Get Pretty! - Version 2.0

This week, I wore makeup - eep! - TWICE. In one week! I was surprised at myself. So here's two separate looks, one with a product list and one without.

I wore this to host a trivia show last minute - for nearly a year I've been a part-time trivia host in the Milwaukee area, and I was called on Thursday evening a couple hours before the show was supposed to start (and about four beers into my drinking for the evening) and wound up having to throw something together pretty quickly. The photo sucks, I know.

This weekend - hold your breath - I was asked on a first date! And you know what? It went well, and he actually spoke to me the next day! Perhaps there's hope for me after all! So this weekend I've been taking extra care of myself and actually taking time out for me each day. This was today's look!

I opted to get white trashy with it - that, and I really wanted to rock out my Free the WM3 shirt for one of the last times - unless I craft a revision to it, which I haven't thought too far into.

• Foundation: Cover Girl Clean Oil Control/MAC Studio Fix
• Brows: Dark half of the Clinique Coffee Shop eyeshadow duo
• Eyeshadow Base: LASplash Splashproof Sealer
• Outside Corner: Kat Von D shadow in Prague
• Middle: Kat Von D shadow in Long Distance
• Inner Corner: Kat Von D shadow in Sugar Skull
• Highlight: Kat Von D shadow in Sugar Skull
• Liquid Liner: Kat Von D Autograph Liner in Turbo Lover (currently on sale for $5 at sephora.com!)
• Lashes: Prestige My Biggest Lashes in Very Black
• Loose Powder: Cover Girl Professional Loose Powder

One thing I know I forgot to mention in my last Get Pretty post was how I set my makeup - and this may be strange and do it at your own risk - but I use Aqua Net. Just close my eyes, spray my face, and go. Works as well as anything else. Chap Stick also makes a good eyeshadow base in a bind.

It was also time for new nails, and once again, because I'm addicted, I went for the Sally Hansen Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips, this time in "Wild Child". They're fun! If I felt like having a real zoo on my nails, I'd have paired them with what I have left of the leopard print, but I decided that would be too much. 

That's all I have for this one! Until next time!

Book Club Mondays: "Professional Idiot"

I have always been totally and completely enamored by the stories of others (as I've said). Though it seems like every celebrity and their mother, father, sister in law, and third cousin twice removed are putting out memoirs these days, I decided to try Steve O's Professional Idiot on for size a couple weeks back.

Unsure of what I was expecting, I was a bit surprised by the content. Not by ridiculous stories of getting drunk, high, huffing nitrous and jumping off of stuff, but finding out that the funnyman was born overseas and was a bit of a brat growing up. Brat more meaning that he moved around a lot (his father worked for Pepsi), not that he was basically ADD and got in trouble for fun (which was also true). I loved reading the story of how he found Doc McGhee's hotel room when he was 13 and got to meet Motley Crue, as well as other stories of his youth.

While I was entertained by the brunt of the book, a portion just made me sad. Addiction changes people, never for the better. It is blatantly obvious after reading Professional Idiot that Steve realizes that. I can imagine that writing the book was part of his healing process.

Though most of us know him as a real 'Jackass', the book was (in my mind) a good representation of an underestimated man. While he's made a fortune doing stunts nobody would ever dream of doing and run around like a crazy person for the past ten years, Professional Idiot shows a new side of the 'Jackass' we never knew.

Sunday, Crafty Sunday: The funniest back patch EVER.

Sunday night two for one special!

Let me just preface this post by saying that I've begun to embrace my weird quirks. There are many things that make Liz... Liz. And I decided to celebrate the most important one in the only way I know how: through crafting. I've always had a way of transcending my look, so it didn't seem too out of the ordinary. A week or so ago, I had a hilarious idea right before I went to bed. Here's what came out of it:

That, my friends, is the new back patch for my well-loved black corduroy jacket. And it is much funnier in real life than it was in my head. I wanted to make a back patch that read 'Cat Lady' that looked like it belonged on a motorcycle jacket. I think this is what #winning looks like, don't you?

But no, to get serious for a second, all I needed for this project was some letters, black fabric, cat print fabric, and iron-on adhesive. I opted for the $1.89 letter buckets at Jo-Anns, and had some black fabric laying around. Half a yard of the cat fabric wound up being just enough for two back patches, in actuality - and because I'm friends with amazing people, I've already had requests for others.

Here's some photos of the assembly - featuring a cameo by my ridiculously furry and lovey feline son, Vegas.

I haven't actually gotten around to sewing it on yet - I don't own a sewing machine and that much hand sewing would have my carpal tunnel screaming - but when I do, I'll be sure to let you know! It was actually a relatively easy project, completed entirely with an iron. I am planning to sew the black onto the patch just for security, and get the patch sewn onto the jacket sometime this week.

Embrace your weird, ladies and gentlemen. My weird happens to be in the form of being the raddest cat lady you'll ever meet. Next week - I have no idea what will be here! I'm sure I'll have something to yank out of my bag of tricks!

Finally Free.

I will be the first to tell you that I'm not the type to bitch about current events. This situation, however, is much different.

As someone who has followed the injustice served to the West Memphis Three for the past five years or so, Friday afternoon's news of their release came as a shock, though it was a good one. As soon as the news came down, I checked every link I could find, reading the same lines over and over again, not even realizing as tears streamed down my face.

I was happy. I was absolutely and completely in shock, surprise, and glorified happiness. I have spent years doing what I can to tell people about the case, reading up on it myself, and knowing just how unjust what those three men went through for nearly two decades was. When I heard there was a deal on the table on Friday morning, I had goosebumps.

The connection that I felt to the case was not purely through research and understanding of the injustices done to Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley. It was because I could see myself in their shoes. As a kid, I grew up listening to punk and metal music, wearing black, writing bad poetry, and allaround being a little bit scary. If the town I grew up in had been any smaller, and if something as horrific as those murders had taken place with the same police circumstances in West Memphis, I would have been typecast as the type of person to do something like that. If you did the same, it could have been you, too. That's why I read the news and could do nothing but cry. I was absolutely certain that these men would not have been absolved of their crimes until long after Damien was put to death. Then, it would have been treated as a "whoops!", as so many mistakes in the justice system seem to be these days.

While the plea deal was not perfect, it was what it took to get these three innocent men out of prison. And really, they will never live a 'normal' life, no matter how you look at it. They will forever be typecast as 'baby killers' to some, and their innocence will forever be questioned. They still have much work to do, both to get acclimated to life in the outside world, and to clear their names forever. At least now they are safe, and can all begin the healing process.

The story is not over now that the West Memphis Three are out of prison. www.wm3.org has all of the information on the case, the Paradise Lost documentaries, and what you can still do in order to help the men clear their names. There is still much work to be done. For more information, I would personally recommend checking out Devil's Knot by Mara Leveritt, it is one of the best books on the case I've read, and boasts much information.

While the West Memphis Three walk free, they will not be truly free until their names are cleared and the true murderer of those three boys is brought to justice.

How-to Tuesday: MacBook Hard Drive Surgery

Last week, when I finally decided that blogging would be a good outlet, the unthinkable happened. Friday afternoon, I got home for lunch to do something on my computer when it was frozen. Great, I thought. Restarted it, and got what can only be described as a nightmare for any MacBook user - the flashing folder with an exclamation point. You know what they might as well flash on the screen? 'YOUR HARD DRIVE IS DEAD, YOU'RE FUCKED'.

Once I was done hyperventilating and flipping out over how "Oh god I can't afford a new computer right now, what am I going to do?" I set to Googling and figured out that I could get a new hard drive for the price of $50, versus $1000+ for a new MacBook. After I left work, I headed to Best Buy to buy one (word to the wise, you can use basically any internal laptop hard drive that's 9.5mm tall in a MacBook), after borrowing the necessary screwdrivers from one of the mechanics at work (they have to be good for something), and almost bought a 40 on my way (to calm my nerves), but opted against it.

This is a step-by-step manual on how to replace a MacBook hard drive. I'm sure if you Google it, you can definitely find one that has better pictures and more technical advice, but screw it - I did it, I know enough!

You will need:

• MacBook (dead or not, does not matter)
• Internal hard drive that will fit (mine was a Western Digital ScorpioBlue, 250 GB)
• Torx T8 screwdriver
• Philips screwdriver, size 00 (AKA f'n small)

And last but not least, a rosary and/or a stiff drink, to pray you won't fuck up, and to drink if you do. I opted against the drink, but it's still an option.

1. Use a coin to unlock the battery from the back of your machine. Pull it out. 
2. Locate the metal memory cover and its' 3 Philips screws. Pull those out, and remove the memory cover, being careful not to bend it. 
3. Using your Torx screwdriver, remove the 4 screws on the hard drive's metal casing. Remove the old hard drive. 
4. Unwrap the new hard drive and set it into the casing. Replace the 4 screws. 
5. Slide the casing back into the laptop. I learned the hard way that the print on the drive should be facing down - if it's facing up, you're putting it in upside down and will have to gut your laptop more than once. 
6. Replace the memory cover, battery, and voila! Turn on the machine and check your work. You will need to start the computer from an OS CD and run Disk Utility. You will know if you were successful if the new drive shows up in Disk Utility. 
7. Format the new drive and reinstall your operating system. 

Below, find photos of the steps - Blogger is being awful to me and not letting me post them alongside their directions.

See? Easy as pie! I didn't need that rosary OR that drink!

This was a one-off technical post - most of my 'how-to's will be craft related. It's not every day your computer basically decides to eat shit, so I decided to commemorate it forever with a blog post! Enjoy, good luck, and godspeed.

Get pretty! - Version 1.0

I can prettymuch promise that these types of posts will be few and far between. Back in May, I started a new job in what is, for all intensive purposes, an auto shop. Five days a week, I'm in work blues and change into a t-shirt and jeans for the duration of my day. Before yesterday, I hadn't worn makeup or - eep - waxed my eyebrows in I don't know how long. I'd been shaving off my overgrowth. I don't suggest going that route, seeing as I've had what I affectionately call 'goth mistakes' including shaving off giant portions of my eyebrows. Frickin' whoops! So yeah - have the patience to take care of yourselves, ladies - don't end up a half-eyebrowed freak of nature.

Sunday, I had what I called 'Get Pretty Day #2'. 'Get Pretty Day #1' included me dying my washed-out red/orange/pink/blonde/burgundy mop an auburn color I actually really love, and re-dying the undercut (shaved) side of my hair what I like to call 'mystery purple', where I mix Punky Colour in Red Wine and N'Rage in Purple Plum and see what happens. For the first time in awhile, I felt dang cute!

When I woke up on Sunday, I decided that I was actually going to take the time to look good - for me! In that, I waxed eyebrows, put on a full face of makeup, actually wore jewelry, and all to go to the craft store and on my weekly drive to nowhere. I loved every second of it!

lookin' like a new woman!

I think I did a dang good job! Now, I don't not wear makeup because I don't like it or anything of the sort. I just don't like wasting makeup I pay pretty decent money for on doing nothing more than sweating and running around a dirty auto shop with the boys. I've been told I'm pretty good with a makeup brush on several occasions - even had some friends ask me to do theirs! What a compliment. For maybe the first, and only time in history, I actually took stock of what I used as far as makeup went. Immediately after waxing my eyebrows, so blame the redness on that, not a creepy skin disease.

don't mind my junky skin! i've learned to live with it!

• Foundation: Covergirl Clean Oil Control/MAC Studio Fix
• Brows: Dark half of the Clinique Coffee Shop eyeshadow duo
• Eyeshadow Base: LASplash Splashproof Sealer (this stuff rules!)
• Outside Corner: Kat Von D shadow in Prague
• Middle Color: MAC Hepcat
• Inner Corner: Kat Von D shadow in Rehab
• Highlight: Kat Von D shadow in Sugar Skull
• Liner: MAC Penultimate in Rapidblack
• Lashes: L'Oreal Carbon Black Double Extend
• Loose Powder: Cover Girl Professional Loose Powder

And to think - all of that to make just one look happen. A lot of things in my makeup kit I've had for a long time, but I do have a few products I live and die by. I love Kat Von D's eyeshadows and lipsticks. I like the fact that I can get a bunch of colors for $36 (or $17 like the last palette I had), and the staying power is ridiculous. Her line also boasts my favorite lipstick of all time, Hellbent Red. I like to mix up drugstore and higher end makeups to complete my looks, and it's never done me wrong!

Now a look is definitely not complete without a good nail polish job. I have one better - and a new product to fall in love with - I know I did!

Sally Hansen's Salon Effects Nail Polish Strips are officially my new jam. I've used them three different times now (pictured above), and am in love. I bought my first set ("Kitty, Kitty" - leopard print) about a month ago, and was completely surprised by how well they stayed. I didn't experience any chipping with them, they just pulled up from my nailbeds as my nails grew, and didn't look as good as they once did. Second, I tried "Glitz Blitz", a crazy gold glitter. Loved that one, too. My newest nail strip endeavor has been "Laced Up", which I applied during "Get Pretty Day #2". I think out of these three, my favorite is still "Kitty, Kitty", but I haven't tried all of them yet!

As a former Minx enthusiast and addict, this is basically the exact same thing, only it saves you about $20 and a trip to the salon (you can pick them up for about $8.50 at Wal-Mart or Walgreens). I notice that these stay much better, also. Even though I'm always washing my hands and handling auto parts, typing, and knitting - I haven't experienced so much as a chip at the tips of my nails, which is incredibly impressive. I keep them on for around 10-14 days before taking them off, and they come off best with an acetone polish remover. The difference between these and Minx is that these are actual nail polish (they smell like nail polish and everything), that's about 95% dry, and it finishes drying as soon as you apply them to your nails. Application takes around 5-10 minutes, and there's no dry time! Some people like to use a top coat, but I don't and have been just fine. It's a personal preference for sure.

Until next time I decide to wear makeup...

Book Club Mondays: "I Don't Care About Your Band"

Julie Klausner's "I Don't Care About Your Band"

This summer, I have been reading a whole lot thanks to an adult summer reading club at one of my local libraries that could lead to glamorous prizes like tickets and gift cards! If I'm going to read the books anyway, why not - maybe - get a return? In any case, I finally finished reading Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries novels (the books True Blood is based on), and picked up something an adult would read.

I Don't Care About Your Band is one of those books I happened to pick up on the new shelf of the library. I read the back, thought it would likely be funny (a glowing review from one of my favorite comedians, Patton Oswalt, definitely helped), and checked it out. It sat on my kitchen table until a few days ago, and it was such a quick read, it only took a few days to get through!

The book chronicles Klausner's funniest adventures in dating, from the total psycho who may or may not have lived in his bathrobe to the guy in a band she couldn't stand spending five minutes with. Each chapter was a story in itself, and boasted yet another story of dating hell in a cute, entertaining way. I laughed out loud several times while I read it, and I'm not typically the type to laugh at a book.

From the back jacket:

This is not a book about successful relationships. This is a book - and a very, very funny one - about the humiliations we endure to find love and the lessons that can be culled from the wreckage. 

As someone who has never been incredibly lucky in relationships, it definitely rang true for me. Now that I'm finished reading it, I'm very glad I took the time to, and hope you will as well - lucky in love or not!

Sunday, Crafty Sunday: Thrifted frame rehab!

I am typically my craftiest on Sundays. Whether that's because sometimes I'm hungover (sometimes) or because I tend to sleep in the most on Sundays, I always just want to wake up and want to knit everything in my house together, or turn on the hot glue gun and glue my cats together. That's never happened, but you know what I mean. I also enjoy eating at Cici's Pizza Buffet every Sunday for lunch. This week it didn't happen, and last week I went so late it was like a Chuck E Cheese's, but perhaps I'll keep it going next Sunday.

A couple of weeks ago, I woke up on Sunday morning and decided to go out to the thrift stores I like, since I'd taken a day off of work and gone up to my hometown of Green Bay, spending an entire day with my mother going to garage sales and church rummage sales. I had the fever! At the first shop, I found a beer glass from one of my favorite Milwaukee bars, the spy-themed Safe House. I'm sure this won't be the last time I talk about this thrift shop, but let it be known that the USA Thrift Shop on Highway 100 in Milwaukee is plastered in Barbie dolls stapled, nailed, and affixed to the wall everywhere. I know that I have a photo, just can't find it.

Anywho, I went to my second shop - a Bethesda Thrift Shop, run by a local church - and struck gold! I am always on the hunt for two things: religious iconography (usually wall hangings depicting Jesus, Mary, or anything of that sort), and ornate frames to use for my finished cross stitch projects. I even had a couple of them finished at home that were just aching for an awesome frame. Even better, the shop was running a special with everything 50% off, so what should have been a $17 total wound up being closer to $9. Struck oil! In total, I got 7 frames for cross stitch projects, and 1 Last Supper image in a cool oval frame. When I found them, I of course headed straight to the craft store for acrylic paint, and the hardware store for spray paint.

my thrift and craft store finds!

My first order of business was to remove the random photos and dried flowers from the frames, as well as clean the glass. It seemed a lot more difficult than it actually wound up being!

After this step came my combined most/least favorite part of this entire project, and that was COMPLETELY violating my lease by turning my bathroom into a spray paint booth. Don't do it. I just do it because I don't have anywhere outside to spray, and I do wear a respirator when I remember. This, of course, being so I don't wind up passed out dead with my cats eating what's left of my muscles and skin from my bones when they run out of food. So, Russian landlords, if you're reading this, please don't evict and/or chop any of my fingers off. It's all for the love of crafting!

For primer, I used a gray spray primer that's good for wood, metal, or plastic. I picked it up at Menards, but I'm sure a Home Depot, Lowes, Ace Hardware or something similar would have it as well. Once that part was done, I was finished with most of the frames, spare two of them, which I had finished pieces for. Those two, I decided to paint using acrylic craft paints from Jo Ann's. It took about a million coats, and it wasn't much fun. Once that paint dried completely, I sprayed a clear coat over them and called 'em done.

Danzig skull and PBR stitches, ready to go!

Since I was ready to frame finished stitch projects, I got out my craft iron (AKA my mom's old iron from the 70s/80s), ironed both pieces flat, and took to putting them in their new frames.

And there they are! Come back next Sunday and see what else I've got up my sleeve!

Conquering My Aversion to Blogging...

or: "Saying 'Fuck You' to Margaret White."

On a daily basis, I read the blogs and Tumblrs of people I've never met. I have always been interested in, and completely enthralled by, life stories, and reading blogs have been a great way for me to get my fix in that department. I've even gotten around to talking to a few bloggers in order to get myself some confidence, bloggers who I idolize in a way (the lovely Erin Dawn has been helpful in ways I can never put into words or thank her enough for).

You may ask why I haven't been able to do it myself. About seventy percent of me sees an ability to do the same, to share the story of my life, the things I love, and what I like to do. Ideas float through my head every day. The other thirty percent has held me back, and has been holding me back, for years. I call that thirty percent 'Margaret White'. You may know her as the mother of Sissy Spacek's "Carrie" in 1976. Hold please, an explanation is coming!

As a heavily tattooed woman, people see me and automatically think that I'm a fearless broad who'd punch you for looking at her sideways. Sometimes, I'm confident enough to feel that way, but most of the time I find myself keeping my feelings so deeply hidden that nobody gets in. Don't try it - it's a really shitty defense mechanism. I have been crippled by my own mind, my own 'what if's' for far too long. I'm ready to get back into life, get out of the dark, and lose the obnoxious fear that has been holding me back for the better part of the last four years, at least.

My fear has a name, and that name is 'Margaret White'. In the original film "Carrie", her mother was a super-Christian, abusive and atrocious woman. In one of the most memorable quotes of the film, she states - "They're all going to laugh at you." Instead of having a positive voice in my head pushing me to do things when I have an idea, or even just to get through the every day, I have had that. My own 'they're all going to laugh at you'. I have had nothing but misgivings about both people I know and strangers, thinking that if I write down what I feel, that I'll be chastised. I'll be made a fool of. That has put a stop to me writing on a more regular basis for at least the past three years.

Another part of it is that about ten years ago, a person I used to hold particularly close to me violated my trust and read very personal writings without permission. Since then, I have been crazy vigilant about being private with my feelings, especially with my writing. Nobody reads it unless I want them to, nobody knows about it unless I want them to, etc. I think it's about time to put that one to bed, too.

It's time for it all to stop. If I think about it, I have nothing to lose. I can't hold myself back or be dishonest about who I am and what I love anymore. It is no way to live, and my heart has been too heavy for too long because of it.

Breathing in, breathing out. I feel better already. Prepare for the entertainment to follow.

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