Day Three Hundred and One - Fancy Napkins

Dear all,

Today, I have enrolled on a slightly different challenge in pursuit of my domestic goddess training. After many years of part time waitressing in my teens, I have a good grasp of a the basic techniques required to fold napkins but had never moved on to 'the next level'.

I started with the [advanced] peacock. My sister and I mastered the basic peacock after a weekend at G-Ma's when we were around the ages of 6 and 8. This version is quite significantly more intricate and the gorgeous Cornelia was able to give me some helpful hints in arriving at the finished article with finesse!

I folded the napkin in half, then folded one quarter back on itself and did the same on the opposite half. I then used a 'Concettina' style of folding to make a 'fan' shape with the napkin.

Once in the fan shape, I folded out the corners of each point on each adjacent side (I hope this all makes sense..) and then opened the fan out so it sat down like a beautiful, lilac coloured peacock.

Here is the finished article! It is quiet time consuming but some might say 'meditative'.

Napkin number two: The swan.

You start by folding the napkin in half on it's apex to form a large triangle. The fold the two sides in to make a square, as per below.

You then fold the bottom corner of the square up and over, to make a small lip with the napkin.

You then take the napkin and curl it around so the two sides join and fold the ends into each other so it is able to stand up straight. The fold down the two 'wings'.

And hey presto, a swan! Not quiet glamorous to make the oscars, but fortunately Natalie Portman is holding court for our feathered friends. And I have earned a billion Domestic Goddess points.

And in other news:

1. My new experiment, murals *in acrylic*. My sister had bagged these two for her kitchen.. but hopefully there will be many more on the way!