Scrapping Tonight

Today I waved goodbye to Izzy as she embarks on a weeks holiday with school at West Runton in Norfolk. Two years ago Izzy last went on a weeks school trip and was so tearful it was a horrid experience to let her go. Infact all the mums and children were teareyed and it was a really emotional affair!
This year 40 odd year 6 kids , all smiles and enthusiasm got on the coach to spend a week away for the last time as a group of classmates and friends. Parents were emotional but the children were excited and looking forward to the adventures that await them! The weather is going to be stunning all week, and today they start their holiday off with a pool party!!
Yes you heard me right, a pool party! Izzy has gone complete with kaftan top and lip gloss to complete her look.

So here she is, my independant 11 year old, all packed and ready for her school trip.

love this quote, so apt for me right now

If I am still blogging in 5 years time, I am sure there will be a similar post about her off to Uni or something!

I know she will have a wonderful time and I cannot wiat to pick her up on Friday and hear all about her week.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

I am coming to the end of my first year in business next month and I thought it would be fun to celebrate by offering a FREE Mini Session to one lucky fan!
Mini session is for up to 5 people and last about 30 minutes. You will receive 5 images on disc.




All I ask you to do is

• "like" my face book fan page
• post here on my blog that you have done that with a link
• for an extra chance to win, share this blog post on twitter @AnnaBowkis

Yes it is really as easy as that! One lucky fan will win a Mini Session with 5 images on disc, to take place at Brampton Woods or Hitchingbrooke Park.

Closing Date is 28th April 2012, winner will be announced on 30th April 2012.

I am really excited about my first competition, please spread the word, and good luck!

Anna xx

Mothering Sunday/Mothers Day was yesterday here in the UK. I was spoilt with a cooked breakfast in bed by the girls!!! Peter has officially announced that Mothers Day is the best, because he also got a cooked breakfast in bed!!

Izzy and Lilly made me the most beautiful cards and the poem Izzy wrote in hers bought a tear to my eye.

Dinner was cooked by me and burnt by Peter, although he will say that I didnt make it clear that it needed stirring so will blame me for dinner burning! But it was saved by Peter and his mash was the best!

And then the girls had yoghurt for pud, I conveniently forgot to mention the scrummy lemon tarte in the fridge!
Then this.....

just love this so much, even though it did end in tears for Izzy :( click on image to enlarge

I love my family! My crazy beloved mad family. There is nothing more a mum could ask for!

Hope you ahd a lovely Mothers Day and was spoilt rotten

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Its half term here, and I have one poorly girl in the house, so most of our plans have been cancelled this week. Instead we are choosing the warmth of home and the sofa and lots of cuddles!

photography challenge I did yesterday to capture love and heartache

This blog is getting seriously neglected as of late. I am going to try my best and sort some kind of routine out for it. Start sharing some of my favorite finds on the web, as well as the usual home life posts!

If you are looking for photography related posts from me, then do pop on over to my new photography blog here, would love to see you drop by!

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

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

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

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

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

For those that read my photography blog, I am sure you cannot forget the photos I posted  from the Jane Austen Shoot I attended earlier in the month, organized by Melissa Love. I havnt stopped talking about it, LOL. I so enjoyed the day more than you can imagine. The styling, the models, the photographers all made the day memorable and inspirational!
Anyways, Melissa held a competition for all us attendees and we uploaded a favorite photo from the day that we had taken.
This was my submission:


The beautiful girl in the photo is Flora Dutton, one of the models on the day. This was my favorite scene, the Garden Tea Party. It was no surprise that I chose to submit from this scene really.
Well the winners were announced yesterday and I am really chuffed to announce that I came 3rd with the talented Tracey Barrow.
First place went to Boo Marshal. Congratulations to all the winners I feel really honured to amongst such fine talent.
I have won a set of vintage actions from Lisa Delvin; what could be more perfcet for me!
*happy dance*
Thanks to everyone who voted for me and got me through to the final.
Hugs
Anna x

With only 364 days left before the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics, life is pretty hectic on the sites. The ODA (Olympic Delivery Authorities), have delivered the main build on time, all main constructive is complete, they are well under budget and with all this good news surrounding the team, there was a London 2012 shindig at a venue opposite the main stadium.
Peter and I were invited and whilst I listen to the speeches made by some of the top bods at ODA, and several colleagues raised their glasses at my husband, I was a very proud wife standing next to him last night.
I tried to take a panoramic view of the stadium last night; its pretty pants my 3rd join is not good!, but it gives you an idea on what it looks like.

working life on the river

The River Lees is a working river, transporting people and materials to the Olympic Park as well as being home to many as well.
This woman did the most amazing 3 point turn right inf ront of my eyes, just had to take a pic!

Hope you are all well, we have a busy weekend ahead of us, its the annual Bowkis Summer get together!
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

I have neglected this poor old blog lately, and i think its because i made the decision to move all photography related bits here, and leave this blog for everything else. But photography is my life now, and my new career path, and my crafts have been put on the back burner lately.
Starting a new business, taking a new career path takes up alot of time as many of you know I am sure. Last week was spent meeting with my accountant and sorting out self assesments and my class 2 NI. Today I finally got my public liability and business insurance sorted, so I now have £2million public liability insurance, as well as everything else that comes with the territory!


I am now a member of the Guild of Professional Photographers and have been asked to submit my portfolio to the panel to become a qualified member straight away, so I am pretty chuffed about that.
Along with marketing myself doing fundraising and proms in the last 2 weeks of school terms, I have had client shoots and meetings with prospective clients.
One client being a theatre school who are going down to The Royal Albert Hall to perform in September, very excited about this, and Izzy happens to be in the show as well, hehehe.



Yesterday I went to a photographers meet up in Cambridge and met up with these wonderful ladies, Ria, Debbie, Angel and Tamara, you can read more about this here.

I have some really fun things lined up, including a couple of collaborations with some Folksy designers and I will be a guest writer over at The Photography Parlour this year as well.
I will probably get round to updating a couple of times a week here now, am planning on some felty sessions with the girls and plenty of baking and days out so I am sure those will get blogged. I also have the new CHA releases from Nikki Sivils to play with.
I hope you will follow my photography journey and keep on popping by here, I really do appreciate your comments.

Thank you for reading this post and for stopping by, hopefully I will see you over here as well
Hugs
Anna x

Saw this idea here and thought I would play along too.

1. Family
2. Friends
3. Music
4. Art
5. Photography
6. Cheese
7. Books
8. Bollinger Champagne
9. Lazy Sundays
10. Lavender

Would love to see your list :)

Thanks for stopping by
Anna xx

I am loving Sundays at the moment LOL This Sunday we met up with some old friends. Petes's best friend and best man at our wedding was down from Cheshire and friends from London who we havnt seen in about 6 years (yikes), came up to meet up with gary, Susan and family.
We all descended upon Pizza Express in Huntingdon at midday and left at about 3 pm, oops! The waiter was amazing and ever so patient with us.

We caught up on each others going ons and reminisced about the old days, LOL, like you do. We are all mums and dads now, and have all moved on from our clubbing days!

the gang!

the kids

thank you Izzy for taking this one

We havnt seen Gary, Susan and the girls since Julie was a baby. She turned 2 in April and we are all smitten by her, especially Izzy.



You can see more photos of Julie here on my photo blog.

Hope you had a wonderful weekend too.
Pencil Lines is live with a new sketch and guest designer. Unfortunately I was unable to participate this week, Anna Bowkis Photography is keeping me very busy at the moment!

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Picture heavy beware. I have tried not to give to much away and kept my photos to just the boys.

Oh My Goodness how amazing are Take That (and Robbie of course, mwah!)
My trip to Newcastle was delayed due to East Coast railway power lines down, so I couldn't travel up on Saturday, which meant dinner out with friends was missed, totally gutted. Sunday I made it to Newcastle and was greeted at the station by Karen and Kevin.
Our plans on Sunday were thwarted because I became pretty poorly, and was in bed by 9.30 and slept through till 10am the next day!
Monday I met up with Gillian and had my first fish pedicure. Took me about 10 minutes before I could relax and actually enjoy it, LOL.

Then Monday afternoon we started our journey to Stadium of Light and our evening with Take That and Robbie!!

Started with a Pimms,



Take That





Robbie




Take That Progress





Take That Classic




Loved every minute and still keep pinching myself, I cant believe I have actually seen Take That and Robbie live! Anyone going to see them live is in for a treat. But beware merchandise is a rip off, £20 for a program!!!

Thanks for stopping by
Anna xx


Thank you to Karen for bringing her little Fuji along

Really excited to share a new supporter of my blog and also Anna Bowkis Photography, Bags of Love.





 

Honestly this is the last of the photo share, LOL.
Just a quick share of a collage I did to show the fun the kids had in the photo booth.



For more photo booth fun click here.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Today I want to share the children's costumes. With 13 children, we had a nice mix of characters; a few Alice's, a couple of White Rabbit's, one White Queen, two Red Queens, a Cheshire cat and the Mad Hatter herself!

I am so glad I didnt go as the Red Queen in the end, as this little girl out shone us all!!

Red Queen






A White  Rabbit



Cheshire Cat





A Mad Hatter




Alice


I will be posting the photo booth fun over here tomorrow.

Thanks for all your lovely comments on the cake and decorations, I hope you enjoy seeing some of the guests today.
Anna x

Unusual, but yes photos of me. I thought it was about time that I grabbed a few of me, as I am always behind the camera and rarely in front of it.
These were taken Sunday when we were out for a walk with Suki at Hitchingbrooke Park.



I rarely do full length, and if I had pre planned I would definitely not have worn cream trousers, LOL!
My favorite photo is the second, because Suki is actually in the shot!! Suki never sits still long enough to get a family photo of us with her, so I am glad this was captured, even if it was only me in the photo. One day we will be able to get a family shot, when shes old and grey!

Don't forget I have a fantastic giveawy for one lucky fan of Anna Bowkis Photography!. Pop on over here for details.

Thanks for stopping by,
Anna x

Wow where has the year gone, crazy isnt it?? Glad the sun is shining again and Spring is here.
I have got round to uploading my 365/2011 photos, although I am having some issues putting in text, ggrrr blogger!

A few of my favs from the past few weeks are, nothing special just everyday captures that I will treasure :

Suki by my favorite Willow Tree

Izzy laid the table for Mothers Day lunch

Lilly hugging daddy when he got home one evening

Me enjoying , what was, an extremely windy day!

All the above taken with my IPhone and apps for post processing photos.
It just proves that with the right light you can get a pretty decent photo even with a camera phone!
Need to catch up with my document 2011 scrapping now!

I have been busy designing my marketing cards for Anna Bowkis Photography these last few days. the site is now live so do pop on over and have a look. Also check my previous post for a canvas giveaway from Photo Canvas. Giveaway closes 18th April.

Hope you are all enjoying the lovely weather
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x