Christmas just got really near, and I still haven't posted one about it.

Extremely freaking out, I decided to write a quick one before I regret after the 25th.

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As a HUGE Christmas fan (or more like, Christmas obsessed person), I ended up making all of my family

love Christmas in the end. So, it's not December, but November when we slowly start to decorate our house

into a festive one.

There're several family traditions involved such as hanging the fairy lights

along the edges of the living room ceiling and adding the felt garlands on it.

This year, we added few more things that would probably be a thing for my family!

My sister hung a Santa hat upside down on the living room wall, and made it into our family advent calendar,

putting little gifts everyday for each one of us. So, we take turns to open it everyday and it seems like

everyone is enjoying this cute idea.

Christmas shopping made me go outside more in spite of my introvert-self that is eager to stay in aka 'hibernate'.

Pros: I got to see Christmas part of Seoul. Cons: I hate going out everyday!

And of course, Christmas lights!

Flying Tiger Copenhagen has recently launched in Korea, and I couldn't stop myself becoming a maniac over it.

This store wasn't only full of brilliant products, but also perfect Christmas gifts & stocking stuffers.

I went there twice a week just to check if there're new stuffs (of course there weren't)

 Back to my home sweet home, here are the little parts of our family Christmas tradition.

That pompom garland was a successful diy project indeed,

all we had to do was threading a needle and passing it through handful pompoms.

For the living room fairy lights, it's the first thing to go on whenever we feel super festive at home.

This instantly turns our place into the coziest house along with our carol playlists.

Candle lights under the Christmas tree is one of the best things about being at home during this season.

It would be even better if your candles are Christmas scented ones!

That day, we watched Elf, lying around the Christmas tree with every lights and candles on.

Meanwhile, in the very corner of the bedroom, this is happening.

That nutcracker is like 15 years old, I remember my parents getting it for me after we watched

Christmas nutcracker ballet show. It is one of the first Christmas memories I have.

And last but not least, our Christmas tree 2016!

This year, we went for little bit of every Christmas colors- red, gold, silver and white.

Surprisingly, it didn't look shabby, but super festive that I literally started at it every time I sat in the living room.

This was how I got ready for this Christmas.

In fact, I went for the last Christmas shopping this morning with my sister followed by
gift wrapping session and struggles.

How did you get yourself ready for this Christmas? In my case, I'm finishing this post, 
snacking on the chocolate chip cookies.

And I wish y'all a very merry Christmas♥

ⓒJKDAWN

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Hi blog!

I'm finally writing another post ever since I posted one on like...October?

Which means I was totally gone again from this cyber space because of 'real life' stuffs.

Yes, I was super-mega-duper busy ever since then.

You know, college 2nd sem be like CRAZY!

Midterm & final exams, going to classes every single day, group projects, essays,

deadlines that seemed like next year turned out to be tomorrow... these kinds of stuffs. Yes.

But today, I'm officially done with my college freshman year!

(And I shall write a post fully dedicated to my first college year, asap)

And now that I'm left with tons of pictures & stories to be told,

November Dairy was the first thing that must be done.

I know, it's like half-way to Christmas & end of this year, but I'm a huge control freak in terms of my blog,

and I just wanted to show how my life went through (which was totally disappeared in this blog) in chronological order...

Here's my November, the month between my midterm & final exam.

So-called 'the calm before the storm'.

The first rain of November was pretty cool.

I was on my way to the first class of the day, super sleepy.

And when I turned back to see how much my backpack was drenched in the rain, this scenery caught my eyes.

I had to get my phone out & walk away as if nothing happened, but the camera shutter sound...

 I don't know why these halloween treats are in my November picture file, but aren't they the cutest?

Maybe I was like whatever towards halloween that I had these on November.

Those ghost donuts were from Dunkin donuts, with cream cheese filling and white/matcha chocolate frosting on top.

Tbh, they were just picture-worthy ones. The cream filling didn't want to show up even though I had eaten half of it!

And those chocolate muffins were made by my sister, which was really gooey and sweet

with little bit of peanut butter core surprise! It was even better with hot chocolate.

And the rabbit-shaped food here is made by little girls who are attending the same art workshop with me.

They named this a 'witch pancake' and gave me an honor to taste their diy halloween treats.

 Random selfie of November!

Photo credit goes to my messy post makeup site & messy bun.

Moments when I already felt holiday festivity- workshop version of Christmas lights & college choir

What happens when college girls hang out on Friday night: pretty cakes & chats

Sadly, my college girls and I somehow don't end up hanging out as much as we wish,mainly because of hectic school days.

But when we do, we just talk and talk and eat and talk and eat.

That's it and this is like an unchanging equation. (sometimes end up grabbing some good ol' drinks!)

That day was full of chats, selfies, laughter and amazing desserts.

And matching lipsticks & ice creams... 

 

And the day after I hung out with my friends, we met again.

This time, for something more purposeful.

South Korea is in quite serious political situation right now, and we are all working hard to show what the real democracy is.

It was my first time to properly participate in the protest march, and it was amazing.

There were no chaos or violence, but passion and unity.

It felt REALLY great and meaningful to be a part of the history as a Korean.

Baking of November: tricolor cookies

Never thought sweet pumpkin, chocolate and green tea would go great together!

They also kinda remind me of watercolor paintings.

And school days again.

As November ended, Seoul got much much colder & my friends and I were desperate for warm noodles.

We found a little udon place around the campus and devoured a whole bowl!

End of November means official Christmas decors and countdowns.

We couldn't just pass the Christmas tree before going back to class and took a christmas bauble selfie!

 These are previews of my upcoming posts. I went to two amazing day trips on November and left another tons of pictures. Maybe these posts can wait until next year casue I'm ready for Christmas posts!!!

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So that was my November diary.

I'm so excited to write more posts during my winter break cause it has officially started.

And even more excited for y'alls's Christmas posts to come!

What are your plans for this winter break? Let's catch up!

ⓒJKDAWN

I can't even remember how long ago it was when I first planned to do this kind of post.

Seeing all the lovely 'happy things' posts in the blogging world always made me so happy,
so I decided to do my version of it someday, never knowing I would be putting off this for such a long time.

Yes, finally, I made a list!

Well, I thought I would come with something more mature and adult things, but no no no-

I just couldn't fake myself from being a '20 years old' kid.

I can say my happy things here have been in long-term relationship with me.

I really love all of 'em so much even though some of them can be extremely cliche.

Here's my 20 random happy things, wishing you a little smile through this tiny record.

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-these are random stuffs in very random order-

1. 20s
As much as I loved my teenage years, I wish my 20s to be amazing as well.
I know it would certainly be super tough and bumpy; however, I also know better things would fill
the 10 years ahead of me and this fact makes me happy.

2. My blog, JK's Dawn
It's been 1.5 years ever since this has begun.
I can say thousand times 'Thank you' to me from May 2015, cause blogging has helped me to find a better version of myself.
It taught me how to be more confident & expressive with my own ideas & thoughts, and this really means a lot to me.
Honestly, I'm not a blogger with steady amount of posts;
yet, I regard this place as a little precious attic of mine where I can freely share what I did
and felt as if I'm writing a special journal contributed to myself.

3. Ghibli films


If you haven't watched any, go get your fuzzy socks & warm drink, tuck yourself in the coziest blanket,
turn on your laptop, and watch any Ghibli films out there.
I can still remember watching My Neighbor Totoro, at the age of 5 or 6. Ever since then,
I haven't stopped giving myself a nice ghibli therapy whenever I needed one.
Of course this fangirl level is quite high that the place I visited on my Tokyo trip Day.1 was Ghibli Museum.

4. Anything sweet


I just can't live without sweets.
Fruits, chocolate, ice cream, cakes, cookies... these are uncountable nouns, right?

5. City




I'm a city person.
I was born in city, lived in cities, and still live in one.
It doesn't mean I don't like countries- in fact, I get excited way too much everytime I visit countryside!
Well, I  end up missing the city life after like 2 days...
I love the busy-ness and ever changning vibes of the cities.

6. DIY-ing
Creating, crafting, making.
I have been doing this non stop, every changing seasons, someone's bday/special days or basically whenever I want to.

7.  Staying in


There's a huge introvert residing in me, and I love that part of me.
I value having time solely for myself, and I find this works the best at home.
I read books, watch movies, do self-improving stuffs, bake treats, and so on- there're plenty of things I can do at home!
But too much of staycation makes me crave the outside world, it's me at the caprice.
Yet, staying in is like my best extravaganza of all time.

8. Lipsticks
Um...... I mean, who doesn't?
There's no such thing as too many lippies or same shades!

9. Walk


Among all the travel method, walk shall be my go to one.
I really appreciate the art of walking, it usually leads me to adventure.

10. Art museums


As an aesthete, art museum is one of my happy places to be.
Getting lost in endless creativity is such a wonderful experience which would never get boring.

11. Candles
Not only me, but also the rest of my family. Maybe candle loving trait runs in the family.

12. Books


Proof here, I got my poor eye sight mainly because I read too much when I was a kid......
It's a love-hate relationship that won't end!
I'm madly in love with all the feelings that only books can give.

13. Music
Current addiction: Broods, Mac Miller, Betty Who
Near future obsession: Christmas Carols

14. Baking


Instant happiness comes with perfect batch of cookies, muffins, cakes, anything from my oven.
Trying new recipes and tasting it with a nice cup of tea/coffee will never stop me from reaching to another butter, egg, sugar & flour of the goodies.

15. New Notebooks
Don't judge me, I have a little section of my bookshelf, dedicated to my fancy notebooks I haven't used yet.
(Some are like in 4-years-of-not-using-it situation because they're too beautiful to be used!)

16. Fall & Winter


My two favorite seasons. aka this time of the year! Now!!!
I really appreciate the pros of these than the cons while I don't appreciate the pros of summer.
Warmer clothes, cozy socks and slippers, hot drinks, holidays, leaves, snow, boots, colors,
I can't end listing all the reasons for my love of fall & winter.

17. Travel


Travel. The ultimate antidote for me.
I get happy even thinking about the word. The word itself 'Travel' is almost like an onomatopoeia,
bears spectrum of emotions and feelings in 6 letters.
I'm amazed with how much possibility travel has every time I take a trip.

18. Caffeine & tea
Don't worry, I'm not a caffeine addict.
These to me, are easy tranquilizers, that help me to feel less anxious during any major nerve-raking events (midterm/final exams, interview, public speaking, sudden minor anxiety) and to take a little break from all the plans and must-do. 

19. Christmas


Christmas is happiness extract overload in one day!
I'm gonna be super super obsessed with this magical holiday as November comes
- decorations, carols, fairy lights, movies, sweaters, baking.
Well, my Christmas fever got my family and friends, too. They now appreciate Christmas.

20. Comfort Food


Of course, this won't be complete with my praise to FOOOOOOD.
A good comfort food can make everyone happy right away. Here are some of my comfort food I can't live without:
mom's food, bubble tea, fried chicken, chocolate, pho, warm toast

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'My 20 happy things' was definitely the coolest thing to add on my blog post list
because I got to think about the little things I've taken for granted. I'm quite sure most of you guys have done it already,
but I really encourage thinking about your happy things no matter how random and weird they are!
What are your happy things?

 xx