Project Life

Wherever I go, I collect 'stuff'. I am quite possibly a hoarder by nature, although my actual decor style (if I have one) is actually quite 'clean' looking; not minimal, but definitely clutter free and with lots of light. The type of 'stuff' I am talking about is primarily paper-based; I keep restaurant receipts that remind me of a special dinner, wine bottle labels that remind me of celebrations, postcards from everywhere I visit, and about a million photographs of anything and everything (though not nearly enough in my opinion, I am super lazy when it comes to taking my camera anywhere since the end of my photography degree... must do better)!

And so everywhere I wander I tend to accumulate this stuff with the intention of creating a big scrapbook- so far I have planned a wedding scrapbook, a pre-baby scrapbook, and a travel scrapbook. I would also love to keep a prayer journal and a dream journal.

And this is how it is; the travel scrapbook was intended to keep all of this 'stuff' from my travels in one pretty, memorable place. This particular trip included galleries in Northern Spain, festivals in Southern Spain, rainbows and concentration camps in Poland, flea markets in Berlin, sleeping next to the river in Slovakia. Precious memories, highly deserving of being kept in a beautiful keepsake book, right. Yet somehow this trip took place over three years ago now and I am no closer to even starting the book- and it's probably too late now anyway. The memories will have faded, lost to romanticism and time; all of the beautiful notes and receipts and diary pages I kept are haphazardly dormant inside a big plastic bag.

I always find excuses not to do it, even though I want to so much- generally that I am too busy. I am busy, but isn't everyone?

So I have decided at this special point in my life (birth of both baby and business) that I should be keeping a sketchbook for it. I have asked for one of the super amazing Instax cameras for my birthday, so I will have no excuse not to have photographs as they will be right there in front of me. I stumbled across a few of the images above on weheartit.com today, and through that I found the most beautiful artist... this has truly inspired me to somehow try to chronicle the next year of Rob, baby, and me.



You need to visit the beautiful blog Hello Forever by Marcy Penner... click here to be inspired.

I think creating your own wedding scrapbook is the most beautiful memento of your big day that you could ever have- keep photos, (especially the candid snapshots) receipts, table decor, press some of the flowers, include the speech drafts, champagne labels, music playlists (and album cover from your first dance track), the confetti, ribbons, lace or whatever else you use to decorate, cards, gift tags; keep it all, and then stick it into a book.

What's a little time invested into something you will keep forever?

Charlie xx