The month of love – February – has been full of love for us Dara fans! It may not seem like we didn’t get much action this month (or for the past few months for that matter T_T) but if we take a closer look, we do have so many things to be thankful for! ^^ And here we go with our second monthly round-up!

First and foremost is Dara‘s gorgeous, flawless photoshoot for Elle Korea titled, “Say My Name,” which was perfection in its finest! YG Entertainment set us all in a frenzy when they announced that each of the 2NE1 girls would be featured in four differentmagazines. And oh what an awesome features it turned out to be! Each of the girls absolutely shined in
their respective magazine photoshoot and interview.

Dara’s magazine was Elle Korea. Elle is the world’s largest fashion magazine and one of the top 10 most popular Koraen fashion magazines. I felt really happy that Dara was featured in Elle. I know that I wasn’t the only one who positively gaped and had extremely ecstatic feels bordering on hysteric hyperventilation when I first saw her photos in the magazine. Dara was gorgeous. She had her hair in soft curls that was simply styled down, tumbling on her shoulders or in a loose ponytail; no crazy hairstyles this time. She had toned-down, barely-there make-up with a just the right shade of powder pink lipstick. Her clothes leaned towards neutral colors of white and brown, with a refreshing popout of blue and yellow, courtesy of her Fendi skirt. It’s really quite impossible to choose a favorite photo (Really, how can you choose between one shot of perfection to the other? It’s like forcing me to choose between the bass guitar and keyboards, both of which I truly love equally. T_T). But if you really have to make me choose (like if my life depended on it or something), I’d choose THIS shot:

Mind you, I love all of her shots, like reallllyyyyyy love them, just that this one would probably rank like .1% higher than the rest. XD I really don’t know what it is about this shot, but I really love it! Must be how marvelous her hair looks.. Or because I particularly love this nude lip color on her.. Or her shoulderrrrr.. But I think it might be her expression. Just look at those eyes. *o*

And just a few days after her official photos were released, Elle decided that we recovered enough from our spazz and sent another heart-attack-inducing batch of photos our way. Dara’s B-Cuts from the magazine! Oh my gawd, I really, really do not want to be in the shoes of the magazine editor who had to
choose what photos should be in the magazine’s final cut. I mean, I’d probably go crazy trying to choose from the flawless that is Sandara Park. Again, if you put me at gunpoint and force me to choose, I’d have to choose THIS shot as my favorite:

She just looks so innocent and waif-like in this shot. I love her relaxed pose with her hands between her knees. Besides, this has got to be my favorite outfit among the five she had for this shoot. I love how she looks innocent with a touch of provocative… And speaking of “B-Cuts” here is Dara’s video for the behind-the-scenes of the shoot. Warning: Can cause extreme breakouts of giddiness. Watch with caution.. Gah, Sandara Park, what are you doing to us?! T_T (not that we’re complaining though, mind you)

Dara’s photoshoot got rave reviews from the press and netizens alike. They all loved her charismatic, beautiful pictures as she transformed into a “pure, white goddess.”  Her interview was honest and candid, and focused on how “Sandara Park” and “Park Sandara” are two different people. I really liked her interview. I loved how she talked about the Philippines and how she overcame challenges, how she talked about loving what she does and loving her teammates. Read her interview again HERE just in case you want to see a glimpse into the persona that comprises our beautiful goddess. I mentioned that Dara had five outfits for the shoot. Want to find out what the brands are and from what collections they came from? Read all about Dara’s
amazingly chic wardrobe for this shoot in our Fashion Find column HERE.

2NE1‘s magazine photoshoots made it to the news , with people expressing their excitement and anticipation for each of their features! Of course, the girls killed it. While Dara kept it simple yet elegant for Elle, Bom was colorful as a Spring Goddess for Allure, maknae Minzy showed that she was the “Girl On Top” for Marie Claire, while leader CL kept it fierce for Harper’s Bazaar. Of course, the girls showed their love for each other by mentioning the group and each other! Bom said in her interview with Allure that she and Dara “like to eat food,” but that she is “the only one gaining weight” aigoo Bommie, we love you in whatever size and form! Besides, you are so gorgeous already too, just the way you are! ^^ She also mentions a cute anecdote about Park sisters thoughts on dating and YG sajangnim. ^^ Minzy also mentioned in her interview  for Marie Claire that “our unnies are naughty girls,” pertaining to Bom and Dara. Yes, Minzy, your unnies are like naughty, fun-loving kids, kekeke! Minzy goes on to say that she loves her unnies. She says this of Dara:

“I got to write a message for Dara. The content was not much special, but I guess unnie was touched and recently, she replied during my birthday with a red bag. “Minzy you also became an adult. I cannot believe that T.T” The unnies saw me since 6th grade so they probably thought this birthday was special.”

Awwwww… 2NE1 is love! Four-ever, forever! ^^

The second “love, love, love” thing that happened this month was Clio’s confirmation of Dara being their official product endorser! Woohoo! Clio’s website updated with the magazine scans of their official announcement for this joyous event. They made the announcement across nine different magazines: Beauty, Allure, Marie Claire, Vogue Girl, Sure, Singles, CeCi, InStyle, and Cosmopolitan. It is not a coincidence that three of those nine magazines are on the top ten list of famous magazines in Korea. So you can just imagine the scope of their circulation!

You can read the translated news article of their announcement HERE. And because Clio has already confirmed her position, we now have BTS videos! I really loved her fun interview featured in MnetWide! Park sisters are just love (The San-Da-Ra-Park name poem was awfully cute!) , and it was our first glance at her photoshoot for Clio!

Of course, Park sisters then spazzed about the video and teased each other about it! they caused quite a stir in Twitter as they went on to make it like their personal chatbox, being all cute to each other. I know that we translators almost died trying to catch up with their conversation, but well worth it, they were just so adorable for words.

Clio also shared their official Behind The Scenes video of the shoot, with Dara explaining the products and how to get her look for each concept. She looks oh-so-gorgeous in this video! I love how her gaze can speak volumes and how she can be fierce, pretty, innocent, alluring, and bold with each of her pose. She is such a pro, I swear! Clio so lucky!

And as expected (hey, did you guys even expect anything other than this? XD), Clio‘s sales rose up with the news of Dara being made as their official endorser! Clio products were sold out in many international outlets  And local social commerce, WeMakePrice, even named the “Sandara Park Clio eyeliner” as the “year’s first must-get item for cosmetics“ citing that Clio products have broken records in terms of sales! The power of Sandara Park cannot be denied!

Oh, another great thing that happened this month is that we saw another cut of fierce Dara for Complex magazine! The photoshoot for the 2NE1 girls came out last month, and I wasn’t expecting other cuts to come out, but lo and behold, we got another one with fierce, fierce Dara! Love how her eyes just speaks volumes in this shot!

We also have a feature of Bom, Teddy, and Dara in 1st Look magazine (from Twosome Studio’s opening, which I will talk about later)…

And a feature in CeCi Beauty magazine, where Dara is the cover for their March issue! Read the interview HERE about Clio’s new model, who is happy to show a more mature side of her.

And now we move on to events! Though it seems that these days, the girls barely go out on events (because they are NOT promoting though SOMEONE promised they’d make a comeback already, grrrr), they still make sure to attend some important events!

One of these events is the second Gaon KPop Awards, where they won Digital Singers for the month of July, for their song “I Love You.” The girls, sans CL, looked marvelous in their black outfits! I particularly love how Dara’s hair was styled that night. Don’t our girls look so so so pretty? ^^

Here’s a video of them accepting their award:

And here is pretty, pretty Dara accepting Teddy‘s award for winning Composer Of The Year. Well done, Papa Teddy!

Big Bang’s Seungri, G-Dragon, and Taeyang were present in the event as well, to represent the group. Their maknae then tweeted a confirmation shot with the girls a few days after! Don’t they all just scream “COOL”?!

2NE1 also had a joint charity concert with Gummy on the 23rd of the month! I was really happy to see the girls on-stage again. T_T And since this performance happened after quite a while of not being on-stage, a lot of Blackjacks made sure to come and watch the girls and to show support. However, not everyone who wanted to attend could secure tickets on time. Dara must have known how this event was super special for the Blackjacks who have been missing 2NE1 for quite some time, and gave a Twitter event! She went and gave away tickets for the event to fans who didn’t have their own!  She needn’t have done it, but she did! She is so thoughtful and kind! I swear, not a lot of idols treat their fans with the same level of respect, concern, and thoughtfulness as Dara treats Blackjacks. Dara-yah, saranghae. T_T

The girls performed I Am The Best, I Don’t Care, It Hurts, Lonely, and Ugly. They also changed outfits, from crazy, colorful Adidas ones to more subdued ones with red-and-black theme. Here’s OhMyGoddess fancam from the event:

And ah, yes, Dara’s “fresh beaty and captivating smile,” from this event, made it to the news once again because IDK if people forget or they really get amazed and reminded every time they see pictures of her fresh, forever-young face and smile.  I think it’s the latter though. What about you? ^^

Okay, lots of other things have happened on SNS this month too! For one thing, Dara updated her me2day again! Keke! And oh, she also promoted 2NE1’s Weibo account as well, not to mention that she started out her Japanese blog for all the Japanese fans!

But our SNS queen seems to be favoring updating in Twitter a lot. ^^ Like for instance, we got to see more of Dara’s sister, Durami, through Twitter! Dara’s friends in the Philippines tweeted about Durami coming in to the country for a visit! And sure enough, “Ate” Dara asked them to take care of her little sister. Here is Durami, enjoying her stay in the country with its scrumptious food! ^_^

Through Twitter also, we learned that Dara had a hand in preparing for CL’s birthday party! Happy birthday to Dara’s hubby, Chaerin-ah, aka CL-roo! Woohoo! Trivia! One of CL’s cakes was designed by her sister, Harin! Wahhhh, so cute! ^^ And I think the other one, the one that had CL’s shoot for Bazaar designed on it, was by Dara herself! She tweeted about being the party planner and the cake  at the same time, so I guess it’s a pretty legit assumption to make that she bought and designed the cake. XD

YG Family were there for the event (2NE1 sans Bom though T_T) and from all the photos that got uploaded from the party, I’d say that the birthday girl truly enjoyed it, seeing that she was surrounded by the people she loves.

In lieu of her shoot for Elle, Dara tweeted a really gorgeous, sensual picture of herself. And because until now, I cannot find the words to describe my feels for this photo, I shall let it do the talking:

Oh. My. Gawd. Elle magazine surely would have burned if they included that hotness in their final cuts! Whew, hot Dara is HOT! Bring it, sexy lady! Bommie agreed with us and tweeted “Soooo~ sexy!”  after Dara tweeted the photo. G-Dragon went and tweeted his reply to Dara’s picture too and said “Oh my why is this Noona acting like this these days” to which YG choreographer, Lee Jaewook, and BB’s Taeyang replied to. Of course, Dara replies to YG Family’s tweets most of the time, and she replied to their tweets, with matching cute emoticons, during the next day, asking “Why are you people like this?” Oh so cute, our YG Family! ^_^ And yep, this update made it to the news too! > And yes, her mysterious feel and dream-like charm are definitely obvious (well, more so) in this photo!

And oh, this month, we got to see Dara’s long-lost child, Tamtamie again! WOOHOO! I have missed Tamtam! And yes, Dara, he does look as ageless as his omma!

One of the most fun conversations that Dara had this month, aside from that with YG Family, is this fun and witty conversation with her celebrity friend from the Philippines, Luis Manzano. Luis and Dara go a long way, back to when she first started out in show business in the Philippines, where Luis was one of the hosts of the talent show that Dara first came out on. In this Twitter conversation that happened on the 26th, Dara and Luis ponder on “What if we starred in a movie together?” and of course, hilarity and good-natured ribbing ensued! Read their fun-fulled conversation in English HERE! And yes, Dara’s original tweets were in Tagalog. I swear, her fluency in the language is better than mine!

Dara also made sure that she enjoyed the group’s downtime, by going to events and seeing things that she couldn’t go to and see while 2NE1 was actively promoting. She went to enjoy the “cultural life,” as she watched “It’s Not On the War Diary” at Daehakro on the 16th. She updated her me2day because of this! So happy to see that our me2day queen is updating again!

And yes, this update did make it to the news!  Dara is a newsmaker, did you really expect anything less from her update? XD

She also took a photo with the cast! Not everyone would have the privilege to take pictures with the cast, but I think that they were just as excited of taking a picture with Dara as she was to take a picture of them. Artists respecting artists for the win!

Speaking of the things that Dara does during downtime (watching a lot of movies, judging from her Twitter posts. XD), she is also into watching “That Winter, the Wind Blows,” a drama that stars Song Hye Kyo (OMG my two goddesses colliding in this way, I am so happy,
I’m crying rainbows, I mean, it’s freaking SHK!) and Jo In Sung (I swear, this drama is just so full of eye candy. Eye candy all around. Specially if you add Kim Bum into the mix! Gah! GAAAAHHH!). Can you tell that I am a fan of this drama? Like a seriously addicted fan who counts the hours until I get to see it again? T_T

Dara tweeted about the “cotton candy kiss” in Episode 4 of the drama that has been receiving such a large amount of attention from the viewers and the press. This of course, made it to the newsm what with newsmaker Sandara Park watching current newsmaker drama, That Winter. The cutest thing is that Dara actually went and parodied the “cotton candy kiss” but said, “not really kiss. Just cotton candy eating,” isn’t she just so cute and random and just gah, adorable! And her picture, so cute! /goes off to buy cotton candy

Yes, the candy kiss parody update did make it to the news. It trended for a while in Nate too. Dara achieved what she was aiming for though, and that is to promote Gummy‘s single, “Snowflake,” which is one of the OSTs of the drama! According to the news articles, “The OST has then gained much interest, even climbing to the top of the keyword search ranking.” Woohoo, a go go go Gummy-unnie!

Aside from promoting Gummy’s OST song, Dara also went full-out on her support, and appeared as a surprise guest during Gummy’s 10th year anniversary fanmeeting! According to a fanaccount (pictures were banned. T_T), Dara went on to surprise her Gummy-unnie and to show her gratitude for all those years that unnie took good care of her, specially during the time she was still new and struggling to fit in and make friends in Korea. T_T Read the heart-warming fan account HERE. YG’s me2day and Facebook then updated about the event, giving us pics of the event (YAAAYYY BOOYAH!) that we so hungrily craved for! No fantaken pics, but we have official pics! ^^

As you can probably guess by now, Dara’s ever loyal support and their good looks made it to the news. Read about it HERE.

Dara got us a bit anxious on Twitter when she tweeted about hairstyles and asked for suggestions on what she should do next, coupled with pictures that showed four outrageous hairstyles!  Good thing Se7en-oppa stepped in and nipped her wild, yet quite daring, ideas by telling her to “go for a super girly concept”  YES DARA GO FOR IT!

Speaking of Se7en-Dara, I just love how she goes all out to support him. Remember that she was a fangirl of his long before she signed onto YG? Well, it seems that Dara has yet to watch a Se7en concert! Shocking, right? Se7en seemed to be shocked too. Dara tweeted him her encouragement for his Japan concert tour and told him she wanted to go.  Knowing that this would be his last concert before his enlistment in March, Dara flew all the way to Japan to support him and indeed watch his concert!  Se7en was so thankful for her support, for coming in to see him specifically, he tweeted a photo with her in gratitude! Don’t they look so cute?

Of course, the press would not allow this kind of thoughtfulness (and cute photo) pass by without news articles! And news articles came out indeed. They raved about Se7en-Dara friendship and how they looked like siblings in the photo… I looked at the photo a second time and was like “Wow, they really do look like siblings. SO CUTE!” a thought that was shared by netizens all over, judging from the comments in the article.

When Dara came home from her stay in Japan (in which she also watched MBLAQ’s concert, which was scheduled on the same date as Se7en’s last concert tour spot), she came back to Korea, with fans and press at the airport waiting for her arrival. YAY AIRPORT PICTURES FROM PRESS AND FANS!

And AIRPORT FANCAMS! Dara is so sweet, she greeted OhMyGoddess, her Korean fansite a “Happy New Year” personally, along with the other Blackjacks who was at the airport! Here’s the fancam of that sweet moment:

And oh yeah, her never-aging, forever youthful face made it to the news (LOL reporters really do love to stress that DARA NEVER SEEMS TO AGE) as she appeared at the airport, wearing the same hat that Taeyang gave her three years ago, comparing the then and now photos and not seeing a difference. Yes, Dara is stuck in a time warp that we lesser mortals are struggling to fight, keke! Read the news HERE <>.

What did Dara do on Valentine’s Day, you might ask? She went to support another member of YG family! Yet another great thing that happened in the month of love is the opening of Teddy‘s own cafe! Yes, our Papa Teddy has ventured into another line of business, and it is flourishing, I believe! On Valentine’s Day, as other people were stressing out about what to give their special someones or otherwise stressing out over the full restaurant reservations, YG Family chilled out and went out to support the cafe’s opening. Called “Twosome Studio,” Teddy’s cafe seemed to be off to a great start! Park sisters, went to show their support for their oppa, along with Big Bang’s G-Dragon and Taeyang, Lydia Paek, and stylist Yanggeng, among others.

I’m pretty sure each and every one of these people in the picture swims in charisma and swag, to be honest. Whoo, epic picture is epic.

Dara didn’t forget to update her Twitter about the event. She asked “Coffee, tea, or me?” then greeted everyone a “Happy heart’s day!” Silly Dara, of course we’d choose you! We’d choose you over any kind of beverage or food or just about anything. T_T Hello there cutie!

I did mention that Dara is SNS queen, and she not only is active on Twitter and me2day, but has gone and promoted even in Weibo ! Dara reminds us all that she is 2NE1’s PR Manager by leaving support updates on Weibo and even making a handwritten letter for all the Chinese fans that support them on the site!

It has also been proven that she is an international newsmaker, as Chinese media reported on this update and said that “fans were truly touched and praised Dara for being cute, loving and has a warm heart” awwwwww! Yes, we fans are always touched for every thoughtful thing that our warm-hearted goddess does for us! ^_^ We are so lucky to stan such an amazing person, right? ^^

Aside from her personal, handwritten letter, Dara also released an unseen cut from her Elle photoshoot, just for Weibo fans (of course, it got shared to all the fans later on, but yeah)! OMG an outtake from my favorite photo from the B-cuts! /dies a happy fangirl

Dara also made sure not to make the Japanese fans feel neglected. This month, she opened her own Japanese blog titled, “The Adventures of Da-Rabbit!” OMG, can she get even more adorable? T_T She’s so thoughtful and kind, I swear! In her first post Dara tells of her adventures in Fuji-Q, an amusement park that she went to while in Japan for Se7en and MBLAQ concert! Her Angry Birds bag is just the cutest, argh! T_T Her second update is all about learning Japanese! Hard-working Darong for the win!

On the endorsement side of things, aside from Clio (and Nikon uploading some new, old photos for their cameras featuring the girls), Dara and Minzy have official items in the game, “Rule The Sky!” Minzy has been tweeting about this game for a while back, while Dara tweeted this month, asking for Gaming advise from Minzy because her plants in the game kept on rotting  , good thing “Minggki Guide” was ready to help her unnie out! Dara then remodeled her flotia making it look even busier and bustling with activity!

And oh, we saved one of the best events of the love month for last! Love begets love! Remember the “Mango tree wreath” project that we in OhDara and WeLoveDara participated in through SanUnion last year for NewECon in Seoul?  Well, the 2NE1 forest that came out of all the donations from that event, has already been planted! According to Star Forest’s Facebook, “the 2NE1 forest in Tonj, South Sudan that was created with the help of 2NE1 fans on July 2012! The 2NE1 forest had mango trees that provided food to the locals and provided shade under which children could study at!” So happy and proud to be part of this event! Thank you to all of you who made this possible, for all your support! ^_^

Whew! And that wraps up our monthly spin for our round-up! ^^ I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it (for the second time because my first draft went bye-bye with no hope of recovery. T_T) Again, let us be thankful for each and every little blessing that comes our way. Until our girls make their spectacular comeback, all we can do is wait (and imagine all the stuff we wish we could do to YG to give us our girls – begging and bribing being the top two) and hope for the best.

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What is your favorite Dara moment in February 2013? ^^ Share it with us in the comments section below~! ^^ I hope you enjoy the second round of our OhDara Special: Monthly Roundup.. ^_^ Thanks for reading! ❤ I hope you enjoyed reading as I enjoyed writing it. ^^

Credits:

Written and compiled by: BlackjackBelle@OhDara/ SlaveTranslator@WeLoveDara