Christmas is coming! I found myself slightly surprised by the Holiday this year, just cannot believe we are almost there.  For the first time in England though, I’m not spending it at someone else’s place, I’m not in the middle of redecorating or going back home. Thus our new place got decorated.

We were going to get a fake tree, however after most places being out of stock or delivering in the middle of this week we accidentally ventured into the live tree section. And boy did it smell in there. We were very close to just dragging the biggest one they had home straight away, but after careful consideration of our dragging-power decided on a slightly smaller tree.  It was a very eco-friendly move, as after Christmas the plant is going to be decorating our not-so-used balcony.

On the other hand the window decorations are not real pine, however they do look very realistic. After gravity-defying nail plus wall action we have two windows done with a third one still waiting (yes - this does mean 90% probability of more photos coming). Considering some spray on snow on the glass or maybe cut out paper flakes on string… what do you think?

Last Saturday I went to London to see the Tokyo Day exhibition. One of the several available attractions was origami, and considering it was one of the few things you did not need to sign up in advance for I decided to have a go at it. I must say it is quite surprising how relaxing folding pieces of papers can be.

There were several templates available, one of which was a set of instructions on how to do an origami penguin. Some of the steps are simple, and some surprisingly tricky. Apologies for the photo quality in advance - my camera broke down, and the only thing I had was my phone, and as we all know the shots from mobiles are not that great.

Before we begin you will need one thing: a square piece of thin, preferably coloured on one side, paper. If you have thicker paper it is still fine, though you might find folding slightly harder. And as for the colour, well it just give a more dramatic effect if one side is coloured.

Step 1 - The beginning

Lay the piece of paper in front of you the coloured face up and one of the corners pointing towards you.

Step 2 - Create the body

Now fold the paper in two and create a triangle. Do this by picking up the let corner and matching it up with the right corner of the initial diamond figure.

Step 3 -Add Wings

Fold the top piece slightly to create a wing. Repeat it on the other side.

Step 4 - Create the Head

To create the head you need to turn the top corner inside out. It is a bit tricky and you need to be careful not to tear the paper.

Step 5 - Add a Tail

Similarly to the head, the tail is done using an inverted fold. But rather then flipping it inside out, you make a triangle on the inside of the body. To get the right creases you might want to first create a triangle on the outside as shown below.

Once you have the right creases folding it inside should be fairly easy and from behind looks like this:

Step 6 - Finishing of With the Beak

The last detail to be added is the beak. Take the tip of the head and fold it inside, next fold it outside again about half way through. This should leave you with a finished penguin looking something like this: