Scrapping Tonight

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 received my box of the new releases from Nikki Sivils last week, and excited is not a strong enough word for Nikki's new collections! She has also started doing collection packs, which I have always loved buying!



I love the "get well soon" collection, and this will be the first I am going to play with this week, I have the perfect photo just waiting to be scrapped.

How adorable and cute is "my lil monster"?! My have to go through the photo archive for this collection.


Pop on over to Nikki's blog to see all the new releases, which one are you going to pick as a favorite!

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

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

This morning I was invited to the school Honors Award Ceremony, Lilly was going to be presented with an Honors Award for sports, and she had no idea!

The assembly was an hour long, and Lilly received an award for her outstanding progress in swimming and also received her 100 house point award, bless her.

Had to take a photo of her proudly holding her certificates for Peter to see and of course to probably scrap, LOL.




Its day's like these that I am happy to be a mamarazzi!!!

Have a great weekend, I am off to photograph a year 6 prom tonight, should be lots of fun!
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

I cherish this photo of my Dad and I, taken when I arrived back in the UK in 1996, hence the young looking me, LOL.
My Dad was still living in a flat with MS and no lifts up to his floor! He used to walk 2 flights to get to his flat, crazy eh!
He was still able to walk aided and able to fend for himself. This is probably the last photo I have of us together before he got really sick.




Supplies : Pink Paislee Queen Bee, Pink Paislee die cuts, Prima flowers, MME transparency,Nikki Sivils burlap buttons, Bazzill cardstock

I used a kit from my last crop, I still have a couple available if anyone is interested. £10 inc 2nd class postage. (contents : 2 sheets of cardstock, 4 sheets of Pink Paislee pattern paper, 1 sheet of PP die cuts, 1 alphabet sheet, 1 transparency, Prima flowers, 1 pack Nikki Sivils burlap buttons)

Pop by my photography blog for our day out on the river photos.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna

OMG 2 weeks without the internet is not good, I have not enjoyed it at all. I have had some access via my phone and IPad but it is limiting on what I can do.
The house has enjoyed my absence from the computer, it has been clean and tidy for 2 weeks now, and I have done loads of baking too, LOL.

So I am back, and will catch up on lots of blogging this week. Going to start with a layout to share. I had my crop a few weeks ago now and managed 4 layouts! A miracle i must say.

This layout is a photo of Lilly and I. I pulled out a bunch of original photos and took them to the crop.  It was fun scrapping "imperfect photos". I am so wrapped up in the rule of thirds, clean lines and catchlights that we sometimes forget to photograph the moment. I am too busy making sure the light is falling on their faces right and the background isnt distracting, all this can overtake the actual moments sometimes, these photos are pure snapshots!
I love this photo and am sure I have scrapped it before.



Supplies : Kenner Road kit, Such Sweet Tierney buttons, Prima flowers, Nikki Sivils Burlap buttons

The past few weeks have been busy. My photography business is doing well and keeping me out of mischief I am glad to say. Since I last blogged Peter and I went to MK Bowl to see the Foo Fighters, who once again blew me away! I am totally in love Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins is just to skinny for me now, sorry Taylor.
Weekends have been spent down by the river and on a friends boat, so relaxing and peaceful, and as got Peter browsing EBay for boats now, LOL. Will share some photos this week from our days by the river.
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

I am sat in the public library at the moment! This is so strange, I feel like I have lost both limbs. This morning I headed into town and bought myself a large coffee and settled down to some wifi at Costco coffee shop; erm well I ended up sat on my lonesone with my large coffee as they do not have wifi, gggrrrr. So here I am in the public libary.

Today I want to share another of my layout I did at my crop on Sunday.
This is an origianl oldie of Izzy around 3 years of age. Peter used to work away 10 days at a time in London when we lived near Newcastle. peter has just arrived after another stint away from home and Izzy's face is full of joy, arms outstretched for a hug from her Daddy.


Supplies: Kenner Road Kit, Pink Paislee

Thanks for stopping by, hope to be blogging again tomorrow
Anna x

Morning all, I have no internet connection for 2 weeks, but thankfully have the iPad and iPhone which will keep me sane hopefully. I can also see a few trips with my laptop and Starbucks lol.
Anyways I am doing a test blog post to see what this little beauty can do, and if it works will download some photos onto the iPad and blogging should resume!

So let's try and pop an image in, mmm ok cannot upload from the iPad need to upload from an external source. oh well it's going to be a learning curve, anyone know how to upload images with ease do let me know

I guess I will have a very tidy house, lots of baked goodies in the kitchen and some crafting done. Can think of worse things!

Thanks for stopping by
Anna xx

Today was crop day and although there were only 4 of us and myself we still had a great day, and I believe it or not, scrapped 4 layouts!!! A new record for me, I rarely manage 1 layout at a crop, LOL.

This layout is for Pencil Lines sketch 244. Leaving very last minute I know but scrapping time has been put on the back burner these last few weeks.

I am using up my drawer full of left over kits, and this is another one from Kenner Road.





Supplies : Kenner Road Kit, word strip Scenic Route, Bakers Twine, button Such Sweet Tierney

The weather here is glorious, very hot and sunny. I have sports day tomorrow for both the girls and hope to have all my layouts blogged this week for you with some sports day photos!

Thanks for stopping by, hope your weekend was a good one.
Anna x

Oh dear, I have been a naughty blogger. I have been so busy of late with Anna Bowkis Photography that my feet have not touched the floor. I havn't scrapped in what seems an age and my studio represents a second hand shop, filled with vintage buys for my photography shoots!

Last week I had some little models over to help start promoting my boutique school portrait business, and I finally finished putting together my presentation folders to hand out to preschools.

At the weekend I was working for an Events Photography company (IMG Events Photography) as a second shooter, hard on my poor knees, LOL, but great fun!

I had some work published in Crafts Beautiful recently, or so I believe, as I have yet to receive my copy, a cute summer mini book, a tag book and a "Wish you were Here" card. I will share these tomorrow.

Pencil Lines went live with sketch 243 on Sunday with guest designer Gretchen McElveen. Do pop on over to see what Gretchen and the team did with this weeks sketch.

I will be back tomorrow with some projects to share, in the meantime feel free to check out Anna Bowkis Photography blog for some photo love.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Nothing that I am sure you don't already know, but I love making cupcakes and baking in general. Not so keen on eating them as I dont like the butter cream topping much to be honest. Just love swirling and sprinkling!
Well in Ikea at the weekend I spotted these, and  fell in love!


I made little chocolate chip muffins




imagine this with swirly butter cream topping and covered in sprinkles, they would look like mini ice creams don't you think!
I also have a bit of an obsession with cupcake cases as well, I have wow too many in every shape, size, pattern and colour imaginable!

By the way, do keep up with my photography news over here, I am keeping my photography and daily bits seperate from now on, LOL

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Remember the layout I did for Pencil Lines sk242 that I blogged about on Monday? Well as I had said I had many photos I loved from that day, and this was another photo, of Izzy that I adore.

Scrapped with the same kit from Kenner Road, so wish she hadnt closed down *boohoo*, loved those kits.

Like all siblings, they have their good days and their bad days. My girls are no exception to that rule. They either adore each other or are fighting each other. They change how they feel about each other like the wind changes direction, and its hard to keep up with them, LOL

But when I capture special moments of my girls laughing, loving each other and truly being best friends, sisters, my heart melts and I am so glad I am tethered to my camera!
This was one of those days, and this is just a few from a series of photos taken of my two messing about, giggling and just finding fun in the smallest of things.

I love my girls  to the moon and back.

When I designed this sketch I didn't have these photos in mind, but I am glad that when I pulled the sketch out to play with, these photos sprung to mind immediately. I used an old Kenner Road Kit to complete this layout.


Best Friends - Pencil Lines sketch 242







Supplies : October Afternoon, Sassafras Lass papers, Cosmo Cricket chipboard, Sassafras Lass felties

 Do pop on over to Pencil Lines to meet this weeks guest designer and see what the rest of the design team did with the sketch.



Thanks for stopping by.
Anna x

Today Izzy has had to come up with something she can sell, either a service or a product, and make profit.
Izzy chose to bake cupcakes. Yesterday after school she and a frined took over my kitchen and made 24 small cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes and a tray of Rocky Road. Cakes were iced and sprinkled with a little help from me.






This morning we took in the cake stand adorned with 48 cupcakes and flags to a classroom of oo's and has; I think she felt good ;)

I hope she comes home with an empty cake stand and an empty tray!!

Thanks for stopping by,
Anna x

Its been an age since I scrapped. I am struggling again to be honest. Most of my energy is spent on my photography business now and my scrapbooking creativity has been lost under a pile of legal photography forms, LOL!

I did though find some time yesterday to play with some Nikki Sivils papers, and used a photo I had printed already. I love this photo from Lilly's birthday party of the "3 Alice's" sat on the bench

love Bakers Twine!

cute bobble fringing

I have been recording our daily thoughts etc on the " feed your family " test we are doing. Check my Feed a Family of Four for £50 progress here.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Sainsburys say they can feed 4 people, 3 meals for 7 days, so I am putting them to the test. I have ordered my shopping and I am going to see if I can feed 4 hungry mouths for a week with what they suggest!



Has anyone else tried this?

Breakfast consists of muesli and banana
Lunch a sandwich of some sorts
Dinner looks pretty substantial from what I have seen, but the proof is in the tasting!!

I have had to add some yoghurts on to my list and a few extras for the kids lunch boxes for school but apart from that I have ordered everything on the shopping list!

I will blog each day and let you know how we get on. Shopping arrives tomorrow morning!

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