Ruzena’s Blog
SassyNpunk Boutique Contest!

Posted on Thursday 12 January 2012

So I’ve posted contests on my blog before and this time the contest is for one of the cutest stores around, SassyNPunk Boutique. :) I’ve purchased multiple items from here and I’ve been very happy with my adorable hand-made purchases.

This week, we are all being given the chance to win a set of Kyary-inspired eyelashes! All you have to do is follow the directions on the widget at the bottom of the contest page found >>HERE<<. Good luck everybody!


(picture borrowed from contest page)

Ruzena Thibault @ 11:25 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized
A Cherry Blossom Wedding (part 1) - Inspiration and detail

Posted on Sunday 30 October 2011

null
DIY Save-the-Date postcards. =) The background picture was a stock picture I found online. The rest I made using MSpaint.

So a while ago I was all ready to go posting some sneak-previews of my wedding. Well—guess what! It already happened! Life just took me and ran with me and before I knew it, it was all over. Weddings are so much hard work and planning but it’s such a reward to see everything work out in the end!

Just a shout out here—but this wedding would not have been possible without my mom (who took the reigns as the “wedding planner” essentially and helped me out with things that it was hard or impossible to do while at college.) A good friend Mary of ours stepped in as the wedding director and helped with rehearsal and all of that. Countless other friends stepped in to help when I needed them most—including serving food at the reception when it turned out they were short servers. I feel so blessed. Friends kept coming out of the woodwork and there’s just no way it was all coincidence.

Anyway, so I’m sure you guys are ready for some of the wedding details! :) Thankfully, I have many beautiful pictures from my photographer to share with you as well as many of the stock photos from the items that we purchased so you can see the details.

I will keep this post to the detail shots and little things I am proud of and/or that I think are beautiful. Perhaps some of you out there planning a cherry blossom wedding will glean some of this information and inspiration off of me? Cherry blossom wedding blogs are few and far between as I learned while I was searching for some help.

The idea for a cherry blossom wedding sparked from my personal interest in Japanese animation and culture. There are cherry blossom viewings that happen yearly in Japan as well as places in the US like Washington DC and California. The trees shed their beautiful pink petals while people picnic beneath them.

My inspiration for the colors came to me while at the wonderful tea store Teavana at the mall. My eyes passed over this lovely cherry blossom sushi set and I got the idea— pink, green, and brown.

null

After telling my mom what I wanted, we began scouring all of the local Walmarts, Jo Anne fabrics, Michaels, and Hobby Lobbies for anything and everything cherry blossom. We managed to buy out all 3 or 4 of the Walmarts nearest to our house as far as faux sprays go. x3 QVC.com was where we got most of our other great cherry blossom items. Their cherry blossom stuff seems to be somewhat seasonal but thankfully we had about 2 years to plan my wedding so it all worked out. We bought wreaths, a garland, and two huge sprays that all light up and have a sparkle option (stock pictures below). We also bought two huge candle holders (flameless candles of course) for the front of the church as well as two bird and cherry blossom candles for the table at the reception hall (stock picture below). Everything was perfect.

To carry the pink and brown we purchased simple pink and brown pew ribbons from eBay. I would have liked to do more with them but I only had a short amount of time after getting back from college and I just never got around to it. I probably would have put flower sprays in the middle of the bows or something. Also, these bows did not come completely pre-made. I probably would have lost my sanity trying to put these together if it wasn’t for my Uncle John who stepped in and helped out when we (my sister and I) failed. xD

Here’s a shot of the pews. The wreath on the wall is not the one mentioned as that one was placed at the reception. The bouquets of flowers are the only other real flowers in the wedding next to my bouquet and toss bouquet. The table up front is for the sand ceremony that we chose in place of the typical unity candle ceremony.

Since cherry blossom decorations are few and far between, my family and friends helped out with a lot of the decorating projects. I chose to be different and have my bridesmaids carry lanterns instead of bouquets. We purchased the lanterns themselves on eBay and placed false cherry blossom sprays inside to surround the flameless candles (using wire and florist tape to attach the flowers in a mini wreath). My mother also purchased a caged candle on QVC which needed a bit of decorating. My best friend/maid of honor and I spent hours working on these. This was our end result:

We are rather proud of the caged candle as the top still opens and doesn’t disturb the flowers that are attached to it. =) We used simple wire to attach everything to the bars.

This next project I took on myself. I wanted to jazz up the guest book that we had purchased from Michael’s craft store. It was originally just the plain brown fabric covering both the book and the pen.

And in action…

Another of my personal projects was to make three cherry blossom and baby’s breath wreaths for my flower girls. The baby’s breath is real but purchased dried from Michael’s crafts. It even still smells nice. Here is a close-up of the first of those wreaths made for my smallest munchkin. =)

And here they are in action on my lovely little girls. I attached long strands of pink, green, and brown ribbon to the backs and formed a bow for that finishing touch.

My last major project was the wedding programs. Like most brides, I put off something until the very last minute. These happen to be it. The beautiful watercolor picture of the birds on the front was commissioned by a friend of mine. She also painted me an accompanying branch to use as an accent on the other pages of the program. The print-your-own programs were purchased at Michael’s Crafts.

I will have more for you in my next post! ^.^ Please feel free to comment with your thoughts or questions. I may not post on a regular schedule but I am most definitely reading comments!

Ruzena Thibault @ 3:58 am
Filed under: Uncategorized
The Wonderful Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Posted on Friday 27 May 2011

null
The row our car was parked in at Universal Studios. :)

So it has been brought to my attention that I forgot to do my post about my visit to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure (Orlando). I completely forgot about that so I apologize!

This will be kind of fun though since I get to think back on my experience there and show you guys some pictures. :) Let’s begin.

In December last year I was in Florida visiting my fiance. We figured when I was down there that it might be fun to go to one of the local theme parks (about 40 minutes away from Jeremy’s apartment). I had been DYING to go to the relatively new “Wizarding World of Harry Potter” section at Universal ever since first hearing about it. I’m a HUGE fan of Harry Potter, plus I’d already been to all of the Disney parks in my childhood so I wanted to go some place I hadn’t had the chance to yet.

Jeremy and I waited in line at Universal: Islands of Adventure and paid an arm and a leg to get in (we wanted the express tickets which, due to the craziness of the park that day, was really a good investment.

null

null

This is just a random observation and I could be wrong but I don’t remember Disney charging for things the way Universal does. I’m not gonna lie but even after getting into the park I just felt like they were attempting to suck the money out of us every chance they could get. They’re too forward with their money-soliciting. At the front-most part of the park there are some normal name-brand stores and restaurants which I felt was rather tacky. I feel like Universal lacks a lot of the magic that Disney has. Their rides are great but I got bored waiting in line…whereas at Disney, even waiting in line can be fun and entertaining. At Disney, even in line there are things to see and do and touch and take pictures of.

Anyway, I did have a good time at the park and it was worth the money just to go visit the Harry Potter section. It was EXTREMELY crowded though and I sincerely hope time will cure that.

null

When we got to the park, we decided to do everything else first and finish with Harry Potter rather than starting there. The wait line for getting into that section was upwards of 2 hours which would have been a waste of our nice morning. We made it to every part of the park except the Dr. Seuss section (which I was kind of disappointed about).

Right before we headed over to the Harry Potter section to get in line, they announced that they had opened that section of the park to everyone so Jeremy and I scarfed our lunch and headed over there.

null
View of the Hogwarts castle…complete with British palms.

null
Tilted rooves.

null
Inside the park.

null
Waiting in line.

null
The train to Hogwarts. ^__^

I was kind of disappointed they didn’t have more shows or stuff to do inside the park. A lot of time was spent shopping so I suppose it was good that I had a lot of people to shop for and a decent amount of money with me (they really do milk you for all you’re worth there).

Here are some pictures from inside Honeyduke’s and the joke store Zonkos. The most affordable items in the HP section of the park can be found here. The two stores are conjoined so you can walk directly from one to the other and you can check out your items at either store.

null
Bertie Bott’s every flavour beans in Honeydukes!

null
Beans of every color. ^.^

null
Stuff inside Zonko’s joke store.

null
You can find anything here from these pink pygmy puffs to the Comb-a-Chameleon hair transformation brush!

Jeremy isn’t a fan of roller coasters but he agreed to accompany me on the main Harry Potter ride called, “The Forbidden Journey.” The wait was about 1 1/2 hours but it was fun hanging out with other people who were as nerdy as I am and as anxious to get on the ride for the first time. It was one of those “experience” rides where they basically put you on this cart and whip you around through different parts of the movie. Jeremy could deal with it since it wasn’t a REAL coaster and I was glad. I will have to make more friends in Orlando that will go on the actual coasters with me though. ^_^’ I would have loved to go on some of them. As it was, we didn’t really have a lot of time to go on them this time around so it worked out.

The park closes rather early so the last thing we ended up doing before it closed was going to the Three Broomsticks for dinner. I guess I should have expected that it wouldn’t be as nice of a restaurant as I am used to because of the atmosphere of the place in the books. I’m assuming it was quite true to that. It felt like British fast food, really. They offer simple foods (including shepherd’s pie which was probably frozen and then put into a microwave or something.) I got a salad with chicken because everything else was too weird or too greasy for me. They had about 5 different meals to pick from everything was pretty average. It was hard to get pictures inside because of the dim lighting but here are a couple:

null

null

null
Cute snowman outside the restaurant. A small reminder that it was winter in Florida. Haha.

All in all, I had a great day and while I was slightly disappointed about some things, I had a wonderful time shopping and seeing some of the places I had previously only imagined from reading the books.

null
My souvenir— a plush version of Buckbeak. Isn’t he cute? ^.^

Ruzena Thibault @ 3:23 pm
Filed under: Crafts and Dreams and Uncategorized
Lolita - the ultimate creative expression

Posted on Tuesday 24 May 2011

null



So this post has been a lonnnng time coming. Let me just start at the beginning.

For a long time I had been wanting to try out lolita fashion. It’s inspired some of my jewelry line and just some of my creativity in general. I’m one of those people that likes to do a lot of research into things before I get started though because I like to know what’s involved and expected. This goes for all things from fashion to jewelry-making to acting to any other hobby that I might take up.

Lolita fashion is one that is definitely best embraced after research. If you’re not one who cares to be a part of the lolita community then it’s not as important but for anyone those who would like to make some new friends with common interests, it’s important to do the research first. Even if you don’t care what other people think (and you don’t mind criticism), checking out what’s generally involved and the background of the fashion can give you a good idea for what looks good together.

People who are unfamiliar with the fashion style often associate the word “Lolita” to Vladmir Nabokov’s book by the same title.

null

Nabokov’s book has been on the banned books list practically since it was first published due to the storyline including an older man who is in love with a young girl (whom he refers to as “Lola”). He at first attempts a relationship with her mother but then is, in his words, seduced by the young Lola. It’s the later events in the book that cause people to associate the word, “lolita” negatively. It’s probably due to this that the word has come to mean “underage girl” or “underage girl attempting to attract the attention of men.” Certain companies market their sexy short-skirt outfits and patterned tights under the word but don’t let that fool you.

The association to this is unfortunate for those that enjoy and participate in the fashion style. However frustrating, it’s easy enough to see why the style would be linked to it. The childish and doll-like nature of many sub-categories of lolita fashion could be and have been misconstrued and wrongly viewed as girls trying to be attractive to men. People seem to miss, however, that there are MANY other sub categories (including but not limited to elegant and aristocrat) that tend to include longer skirts and more mature outfits yet still fall under the title “lolita fashion.” This should be the first clue that lolita is more than its association with the book.

The ironic thing is that often times the girls are not trying to attract men at all, but are instead trying to hone their creativity skills and possibly in the process inspire and get the attention of other girls who are into the same fashion. Does it make sense for a girl wanting to attract a man to cover more of herself than the average young woman today does? Does it make sense for a girl wanting to attract a man to wear many layers, fluffy knee length skirts (as opposed to the short, tight mini-skirts of today), and modest blouses? A group of girls with the common interest of dressing in lolita fashion can become great friends.

Those that choose to post pictures of their outfits online are often looking for constructive criticism and feedback on their coordinates (or constructed outfits) as well. This is not to say that girls into lolita are purely into it for the attention but there is just something exciting about posting a picture and having someone say that it’s beautiful and that they like this and that (and illuminating some things that could be improved upon). It makes the amount of money that a lot of girls spend on their outfits even more worth while when they find out that some people seriously enjoy looking at the work of art (outfit) that they’ve created. Also, the art of lolita tends to cross over into the art of photography quite often so that photographers who are looking to hone their own skills can have a beautiful subject to include in their shots. Lolitas who have always wanted to dabble in modeling can potentially test their skills with these photographers.

There are still many girls enjoy simply dressing up at home and not even wearing their outfits out in public. Many lolitas will attest to the fact that there’s just something about feeling beautiful in your clothes that is inspiring in itself, even if you don’t show other people. Outside of that, wearing lolita casually (and perhaps without petticoats) can be extremely comfortable.

Lolita can be even more than dressing up in beautiful clothes. It can mean living what some people refer to as a “lolita lifestyle” which includes being beautiful and experiencing the beautiful in many different ways on a regular basis. This can be anything from having lovely manners to writing in a flowery notebook. Here’s an extremely informative LiveJournal post with 101 ideas for living a loli lifestyle.

101 Lolita Lifestyle ideas

I’m not sure if I’m living a “lolita lifestyle” or not. I’m not even sure if I believe that there is such a thing…as few of these ideas are particularly attached just to lolita fashion. Cultured people could live a lolita lifestyle without even knowing what the fashion is. However, I will say that I think this compliments the style nicely and power to anyone who lives like this. I don’t know if I live a “lolita lifestyle” I’ve always loved colorful, cute, and fluffy things so at least I fit in well. I’m a fan of kittens and unicorns. I love drinking tea and eating tea cakes. I love writing and receiving letters. I make stuffed animals, jewelry, and other crafts. I love soft beautiful music. I love playing the piano. I love fashion and I love my friends.

Lolita gives me an outlet for participating in these activities with people who share like interests and appreciate creativity. I’m not the richest person and I’m getting married in less than 50 days so I have those expenses sitting at the top of my list. My dresses are not brand/burando but I do hope to own at least one brand dress some day in the future. For now, I’m happy and content with my wardrobe and Bodyline dresses. They make me smile and are fun to wear and I think that’s what’s really important.

In March of this year, I took part in the Gothic Lolita Wigs (a sub-company of CosplaywigsUSA) contest. I made it into the top 40 and into round two which was all I really wanted. :) Some fabulous people won and I’m so happy for them! Here are some shots from the two contest photoshoots my best friend Lauren and I had. :D

Round One:

null

null

Round Two:

null

null

null

null

Extras:
Pictures from my first-ever event! I attended the 2nd to last FYE anime day at Eastview Mall in Rochester. I won 3rd place in the cosplay contest without even entering. I didn’t think I could enter my outfit because it was a fashion style rather than a costume but…I guess somebody wrote me down. Thank you, whoever you are!

null

null

Houghton Film Festival 2011

null

So next on my to-do list will be my extremely belated Tora-con 2011 entry and some fun and interesting wedding sneak peeks in a subsequent entry! Can’t wait. ^___^

Please feel free to share your thoughts on any of my entries. I would love to make this a more active blog and it’s so much easier when I have people writing responses.

Have a wonderful day! ^.^

Ruzena Thibault @ 4:38 pm
Filed under: Daily Thought and Gemfire and Life and Teaching and Uncategorized and Work
A momentous day in history.

Posted on Monday 2 May 2011

null

Today, Monday May 1st, 2011 (or actually, yesterday as it is 12:07 AM on the 2nd now), it was announced that Osama Bin Laden was killed.

I remember where I was on September 11th. I was in 7th grade technology class (the class where we built wooden bridges and attempted to hold weight with them). Teachers wheeled in a television and we watched the two buildings smoulder (before the second plane hit.) Teachers stood and watched with us with their hands over their mouths. I didn’t really understand what was going on. I had never been to New York and to me it just looked like any other city.

Then the second plane hit. There was a gasp and some more silence and then before we knew it, the buildings were crumbling. I still didn’t fully understand what was happening or the weight of it. I didn’t understand that there were thousands of people in those buildings. Even after switching classes and watching more coverage for it, I didn’t understand.

It wasn’t until I went home and watched it on my home TV with my family that I understood. There had been people waving white cloths and papers out the windows, hoping someone would come to save them. There were people hobbling out of the building and vacating the area. They were covered in people dust, remnants of those who died in the fires as remnants of the buildings. It was like holocaust dust. It smothered everything in the general vicinity. I suddenly not only became afraid and upset for everyone there and their families, I worried that the war would come to my town. That a plane would crash into my house. It was an irrational fear, but something that was very real to me. Those people didn’t do anything to deserve it, after all. What’s to stop it from happening to us too?

Today is the day that the man behind it all was killed by US troops in a military operation. A true sign of the times is that I found out via facebook. A friend of mine said she refreshed her page and there were 54 notifications of his death.

It was well thought out. Well planned. The troops and the government did a wonderful job. As much as it sounded like Obama took a lot of the credit, I think the potential was always there. This is the success of everyone—Bush, his administration, the presidents and administrations before them. Osama was crafty but not crafty enough.

God bless all the families of those who died in 9/11. Today is a joyous day for you and all of us.

I only hope we won’t have to worry about security too much. My biggest fear is that this will cause some kind of backlash. Please keep praying, everyone!

Ruzena Thibault @ 12:22 am
Filed under: Uncategorized
Cute Can Kill 3rd Anniversary Giveaway!

Posted on Sunday 1 May 2011

This post is in promotion of the Cute Can Kill giveaway that is being held. Go visit the link posted to join up and try your luck! :) Their stuff is adorable.

null

Click here for more information on how to enter~!

Florida Trip 2010

Posted on Thursday 13 January 2011


The view from Jeremy’s apartment balcony.





So I’m going to end up doing my posts a little bit out of order. I was going to write my post on Japanese lolita fashion first but I figure the next post I wanted to do (a review of my choco-latte wig from CosplayWigs USA) will probably be on that topic so I might as well wait. ^_^’

This last break (Christmas) I went to Florida to visit Jeremy and to meet his parents. This was my first time flying by myself and most of it went well. I traveled out on the 27th (Yeah…two days after Christmas. Don’t ask how much Jeremy paid for THOSE tickets. xD) and then came back on January 5th (or at least it SHOULD have been the 5th, but I’ll get to that later).

At first I was a little worried about traveling by myself. However, I eventually realized that it’s all pretty much straight-forward and not that difficult or scary. I was kind of hoping I could meet people on the way there but I ended up sitting next to people who weren’t all that talkative on each flight (minus the first girl who talked to me just a little). On another flight I sat next to a lovey-dovey asian couple that kept playing games on the girl’s ipad and then an older woman who was doing something else and didn’t seem the social type. Maybe I didn’t take the right steps to strike up conversation (good thing I didn’t try on the one flight where no one was seated next to me… the other passengers might not have taken that well) but it just didn’t seem to come as easily as it could have. It’s too bad.

So anyway, the trip there was fine and full of blessings in the form of coincidences. The biggest one was the fact that even though my first flight was 40 minutes late in leaving (when my layover in Atlanta was only 30 minutes to begin with), the plane ended up catching tailwind and we got there 30 minutes before my other flight was scheduled to depart— not to mention I was dropped off on Concourse A where my connecting flight was leaving so I didn’t have to go anywhere.

Anywayyyyy, all of my travel stuff is boring so I won’t talk about that anymore. Jeremy picked me up and we drove to his house where I knew I would meet his parents. I was welcomed with open arms and many compliments which was so sweet. I knew I would love his parents. <3 Jeremy didn't miss a beat before throwing my giant dolphin plushie (that he got me months ago at Seaworld) at me so I could touch it for the first time. I had seen pictures but didn't realize the sheer size of the thing until then. Thanks Jeremy, for hitting me with a giant fish...mammal...thing.

Anyway, after throwing my dolphin at me, Jeremy presented me with a new GPS for Christmas. He received it from his office Christmas party and decided that I (being someone who is not particularly good with directions) might really appreciate a GPS. I was seriously so excited because I had been wanting one forever. Jeremy's phone works as a GPS so it would have been mostly useless to him. One man's trash is another girl's treasure, I guess. :)

Now here's where Jeremy made a mistake. Earlier (before the trip), he had expressed to me the excitement he felt because he had two gifts to give me--- so I knew the GPS wasn't the last thing. After giving me the GPS, Jeremy ran into his room and came back. "My mother wants her ring back." he said. Up until this point, I had been wearing his mother's old engagement ring (her ring was replaced on one of her anniversaries with a new one and she gave Jeremy her old one to give to me--- kind of a long story). I handed the ring to his mommy and then he pulled out the box and presented me with a beautiful marquise-style diamond ring of my own. Maybe it's stupid, but I've really always dreamed of having my very own engagement ring made/purchased just for me so this was all very surreal to finally be receiving it. Oh, don't get me wrong, I appreciated his mother's ring too... but there's just something about having your very own.

null



Jeremy and I hugged and kissed and his mommy smiled and “aww’ed” at us. The whole thing felt kinda like a ceremony of some sort (passing off of the old ring, putting on of the new one, celebration afterward). I still can’t stop looking at my finger. That’s the kind of feeling I always wanted to have.

Jeremy’s parents and I went shopping for some groceries the next day. I was determined to make all of them my mommy’s (although she didn’t make up the recipe) “White chicken chili.” It can easily be made in a crock pot or on the stove and it’s super straight-forward (although it does take a bunch of ingredients). Because I would like for other people to be able to enjoy this, here is the recipe for you guys! I included the notes that my mom added to the recipe when she gave it to me. :)




White Chicken Chili:
from Busycooksabout.com (with “doctoring” from Dr. Mom)

3 cups chicken broth(I use a lot more–and I sometimes use a mixture of chicken and vegetable broth–depends what I have on hand)
2 19 oz cannellini beans(white kidney)
1 chopped onion( I use WAY more than that-at least a cup or more)
2 cloves garlic, minced(I sometimes use more)
4 oz can of green chiles(I use two cans, and Iike the brand that is fire-roasted but any brand will work)
2 tsp oregano
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp cayenne
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups cooked chicken

I usually cook the chicken in the crock pot, adding some water and some kind of seasonings(like Montreal chicken or Mrs. Dash) I like to use chicken breasts, and they can take anywhere from 4- 8 hrs, depending on how hot the crock pot cooks(some cook faster than others)

I saute the onions and garlic in oil until they are tender and translucent.

Rinse and drain the beans. Combine all ingredients a large pot and simmer gently about 1 hour. I have also used a crock pot for this part, but it takes longer than an hour. You want the beans to cook a little bit, and to get the seasonings to blend. You can serve in bowls topped with grated cheese.

Note: If you increase the amount of broth, you may want to increase the amounts of seasonings(not necessarily doubled, but add to taste) When I make my big “cauldron” amount, using at least a couple of the large boxes of broth, I double the cayenne, and maybe add 2 tsp cumin, 3 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp cloves or leave at 1/4 tsp, etc.) Be careful about too much cloves–that will overpower the other flavors).




Hope you enjoy it! Post a comment if you try it out and let me know what you thought! It’s one of my favorites!

So as some of you who know me on facebook may have noticed, I spent a lot of time with my future kitties. Jeremy worked every week day I was there so the kitties and I had some bonding time during the day. So many opportunities for cute pictures arose that I just couldn’t pass them up. x3 It looks like all I DID there was play with the cats.

These are just two of my favorite shots. The cats love being in the window and have done some major damage to the blinds in the because of that. Jeremy and I don’t particularly care because we’ve both always hated blinds. xD Whatever, kitties. Go ahead. Mess them up.

Anyway, as I’ve discovered, taking pictures of cats near a window/natural light is about the best way to get a shot that doesn’t include alien-like glowy eyes. You can capture the natural color of the cat’s eyes and it makes for a great shot. See?

Salem:

null

The next shot of Lazarus is funny to me. I uploaded it to facebook and his face was apparently so close to an old man’s face (I knew it!) that it thought he was an actual person and wanted me to tag him. xD What do you think?

Lazarus:

null



So not everything that happened in FL while I was there was good. Check out the damage some random kids living in the apartment complex next to Jeremy’s office did to his poor little BMW. D:

null

It’s now fixed (and his insurance doesn’t cover glass) but it totally wouldn’t hurt our feelings if somebody caught those little buggers and punished them! This was the 3rd rock incident but only the first to be reported to the police.


Oh, another good thing! I met up my friend Cora from elementary school while I was out there. She was visiting a friend (or more-than-friend :P). We hadn’t seen each other in 10 years! Jeremy, Cora, her boyfriend, and I all went out to eat at Steak ‘n Shake which was exciting by itself since it was probably about 10 years since I had been to one of those too!


null

Cora and Me



I got to do a lot of fun things while I was out in Florida like use the new kinect for the Xbox 360 (fun, but I don’t know if it’s anything we’ll invest our money in— Jeremy and I don’t think we’d get our money’s worth from a physical game like that). I’ll also have to do a separate entry about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure (well, and the park itself— but I have wayyyy more pictures from the HP section) because this post is already super long and picture-heavy. x3


Here’s a preview though!



null



Hope I didn’t forget anything too important! I can always go back and edit this but facebook posts it and doesn’t change it when I do. I wish they’d fix that and give us that capability so we don’t have to change things twice. D:



Ruzena Thibault @ 7:55 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized
CheeryMiri Boutique

Posted on Saturday 6 November 2010

null

So I’ve been meaning to post about this for a while but I’m just now getting around to it.

In August I opened my first small Etsy store and named it CheeryMiri Boutique. Most of you are probably familiar with my online alias, Mirialiah. It only made sense to include that in the name of my store, especially being that SO many of other names were taken.

I specialize in anime related jewelry, lolita-style jewelry (specifically sweet but I’m willing to try new things), animal jewelry, and sometimes recreation movie/book jewelry (such as my HP Luna Lovegood earrings).

I don’t really have a lot else to say. I love my shop, making jewelry, and wearing cute stuff! I hope you guys do too!

Here are some of the items currently in my shop. If you’d like something in this picture and it is sold out, let me know and I can possibly do a custom for you! Also, I do customs anyway so if you don’t see something but have an idea of what you’d like, you can drop me a line about that too. I’ve done a things like custom green lantern necklaces (which I made glow-in-the-dark to surprise my customer). I’m open to trying new things as long as they’re within my artistic boundaries. =)

null

Ruzena Thibault @ 11:08 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized
Senior Year at Houghton, so far

Posted on Saturday 23 October 2010

null

I don’t want to talk too much since I think most of what I can say would be better said in pictures. =)

However, I just want to say that so far my senior year at Houghton has been amazing. Our lovely senators and cabinet people have planned some great events not limited to but including a trip for the seniors to Darien Lake (for a discounted price). Darien lake used to be owned by 6 Flags but now I think it works on its own.

I had fun forcing myself onto the scarier roller coasters. I even went on Superman: Ride of Steel which was a BIG deal for me. I had a blast and I would do it again in a heartbeat. Conquering my fears was so much fun! I would have to say though that The Predator was my least favorite roller coaster of all time. I’m glad we did that one first and got it out of the way because that gave me a greater tolerance for all the rest of the rides. I think I’m perhaps just not a wooden coaster fan. The drops on that one scared the crap out of me.

I don’t have any pictures of the actual rides or anything but I do have some great friend shots. =) 5 of the 7 girls in my townhouse went so we all hung out together. It was a fabulous bonding experience.

Captions will be UNDERNEATH the pictures.

null

Line and I at the park.

null

Heather, Lauren, and Line

null

Standing on the bridge by Shipwreck Falls. You get wetter on the bridge than you do on the ride. xD

null

The girls after riding Shipwreck Falls. :D That ride is still my favorite. We screamed “I AM A GOLDEN GOD!” at the top right before the drop. Best scream ever.

null

Townhouse girls after we dried off. xD

null

Caterpillar we spotted after arriving back at Houghton. :3



More recently than this trip, however, was Houghton homecoming.

Jeremy was able to make it to this homecoming as well which made it so that he attended every homecoming from my freshman year to my junior year. That’s quite a feat!

This year’s homecoming was both better and worse than previous years. The homecoming of our first year didn’t have an accompanying dance since at that point Houghton didn’t allow dancing. However, the years following all had dances and this year’s was by FAR the best. Besides the drink fountains and cream puffs that they offered on the side, they played REAL music and had a DJ and cool moving lights and everything. It was all outside and a little chilly but we didn’t mind! We got to dance to REAL music (not that ballroom music isn’t real music…but you know what I mean).

It was just nice to have a theme-less dance, really. Technically the “theme” was “reception dances” but basically that just leaves it completely open as far as requests and stuff go.

Here are some shots from the events! I took some of these pictures but borrowed others.

null

Donna curled my hair for me since I can do it but it’s hard to get all sides of my head evenly and I have a lot of layers. Cute, huh? :3

null

Group after the dance. See the difference in my hair? xD An hour or two of dancing just KILLED all the curls. D:

null

Jeremy and I at the “banquet” which was hardly a banquet at all. All they did was throw a tablecloth on some of the tables and put shells in the middle. The lights weren’t dimmed and there was no music, nothing. The people who were dressed nicely felt awkward because the other people weren’t. Then those who weren’t dressed up felt awkward because the other people were. It was just awkward.

P.s. I made my necklace and earrings. :3 I dunno if you can see my earrings at all in these pictures but they’re black dots about the same size as the ones on my dress.


null

Jeremy and I again. =) I loooove my polkadot dress.

null

Silly girls.

null

Silly boys.

null

Silly pirates.

Houghton is just awesome.

Ruzena Thibault @ 6:39 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized
Family Reunion at the Beach

Posted on Saturday 23 October 2010

So I didn’t get to touch on a few things last few entries that I would really like to.

This entry is a photo entry about our one-day family reunion that we had over the summer. It took place at a local beach and while not too many people showed up, we had a good time hanging out together as a family and with Jeremy.

Daddy started to build a huge sandcastle and we joined in, eventually even getting help from random children that were hanging out nearby. Our goal was to make one that wouldn’t be affected by the waves and the rocks did a pretty good job of protecting it. It managed to not get washed away despite being in the way of the waves. Here are some pictures of our lovely day. =)

Captions will come AFTER each picture.

null

Beautiful shot marred only by 9 Mile Nuclear facility in the background.

null

Another great shot.

null

The castle’s humble beginnings.

null

Everybody started to help out

null

A random little girl at the beach with her family decided to help us out after daddy left to go hang out with family back up at the pavilion. She was sooo cute.

null

Colorful rocks are most beautiful when wet.

null

R+J for Ruzena + Jeremy. Clarice drew this in the sand and then showed us after. What a sweetie. :3

null

Completed sandcastle. I am VERY proud of this shot because of the lighting and stuff. :3 Just gonna say.

null

Eloise made a sand puppy. His ear kept falling off though and we needed to head home so she didn’t get to fix it quickly enough to take a picture. She’s a wonderful sand artist though, as you can see.

null

Jeremy and I at the beach. This has got to be one of my favorite pictures of us to date. :3

It’s days like these that make me very glad I have a camera with which to capture snapshots of my life as it happens.


“You are the Lord, you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. To all of them you give life…”

Nehemiah 9:6

Ruzena Thibault @ 5:01 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized
Gaia Online anime roleplaying community