I like to celebrate purchases that I expect to stay with me for a long time.
Whenever I buy a new piece of technology—a fitness watch, a phone, or a laptop—I hope it will last for at least five years. I tend to think carefully before making these purchases, so when I finally decide, it feels like an occasion worth celebrating.
I wanted a new fitness watch because my Xiaomi Mi Band 4 was no longer keeping me motivated to stay active.
I chose the Garmin Vivoactive 5 after watching the adventures of Eva Zu Beck, and I have been very happy with that decision. I even convinced my husband to get a Garmin watch as well.
I shared a few photos on Instagram when I first got the watch, but I also wanted to showcase them here.
The First Celebration: Origami Cranes
When thinking about how to celebrate this purchase, I considered using either origami hearts or origami cranes.
In the end, I chose cranes because they hold a special place in my heart and in my origami journey. They were among the first models that made me fall in love with paper folding.
I didn’t fold them specifically for this photo session, I already had them folded, but they felt like the perfect choice.
So here are some of the photos I created to celebrate my new Garmin Vivoactive 5.
One Month with My Garmin Vivoactive 5
A month later, I decided to celebrate again.
This time, I wanted to build a scene inspired by nature. I started folding bears because, although I don’t particularly want to meet one face-to-face, I would love to see one from a safe distance. Living in Romania, that possibility is not entirely unrealistic.
About the Models
The bears were designed by Edwin Corrie and folded by me.
The trees are traditional origami models.
The paper varies from wrapping paper to standard origami paper, and the sizes vary as well.
The gold bear framing the first photo started from a 45 cm square sheet. The wrapping paper bear was folded from a 35 cm square, which was actually the size I had in mind when planning the composition around the watch.
The remaining bears were folded from sheets around 20–25 cm in size.
The trees were folded from 20 cm and 15 cm squares, while the smallest trees had already been folded the previous Christmas season.
Creating the Scene
My original idea was to photograph the watch from ground level, making it look as if it were towering over a small forest while a bear walked past in the foreground.
As I worked on the setup, I experimented with several different compositions and camera angles. I didn’t want to end up with just one final image, and exploring different perspectives was part of the fun.
I am very happy with how the final photos turned out.
One Year with My Garmin Vivoactive 5
For the one-year milestone, I returned to my original idea and used origami hearts.
This setup is a bit simpler than the forest scene. It doesn’t have as much storytelling behind it, but I still wanted to mark the occasion and celebrate a full year with my Garmin Vivoactive 5.
Sometimes a small creative project is enough to make a milestone feel special.
If you would like to make your own, you can follow this short tutorial, showing how to fold these traditional origami hearts.
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