evolution and are capable of telepathy, telekinesis and teleportation. The main character is a teenager Steven Jamison, whose father is one of the tomorrow people. The twist is, that the government doesn't like this "new spices" and they made an organization called Ultra, to hunt them down and kill them. Jedikiah is the head of Ultra and also Steven's uncle. Steven works for him as a double agent in hopes of finding his father, that will help him save the tomorrow people. I did some research and I found out there already is a series called The Tomorrow People, an old UK one. It has a slightly different story, but both have people with "powers" and enemies that wants them destroyed. 
  • The Originals, a spin off series of The Vampire Diaries. I'm sure you already know all about them, but I just had to add a picture of Claus and his perfection =)

Then there is also three new series from ABC Family: 
  1. Ravenswood, a spin off series of The Pretty Little Liars. 
  2. Twisted (this one already has 11 episodes and is currently on a break, but I always start watching new series in October. It's kind of a ritual)
  3. The Fosters (the same thing applies here, and I don't like that ABC Family does series premier in the middle of the Summer. It breaks my ritual of trying to keep up with all the old series, that already have 4 seasons and I can watch from beginning to the end in one week if I want to)
  • And I would almost forgot ABC new hit series Agents of S.I.E.L.D. I saw commercials for this show all over Manhattan while I was there in September. You'll love the series if you're into superheroes, since Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are kind of human super heroes (if you watched The Avengers, than you know that The Black Widow is one of them, but sadly she' not a part of the series)
Don't spend to much time in front of TV watching all those awesome series I just told you about ;)
xxx
Lucy Jane


Dracula: True Love Never Dies

There's new TV series that everyone is dishing about. And no it's not The Originals (not that I'm saying that story about Claus isn't a thing to dish about...), it's NBC's Dracula. And it came out with the perfect timing - it's Halloween, and Dracula is one of my all time favourite Halloween movies.
The pilot episode came out on the 25th, I just watched it and I must say I'm already IN LOVE! The plot is perfect, it's a mix of Vampire Diaries and Revenge set in the Victorian England. Oh, I can't believe it, but they made a series of my dreams. I must confess, I had quite a hard time after the final episode of Gossip Girl, and watched like twenty different series at the same time (I somehow managed to see 4 season of Mentalist, 6 seasons of Leverage, 2 seasons of Lie To Me, and 3 seasons of White Collar in a week. Just so we're clear, that is about 280 episodes, each of them about 40 minutes long, so I somehow watched more 7 hours of TV during my final exam period. You can imagine the results I got - I passed and that is all that matters. If that was one week, I'm sure you can do your own calculation of my time in front of a TV). I just couldn't find the one that would occupy my minds for more than 40 minutes that lasts. And now I finally found it:
  • hot English guy (check)
  • period costumes (check)
  • another hot English guy (double check)
  • vengeance and conspiracy (check)
  • lovely ladies for a hot English guy (check, the part about the hot English guy, that so (not)obviously occupied my mind)
  • vampires (not a necessary, but a welcome addition, check)
  • Romeo and Juliet twist (check)
There you have it folks, the perfect plot! With a hot English guy as a main character :)
So the hot English guy I'm talking about is (of course) Dracula, played by not by an English, but Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Mayers. If the name sound familiar, there are a few movies/shows he is known for: Bend it Like Beckham, Tudors, and the most recent; Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. He's a bit old, but still super hot as Dracula. Most of his co-stars are also English born, but the Dracula's love interest is a fairly unknown Australian actress Jessica De Gouw. The only thing I saw with her in it is Arrow, where she plays The Huntress. But I like her, or should I say her character, since I believe you can't judge a book by its cover, so that means I have no idea what kind of a person she is, but like her as a character she plays. 
 

The story follows the Dracula as he's been awakened from; I have no idea what is the right term, so I'm just going to say: the dead. As I already said it's set in Victorian London, where Dracula introduces himself as a American entrepreneur named Alexander Grayson (anyone else see the humour in his last name? Well I guess this time, it's "the Graysons" that will seek revenge for the killing of someone they loved dearly). He has come to London with a quest to revenge the death of his wife. In the pilot episode, he is introduced to a woman named Mina Murray, for which he believes is a reincarnation of his deceased wife. The plot thickens, when the enemy that he has come to destroy, quickly puts the pieces together and tries to kill him.
So, yes I'm already marking the days that the next episode comes out in my calender. And yes I'm serious, because this is the only way that I'm capable to control my obsessive need to check for new episodes every few hours!
Scary Halloween and don't let Dracula bite you (if it's as handsome as Jonathan, it's fine by me ;))
Lucy Jane
        

Quote of the Week

My new weekly series!
Be kind to one another,
Lucy Jane

Halloween costumes part 2

So after thinking about what to wear to a Halloween party this year, I got caught laughing at some of the costumes that celebrities wore over the years that my favourite gossip site put together. I especially love Anna Lynne McCord's inspiration after the royal wedding. But frankly she isn't the only one. I don't know if you watch The Carrie Diaries, but in the first season, Carrie dressed as princess Diana. And she looked amazing!
But I have a few more ideas up my sleeve, most of them, movie inspired.
So I know that being a Vampire is so four years ago, but as far as I'm concerned, going as Dracula is still very high on my awesome costumes list. Especially in the light of new TV series Dracula, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the main role (you might remember him as a Henry VII. from the TV show Tudors). He is super hot and I would gladly be bitten by him. 
Now that you've seen the picture, do I need to say more? Well for this costume you'll need red coloured lenses and good looks. If you area girls you could do a Vampire Diaries twist and go as Elena or Katherine, depends on your personality type or acting skills. So if you go as Elena/Katherine you'll also need a red coloured lenses and a fancy dress, maybe the old one from the Homecoming dance. Or if you want to keep it casual just dress as a girl next door for Elena and as a the hot cheerleader that shows a bit more skin if you go as Katherine. If you go as Elena hold back on the make-up and leave your hair straight, and if you're going as Katherine put on a bit more dark make-up around the eyes, curl your hair and have some of that bitchy attitude that she's so famous for. I would definitely go as Katherine, since I'm more like her than always worrying and so motherly like Elena. 
For the lovers of Fitzgerald, you can dress as a character from The Great Gatsby. What you need to do to get the look is go to the nearest Vintage, Second Hand or Thrift Shop and look for clothes that fit the 20's clothing period. Or if you're one lucky bastard and have an old rich aunt that owns an original Channel clothes, than you hit the jackpot! Oh, the things I would do to get my hands on one of the original Coco Channel designs... 
The next costume is super simple and you'll only need a bathing suit, water gun and an old pink skiing cap. If you're trying to guess as who would you be going as, than you should think Disney and Spring. Did it ring a bell? Yes, I'm thinking Spring Breakers. Who would want to be dressed as a former Disney star that went insane, just so she could go to a spring break and get drunk. 
So that is what you do with the bathing suit, water gun and the pink cap:
There are a few more ideas that I have, but won't describe in details: Minion(Despicable Me 2), Game of Thrones, Cinderella (Once Upon a Time version), Formula One Racer (Rush)...

Scary Halloween people,
Lucy Jane

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl: Beautiful Creatures

Have you watched the movie? We'll I did and I loved it. But as usual I read the book first. And I loved it too. The book has a few sequels (right now I'm too lazy to check how many) and I think the movie will get them too. I hope so, because right now I'm obsessed with everything that's from the American South. And I love their accent. So yes, a story about a sleepy southern town with dark secrets and a background story about ancestors from Civil War, I fell in love with the plot the minute I heard words Civil War and South.



The story is set in Gatlin, a small Southern town, and is told by Ethan White. It's first day of school and the story starts with Ethan dreaming about a girl, he doesn't know, and he's not able to save her from the death. Later the same day he meets the girl from the dream. She is new to the school, her name is Lena Duchannes and is a niece of the local weirdo. Ethan falls for her, but she has a dark secret, that will eventually drove them apart. Lena comes from a witch family, but they prefer the term Caster. And at their sixteenth birthday they are claimed by light or darkness. Lena's birthday is only a few moths away and she is afraid she'll be claimed by the darkness like her cousin. As the story progress Lena and Ethan become a couple despite the possibility that Lena becomes a dark Caster, with a wicked spell above her head. The story ends soon after Lena's birthday. And again I'm not giving y'all any spoilers, I think you should read the book, or at least see the movie. The ending is bitter sweet, but not final, and the story continues in the next book.


The book is well written and for somebody like me, that is capable of dreaming in the middle of the day and is still expecting a letter from Hogwarts (even though he/she is old enough to finish it a few years ago...), it wasn't hard to imagine Gatlin and everything and everyone in it.


As far as the differences between the book and the movie I won't write that down here, because I found a perfectly good page that did this for me :)



I guess I should stop dreaming about fantasy worlds and expecting a letter from Hogwarts (but I'm sure Dumbledore and later on Mr. Longbottom made a huge mistake, since I'm capable of... Well nothing to weird, but I do know how to make a killer apple pie, maybe they should take me as a supervisory cook for dobbies ;) or a key keeper, since I know how to lock things so good even I can't unlock them. For instance my password for an old email account). But I can pack my things and move to Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi or maybe Texas. I certainly wouldn't mind a wealthy Southern gentleman that lives in one of those big houses in a new colonial style. I would probably fell in love with him the minute he'd show me his house and introduced himself with the charm all the southerns are famous for.
xxx
Future southern belle, miss "Southern Gentleman" Lucy Jane

Friday, October 18, 2013

Halloween costumes part 1

This year I decided to find my inspiration for Halloween costume in movies and TV shows. And got some pretty great ideas. I tried to divide them according to expenses and time you'll need to get the costume done.

So first is my personal favourite costume and is shown on the picture below. It will cost you about nothing and you need less than a minute to do it. And it will give you the right to write on the walls.
Do do this costume you'll need a black pen or an eye-liner. The process of making this costume is extremely long and hard to do. You take the pen or the thing you'll use to write on your face. With the help of mirror write BOOK on your face. And you're ready!

I found the inspiration for this costume in the TV show, Hart of Dixie. And this will probably be my costume of choice for the next year. Yes, I want to dress up as a SOUTHERN BELL. And I wouldn't mind a handsome southern gentlemen by my side.


This costume is a either time consuming to make or quite expensive. I found a page where they sell Civil War era dresses (the store is called "The Victorian Choice".. The prices varies between  90$ to 140$. You can also create a familiar costume if you own an old wedding dress. It has to have slime waist, and big fluffy skirt. To top the look you can add matching bonnet, and or umbrella.

xxx Lucy Jane

Stephen Chbosky: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

I'm a bookworm :) I read at least two books a week, usually about 300 - 400 pages long. A lot of my friends think I'm super weird because I read so much. But don't you just love it when the beutifly written worlds suck you into a totally new fantasy world, where anything and everything is possible. To me those hours that I spend reading are precious and I always take time to read a new book.


A while ago I read this great sweet and sour story that everyone is talking about. It's not The Fault in Our Stars, but The Perks of Being a Wallflower from Stephen Chbosky. I must say that I first heard of the book  because of the movie, but I did read the book first. Because in my experience, most of the movies that are made after the book, are missing something. And I must say, that even though the movie is great, and I loved it, I wasn't as moved by the message of the movie as I was by the message from the book.
The book is written as a series of letters from 15 years old Charlie to a "friend". He's socially awkward and doesn't have any friends. The story takes place during his freshman year, when he decides to make new friends. During a football match he meets two a little bit eccentric seniors, Samantha and Patrick. They accept him for who he is and introduce him to their group of friends. During the story we also find out that that Charlie suffers from depression and sometimes has "black outs". The reason is explained at the and of the book, and I won't share it with you because I want you to read it.



The book is written in a beautiful English and is really easy to read even for non native speakers. I read both the original and the translated version, and I preferred the original.  But the truth is that I usually do, because there isn't two languages in the world that have the same amount of words. Basically I think some of the magic that story has is in the way of writing and this gets lost in translation very quickly.

Well I loved this book and I hope you'll read it and love it too!
xxx Lucy Jane

Friday, October 11, 2013

New York, New York!!!

Ever since I became a Gossip Girl fan, I fell in love with New York. For the next 4 years I was begging my parents to let me go there and this year they finally said yes!
If it would be my way I'd be there the next day and stayed there for the rest of my life. But it wasn't so simple. First thing, I got a nanny for the trip. My uncle tagged along. Well he's OK, but I wanted to go with a friend. Not that I'm complaining since I am actually going to the NEW YORK CITY!!!! (the happiest face ever!)

So I decided to go to the New York in September while I had extended holidays before College. The date was set and there was tons of things I had to do before leaving:

  • buy air-plane tickets
  • reserve a room in a hotel
  • find out about transportation form the airport to the hotel
  • check the prices for transportation around NYC
  • decide which museums and side seeing attractions I want to see
  • check where are my favourite stores
  • and so on and so on ...
Don't worry I will share the long process with you, along with some travelling tips and  things you definitely have to see in NYC and also the ones you should avoid.

xo xo
Lucy Jane, proud future New Yorker (BDW I already found a place where I want to live, now I just have to find about 30 millions to spare :) )

Secret Confessions of Gossip Girl Addict - part 1

OMG. I naively believed that my secrets are safely locked away in my brains, but I just figured out I am a horrible secret keeper. I wrote almost every secret I have, or somebody else told me in my super cute diary. So imagine what would my friends did if someone got this diary? Well I did found a picture that perfectly captures the best option:

Well you just gotta love Rebel Wilson :)
So back to the topic. My secrets. Well I hope that nobody finds my precious diary, but mainly not because of mine secrets but because almost half my diary consists of somebody else's secrets.
And instead of my secrets (for which I'm sure you're dying to know) I will tell you something even better. I will share an embarrassing fact about me. Well at least I find it embarrassing. You already know that I'm addicted to Gossip Girl and know most of the show by heart, but what you don't know is that I'm also obsessed with Gossip Girl gossiping site. Yes I AM that shallow that I read EVERY gossip about every celebrity that is posted. I probably know more about what they do than what my best friend does.
You probably think that's nothing bad, but read this fact and think again. I know more about Justin Bieber's (yes, you read right) wish to get back with Selena Gomez and his tattoos, than I know about my BFF's new crush or my sister's school life. And I see them in person every day.
Sad I know. I would love to stop, but every time I decide that I will go into rehab (metaphorically speaking, a good girl like me just does not go to the rehab) Facebook informs me about Zac Efron (my celebrity crush) and I just have to go to the site and check the rumour out.

To many more shirtless Zac Efron pictures and embarrassing facts about me.
Love, Lucy Jane

Thursday, October 10, 2013

It's October and I'm already freezing

Last year at the same time I went out wearing a T-shirt and a light sweater, but today it was so cold I had to wear my winter thingies. Today I even went to the store and bought special, super warm winter leggings. And I HATE leggings. If anything this should tell you how cold is in my wonderful city right now. But I guess I have to sacrifice some of my beliefs in order not to freeze while I write this blog.


The level of stress that wearing leggings got me in, kind of got me in a bad mood, so I had to do something in order to calm myself down. And there is no better medicine than homemade hot chocolate with marshmallows. But the lazy person I become in the last few days is guilty of making instant hot chocolate. Well that and I still hadn't found a recipe that could made taste as good as the instant one. I promise I will share it with you as soon as I find the one I like.

This my famous instant hot chocolate with marshmallows. I am even that kind to give you my secret recipe for it:
-first you go to the closest store that sells hot chocolate (I found mine next to instant coffee and tea) and buy it (the price varies from 1$ up 3$ per cup)
-you should also have some milk, so if you don't have it buy that too
-*if you own a microwave than this step is super easy, just put the instant hot chocolate powder into your favorite cup, add milk, stir until it's smooth and put into microwave for a minute or two (read in the instructions, it varies from brand to brand)
-*if you don't own a microwave put instant hot chocolate powder into a pot, add milk and stir while it slowly boils on a small fire. The longer you'll boil it the thicker it will get. I usually stir for a minute after it starts boiling.
-finally stir for the last time and add a bunch of small marshmallows
Bon appetit and à bientôt
Lucy Jane