Good Morning: meetings monday

Hi lovelies!!


I miss this blog and you guys! It's past 5am and I'm up already... it's one of those Mondays.. meetings Monday.. I have a bunch of meetings back to back starting at 10am and then after that I need to go to work.  I have breaks in between though so not too bad. I'm planning to wear flats today because I have to run around quite a bit from location to location.


First off, I just want to say that I'm extremely happy this morning because my team made it to the semifinal in a competition. My team made it to the top five in our category (out of around 60 teams) and top fifteen over all (out of around 200 teams). I'm incredibly proud of my team! I can't believe it still.. I missed the phone call and found out the results later on from my teammate. I was nervous before the competition as you can tell from this entry.


Song of the week: "The Better Half of Me"by Dash Berlin feat. Jonathan Mendelsohn
This song just makes me melt....
The lyrics and melody are amazing...

Where I'd love to wake up to this week:
I've been obsessed with Paris again these days. Not sure why. I love the thought of waking up in nice pajamas and drinking coffee while watching the sunrise in Paris. I've always imagine myself walking to the store to get baguette and coffee (in style of course). 
Here 

or here...

Meeting a cute guy while getting baguette is even better...*sigh* I need to stop dreaming.

Coffee of the week:
Definitely the Starbucks holiday drinks, my favorite this year would have to be eggnog latte, last year was peppermint latte. It depends on my mood but most of the time I get them with whipped cream, I'm so bad hehe. 
I live at Starbucks now...I only have three dollars left on my Starbucks card, must reload it soon. I need to be very productive and on schedule these days so I force myself to go to the library or Starbucks to get work done and to study on weekdays. I just get too comfortable at home and always end up eating, dancing and watching some sort of show instead. 

Monday's Work Attire Ideas:
I wore this outfit a couple of weeks ago to class and work. Flats, pants, shirt and blazer-- the staples for your closet. This outfit works really well for busy Mondays because it's easy, effortless and comfortable. If you want to be more professional, wear a white collar button-up top and heels instead. Tug in your shirt completely for a more classy and polish look. If you're going out at night all you have to do is switch into heels and a leather jacket. 

I'm looking forward to:
All the late birthday dinners this weekend! I only had one dinner with two close friends on my birthday last week and didn't do anything too exciting. Yep, I'm older now  :).
Inspirational quote of the week:
"Only passions, great passions, can elevate the soul to great things."
-Denis Diderot


Stay warm and awake everyone! :)

Good Morning: attitude is the new trend monday

I'm feeling tired and pumped up at the same time at 5:14am as I'm starting to write this entry.
I've embarked on some exciting new projects/challenges last week and I'm setting high goals for them.
Attitude truly makes everything possible. In order to reach my goals, of course, luck and a ton of hard work are needed as well. I was watching some old inspirational youtube videos last night and got really pumped up about my future endeavors.

I'm dealing with many projects and class works all at once this week and the week after. Thus, I need a positive attitude and whole lots of energy to help me get through these next two weeks, which will be packed, literally. My iCal looks pretty colorful alright.

Last week, I planned to wake up early and workout everyday. Hmm, the wake up early part worked 3/7 days and the workout part.. once.. *bad dawn.* Okay, the next two weeks are gonna be exhausting so I'll probably aim for one workout per week. About the competition that I was looking forward to, I'm keeping up with the workload for that so far. Met up with the team last Friday and had a really good discussion.

Song of the week: "Everybody Loves Me" by OneRepublic
I'm so obsessed with this song! I even made a video dedicating to my friend for her bday with this song.
Since the theme of the week is attitude, feel it by listening to this song while you're getting ready. Look at yourself and say everybody loves me!

Where I'd love to wake up to this week:

Somewhere cozy with a comfy bed and lots of light, in Tokyo is nice. 

Coffee of the week:
Hot hazelnut coffee and mochas to keep me warm all week!

Monday's Work Attire Ideas:

If you're in a hurry, just put on a dress and a blazer and you're good to go. A classic black dress will work for many occasions. I wore this one to a meeting and speaker event last week. A black or gray dress is classic and sophisticated. To give the outfit a pop of color you can wear a bright colored jacket over it or wear bright shoes. Wear dress and jacket of different textures so they contrast, when they're the same type of fabrics and colors, you can't tell where the jacket shapes your body because the lines and details are camouflaged with the dress. 

I'm looking forward to:

Visiting this cool company for an assignment and meeting.

Eating a yummy lunch with a new friend on Friday (probably the only fun thing on my agenda this week).

Inspirational quote of the week:

"We become what we think about most of the time."

-Earl Nightingale

What are you looking forward to this week?

Images via art.com, Apartment Therapy

A Great Man

I'm still baffled and saddened over Steve's death.  He is such an inspiration to me. He changed our lives through his work. He's a man of great character, he lived his life aiming to do wonderful things and to change the world for the better. 

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” -RIP Steve Jobs

We will always miss you. Thank you for changing and contributing to the world. 

Look of the Day: feeling blue

Happy Friday!

Food truly brings people together. Whenever I meet up with my friends to hangout, talk or study, food is always involved. Eating food makes people happy, happy people communicate and bond better. 

Yes, my logic. It's pretty late right now but I just want to share this post with you guys before tomorrow, which will be busy busy for me, meetings and all that good stuff. Oh, I broke my glasses too so I need new ones. I need makeup wipes as well. I've been getting home so late these days that it's such a pain for me to wash my face because I'm so exhausted. I know it's bad  not good to use makeup wipes often but I think I need them twice a week or so. Wow, what a tangent, sorry...

I went to Ajisen, a Japanese ramen restaurant for some spicy ramen with a friend before our study date, which is always fun and sometimes productive hhehe. Mine was pretty spicy alright, nevertheless, loved it still. My face turns red and my eyes get teary whenever I eat spicy foods but I love them anyways.

As you can tell, I didn't do my hair. lazy dawn

We got boba afterward...fatties. I always order caramel milk tea with boba at 85 degree.

Went back to my friend's house to study...
I wore a blue button-up top with jeans shorts and booties. super comfy and casual. im seriously in love with these Elizabeth and James boots, I love the ruggedly heels and soft leather. They give me these adventurous and bold vibes whenever I wear 'em... I bought these during the summer but didn't get to wear them out often (because of the hot weather), only a few times when I first got them and then stopped. Can't wait to live in these during the fall and winter hehe. I'm also looking for new rain boots because it started raining this week.

What I do to get me excited for writing and studying....hmm

Have an awesome weekend everyone, stay warm!
Live life to the fullest, spend time with your loved ones and do what you love!

Good Morning: productive monday

Where I'd love to wake up to this week:

Rome, Italy. Hopefully, in a year or two from now, I'll be waking up in a beautiful foreign place.

Coffe of the week:

Cappuccino and milk tea (I know I know milk tea doesn't count). I think I need to alternate my regular brewed coffee with another drink just because... I like to try other things. I'll try to reach for a hot milk tea or cappuccino instead of the regular coffee.

Monday's work attire idea:

A bold long skirt. I've been wearing longer skirts pretty often lately to professional events. They give an illusion of a longer body and make you look taller. High-rise skirts make you look more sophisticated and lady-like.

I love those bold buttons on the skirt above.

I'm looking forward to:

Waking up early everyday and workout! Yes, I fixed my sleeping pattern, it has been pretty good for the last couple of days. I hope it'll continue on like this.

Meeting up with my team members to discuss about a competition. I'm so excited! I'm going to try my best to lead the group as team captain. Okay, I'm a bit nervous as well.

What are you looking forward to this week?

Images via Apartment Therapy, Stockholm-Streetstyle

Look of the Day: neutrals

No makeup kinda day, as you can tell haha. I'm the kinda girl who doesn't mind going out without makeup. Sometimes I'm just so busy that I don't have time to "do" my face in the morning but sometimes I just want my face to feel "light."

I've been loving stripes lately, especially this soft and breezy long sleeve top from H&M. 

I wore this outfit out to grab some milk tea, snacks and curry with a friend. 

Japanese curry

Ok, must get back to writing this analysis of mine.. eekk. Maybe breakfast first :).

Have a fulfilling Tuesday everyone!

lots of love,

dawn

Look of the Day: just smokin'

Took these when I was waiting for an oversea phone call after class. It was super late and I was finishing up some work while waiting as well. I was superrrr tired... can't you tell. haha. I hope everyone is having an awesome morning so far:) I'm a bit wacky and light-headed without my coffee... eekkk so I will stop now.