The newest developments!

First of all, let me apologize for my silence minus a couple of Book Club Mondays! I have had a whole lot going on, and not a lot of time (or will) to write about those things. Let's make it really easy on you:

• First! I bought a domain name for the blog! You can reach the blog at the old address (http://anepicliz.blogspot.com), or you can try out the new address, which is simply http://www.anepicliz.com!
• A lot of cool stuff is coming. I'm going to pick back up with How To Tuesdays and some of my other weekly stuff, as well as doing special posts and even starting some new weekly posts.
• I'm going to start reviewing music as well as books (since it is what I've been doing seemingly forever), and even doing posts about bands that have been long broken up that I never want to fade from memory.

I'm sure there's more, but a girl does have to have her secrets, doesn't she?

How-to Tuesday: Decoupaging Furniture!

As a pastime, and as far back as I can really remember, I've been using Mod Podge to craft all sorts of things! Little storage boxes, formed rabbits, all kinds of stuff. It was tissue paper and creepy animal forms when I was a kid, but it's a skill I've maintained through adulthood. One of my favorite things to decoupage is furniture. And it's very easy to do! So, let's get goin'!

You will need: 

• Comic books or other paper to glue onto the furniture. I go through the $0.25 bins at comic shops and usually come up with some good stuff.
• Mod Podge! There are all different kinds of it on the market, but I typically use just the plain Matte in the yellow bottle. The Gloss comes in an orange one. For these types of projects, you want to have regular Mod Podge, as well as Hard Coat Mod Podge. That ensures your project will stay awesome for years to come.
• An old paint brush or sponge to apply the glue with. I say an old one because I wouldn't personally go out and buy a new paint brush just for this purpose - it's glue, after all!
• (Obviously) a piece of furniture to apply paper to. This table I actually found next to the dumpster at my apartment and had painted! You never know where you'll find a great piece, so you might as well just swallow your pride and dumpster dive once and awhile.

As I did before, I'll give you the steps and show photos of my progress as I went through them.

1. First things first: tear the pages from the comics and rip the pages into pieces. You'll want jagged edges since it adds to the collaged look. If you really want to, you can cut the edges, but I've personally never done it. 
2. Brush some glue onto a flat area of the table or whatever you're working on. Lay down a few pieces of your ripped paper, and Mod Podge over all of them. 
3. Continue until you have the largest, flattest portion of your table finished.
4. On the sides, you're going to want to do the pieces one by one, especially for routed areas and parts that aren't 100% flat. It would be smart to use your fingers to press the pieces down. Also, make sure to glue under any lipped areas of your furniture for a more complete look. 
5. Once you have covered all you want to, put an entire layer of Mod Podge all over the entire thing. 
6. Let the full covering of Mod Podge dry, and then use Hard Coat Mod Podge just like you did in the previous step. 

And you're done! Make sure to let the glue dry before you put your table into use, but once it's dry you can use it for anything (I made a computer table). Following this, you can clean your table's surface with household spray cleaner. Onto the photos!

Moving out, moving on...

Last time I ever closed this door.

How things can change in the space of just a few months is absolutely ridiculous, when you think about it. 

After a shitty roommate situation, I finally moved into my own place (not shared with anybody, really mine) in about September of 2010. It was a little one bedroom apartment in Milwaukee's Bay View neighborhood, and I loved finally having my own space and having the freedom to do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. When fallouts with friends happen, they often leave scars, and this one definitely did. 

The moral of this story is, though, that the apartment was the first thing that was really mine. My bachelorette pad, if you will. 

I started dating Mike in October, and he moved in in December. That left one cramped one bedroom apartment to house two adults and two cats. Not that I'd go back and change anything, because I definitely wouldn't. I just knew that it was time to grow up and get out. I'd been looking around for places here and there, and found one through work that we fell in love with. In the middle of February, we moved in, and having the additional space is definitely nice. An entire bedroom to house our hobbies (and of course, the fallout junk from everywhere else)! A living room big enough for two couches! Air conditioning! A dishwasher! The amenities are ridiculous in comparison to my old apartment, that was really only big enough for one person, with its' tiny kitchen and bathroom, and just enough character to get by.

I loved that place. I created so many things there, taught myself a lot of new things craft wise, spray painted in the bathroom, finally got cable for the first time in over a year, burned remnants of a past relationship in the bathroom sink... and you get it. Living in that apartment is not anything I'll ever forget, but I'm glad that I'm getting to experience life as I am right now. Uncharted territory is always scary, but you have to look back to be able to look ahead, don't you?

Book Club Mondays: "Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang"

 

The only reason why I read Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang in the first place was because the Kindle I'd rented from the Milwaukee Public Library was pre-loaded with memoirs, and it seemed like an interesting book to try out.

I have never watched Chelsea Handler's show, and would not even consider myself a fan - she just has a great way of putting words together in an entertaining way - and I'm sure that she wouldn't be a celebrity if she didn't, right?

In any case, Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang is a collection of essays, all humorous, about certain parts of her life from childhood to a hilarious wedding date - each story more vulgar and entertaining as the last, although once you get pretty far in, it seems like it wouldn't be possible to laugh out loud anymore.

One thing I can say about Chelsea Handler after picking up this book and knowing barely anything about her is that she can write an interesting book with her hands tied behind her back, basically - I was thoroughly entertained with each page I turned in the book, and hesitated to put it away each night when I was done reading, even though I was ready to pass out most nights.

Look out for a review of another of Chelsea's books, My Horizontal Life, coming soon!

Book Club Mondays: "Running With Scissors"

 

Since getting a Kindle of my own as a birthday gift from my parents back in December, I have found a new appreciation for e-book reading that I never thought I would have. Of course, life has a way of screwing us out of the best laid plans so I haven't been able to use it much, but I'm attempting to get back into it. Prior to that, I'd rented an older version Kindle from our local library and read several books, both old and new, and figured it was a good enough time as ever to get back into a normal posting schedule, as well!

Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs is one of the most well-known novels of my time, at least, and spawned not only eight weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, but many conversations about how some individuals treat their children, which I believe is what was intended. The book tells the story of his downright bizarre childhood, in which his mother sent him away, to live with her psychiatrist. It was good enough to spawn a film, which was released in 2006.

For me, Running With Scissors is the kind of book I could (and have) gone back to two times, even three times, and still enjoy every second of reading. There is always something new to find out, and a different facet to the story. I believe that's a big reason I keep going back to it - as an adolescent (the first time I read the book), I could see myself in the same position - granted my mother was a crazy person - and I believe that's what has always made the book that much more real to me.

If you want a story that can put a chill in your bones and a thought in your head, look no further than Running With Scissors or any of Burroughs' other novels.