Scrapping Tonight

As you can see my blog is being neglected, but its that time of year when I am busy in the kitchen and wrapping pressies, which I am sure you all are too!
We have a full house this Christmas which will be lovely. I love hosting and love being busy in the kitchen.

It was my birthday last week and Sue bought me the new Lorraine Pascale book and I have already bookmarked a few recipes, including a twist on the traditional Rocky Road this time with maltesers and no marshmallow, perfect for me as I dont like marshmallow!

I love my cookery books and this week I have spent many an hour lost on the sofa pouring over my books for the holidays. My go to books this year have been, Nigella, Lorraine and Ree!


With 2011 coming to an end, and another year of ups and downs, I wonder what 2012 will bring the Bowkis family?
Whatever it is I know we will cope and as long as we are all still happy and healthy and all together in one place, I will be the happiest girl alive!

So today will be spent baking galore and filling the house with festive smells and Christmas spirit.

Have a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones, and may we never forget those that are no longer with us.

Merry Christmas, with love from my home to yours
Anna and family xx

I am at last beginning to feel some Christmas cheer. I am no scrooge but I am so busy at the moment I havnt had time to even think about Christmas. This week though Peter and I did some Christmas shopping on Monday and today I had a good sort out of what I had got the girls, and as usual I have spent more than planned and had gifts hiding I had forgotten I had bought! Anyone else like that?

The other week I did our Christmas card shoot and today they arrived from moo.com. I now have Micheal Buble's Christmas album and the tree and decorations are going up on Saturday!


Cake is baked and being fed, so all in all Christmas is finding its way into our home.
This year we have a full house Christmas Day and I cannot wait. I have to be organized this year as I am shooting a renewel of vowels on Christmas Eve! How romantic is that, just quietly wishing for a winters scene as my backdrop.

How are you getting on with the Christmas plans? Are you all wrapped and packed ready for the big day, or totally disorganized and have nothing bought!?

Would love to hear
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

My poor baby girl really hasn't been herself these last few weeks. It always breaks my heart, as I am sure it does all mums, when our children are sick. I don't believe there is anything serious wrong with her, but she is so not herself!
Lilly has been in and out of school these past 3 weeks and today woke up to a bloody face and sheets from one hell of a nose bleed! So another day she was kept of school.


My crazy girl just isn't her crazy self at the moment, but did manage a crazy photo last weekend , LOL

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Scrapbooking has been my life for the best part of 7 years. I started scrapbooking when Lilly was a baby using handmade papers I sold on Ebay, fibres, and paper flowers. cool stuff eh?!
I plodded along doing my thing and I got picked up by a new magazine called Creative Scrapbooking. I became a features writer and even had a cover with a winter layout of Izzy. I bought so many copies , LOL, and my Dad proudly had his copy next to his bed at all times.

Things were really good and I put my heart and soul into my craft, I was amongst the winners of Best of British, made it on to some amazing design teams, manufacturers and kit clubs as well as many magazines here in the UK and Australia.
I have been featured in a Russian magazine, German and Brazilian and am pretty chuffed to be honest!

In 2006 I started Pencil Lines, the sketch challenge blog and wrote my first book that was published in 2010.

Scrapbooking has bought alot of happiness and I have been to America teaching and all over the UK meeting the most amazing people and met many good friends.
Scrapbooking has also bought alot of bitterness by others towards me and this has saddened and upset me many times.
But at the end of the day the good has always outshone the bad times.

This blog of mine that I started in 2005 after we moved from Newcastle to Cambridge was a place for me to document our daily lifes for our friends up North. It soon became a place for me to share my layouts, and has been a place for me to vent, share celebrations and chat about allsorts.

Lately scrapbooking has taken a back seat and I have noticed my blog posts and layouts are becoming less and less. Its a seven year thing I reckon, I am just not so into it anymore. After spending so many years scrapping for deadlines I started to lose my love for the craft and I know I am not the only one amongst my peers that feels this way.

So I have to be honest with myself, scrapbooking is no longer a way of life for me anymore. I hope over the holidays to find some me time to scrap for me, as I do have quite a few personal projects I want to do, like my Paris album, Barcelona and Florida! So its not out of my life completely but has, and is taking a huge back seat. I actually cannot remember the last time I scrapped.

Today I went into my craft room and I have way too much stuff. I am going to sort some grab bags out and start selling my craft bits here on my blog.
Tomorrow I will add a few bits here and add a new page to the blog updating whats sold and available.

What I do want to get rid off asap, is my Sizzix machine and sidekick. The sidekick has dies with it and has hardly been used and my Sizzix machine has been well used so will need new pads at some point, LOL, and I have a bunch of dies to go with the machine as well.

Check out this page for all details.

I guess my blog will now return to my daily life, some baking, some crafts and updates of the girls for my friends up North!
My photography blog is where I will be alot more so do pop by and see what I am up too.

Thanks for stopping by and for reading this far!

Hugs
Anna x

Today in the UK is Children in Need. Kids all over the UK will have dressed up, done something silly, had a mad hair day, or gone spotty to help raise money for children less fortunate than ours.

This year the girls decided to turn fashion designers and decorate a white Tshirt and for Lilly a pair of white leggings!

Thank goodness for my promarkers!




Model : Isabella Bowkis
Designer : Isabella Bowkis
Stylist : Isabella Bowkis
Photographer : Me/mum




Model : Lilly Bowkis
Designer : Lilly Bowkis
Stylist : Lilly Bowkis
Photographer : Me/mum

What did your children do for Children in Need today? Don't forget to visit Children in Need website for details on how to donate!
I will be watching BBC 1 all night..... Just love it!

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

I really am not doing a very good job of updating my blog at the moment. Life is hectic, photos need editing and orders need to be placed. last week I had visitors form up North and a poorly Lilly on and off and the week just went by in a puff of smoke.

And already we are heading to the middle of another week!

Well last Thursday I joined the girls school on their KS2 visit to Buckden Towers for a Tudor themed day. The whole of KS2 did such an amazing job as did the staff and everyone seem to have such a great day. I joined the school in the afternoon to grab a few photos of the day.

I was very lucky and a neighbour lent me a beautiful handmade dress for Lilly to wear, Lilly looked beautiful


and then at the banquet


I finally managed to catch up with King Henry and Katherine of Aragon out side for a quick photo!


A brilliant day was had playing croquet, quill writing, making pomandors and lots more.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Its FRIDAY!! The weekend is upon us, and I feel like doing a Five Fav Friday today!
I am a huge lover of Pinterest and can spend hours lost on that site. i use it for photography shoot inspiration, baking inspiration, crafts and just to make me smile!
Here is some felt love:

these make me smile

love  flower headbands at the best of times

love this so much, must make some

how cute are these!

beautiful and simple

If you havnt discovered Pinterest yet, what are you waiting for, go get yourself over there and start pinning..... Check out my Pinterest page for plenty of more felt love!

Have yourselves a fantastic weekend. I have my girlfriends coming down from Newcastle on Monday, and a house to get in some sort of ship shape order, LOL.
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

A couple of weekends ago I had a day of shooting for a client, both her girls birthday parties. The first was Georgia's Mad Hatter Tea Party which the girls were invited too.
Of course Lilly went as The Mad Hatter again and thanks to an online friend, Izzy had the loan of a fab Red Queen outfit (made by said friend!!).

I was shooting general party photos and a party booth was set up, complete with faux grass!
Here are some photos of Izzy and Lilly aka Red Queen and The Mad Hatter...








How much fun are Photo Booths, I really enjoy doing these. Pop on over here if you would like to learn more about booking a photo/party booth at your next kids party/ Christmas party, any party, LOL

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

The Quick Step

Last Thursday Peter was dancing at a charity Strictly Come Dancing event for Ricard House Childrens Hospice. After having his chest waxed and having a spray tan he had already raised a mighty sum of about £600.00, amazing how badly people enjoy seeing others in pain, LOL!

I was already in London for another event, so met the girls and Peters family at the hotel in Russell Square to watch Peter and his partner Diana dance the Cha Cha Cha and the Quick Step.

25 couples from Richard House and The Olympic Stadium trained for only 6 weeks, an hour a week with professional dancers for their dancing debut. Peter and Diana were opening the show!


We were all dead proud of him, the girls waved their banner "go go Daddy go go" whilst us adults waved our "7" boards in the air.
It was a fantastic evening raising money for a very worthy cause.

Dead proud of you hun xxxx

Anna x

Not sure how much I can say just yet, only because it has not been publicly announced yet, but tomorrow I am headed down to London as a consumer reporter to a party food launch for a major retail chain. i will be followed by a film crew, (darn why didnt I keep up the dieting!) and will be interviewing celebs and guests at the event.
My main job is to interview a very gorgeous and sexy celebrity chef, eeeekkkkk. And the next best part is I get to take photos as well. OMGG
In total shock to be honest. I will not be allowed to post photos due to celeb laws etc, but they may be added to my report on the retailers website/blog/FB page, not sure which yet.

(Random photo , sorry)

photo credit Ria Mishall Cooke

Really excited and very nervous. It is also the same day that my darling hubby is dancing for charity  for Richard House Children's Hospice. Its going to be a surreal and very long day, but one I cannot wait for!

I havn't been picked out of thin air to do this. I did enter a competition last Friday and have been emailed back and forth about questions I would ask etc, I got the phone call Monday to say I had been chosen.

Wish me luck, and hope to be back Friday with lots of gossip!!

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Its with great sadness and after months of decision making, that I have stepped down from the Nikki Sivils design team. I have had an amazing year with Nikki and the girls and feel really honored to have worked with Nikki. My photography business is keeping me really busy at the moment and I just havn't been dedicating the time that Nikki and the DT deserve.

I was the only UK girl on the team and worked hard to get Nikki Sivils designs showcased in our UK magazines.

I thought I would share a few of my fav Nikki Sivils projects with you :

one of my first projects

a more recent layout using the new Get Well Soon range

love this range of papers! Published in TSBM

another oldie. Published in TSBM

a cute mini book using Nikki Sivils papers and mini book

I will not stop visiting Nikki Sivils blogs and seeing what the DT have been up too, always inspirational.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Yikes, been to long I know, hope to improve on this shortly but life and business has been manic!

Do want to share the Glee poster I did for all Izzy's friends who came to the party. Each poster was framed ready to hang on the wall!

Everyone loved their gift and Izzy's sits proudly in a birthday girl pink frame to go in her room.

Are you planning a birthday party soon? Do click on the tag "celebrations" below for previous parties I have done with my girls that may just spark of an idea!

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

It is with great sadness that the world loses a great visionary in Steve Jobs, Apple founder and CEO of Apple and Pixar.
There is so much I could post here, words of wisdom, encouraging and uplifting videos, but I am sure with a google of "Steve Jobs" you will find something that will change the way you look at your life by his words.



This is one of my favorite quotes:

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary' – Steve Jobs 1955-2011 RIP

We are an Apple family as of last year. Our desktop is an Apple Mac, my phone is an Iphone, Peter carries and Ipod with him and we have an Ipad 2. We love our Apple gadgets, and they have really chnaged the way we live our lives and organize our lives, crazy isnt it!

I spent last weekend with 17 photographers and Dane Sanders, and Dane brings up the vision that Steve Jobs had for Apple and how we can be inspired by his business vision. He also quotes and talks about Steve alot in his books "Fast Track for Photographers".

Although I said to google videos etc, I urge you to go listen to any of his TED talks and this one very inspiring talk at Stanford University.



My heart goes out to his family and friends, he was at the end of the day a family man.
I think tonight I will be watching Toy Story in memory of Steve Jobs

Anna x

Izzy had her party on Friday, and she chose a Glee Themed party, and I had so much fun putting it all together. It wasnt without its stress and tantrums on my behalf, LOL, but I got there in the end.



It all started with the invite, and this Glee wallpaper I found. I just opened in photoshop and cut out the centre square and popped in a photo of Izzy which I had taken in the studio and manipulated a little in PS



I knew how important the slushies were, but couldn't get a soda stream or the stuff anywhere, so I made big quench cup bands which we filled with ice and pop! (this one is filled with sweets)


I bought red and yellow plates, napkins and found some french fries holders!

The pudding bar had a Glee "hand cake" , cupcakes, popcorn and oreos






We had a Glee trivia quiz and a Glee sing off using the Xbox Karaoke



Everyone had such fun, and the sign off was great! In fact they all ended up singing "Don't Stop Believing" and bought the roof down!

Next week I will add some more fun photo booth snaps and the Glee 2011 poster with all the guests on!

Hope you enjoyed the "details" post.
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Just stopping by quickly, been a really busy week. Wednesday was Izzy's birthday and she turned 11, where has my baby girl gone....
Well today it's her party and I have been busy this past week gathering bits and pieces for tonights Glee party.

Autumn has truly arrived when it's time to start collecting conkers. It doesn't matter how old you are, the joy of finding beautiful shiny mahogany coloured jewels excites as all; well it does in our house, LOL

This weekend I had a photo shoot beside a huge old conker tree near our house. Whilst I was setting the scene for my photo shoot, Peter and Lilly went conker collecting.
Just love the look on Lilly's face!








Do you still love conker collecting? Do share your stories and photos
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x