AND JUST LIKE THAT SHE IS 5

London turned 5 in December, and I think I have been in total denial about it. She is growing up so fast and I find myself wanting to hold her so tight in hopes that time will slow down. 

The past five years seem to have flown by in just a blink of an eye. I know everybody says that, but it is so painfully true. I have always told myself to enjoy whatever season of life that I was in, because all too soon that season would be over and I would want it back. And it is so true, I want all the tiny little moments of that last five years back. 

I know all too soon my little five year old will be a growing six year old, and these are the things I want to remember about her right now

One | She loves color, and she loves it in rainbow order. 

Two | Eating is still a struggle most of the time. Her favorite go to choices are noodles, PB&J, fruit, cheesy crackers, noodles, nuts and cherries | potato chips| and strawberry milkshakes.

Three | She is smart, and likes to learn. At school she is on the 100 shelf and is learning how to add and subtract. She is also learning some basic words, and is working so hard to get to the purple shelf where she will get to read actual books.

Four | Anything that is crafty, she is on it. She likes to glue, and cut, and paint, and stamp, and color, and anything else she can get her hands on. New craft supplies get her so excited, and I totally get that.

Five | She wants a baby sister or brother so bad. She tells me about her friends at school who have brothers and sisters, and asks why she doesn't. It's a hard thing to try and explain to a 5 year old, but hopefully one day she will get to be a big sister.

Six | Watching TV is definitely something she does WAY to much of. Even if she is not watching it, she still likes to have it on. Her favorite shows right now are Rugrats, Sophia the first, Curious George, and sometimes Sesame Street. 

Seven | She is all about pretend play, and listening to her have conversations for her toys is probably one of my favorite things to do. 

Eight | She is still such a good sleeper, and it is so rare that she will ever get up at night for anything.

Nine | She hates taking a bath, and will fight me on it every time. But once she actually gets in the bath she doesn't want to get out. Washing all her bath toys with as much shampoo as possible is probably her favorite thing to do during bath time.

Ten | Her favorite person in the whole world is probably her Daddy. She gets so excited when he comes home from work, or has a day off. What is so cute though, is that she never wants me to feel that she loves him any more that she loves me. She will never say your the bestest Daddy without looking over at me to tell me that I am the bestest Mommy. Her Daddy will always be special to her because her Daddy is special. She is a lucky little girl.

I want to remember every little detail about London whole life, but the thing I want her to remember the most is just how loved she is. I know my life would not be as full without her in it. 

2017 SCRAPPY PLANS

I give myself the month of January to really think about what I want my year to look like and what goals I need to set for myself to make that happen. One of things that really helps with that process is starting the One Little Word project® (you can find more details about Ali Edwards One Little Word® here). 

This year my OLW is:

I have so many things that I want to change about my little world that I live in. Some of them are big, and some of them are small, but all of them are needed! You'll probably see me talk about some of those changes here on my blog throughout the year, but in this post I am just going to talk about my scrappy plans for 2017 and some of the changes with my approach to memory keeping!

PROJECT LIFE®

I have started a Project Life® album for the last 3 years. I say started, because I don't think I have actually fully completed any of them. I have done mostly 12x12 albums, but last year I decided to switch things up and use a 6x8 album. I really loved working with the smaller size, and to be honest if I could still get my hands on the same albums I used last year I would probably continue using it for this year too. Right now I am thinking about switching back to a 12x12 album for this year, and have already completed a couple weeks in that size. I will be documenting my year using a weekly format and I am planning on using this grey album from Becky Higgins to house all my spreads. My favorite products to work with when I am using pocket pages are from One Little Bird and Felicity Jane. You can probably expect to see a lot from both brands mixed throughout this years album. I will also be posting weekly process videos on my YouTube channel. Most importantly, I will be trying to stay pretty current with this project, because when I let myself fall too far behind it just becomes more of chore and less enjoyable. 

TRADITINAL PAGES

I am also definitley going to be telling my stories through traditional pages as well. I have never really had a plan when it came to my scrapbook layouts, at least not one that has stuck. This year I plan on being more intentional with my stories and photos that I scrapbook. I have subscribed to Ali Edwards Story Kits™ and Stamps since the very beginning and my plan of attack is to take most of my story telling inspiration from the themes of those kits every month. Of course I will get inspiration from other places along the way, but my main goal is to just scrap with purpose. I will probably use the same grey album that I am using for my Project Life® album, or maybe this white one? I also want to use a variety of page protectors and maybe even mix a few pocket pages in as well! Along with my Story Kits™, I definitely plan on using my Felicity Jane kits to create my layouts. I have had my eye on the Gossamer Blue kits, and want maybe try them out at one point this year too! Just like my Project Life® spreads, I will also have process videos for most of my traditional scrapbook pages over on my YouTube channel. 

CAMPING ALBUM

Last year I documented our family camping trips in Traveler's Notebooks. I didn't really share too much of that process. It was really new to me and I didn't know if it was going to stick, but I ended up loving it and plan on doing the same this year. The reason why I picked a Traveler's Notebook was that they were small and I could put them in our trailer. I actually can't wait to bring them out on our first camping trip this year. When I work on little side projects like this, I take the opportunity to use up my stash. I will probably share these notebooks this year by either sharing a few process videos or doing a album share.

FINISH OLD PROJECTS

Most of my albums on my shelf are not complete. Some of them I need to add just a few finishing touches, and others are just in the beginning stages and need a lot of work. My biggest goal for 2017 is to finish each project that I start, and to finish all my unfinished albums!! I know I will need to sit down and figure out what my action plan will be for the unfinished projects, but it is definitely something I want to work hard towards. 

I think that pretty much sums up all the scrappy goals for the new year. I really am excited and hopeful that this year will be a really productive year and that I will have a few new albums on my shelf as my reward!

I would love to have you along on this memory keeping adventure, and this is where you can find me.

YouTube: Banning Lane
Instagram: @BanningLane
Facebook: you guessed it... Banning Lane

and of course right here on this blog!

Thanks so much for stopping by, and hopefully we will see you all very soon.
-Dannielle

Currently

Every few months I like to document London's life as it is right now. One of my favorite ways to do that is to do a current favorites layout. These layouts for me are almost always in a list form, which make them really fast, and easy, and fun. It has been awhile since I have done a layout like this, so when I saw Jen Schow challenge us to do a currents layout, I was on board. This is what I came up with

Most of the products I used on this layout came from my Felicity Jane box. (I only keep my most current kit separate. When a new kit arrives, the old one gets put in an Iris container with all the others.) 

I knew I wanted to use those fantastic teal green vellum letters. I moved them around the page quite a bit before I rested them below my photo.  By doing this, it created a nice little home for my journaling right next to my photo.

I used some tiny alphabet stamps that came in the kit to spell out each jumping off point (just like Jen did). It took a little bit of time, but I love the way it looks. 

After I got my photo and journaling on the page, I moved on to embellishing it. I pulled out a handful of hearts from my kits. Some of them were paper, and some were wood veneer. I like the variety of those two different textures. I decided that I would do two different clusters on my layout. One at the top and one at the bottom. 

For even more variety I pulled out some pink buttons, and an xoxo flair. I really like the pops of pink on this layout. To add just a little touch of girly, I also pulled a doily from my stash to layer behind the cluster by my photo. I like the way it grounds that area of my layout.

I added some cute little numbers that came on one of the cut apart sheets. six numbers for six currents. To bring some more color to the bottom of my page I layered a green label behind those numbers

To finish this layout, I added some stitching to my title and also to the group of numbers with my sewing machine. I also chose to take my pen and draw several messy lines around my layout. After that, I called this complete. 

I am heading over now to link my layout to Jen's blog. Her layout turned out amazing, as always, so head on over there to check out her take on this theme.