March 2nd is the birthday of my best friend, Chelcy. Last year, it was her 18th birthday. In China, the 18th birthday is particularly important. It is a symbol of becoming an adult, and also means a person’s life is entering the best time. However, around this time last year, I had not managed my money well so that I could not afford a special gift for her. I decided to make paper daisies for her because they mean endless happiness, peace and hope. Real daisies are everlasting flowers. They are called this because when they are dried they keep their colour. Therefore daisies represent something everlasting.

Nonetheless, I faced many problems making paper daisies. The biggest problem was and still is I have very little manual dexterity. I have never been good at making things with my hands. I decided to copy a You Tube video on making daisies. As I l watched the tutorial on the Internet, it involved many complicated steps to make them, and I had to spend at least 30 minutes for each flower.

The most difficult part was the petals. A daisy needed at least 30 curly petals, which meant that I had to cut and curl up hundreds of the petals. Being a student, I also had to get my schoolwork done. Yet there was only 3 days until Chelcy’s birthday.

Fortunately, I found an easier and faster way, using one 15 cm long and 4 cm wide piece of paper. First, I folded the paper 3 times and cut two thirds of the side 3 times so that made 32 petals in a minute. Second, opening the paper and using the chopsticks I was able to curl the petals. As I put the petals on the stamen, they looked to me more natural than the tutorial taught.

Besides that, my tools were limited, and I did not have wire-cutter, draped paper and floral tapes. The wire-cutter was the biggest problem because the wire I used was thick and inflexible. I did not want to buy a wire cutter just to make one present. Then I remembered that I had a friend whose homestay father was very good at making things. I asked my friend to ask her homestay father if she could borrow wire cutters. It was very disappointing when he said that he understood the situation but could not lend such a dangerous tool to a homestay student. I should have asked if I could take the wires to his house to cut, but I did not think of that at the time.

I came up with the solution, by covering the knife with sandpaper and using it to rub the wire, and then bending it backwards and forwards until the wire finally snapped. It was time consuming. On top of that, I did not have draped paper, so I used paper that I got from Wal-Mart, rolling and wrinkling it. Even though it was not exactly the same, it had its own style. It had character! Third, I did not know where to buy floral tapes. The floral tape was the final step of making the paper daisy chain. Without the floral tape, the paper chain was just