'Cause I'd Rather Waste My Life Pretending

Photo of the Day - Day 29

Rachel Phipps — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:36:45 -0800

Image: Georgia Frost by John Akehurst

I've almost finished NaNoWriMo 2009 guys! Only 5607 words left to go!

Happy Halloween - 31st October

Rachel Phipps — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:55:54 -0700

As I'm the girl who decided that Lipstick Royalty Magazine, instead of choosing to do a glittery festive issue each December chose a Gothic Issue, you can all kinda guess that I LOVE everything dark and deadly... which included HALLOWEEN! Now I'm not having a Halloween party this year, which makes me really sad so I've decided to have an imaginary Halloween party instead. This is how my day went...

Ok so I got up about 11:00am, after a nice long lie in (I don't get many of those!) and after hopping in the shower decided to wriggle into my first costume of the day to head out shopping for all the ingredients and decorations needed (as well as the finishing touches to my party costume) for my Halloween dinner party later that evening...

I decided to go for sassy witch, all black with a hint of pink! That velvet Chloe skirt is to die for... First up is the decorations for the dining room table...

I decided nice and traditional would be the way forward for this year... After that I went to the grocery store to get the rest of the food (but you'll find out about that later!) and then to the department store to finish off my evening outfit (but you'll find out about that one later too!).

Just before I was ready to head home for the evening, I had to get some work done and I had a very special person to interview to get me into the holiday spirit: an interview with a REAL vampire! And I'm not even joking! (This tale is a work of fiction and I didn't really interview a vampire, but you can read an interview with a real life vampire in Time Out: New York HERE! She drinks blood and everything!)

I got home and the first thing I did to prepare for the evenings festivities was to carve my pumpkin. As I'd just interviewed an vampire, and because vampires are "In Vogue" this season I decided my pumpkin ought to have fangs. He's called Eric, after Eric Northman in True Blood/ The Southern Vampire Mysteries, because I think he looks a bit like him. (Note to reader: Eric the pumpkin is actually real. Photos of him to come!)

After that I decorated the dining room and laid out the feast. It looked FANTASTIC! As the guests would start to arrive soon I decided I ought to get ready to slip into my final costume...

Check out those thigh boots - wicked or what? And those vamp teeth are fantastic... but the thing I think that really made my sexy vamp costume was the Lime Crime Make-up Styletto opaque black lipstick - incredible.

But I'm thinking the big question everyone wants to know is who else came to my party... and what did they where? I decided I wanted a small intimate gathering so aside from myself there were only 5 other guests...

Lipstick Royalty's Fashion Editor Amy Claire Thompson (because Amy's cool and we love her), Lime Crime Make-Up founder Doe Deere (because she's the queen of my Halloween liptick), True Blood's Eric Northman (well obviously we needed a real life vampire on the scene... AND he had to admire his pumpkin!), Karl Largerfeld (who's scarier?), and New York Couture's Cassie (so we could see what a fabulous costume she's make!)

Well I think you can guess what Karl wore, and Eric just wore leather trousers and a "Fangtasia" tee shirt, but the girls went all out...

Amy came as a small, but vaguely over the top sugar sprinkled fairy...

That Alexander McQueen clutch is to die for...

Doe Deere came as Marie Antoinette...

I LOVE those shoes! They come in pink too, and they are of the red soled variety... Doe's make-up was INCREDIBLE. All done using Lime Crime products I think and she's been kind enough to post a tutorial to it HERE!

Finally Cassie was a show stopper in her New York Couture gown. Custom made, and we LOVE Marilyn!

Image: New York Couture

Once all the guests had arrived we all sat down at the table to our feast. Naturally we all drank pink champagne, and the table was heaped high with Hotel Chocolate Halloween chocolate shapes and pink strawberry icing sugar dusted champagne truffles. For a starter we all had clear(ish) tomato soup with lychee floating in it with food colour eyeballs drawn on them to it looked like there was the odd eye in the soup. Then we had axe-man snacks, a Halloween speciality my Mum used to make for me and my friends. All they really are is bread rolls with holes in them, filled with ketchup then with a hot dog sausage stuck into them to look like a bloody finger in a roll. Then stuck in the top is a piece of radish to look like fingernails... they were SO yummy! For desert we had little oranges hollowed out and carved like pumpkins filled with different coloured jelly and sprinkles and rainbow cake.

After we ate we all told each other ghost stories and made fun of Karl about the "Fake Karl" blog. We told Karl he was now DEMODE.

What are you guys doing for Halloween?

Weekly Love - Week 9

Rachel Phipps — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:36:06 -0700

Image: Sohui by barone photography

+ The uber exciting build up to NaNoWriMo 2009

+ British alternative models. Who cares about Audrey Kitching and Hanna Beth? Brit beauties Ulorin Vex and Sohui (whom I've just finished interviewing for December LR) are the new Vogue

+ The coolest birthday party ideas. Check out the photos from Katy Perry's 25th...

+ Its Halloween tomorrow! Officially my FAVOURITE day of the year... I really need to have a party next year...

+ The Duchess staring Kiera Knightly. Watched it the other evening with my Mum... INCREDIBLE!

+ Forget Largerfeld, everyone's going to be Lady Gaga for Halloween this year aren't they? The this weeks Halloween episode of Gossip Girl proved my point perfectly.

+ Photograph: Loan Chabanol by Eric Traore for Baccarat

+ My Eric Northman from True Blood carved pumpkin face (pictures to follow)

+ Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Ten Questions with Laura Jane Cassidy

Rachel Phipps — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 07:25:52 -0700

So as I feel I've been neglecting the interview 'Ten Questions' section of my blog recently I caught up with blogger and author Laura Jane Cassidy to chat about

How long have you wanted to be a writer?

I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was nine. I recently found a story that I wrote back then entitled ‘When I am Twenty-one’. The first line was ‘When I am twenty-one I want to be an actor or a writer.’ Three years ago I left Drama School to write full-time, so that story was very prolific!

How long have you been writing for?

I wrote a lot of stories in primary school but then didn’t write any sort of fiction until I started my first novel when I was 20 years old. I’ve been writing for three years now.

Tell us about your up and coming novel...

It’s called Angel Kiss and tells the story of Jacki King, a fifteen year-old who is adjusting to her new life in a small Irish village. She misses Dublin city but starts to make new friends: artistic Colin, feisty Emily - and Nick, gorgeous but unavailable. But just as Jacki is settling in she starts to suffer from recurring nightmares and frightening visions. She refuses to believe that anything paranormal could be happening, but then she hears about the unsolved murder that occurred in the village, thirty-two years before…

Angel Kiss will be published by Puffin in early 2011. It is the first of a series of books that focus on Jacki.

Why "young adult with a supernatural edge"?

I’ve always liked supernatural stories. Anything with ghosts or magic. My favourite tv shows growing up were Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I liked reading Goosebumps and Point Horror. I was never into full on fantasy, I like stories that have a fantasy element but that are grounded in the real world so I suppose it was inevitable that I would end up writing a story like that. I never really thought about the market I was writing for, I just concentrated on the story. Then when I got an agent she categorized it as teenage fiction. I am really happy to be involved in the YA fiction world, as I am never short of something to read. There are so many amazing books written in that category.

What are you reading at the moment?

I am reading a fabulous young adult novel called What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell. It is set in the U.S. a few years after World War II. It’s a real page-turner, which is the number one thing I look for in a novel.

What else do you do aside from creative writing?

I write full-time now, so not much else. I have a blog about writing called First Three Chapters. I started blogging when I was submitting to agents and publishers. They ask for the first three chapters of your novel and a synopsis, so that’s where the name came from. I also volunteer at a creative writing centre called Fighting Words in Dublin.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?

I see myself in one of those Georgian houses with a big garden and a bookcase housing the various editions of my supernatural series. I try to be optimistic!

Do you have a regular job, or do you just spend all day every day writing?

I am fortunate to be able to spend every day writing. I treat it like a full-time job.

Describe your average day:

I get up around half 8 and try to do some form of exercise before sitting down at my desk for the day to work. I always have good intentions to get up earlier but rarely do. I check my emails, maybe write a blog post and then write until 6pm. My daily goal when I’m writing a first draft is 1500 words. When I have a deadline coming up, or if I am really on a roll, I could end up writing past midnight.

What's next for Laura Cassidy?

At the moment I’m writing the second book in the series and looking forward to my first book’s release. I can’t wait to see it on the shelves!

You can find our more about Laura at her blog, First Three Chapters!

Photo (Editorial) Of The Day - Day 28

Rachel Phipps — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 12:19:30 -0700

Julia Stegner by Paola Kudacki for Vogue Spain

Images: Conde Naste