Identifying Your Keys.

Hi everyone! *gives BIG wave*, 

I'm a huge fan of learning things that make life easier. Lets look at today's DIY. 

Having trouble identifying which key opens your door? They all seem to look the same. Worse yet, there's some creepy looking guy across the street staring at you. 

You NEED to get into your apartment/car asap. 

Here's what you need: 

1. Keys
2. Elmers glue (or liquid glue). No gluestick okay? 
3. glitter (any colour) 

Take your glue and squeeze a thin layer on the upper part of your key. Like this: 

Coat the 'glued' area with glitter. Shake off excess. Like this: 

Allow the key to dry and coat it with clear nail polish. This creates a 'seal ' for the glitter. Repeat on the other side when fully dried. 

Remember, glitter is sold at the dollar store. 1.00 :) 

breakfast and two injured toes.

Hay guys! 

*sits at computer* Recently, two of my toes got trampled on by a 5 year old kid resulting in no shoe wearing for the next few weeks. The doctor says I will walk again and recommends me not to run on the treadmill. Yeah right. 

Staying home from work is not an option but wearing flip flops is. So each morning, I am pictured in a tan winter wool coat and flip flops on my feet. 

I've been teaching and counselling half days recently which has allowed me to sleep in and eat breakfast. It turns out that I live by an IHOP (just found out this morning) so I packed my bag and paddled out to eat. This is what my plate looked like this morning: 

Cathy was my waitress. She's adorable. This location resembles a small house and only seats limited number of people. Look at the plate though. It's so neatly arranged. I'm a slow eater so 30 mins later, my plate looked like this: 

I wasn't able to eat the sausage nor the pancakes so it was taken to go in a foil wrap. Cathy offered a container, but I f*kn HATE styrofoam and bulkiness. 

On the topic of BREAKFAST, I had recieved a coupon for free smoked cured bacon while at the FARM TO CART event. "Re-up bbq" is located at New West Quay and specializes in pulled pork. Here's my bacon snack pack: 

My last pit stop before returning home for the day was the temporary 'art display' at the Quay. The showing exhibits, "The Wonders of Learning: The Hundred Languages of Children. Reggio Emilia, Italy. 

The last time I was exposed to the Reggio Emilia concept was from a colleague in Singapore who acted extremely unprofessional. As a result, I have negative associations to it. I'd rather not get into the story of what happened overseas. 

However, it is a blessing that I walked in on this exhibit as I met Susan, who is a retired professor from Douglas College. Susan is responsible for teaching EDUC courses at Douglas and embraces 'out of the box' thinking and learning. It is due to her that I have less negative associations with RE concept. Here is a photo of what kids may be exposed to in a Reggio Emilia learning environment: 

After observing all the objects, I made this message using the chain and bolts. And I wrote this message: 

And on that note, I'll sign off for now :) 

The sequined Adidas stitch.

Hai everyone :)

For the first time in 4 years, I wore my sequined Adidas shoes on my way to the gym today. I had initially designed them back when I attended university. Here they are: 

Looking at them, I definitely did not remember how to do the stitch. This bothered me during the last half of my workout and I spent my 10 minute train ride home examining my shoe and trying to envision how the heck I had managed to perfect this stitch 8 years ago. 


When I arrived home, I decided to use my very old and dirty oven mitt as a demo. Here it is: 

I'm a hands-on learner so with needle and thread in hand, I was slowly beginning to remember the stitch. 

1. First, thread a needle and make a knot at the end. Thread needle through from BOTTOM. This ensures knot isn't visible. 

So I had begun the stitch already in order to ensure that I was doing it properly. 

2. In the previous step, you made the knot and the needle comes up from the bottom. Insert a sequin through the needle now. 

Here is what it looks like: 

3. Guide sequin (pink one is pictured here) to the bottom and insert needle through previous sequin (blue one pictured here). Guide needle through this hole so it looks like this: 

4. Guide needle through hole of pink sequin and pull thread through. Look at the following two pictures: 

5. Insert needle through left side of mitt (fabric) and come back up again with needle. Like this: 

6. Insert sequin and repeat :) 


This stitch is great for decorating the ankle part of canvas shoes and other soft material. Enjoy! 

Getting Nailed.

This week after work, I made a pit stop at shoppers drug mart and found myself staring at a 11.99 nail polish with flecks of glitter. 

10 seconds later, my brain refocused and deemed all this nail polish is propaganda. I'll make my own. 

I live in New Westminster, where the skytrain station is now home to a bar, a sushi restaurant (love philly cream cheese roll), royal bank, starbucks, rocky mountain chocolate factory AND a one dollar store. 

I needed to get bubble wrap anyways to ship my girlfriend her shoe ring (read my previous blog), so why not see if the dollar store had some glitter? They did. Here it is stashed away in my backpack: 

I speeded home with my goods and plopped down on the floor with a bottle of clear nail polish, a piece of folded newspaper and three bottles of this glitter.  

To all you girls at home, this is how you do it. 

1. You have to fold the newspaper to create a linear crease. 
2. Sprinkle the glitter on newspaper. I took all three bottles and shook away. 
3. Aim the spout of newspaper towards opening of nail polish bottle. 

For all you visual learners (like me), here is a photo:

There you go. No more spending 11.99 on a bottle of glitter nail polish :) 

If the shoe fits, wear a shoe ring.

Hi Everyone! *waves* I haven't blogged for a while so I have all this pent up creative energy to share with you all today.

A few weeks ago, while wandering value village like a hobo, I stumbled upon a bag of barbie shoes. There were approximately 160 pairs in many styles. Current and flashback retro. I for sure knew that there would be a good use for these shoes so I took the bag and gallivanted towards the cashier.

0.50 cents later, I walked out of the door and an idea hit me like a fat man walking into a 99 pound girl-----I was going to make rings using the shoes.

Knowing I was not going to purchase these adjustable rings individually, I managed to find out who the wholesaler was for Granville Island's "Beadworks". Beazu, located near Main Street skytrain station, offered bags of rings, each containing 50 pieces at 18.00 per bag. I purchased three bags knowing that if it wasn't a hit with the public, it'd be a great creation for this year's goodie bags for the Cinderella Project (where I will be a stylist for this year's high school graduating class). Here are the rings:

In addition to the value village value pack of barbie shoes, I managed to find two unique pairs of heels from ebay. It is from these that I have created the rings that have garnered my first sale. Here are the shoes:

I wanted to make sure that the shoe was mounted on properly, so a hot glue gun would not do. For all of you who do not know this, crazy glue is available for purchase at the dollar store. This is what I used to adhere the shoe to the ring. These are the final products:

And I so happen to have a ring box lying around :) For those of you who are curious, the blue platform has been purchased by my friend Alice M and the pink one is still available. Message me if you are interested! 

About Me

My name is Clara Mai Yan. I am a 29 year old visual arts/math teacher, high school counsellor and flight attendant. Since graduating from university, I have relocated to various countries mainly in the pursuit of my teaching career.Both life and the hunger for an emotionally enriching lifestyle have forced me to uproot and move consistently since leaving high school.
I enjoy a challenge want to explore avenues that few people dare to consider. It is really my thirst for an emotionally, professonally and socially enriching lifestyle that drives me to look forward to more personal growth.
My artistic abilities were fostered as a child where I illustrated and created storylines for small books that I stapled together. Unfortunately, none of them survived as they were estastically thrown out by my parents. Creativity has played a fundamental part in my life as is demonstrated through my poetry, mug designs and jewelery.
I have been told that I am a deep thinker. I don't know if this means neurosis, but I take this to be a good thing. I'm not a big fan of being brain dead. I tend to do well in abstract thinking activities or careers that require problem solving. Hence, my career in counselling and teaching. If something is deemed routine, I tend not to do well in it.
I grew up with a conservative father and loving mother. My dad is from Hong Kong and my mom is from Singapore. Although I am not close with my father, one thing he has taught me is to value work ethic rather than couch potato culture. My mom is the best and has done as much as she could to ensure I never suffer from starvation. This means having sent food parcels to university and dropping off 6 boxes of almond milk when they went on sale at Superstore.
As for both within the education and flying careers, I was bitten by the travel bug during my overseas teaching contract in Hong Kong. Upon returning to Canada, I realize that this disease will probably never be cured. In order to continue exploring the world and various grocery products, I took a part time position as a flight attendant and have no regrets about it. My parents think that I have given up on my teaching/counselling career, but I like to say that it is because I like variety in life. Redundantcy and routine is boring and makes you brain dead.
Here's to leading an exciting and fruitful life everyone! *cheers!*