caitriona.net : a photoblog http://www.caitriona.net/c/ en-us 2010-02-05T11:55:13+00:00 birthday bunting http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001059.shtml ]]>i may have mentioned before that one of my guilty pleasures is reading design blogs. and with fionn's arrival, apartment therapy's children's design blog ohdeedoh has become a daily favourite. it's so chocca full of inspiration for kid's partys that even a world class procrastinator like myself managed to get off her backside and do some party decorating for fionn's first birthday.

cue the bunting...

and cue me trying to figure out a cheap and easy way to make the bunting. without using fabric or a sewing machine.

in the end it turned out to be easy as pie to make it out of paper. the most complicated part was figuring out how many triangles i could get out of an A4 page with least wastage.

and because i am enormously proud of my new bunting making skillz, i thought i would share with you here the patented (not really) easy as pie (really!) no-sew diy paper bunting making tutorial:

what you will need

• A4 paper
• paper trimmer
• pencil
• holepunch
• string

i got 10 triangles out of one A4 page - which turned out to be the perfect sized triangle for the position of the holes in my hole punch (possibly not a coincidence?)

to figure out the template size, rather than getting complicated with rulers and calculations and measurements, i just folded the paper.

first into thirds;

then in half again to make sixths;

     

then in half again, across the middle;

then i cut along this last fold;

and marked out some points as guides for cutting the triangles;

cut from dot to dot with the trimmer (also posssible with scissors/craft knife obviously, i'm just dreadful at cutting a straight line);

ta da, it's a template;

then i sliced a load of the A4 sheets in half down the middle and used the template to mark out some guide dots (i forgot to take a photo of this - but it was pretty much the same as this but without the folds);

the triangles with holes punched, ready for stringing and hanging;

the finished bunting;

]]> photography 2010-02-05T11:55:13+00:00 chin attack http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001058.shtml ]]>for fionn, no party would be complete without a good gnaw on his auntie eileen's chin (see here).

happy birthday little man!

[aged: 12 months]

]]> photography 2010-01-25T23:18:06+00:00 the many moods of fionn (II) http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001057.shtml ]]>he's come a long way since this, though he still looks like a convict.

(having been reminded that i wanted to do this again by these two.)

happy new year!

[aged: 11½ months]

]]> photography 2010-01-10T00:05:39+00:00 stripey boys http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001056.shtml ]]>as usual, it's been a while.

since we last spoke, fionn has (belatedly) learned to crawl; well, it's a sort of a monkey-shuffle-crawl employing a combination of left knee, backside and right foot.

he's also developed a fascination with the washing machine, and has a tentative first word - 'round' (which we have been saying repeatedly to describe what the washing machine does) though it does sound more like 'raah' when he says it.

he has four teeth. two top and two bottom.

and he's approx. 9kg and 76cm - he is a metric baby.

[aged 10½ months]

]]> photography 2009-12-09T23:22:45+00:00 caught http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001055.shtml ]]>baby-proofing urgency just stepped up a notch...

[aged 9½ months]

]]> photography 2009-11-05T23:10:01+00:00 stripey boy http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001054.shtml ]]>fionn, enjoying his high-chair-perch, caught in a beam of low sunlight, making his face light up.

[aged: nearly nine months]

]]> photography 2009-10-20T21:29:52+00:00 toothies! http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001053.shtml ]]>after an epic four months of teething... (i just checked back through old photos and it looks like the bib became a permanent fixture at about three and a half months) ...the red cheeks, the drooling, the manic gnawing, the intermittant crankiness, the teething cough... (betcha never knew about that? an irritating side effect of the buckets of drool) ...a couple of weeks ago we were finally rewarded we a pair of pristine, razor sharp, lower central incisors.

two down, eighteen more to go.

[aged 8 months & 3 days]

]]> photography 2009-09-25T22:48:00+00:00 vaseline authenticity tester http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001052.shtml ]]>yep, this one's genuine petroleum jelly!

[aged 7½ months]

]]> photography 2009-09-07T22:13:13+00:00 <![CDATA[<i>fun</i> laoghaire]]> http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001051.shtml ]]>my boys, at the festival of world cultures in dun laoghaire on sunday

[fionn aged: 7 months & a bit]

]]> photography 2009-08-31T21:47:19+00:00 blue fionn http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001050.shtml ]]>so, after yesterday's post, aonghus observed that the recent photos i've posted of fionn here each have a predominant colour in them. which got me thinking about what other colours i could do. so when fionn was all wrapped up in a big blue towel after his bath today, i knew what had to be done...

[aged: 7 months & 4 days]

]]> photography 2009-08-26T21:42:44+00:00 vanity http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001049.shtml ]]>fionn smiling at himself in the mirror. too cute!

also; sitting up on his own. he's still liable to fall over at any moment, but he's improving by the day.

[aged: 7 months & 3 days]

]]> photography 2009-08-25T20:30:20+00:00 abcd bib http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001048.shtml ]]>this bib is doubly appropriate because aonghus & my initials, together, are abcd.

[aged: 7 months & 2 days]

]]> photography 2009-08-24T22:15:42+00:00 world class drooler http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001047.shtml ]]>sorry it's been so long. we've been away on a proper family summer holiday in kerry for a week - though that doesn't fully excuse the lengthy gap.

fionn has been showing signs of teething for weeks and weeks now, though still no sign of any teeth. but apart from the excessive drooling and constant bib-soaking, he hasn't been too grumpy with it.

[aged: nearly 6 months]

]]> photography 2009-07-20T23:07:10+00:00 lord of the ring http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001046.shtml ]]>fionn, clutching his new most favourite toy, a ring shaped rattle (the one on the right, here) that can be cluched simultaneously with both hands and pushed mouthwards for some quality gum-gnawing. it also has some nice rattley bits which make it a good tambourine for bashing.

note the blurred feet - they don't stay still for long.

[aged: almost 5 months]

]]> photography 2009-06-20T21:28:52+00:00 son of the god of the daisies http://www.caitriona.net/c/before/001045.shtml ]]>aonghus tells me that his namesake is some sort of god of the daisies, though the internet doesn't seem to back this up. either way, i reckon the crown suits fionn!

[aged: 18 weeks / just over 4 months]

]]> photography 2009-06-01T23:18:43+00:00