➹ gifts from seoul ^^

Another good friend came back from her Seoul vacation and brought back some AMAZING goodies for me!!!


The Shinhwa album is my special request ❤ ❤ ❤. The rest just shows you how immensely thoughtful and wonderful my friend is!


I am particularly in love with this divine N Seoul notebook! I am telling you guys, the souvenirs from N Seoul tower are must-haves. I mentioned this in my previous Seoul Souvenir Shopping post. I just can't get enough of how nostalgic and adorable the N Seoul mementos are~



And then I'm adding one more to my Seoul postcard collection. This latest one is from the National Palace Museum of Korea.



Now I'm really missing SEOUL because of all these goodies ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ.

➹ pretty korean postcards

Now that everyone is all to absorbed in getting and keeping things online, there is little appreciation for old school mementos like postcards. My dad used to snail mail me postcards from Papua New Guinea when he worked there but that was a really LOOOOONG time ago! I honestly have not sent postcards from my own travels in the recent years … neither have I recently received any from friends or family EXCEPT these ones from Korea!



I received this first one February of 2010. I was pleasantly surprised when I found it on my doorstep at home after work. A dear Korean friend sent me this postcard with a heartwarming message at the back. I love it so much that I kept it in my work journal and kept transferring it as I switch to new journals each year! I kept a Starbucks dedication postcard with this Korean postcard. This one was given to me by my선배 from last New Year. It's so nice to see these postcards as they remind me of how fortunate I am to have found really amazing friends.



I got this new one last weekend from a fangirl 동생 ^^. It is the very definition of AWE-INSPIRING! Gwanghwamun Square is one of my favorite places in Seoul. Like my first Korean postcard, the message at the back was absolutely delightful. Now I've framed it at my work desk so I can always imagine escaping to Seoul even for just a few minutes each day. It's kind of funny too because when I look at this postcard I realize how coincidence can be all too amazing!? How lucky am I to have crossed paths with these wonderful friends~

So where can you get amazing postcards in Seoul? Well, I'm pretty sure there are postcards available on key tourist locations like Insadong, Namsan Tower and palace souvenir shops. There also used to be a free postcard program at Tourism offices! I got some Summer 2011 postcards from the Seoul Global Center at M Plaza in Myeongdong last year. They gave me a tourist pack with the postcards inside. I sure wanted to get more of these fangirl postcards but I was too shy to ask for more haha.

Another place worth checking out is the underground Haechi shop at Gwanghwamun. They have Haechi postcards which might be delightful for kids or any Haechi fans. I think I'll buy some from here on my next vacation.

Lastly, the picture postcards from Ssamziegil never get old! You can take your pictures and include them on a traditional postcard you can email to family, friends or just yourself hehe. We were vertically challenged and had some difficulty with this haha but it was still a worthwhile and free experience.

➹ addicted to cute korean stickers

Why are Korean stickers soooooooooooooo irresistibly cute?


I've had a long standing affection for Korean stationery way before I had any clue on their origin. I think I still keep a few of those treasured stationery pieces somewhere ~ with their fascinatingly cute designs and adorable english phrases ^^. I also used to have a diary and an organizer with Korean calendars and inscriptions too! Those were the days when smartphone apps have yet to monopolize our way of lives haha!

So I might have outgrown the stationery, the diary and the organizer ... but NOT the stickers ^^. I fell in love again with collecting stickers and started buying these from my first trip to Seoul some years back. I just can't allow myself to walk away from those revolving display stands at bookstores and shops (ehem, Artbox) without picking out some pieces to keep!






Really cute eh? And these are really affordable too at just KRW500-KRW2000. They make for great personal souvenirs and even cheap, but unique and delightful gifts for friends, cousins and nieces. These won't even weigh down my luggage so there's really no reason not to keep getting them hahaha! I wanted to supplement my Hangul studies with the catch phrases on the stickers too so I believe it has a functional use as well ㅋㅋㅋ. I'm sure I'll keep collecting these just for the sheer fun of it. I couldn't grow old with this as my hobby, right? ^^

➹ korean accessories in singapore

Went with a friend around a mall in Tampines and found this stand advertising Korean-made accessories! Everything was ALL TOO CUTE!

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This reminds me of those times when I was so overwhelmed with filling my basket at that naughty cat store in myeongdong ! Ahh, at least I can somehow get my Korean-accessories fix here at Tampines for the meantime ... Oh btw, Helen (another accessory store) also sells Korean made goods. Just bought a really pretty hairband from there!

➹ pororo generation

I think I first heard about Pororo from watching Running Man ㅋㅋㅋ. Haroro has in fact been one of my favorite players in the show. And then I encountered Pororo once again when I watched Greatest Love! That was when I realized how popular this penguin character is. There was a time when Dooly (the dinosaur character) was all the rage (cue X-Man, Star Golden Bell clips)~ and perhaps it is still quite popular these days … But it is crystal clear that it is NOW the peak of the Pororo generation!

A few weeks before I came to Seoul last fall, I encountered Pororo again via Flower Boy Ramyun! At this point, I just had to check out what all the hype is all about! As expected, there is no shortage of Pororo goodies online even for English speakers like me. Surely, there are tons more from Korean netizens! Sadly, I had no time to browse around before my trip.

Little did I know that Pororo is like all over Seoul! Well, all over Times Square at least. We went into the 24-hr eMart after midnight and marveled at the wide variety of Pororo merchandise at this supermarket! Chopsticks, lunchboxes, mugs, pencil cases and what nots. I couldn't choose what to buy for my 4-yr old nephew at that time because the choices were all overwhelmingly cute! I settled for a simple pencil case since I wasn't sure if my nephew even knows who Pororo was.

The next morning, we went into Kyobo bookstore and found Pororo books, toys and even Pororo himself in a car ㅋㅋㅋ.


I wanted to buy a book for toddlers ~ for my Hangul education and just for fun ~ so I picked this out.



The department store section in eMart is not open 24 hours so we came back to browse around after Kyobo. It was not so surprising that we found a whole section for Pororo in the Toys Department.




Pororo merchandise was even all over Incheon International Airport. This was where we found a Petty doll. Too bad it was a bit too expensive else, my friend would have bought it haha. Next time, I wouldn't mind taking home a Pororo doll myself ㅎㅎ. It was also in IIAC that we found Pororo chocolates!!!



So yeah, I gave in and bought a pack. They were sooo yummy!!! Well, it's hard to go wrong with strawberry yogurt, yes? Buying these was also a good thing since my nephew and niece are apparently huge fans of Pororo! They were so excited when I gave them the chocolates. My nephew even introduced me to all the characters on the show. It was not surprising that he even asked me to give him the Pororo book~ ah, but not yet. He wouldn't understand the Hangul characters yet haha!

Last Christmas, I decided to watch Pororo episodes in their youtube channel. Oh sooo much fun! ^^ It's such a fun way to learn simple Korean expressions. Ah scratch that ~ it's the CUTEST way to learn Korean expressions!

For my nephew's 5th birthday, I had Pororo notebooks custom made for his party! His classmates loved these so much~


Now I even downloaded the free Pororo apps on my smartphone. The camera app is also loads of fun for kids ^^.

Lastly, I just found out that this Pororo drink is also delicious (well, according to my nephew haha).


So what's all the hype on Pororo? I'm not exactly sure myself but I'm now pretty hooked in it!

➹ cute and sweet korean treats ^^

I still have a few unopened treats from my trip last month hahaha! These snacks in particular are kinda hard to finish because they are just tooooo cute! We bought them from Olive Young which is much like Watsons in HK and SG. There was an Olive Young near our hotel in Myeongdong but we opted to buy from the one in Times Square just before we headed off to the airport. There are 2 Olive Young stores in Times Square!




I love these bungeobbang because they are very Korean! We tried the street food version of this when we were in Seoul last autumn.

These brownies aren't exactly traditional but they are delicious! And they make for nice gifts for friends and family too because of the cute packaging. Market-O is a popular brand in Korea. We also bought some Market-O chocolates but those were finished too soon so I don't have pictures haha!




Here are some Korean erasers I got for my nephew and nieces. They are just tooooo cute! And they come really cheap too. The kids had a blast marveling over them!




Will post more shopping finds as I start to re-organize my things for the new year ^^. Korean stuff are just pure <3.
Happy 2012!!!

➹ naughtycat collections

(warning: GIRLY-ness overload)
I LOVE accessories! I have a long delightful history with colorful earrings, cute pendants, and adorable hairpins. I used to have that mannequin-doll accessory stand where I displayed all my lovely treasure finds and marvel at how pretty and unique they are. But now that's gone since I had to be minimalist in my room space. I had to let go of my cute collections and be practical of my living area. I also had to rationalize which ones I could still actually wear that would fit my career and yeah, there were only a few qualified pieces. So at some point, I had to say goodbye to my girly fascinations and be content with just keeping a simple and appropriate set of earrings.

But all those struggles with my corporate image and my minimalist style came to an end on my summer 2010 visit to Seoul. I walked into NaughtyCat in Myeongdong and my reservations melted in an instant! No wonder girls of all ages flock to this store! Everything was so adorable that I can't help turning the displays and adding to my small basket. Though I knew my heart longed for all the cute and colorful pieces, I still had to hold back a bit ... and so my loot last year was all silver and just moderately cute:


Ah, I had to let go of my cat earrings after wearing them for a while ... I lost the bling on one of the cats (sigh). In any case, this only tells me that I had to come back and bring home a new set of cuties for 2011.


Here's a peek at my loot this year. I gave a few to my cousins and nieces hehe, so this is what's left for me. The cat and fishbone on top is also from this latest trip.


The feeling is the same this year as it was with last year ... while I was rummaging in the store, I was too overwhelmed with choices that I felt like I had to come out soon else I would overspend and regret it. But after getting home and looking fondly at my loot, I get that feeling that I didn't buy enough stuff! I'm pretty sure that if I came back to that store a few hours after my first stop, I would STILL have some(or a lot) of stuff to purchase!

So yeah, color won me over ... cuteness too ㅋㅋ. So much for corporate. I just have to keep telling myself that I should wear all my cute stuff now while I can still mildly pull them off. At the end of the day, what matters is I'm happy happy happy!!! ^^

Official Website: http://naughtycat.co.kr/