Saturday 20^th February 2010

I have given this project a bit of a wide berth for a while, mainly because I could see the financial situation was not good. One competition in, and I am already £112.00 down. 86 Counties later and that works out at, well, a lot.

Yesterday, however, I spotted an opportunity to move into the black.

Debenhams in Gloucester were hosting a wedding event. They were offering the opportunity to win £250 as a spending spree.

A couple of problems that I could spot:

1. I am not planning a wedding.

2. I am single.

3. Both 1 and 2

The more astute of you will have noticed that for the bowls event, I had a partner. Well the situation has moved on. I have now moved back in with my parents in Gloucestershire. It really is true, they turn the lights off at Newbury. The countryside is so dark.

So for the chance to win £250 pounds, all I had to do was to fill in the coupon, and hand it in to a member of staff in Debenhams. Yes, I am not planning to get married, but why should single people be excluded from the competition?

And so I filled it in, in green ink.

Now the bowls event warranted a card, a greetings card. So why should the rural Gloucestershire competition be any different? I couldn’t just hand it in as they suggested to any member of staff. No, this was going to need some thought.

I took my mind back to Thoki Yen. P G Woodhouse style, I will update the newcomers on this analogy. Thoki Yen was a grand master at Origami. Origami was the way forward for my entry into this competition.

Swans.

They are romantic aren’t they?

I looked up how to make a swan in origami…

This is written so parents can read the instructions while kids fold...
but don't read aloud! Just use the written instructions to give some pointers if necessary. Pictures are sometimes enough by themselves.

Origami for Beginners: The Swan

And so I began.

I folded the paper as if a parent was reading the instructions to me. Eventually, I had a swan:

There it is.

I bought a card from my parents shop, £1.30, and I popped the swan inside with a little message:

I delivered it to Debenhams in Gloucester by hand.