My First Seventeen Cupsleeve Event

My first vending event at a Seventeen Hoshi & Jun Birthday Cupsleeve Event… 

FAQ

Q: What is a cupsleeve event?
A: It’s usually a fan gathering for a Kpop group where like-minded folks get to enjoy cupsleeves, photocards, & more at a local boba shop/cafe. Yes, the sleeve for the cup!

Q: Who’s organizing these cupsleeve events?
A: There are a ton of folks organizing them locally on instagram. You can find Kpop groups you want to attend. 

This is one I follow for all California events

Q: How do I participate in these events?
A: You can participate as an attendee or a vendor. As an attendee, just show up at the designated times. Usually the host/organizer will have a tiered system of goodies when you attend.

i.e.  Base Tier: free cupsleeve with purchase of Boba, 1st Tier: cupsleeve + PC + xyz things related to the event (Donation of X dollars), 2nd Tier: More and More (Donation of X dollars), etc.

Q: How do you participate as a vendor?
A: Usually a few weeks before the event, the host/organizer will do a request for vendors (this doesn’t happen all the time as some organizers vend themselves). There will usually be a google form to fill out. My understanding is that they try to pick vendors who sell different things to bring diversity and variety to their attendees.

Q: Do you have to pay anything as a vendor?
A: Depends on the organizer, usually they are free with a request to donate an item to the overall Raffle prize that they host for all the attendees/donations they receive.

Here’s a guide I found super helpful as a newbie

Below is a documentation of my first experience at a cupsleeve and my first experience vending at a cupsleeve.

Setup occurred at 11am, 1 hr before the event started, since it ran 12pm-6pm. This is the view from my booth after setup. It took me 30-40 mins since I already knew exactly how I wanted my table to be set up.

You can see the hosts/organizers working on the wall decor for the perfect IG shots as I mentally prepared myself for 6 hours of interaction…

Here is one of the walls, complete with all the photos of Hoshi and Jun. This was a birthday event for the two who were born in June. 

12pm:

The event started slightly after 12pm as the hosts needed some extra time to get ready but there were people milling about already.

12:30pm:

I made my first sale from a mom who was there just to buy boba and was curious about my Milkis sticker. 

1-2pm:

There were many carats milling about and enjoying the event, looking at everything each vendor offered.

2-3pm: 

Dead period officially begun and the vendors started visiting each other’s tables to chat and see what each other were selling. We got to know our neighbor vendors and connected via same bias haha

3pm-5pm

Most of the other vendors ate their late lunch while my friends came to visit and we chatted and talked about what we did or were planning to do the rest of our weekend.
I bought a green tea at Mr. Sun for extra pick me up.

5-6pm

The last attendees showed up and I was ready for dinner having eaten lunch at 10:30am. I had to steal a candy from another vendor to keep on going. As I was packing after 6pm, I made a final sale of 2 stickers.

Here is a live video of the event, enjoy! 

Special thanks to everyone who came by and visited my booth! Whether you supported me by buying stickers, prints, it was really fun to connect over our shared love of stickers, K-dramas and just cute stuff in general. The hosts and vendors were so kind and I felt very grateful to be invited to be part of this community.

And as always, to all the friends and family who were so supportive by driving far away to come visit and giving me feedback, I see you 🙂

“It surprises me, how a small gesture can feel so very big.”

Summer 2023: What I’m currently watching

1. Queendom Puzzle
I’ve been waiting for a summer survival show since Boys Planet ended a while ago. Episode 1 had such a nostalgic throwback to Hyori’s Toc Toc Toc. Excited for more to come this season.

2. See you in my 19th Life
Such a cool concept of remembering past lives and it’s also interesting how her 18th and 19th life are intersecting. Turtles definitely live a long life…

3. King The Land
I had low expectations for this but Yoona (SNSD) and Junho (2PM)’s somewhat rom com vibe has been working. It’s a silly drama that’s a really easy watch so far.

4. Heartbeat
Airing soon on June 26th, I’m already mentally preparing for this comedic drama with Taecyeon who’s actually very good at being the villian.

5. Numbers
Airing soon in a couple of days on June 23rd, I’m finally ready for a business related revenge drama since Reborn Rich. 

Seoulbox’s “Best Box” Tasting

Overall Rating
4/5

I’m delighted to share a box of Korean snacks I tried recently from Seoulbox. All of the snacks were pretty new to me and this Seoulbox is more of a Busanbox. Packaged neatly and delivered by DHL, the box arrived on my doorsteps without a hitch. If you’d like to try, you can find it here

As an avid snack/chip eater, I have rated all of these from my least to most favorite. 

#16. Brown Sugar Salted Caramel : This is by far the worst of the bunch. Tastes like a weird but bland toffee  and was also expired as we received the package on the 2023.01.06. I don’t wish any person to eat this one…not even my enemies.

#15. Kkaebi Jelly: Smells and tastes artificial, tastes like blue raspberry and can blow bubbles in it for fun (not strawberry as advertised) Would just continue blowing bubbles and mixing for fun but would not eat this…

#14. Imperial Rice Cracker: Reminds me of Bin Bin, a little stale…ended up only eating one piece

#13. Fish Snacks: Not the spicy flavor shown, tastes like what I know to be dried fish snacks but more bland.

#12. Dalgona Stick Candy: has taste of dalgona and a little better tasting than the blue raspberry gel-like candy. It’s fun that you can see a shape like Squid Games.

#11. Jjin Cheese Chips: This is a lighter and not as good version of Cheeze-its with shape that is similar to Wheat Thins.

#10. Kkokko (Fried Chicken) Snack: Tastes sweet and looks like a tiny crunchy drumstick, looks > taste. Not a fan.

#9. Vegetable Omuk Chips : tastes like onion-flavor seasoning chips (light and airy)

#8. Paldo Ramen: Just doesn’t hit the same as Shin Ramen, was disappointed that this wasn’t the summer radish bibim myun as advertised…

#7. Plum Jelly: This is probably the best sweet gummy, there is a burst of flavor from this that reminds me of a peach gummy.

#6. Oat Heim: Korean version of a Pirouline vanilla cream wafer, interest take with oat milk for lactose intolerant folks 🙂

#5. Roasted Potato Texas Hot BBQ: Taste like a harder stick version of Pretz with BBQ seasoning

#4. Ground Pear Cider : Tastes refreshing with the ramen we cooked and it’s the perfect asian pear taste.

#3. Coffee Choco Cake This was a delicious choco-pie. Super surprising as it’s moist with good texture.

#2. Mediheal Aqua Linger Ampoule Mask: This was very hydrating and very comforting to use for sensitive skin during the winter months. I’ve been super dry this winder and would totally purchase this on my own.

#1. Roasted Gochugang (not Black Bean) Chips: As a person who can’t live life without chips, these tasted good with thin ridges, like Lay’s BBQ chips but better.  These were my #1 fave snacks.

Bonus Item: Shooky BT21 Mini Hand Fan: This is cute, but much too cold right now to be using a fan…

All in all, some cool discoveries with Seoulbox and I like that they have a storyline to go with the snacks that you’re trying, this was a summer Busan-themed gift box. I’m a little disappointed that there weren’t more snacks that I enjoyed. But I’m definitely buying those chips and face masks!

#Seoulbox #Koreansnacks

My Relaxing Summer

My favorites for a relaxing summer of August. Aromatica has quickly become one of my favorite brands that is vegan and clean beauty product. There’s nothing better than watching K-dramas and using my Theragun these days.

#YesStyle #YesStyleReview #aromatica #ComfortingCalendulaDecoctionJuicyCream #Calendula #cleanbeauty #veganbeauty #skincare #selfcare #selflove @aromatica.global.

我吃了那男孩一整年的早餐

Finally watched this slice of life movie, getting really pumped to see Eric Chou this September in Singapore. Great soundtrack and cute movie centered around the theme of “害怕失去,所以愛沒說” There are a lot of one-sided romances in the movie and it also made me crave fantuan. As we learn from the movie 🍙  is greater🥤 My favorite character in the movie was the rapping roommate…

The grass also super green and why does every high school romance end near a train crossing…are there really that many train crossings? Check out the MV below 😉

Summer Skincare

Summer brings in all the new skincare and now that I’m getting closer to mid-30s, it’s important to switch things up and somehow even upgrade. Here’s some of my recent favorites!

Clarins Cleansing Milk with Alpine herbs: There was an awesome deal on this milk cleanser (2 for 1) and decided to try this out. It smells fresh and I’ve been using it in the shower and in the mornings the past month.

Sioris Calm Me Down Cream: Discovered this organic Korean skincare brand through JYP’s investment and have been using this calm me down cream as my night moisturizer. It’s super light and relatively inexpensive.

You can check it out here Yesstyle Coupon 10% Off: KDRAMAYOGI

La Mer Eye Concentrate: Eye cream is so important, wrinkle keep popping up everywhere nowadays. Definitely invested a whole lump of money into keeping those wrinkles at bay.

Neutrogena Original Rainbath: My favorite body wash for the summer as the weather gets up to 100 degrees.

Dr. Jart+ Face Masks: So calming and such a good hydrating mask for the summer

Eve

Eve recently premiered in June 2022 and I am thoroughly enjoying Son Ye Ji’s acting and comeback on screen since ‘It’s Okay Not to Be Okay’. She pulls off this “revenge” aura so well. It’s only been two episodes but the characters are all so evil and…dramatic. It’s a little bit crazy to think that to get revenge, people are willing to plot for 10 years, pretty intense. 

Can’t wait until the two new episodes are subbed 🙂

A Look Back: Dramas I “finished” in 2021

Here are all the Korean dramas I either tried to finish or finished in 2021. The best is at the bottom 😉 #dramalife

Snowdrop – This has to be one of the slowest dramas I’ve watched in a while. I was hoping for Crash Landing on You feels since the story is based in North Korea. Think I partly only watched this because Jung Hae In was in this drama…

Melancholia – Seeing math in real life was interesting but the teacher-student relationship was pretty questionable. Do agree that problem solving is only fun if it’s an interesting problem you want to solve.

School 2021 Was initially really excited to see them tackle concepts that impact students in Korea but mostly revolved around corruption in society. The actors and actresses were all very pretty but seemed to lack a bit of substance.

 Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha – there isn’t much to say about this one since the storyline is about a woman who moves from the city to the country-side to start her dental practice. I actually didn’t even finish this one because of cancel culture from the scandal Kim Seon Ho…

Nevertheless – I only watched 1 episode of this because the drama promoted smoking, cheating, poor human values overall…smoking is the absolute worst and I can’t bring myself to enjoy even if both the actors are good-looking

Great Shaman Ga Doo Shim –  The young actors in this short 12 episode series were great, really rooting for both Nam Dareum and Kim Saeron.

My Roommate is a Gumiho – I can barely remember anything that happened in the drama besides the stereotypical story of the two main leads falling in love despite one of them being non-human. I actually quite liked Kang Hanna’s character and was definitely rooting for the 2nd female lead romance.

Doom at Your Service –  I’m a big fan of Park Bo Young but I couldn’t bring myself to get into the drama and didn’t finish. It was missing something and I wasn’t excited about the chemistry between the two main leads.

Vincenzo – One of my absolute favs from this year. This is probably the best thing I’ve watched with Song Joong Ki since his divorce and Taecyeon was a delight to watch as the evil-doer and his little bro was even more hilarious. There were subtle hints of romance but really enjoyed all the plotting of both teams. All the scenes where Song Joong Ki spoke Italian were pretty epic.

Squid Game – Such a big hit, finished in 24 hrs and in two sittings because it was so good. Then thought to myself how great a costume like this would be for halloween and was quite saddened that it became overrated. My halloween costume became the invitation card to squid game which is quite easy to make from cardboard.

Blue Birthday – This web series came up from thin air. Also another one I really enjoyed with younger actors and actresses that did so well. Also this drama inspired me to possibly get a retro camera. But good thing I didn’t, where would I even develop the film?!! Storyline was clever and the method to travel back in time was pretty cool.

That wraps it for K-dramas in 2021 for me. There were so many more dramas that came out in 2021: Penthouse series, Kingdom #2, etc. But I haven’t even attempted those. Most of the genre I enjoy are the slice of life rom coms. Here’s to a better 2022 #dramalife #2022

Eye Cream

snail eye cream
4/5

Got this eye cream from YesStyle and wasn’t able to use it until recently. Rating it 4/5 stars for:

1. Easy to use, squeeze out of bottle => comes right out. Small hole => right amount of cream

2. Smells pretty good, clean and light

3. Did not break me out, would use again once I finish my innisfree one

4. Travel-friendly, small enough to fit into a makeup pouch

5. Took away 1 star as I don’t know if it works to its full potential => need more time to test

#YesStyle #YesStyleReview @bentoncosmetic

Netflix’s Twogether: Yoga Session

Twogether: Lee Seung Gi (이승기) and Jasper Liu (劉以豪)

5/5

I binge watched Twogether one weekend and fell in love with Indonesia, Thailand and Nepal. These places are so beautiful and the whole series made me feel as if I were traveling…even though that’s probably not possible in the near future…

Lee Seung Gi and Jasper Liu’s communication through English, Korean, and Chinese makes it even more delightful to watch. And the whole series is produced by a former Running Man PD. Too cool! I’m neither a fan of Seung Gi or Jasper but the whole series went by so quickly getting to know the food and culture of each place they visit. 

I love it when the two have to compete in all the challenges to meet their fans. Their first at yoga was adorable. Nikki, the instructor had her olive green lululemon gear on to teach them a bit of partner and acroyoga. It was definitely struggles for them. 

Even though it wasn’t a spa massage, the two seemed to have a lot of fun during the challenge. The whole series is just a feel good show. Highly recommend! It’s only 8 episodes…