Why am I such a wimp?

This has nothing to do with crafting but I just needed to jot this down somewhere. Bear with me if you please.

Yesterday, I was on the bus home and it was not that packed, but not that empty either.

(I was sitting behind the left-side priority seating area.)

The right-side priority seating area was occupied by a little old lady, a big man dressed in black and some other passengers. The left-side priority seating area was occupied by a young lady obsessed with her smartphone (with 2 empty seats beside her), and an elderly couple.

The priority-seating areas bus looks something like this (for those who want a better visualiazation):

O          A          O
O           I          O
O          S          O
O O      L          O
O O      E      O O

A woman with a stroller struggled to get on, and by the time she was on the bus, NOBODY got up from the priority seating areas to let her "park" her stroller. So, she stopped right in the aisle (with all the said people sitting down too busy looking at their devices).

The bus driver proceeded to tell her she can't block the aisle, so she struggled to manoeuvre the stroller into the (small) two-empty-seat area (left side of the bus) beside the lady with her phone. This phone lady did not look up until the stroller obviously distracted her during its attempt to fit in the small space.

The phone lady looked up (with a somewhat bewildered look) and said, "Would it helped if I got up?" The stroller lady (who was already losing patience) answered with a fast and harsh reply, "YES." The stroller got into place and the phone lady moved to an empty seat beside the man dressed in black (YES, STILL IN THE PRIORITY SEATING AREA). The elderly couple remained seated but the helped the lady to get her stroller in place.

A few stops later, the little old lady moved to another seat, but the big man and phone lady remained in that row of priority seats. Another lady with a stroller proceeded to get on. This one would  mean it would have to go on the right side, which was now half occupied by the man in black and the phone lady. While this new stroller lady struggled to push up the folding seats to make room for the stroller, the man in black did not even flinch or look up from his phone, and nobody budged from their seats.

Neither did the driver, in both cases, make an announcement to ask people to give up their courtesy seats or make room for the strollers. He was in a hurry and even drove off quickly without making sure the old lady was seated and the stroller brakes were on.

The woman managed to get her stroller in place, and she shot the man a dirty look as she took a seat.

As I got up from my seat to get off the bus, I turned back and was appalled to see that the back half of the bus was half EMPTY. I felt truly disappointed by all the people who contributed to this selfish bus ride, myself included.

Before you say anything about the pot calling the kettle black, I am not writing this post to shoot down these passengers who did not lift a finger to help the ladies with their strollers, nor am I saying the driver was wrong not to have told off passengers for not giving up the seats.

I am questioning my inability to be assertive in this kind of social situations. I have witnessed many of these situations where people would not hesitate to help or tell off others who were not doing the right things.

Why couldn't I have told off all the people who refused to give up their seats?
Why couldn't I have gone forward to help the lady with the folding seats?
Why didn't I get up from my seat to move to the back of the bus?

WHY CAN'T I BE ASSERTIVE WHEN THE NEED ARISES?

Why am I such a wimp?

I really wished I could have done something constructive on that bus. I really wish I have the courage to speak up and tell off strangers when these things happen. Maybe I'm just afraid of getting told off by even more assertive people.

Over all, with that aside, the more important question is:

WHY ARE PEOPLE SO OBSESSED WITH THEIR SMARTPHONES NOWADAYS?

Now, that's the most puzzling question of all.

Nikki

The Most Horrible Monday Ever

Yup, the title says it all. It's Tuesday now, thank goodness, but I had the most horrific Monday ever yesterday.

It started out with me getting picked on and bullied at work. You think there are bullies only in school? They are EVERYWHERE I tell ya.

There I was minding my own business and the next thing I know someone came over and said something really rude. It left me totally astounded and that was just the tip of the iceberg.

It was a busy day at work, and I stayed an extra 45 minutes to finish up. That's not even the bad part.

When I was finally done, I hopped on the train to go to Walmart. I thought it was really far away, but it turned out to be only about 5 train stations away, which wasn't bad at all. I could SEE the Walmart from the train station, so I began my walk towards it.

10 minutes of walking uphill later, I finally arrived. It was a sunny but cold day, I really should not be complaining, but it was farther than I initially thought.

I entered the Walmart and walked through all the aisles before realizing there was no craft supplies at this Walmart. I was devastated. I come all the way here and you've got NOTHING?!

(I now remember a review online said this particular Walmart did not have a craft section. *smacks forehead for forgetting that before I went*)

Never mind that, I walked all the way back to the train station. Luckily, the walk downhill was much easier. BUT. I suddenly saw this blob of muddy brown stuff on my left shoe. And my left pant leg. And my purse.

WHAT? Did a bird really poop on me? I always thought bird poop was WHITE. Whatever that was, it was gross. I tried to get it off on the grass but it was not helping. Until now, I'm still not sure if that was a bird or not.

Fast forward to the part where I got off the train and took the bus to Michaels. It was late, and I should have gone home to make dinner, but I wanted to check out beads at Michaels, since I was disappointed at Walmart.

I went into good ol' Michaels; the familiar aisles felt so good. Practically feels like home to me. I went to clean up my shoe in the washroom and also got a drink of water. I felt so much more refreshed! Off to look at beads!

There were SO MANY BEADS. Arranged according to colours, there was EVERY POSSIBLE DESIGN OF BEADS YOU CAN IMAGINE. My favourites were the rhinestone beads :) SO beautiful! It instantly made my bad day so much better!

I left Michaels $11 poorer but I now have four packs of beads to work with! They were all super shiny and bling-y! Can't wait to make some earrings with them!

Stopped by the post office and there was a package for me! MAIL ALWAYS MAKES ME FEEL HAPPY :)

I finally went home and made dinner and it was late, but it felt good to be home. Even better when you have a friend to listen to your woes and share your haul with!

What made my evening better was that someone I was trading with had finally sent out her package to me! This night was turning out much better than my morning had started out.

The icing to the cake to end the evening on a good note would be a piece of chocolate, but it got too late. But still, the hypothetical chocolate treat would definitely end my night on a good note!

Moral of the story?

Craft adventures to a faraway place may sometimes be disappointing, but MICHAELS WILL ALWAYS BE MY SECOND HOME. (also Dollarama and Daiso :P)

Yes, that's how much I love my craft stores.

Nikki

Grateful ♥

This post is dedicated to all my lovely subscribers who have supported me in this past 5 months on YouTube! Without all of you, I don't think I'd even be making videos!

To begin with, I had no idea I was gonna start making videos. I learned about polymer clay in June, 2012, and started polymer clay soon after that. In the following months that I've made my first polymer clay and felt plushie creations, I realized I had nobody to share them with! My friends were not interested and my family is too far away! Since the crafting community on YouTube is so full of enthusiastic crafters, I thought I'd jump in and give it a go!

Since then, I had expanded into other forms of crafting, including resin, and other non-crafting stuff (such as the wonderful world of kawaii and San-X stuff)! It sure keeps me very busy and it is a great hobby to have! I have also made many new friends all around the world!

Someday, I'd like to open a PO box, so that I can receive mail from anybody who would like to send me stuff! Hopefully this will happen before the end of the year! :)

Another goal I would like to achieve is to open an online store to sell my creations! I haven't quite figured out how much I would price my items, or how shipping costs would work! Maybe I will get on with that when I can bear to part with my charms! :)

But for now, I'll focus on making more creations and sharing them with you on my videos! Thank you so much again for following me on my crafting and YouTube journey!

Music taste

Ever wonder what kind of music I listen to?

I'm a proud fan of country music! Sure, it's tacky and corny and not well-liked by many, but I think the lyrics of most songs are really touching, and some are hilarious!

My favourite country artists are Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and Tim McGraw!

This post may not be craft related, but I thought it'll give you a little extra information about me hehe!

PS. the lyrics from the picture is from "Cruise" by Florida-Georgia Line :)

Happy April!

Hey everyone! Easter weekend has zoomed by in a flash~ I hope you all had lots of chocolate eggs, I'm going to get mine on clearance later! Hopefully there will be some left for me!! ^^

I haven't been feeling inspired to make charms or plushies lately, I don't know why! I hope this little rut goes away soon! Meanwhile, I've been doing lots more resin, and in my latest batch, I put a TON of glitter to see how it would come out! I'm really not sure yet~

I still wish I can get my hands on some Martha Stewart glitter, especially the tinsel ones coz I think they make resin pieces SO SHINY! Maybe I should save up for some :)

I'm itching to start another craft! Maybe making bracelets? They look like so much fun! I know I know, I get carried away with starting too many kinds of craft, hehe! Makes me wonder why I didn't start earlier~

I hope April will be an awesome month for everybody! Spring is in the air and summer is just around the corner! :) Have a great day and week!