Not only do you hear George Michael and Mariah Carey all month long, but you also get to see so much red and green that you’re afraid your eyes will explode with beautiful color. People are calmer, the roads are crazier (because black Friday is over) and there’s a certain peace around. It’s heartwarming and cozy.
The smell of light bulbs and plastic trees just always hit the spot.
Throughout the years, I have learned and even adopted a few traditions of my own. One that my family likes to do is purchase ugly sweaters. Since I picked up the habit of designing t-shirts with transfer paper, I thought I’d save lots of money and design my own ugly sweater with the free light transfer paper I had laying around at home. And of course, I wanted to share my idea with you all.
Building the design took a few hours since I had no idea what I was looking for. The whole time from start to finish took around two days, and the best thing is all I did was buy a sweat shirt for $7.98 from Walmart.
Unfortunately this shirt is not free of mistakes. I accidentally smudged the Christmas tree toward it’s right edge. I was ironing on another design and the iron touched the tree. I had to improvise and place a little sleigh on the smudge. The sleigh isn’t ironed down all the way which to me up close looks a bit tacky.
I was going for something simple with a lot of white space like this.
But I’m sure when I wear the shirt, only I’d be the one who notices. 😉
Isn’t she lovely? 😍
I hope you all have a merry Christmas (I’ll be saying that in each post this month, not sorry) and a beautiful time with your families! 🎄🎄🎄🎄 See you all next week!
Pretty much, they’re a k-pop group conisiting of uber attractive members, highly talented rappers (2) and 5 singers. They have released tons of albums but out of the few I’ve listened to, I like their first one, an EP called Tresspass. The boys are pretty popular in America and they are mostly all really good with the English language, releasing an all-English album in February 2020 (it’s another one of my favorites…just so iconic. Here I wrote all about it.)
In 2019, I was all about K-pop. Well, let me rephrase. I was all about BTS and Monsta X and a little bit of NCT 127. (I was a Taeyong and Yuta stan). I got introduced to them through a friend at the time who was all into k-pop, a little too much but the same was for me as I got sucked in.
Wanting to fit in with my acquaintances who were all Monbebes (that’s what Monsta X calls their fans), I had no inkling about any of the members except I thought they were uber cute and I couldn’t pronounce not one name. I wasted hours upon hours doing research, picking my bias (Minhyuk), learning the set list for the concert, listening to their then-latest album We Are Here, and window-shopping Wish and AliExpress for their knock-off k-pop merch. (Totally regret everything except the BT21 wallets and the Monsta X shirt.)
Life was “nice” back then, pretending like I didn’t have a lot of responsibilities. The process of getting this ticket involved waiting in the queue for Ticketmaster for a good hour, while I was in charge of maybe 6 children by myself. It is embarrassing now to think about how I was so willing to lay down my responsibilities at my job and lolligag for some concert tickets. I was around 22 at this time too—a full adult. I even paid $200 dollars extra to secure my spot. The price you pay for fitting in, I guess.
Plus, all that hard work wasn’t worth it, because when I got home, y’all, all the tickets were restocked! The $50 ones (what I wanted), the $100 dollar ones, the $150 dollar ones. All of them.
For my other two acquaintances, who didn’t have any immediate responsibilities from their families despite being adults, I felt jealous. One whom I was working with at the time dropped easily $250 dollars on a floor seat. I was aiming for $50. And I was going to have to pay myself back the rest of that money I spent for that ticket. It’s not that I couldn’t have fun, but I couldn’t afford the type of ticket I fought so hard to get. Looking back on it, I wouldn’t make the same decision now.
I dreamed about how awesome the concert would be, how full of fun and excitement we would all be and how closer we would get together. I took frequent trips to our k-pop stop in Chinatown. It felt like magic every time, seeing all those k-pop bands and all that merch. But with the help of my aunt, I was able to find a nice outfit to wear for my big day.
Me in my outfit, test driving it. May 2019.
Have you ever heard of the term that sometimes the anticipation of a thing is more emotional than the thing itself? I felt like I was some school girl—I’d meet my next boyfriend at this concert, I’d meet so many cool people and become friends, I’d get a peak at one of the members, (and ironically he’s staring right at me admiring my beauty! And I’ll of course act like I’m not interested and don’t see him) (I am so embarrassed as I type this…) it’ll be the most electrifying night of my entire life! Me and my work buddy talked about nothing but the concert for several months. It was going to be 4 days before my birthday, after all…so I was estatic.
the big day
And July 27th crept up on us like a thief in the night. Preparations were made and spending money was (somehow) put aside. I got dressed, left out, and went to eat at Wingstop while waiting for one work friend to meet me at the mall. When she came, we then both waited for the second friend to meet us, as she lived about 15 minutes away. We had to drive (well catch an Uber) all the way up to Sugarland as that’s where the venue was. It was packed when we got there, and I felt myself go into *cringe* stan mode. I was a hot mess. I am glad I didn’t take pictures of me willingly embarrassing myself.
Didn’t have much of the “before” stuff, but here is a pic of the flag my friend handed to them during send off. I am NOT the one who wrote the message to Minhyuk. I am NOT.
some pics from that night
Pics of the stage!! Very colorful and lively.
it’s gonna be a night, to remember
I see a resemblance.
Wonho took off his shirt and threw it in the crowd. I sat next to someone who was also a Minhyuk bias and was going through it, just like I was. Hyungwon looked like a literal prince (he was giving me Kaname Kuran from Vampire Knight honestly.) Minhyuk showed that thigh tattoo and 6 out of 7 members spoke English. I will never forget Jooheon’s and I.M’s “H-Town let’s shut it down” phrase they kept throwing around. And yes, they really do look that handsome.
the final conclusion
I enjoyed everything about the show. I saw so much diversity; Asians, blacks, whites, guys, girls, all different types of backgrounds. I felt comfortable and ready to introduce myself to people. Since I was around people that liked something similar to me, I was highly comfortable and ready to be awkward. I would so go to another concert (actually, I write all about it here if you’re interested.) I would so love to see the boys in concert again if they ever decide to come back to Houston. Although a lot has happened throughout the past years, I know they’ll still bring on an entertaining, mesmerizing show that I’d never forget, again.
Me after the concert. TORE UP. (Embarrassingly tore up.)
Find more of my writings about Monsta X and k-pop here:
Shanedra Writes too Much 