Scrapping Tonight

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

Playing with some Nikki Sivils last week for Nikki's blog, and I decided to mix things up and use 2 lines to design my layout. I used "school is cool" and "Get well soon"

It just shows that the name of a collection is not the only use you can have for it. I love the colours in the "Get Well Soon" collection, but I had already done a layout of a poorly Lilly and didnt want to do another "get well soon" themed layout.




Supplies : Nikki Sivils papers, die cuts, buttons, and alphabet stickers, Prima flowers and gems, wooden monogram from stash

The colours of both these collections worked well together. The photos are from a day on the river back in June.
Head on over to Nikki Sivils blog to see what the rest of the international DT did this month.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

my wedding day

 They say time heals, and it does, its true that the pain is not so harsh as the years go by.
My dad passed away 5 years ago today after a 15 year battle with MS. I am so thankful that I had 9 months with my dad living only a few miles up the road, and was able to visit him as often as I wanted. He had Christmas Day at ours, a huge moment for me, a summer party at ours and many an hour at Riverside Park with an ice cream.
I had a Womans networking conference to attend today, and I was the  photographer for the day. I was kept busy and I was amongst like minded women. My dad was watching over me, beaming....

Love you always Dad,
xxxxxx

I was photographing some skirts for a Folksy designer and went to the Big Top at the Circus in Bedford as a backdrop (more to come on my photo blog). So I decided that we should all go and visit the circus as the girls had never been.

I was a little disapointed, just wasn't as I remembered *sulk*. The girls enjoyed it, thats the main thing.

The colour in the tent was so orange so excuse the colour and image quality, but just didnt seem right to turn black and white.





The last time I went to a circus I was a little girl, so maybe everything seemed more WOW and bigger! There were no trapeze artists, but tbh the tent would'nt have been large enough. This circus was made up of only 6 performers so a very small show. Think I need to see Cirque de Soleil for the WOW factor!

Has anyone else been to a circus recently. Would love to hear what you thought
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

I cannot believe I now have a year 4 and a year 6!! When did that happen? The summer holidays have flown passed, and all the promises I made were mostly broken, oops!

I did manage for the first time to have school uniforms and shoes purchased in good time and I actually got all their clothes labelled before the new year started!

Both the girls have learnt how to do knot own ties!

The girls school have introduced a new uniform and they looked really smart this morning. The biggest change was ties. The girls were really excited at wearing ties, but the funny thing was, collecting the children from the us this afternoon to find most of the kids without their ties on, LOL. The girls thankfully still had theirs on.

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

Today Izzy had her braces fitted at the orthodentist. The initial feeling scared had been replace by butterflies of excitement, bless her.
I was so surprised at how quick and painless the whole operation was. When I had braces many many years ago. I had the ones you could take out with the plastic roof. When ever mine were fitted or tighten I would come home with my gums bleeding and spend the day with cotton wool in my cheeks.

Izzy has a fixed top row only (train tracks) and has no rubbing on her gums or lips which is fantastic.

As I suspected eating has been a bit of a chore. Lunch was soup and buttered bread, of which the bread got left after one nibble and a few spoons of soup were consumed. I think its the whole nervousness of them breaking thats bothering her.

Before




After

new pink braces!

But on the whole, apart from a few aches (thank you calpol) she is doing really well, and is actually out playing this afternoon!

Any readers out there that have had kids that have gone through the same, any words of wisdom would be gratefully received!

Thanks for stpping by
Anna

This is photography related. I have entered a competition with a photo from the Jane Austin shoot I went on the other weekend, see here, and the prizes up for grabs are amazing. Have my eye on the Aspire workshop LOL.



If you like my photo, please spare 1 minute if that, to vote for me. And if you are feeling really generous you can ask your friends to as well;) You can vote for me here

Voting closes August 30th

Thank you
Anna xx

I actually scrapped last week, and played with a couple of the new Nikki Sivils lines. One of my favorite being the "Get Well Soon" papers! AS mums with cameras we all snap photos off our poorly kids and I have several photos over the years. I started off with a few photos when Lilly was poorly a few months back.
All taken with my IPhone and edited on my IPhone.

Germs




Supplies : Nikki Sivils Get Well Soon papers, diecuts and stickers


My next layouts is with "School is Cool", although there are a few Americanized stickers in general these papers are great for us English scrappers! I scrapped the girls on Sports Day, which I scrap every year!!
Love that the photos are always so colourful, and these papers are bright and funky!

Sports Day 2011





Supplies : Nikki Sivils School is Cool papers, diecuts and stickers

Pop on over to Nikki Sivils blog to see what all the design team are doing with the new releases as well as see who this months guest designer is!

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Sometimes when I am commisoned to do a layout for a magazine, I get sent papers/embellishments to use. Lindsey from the Scrapbook Magazine sent me some Bo Bunny many moons ago for an issue of The ScrapBook Magazine.

Not my usual colour choices, but after playing around for a bit I came up with this layout using an old photo of Sue and I.

3d stickers are old Basic Grey/KandCo

Supplies : Bo Bunny papers, Prima flowers, Maya Road felt bird, Basic Grey 3d stickers, MM alphabet, Crate chipboard, Websters ribbon, pearls from stash

I loved how the Crate chipboard worked so well with the Bo Bunny papers.
As I write this post the heavens have opened and it looks more like a winters afternoon then summer!

Hope you are all enjoying the school holidays, thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Just dropping by to let you know I am the Featured Artist over at "Its a Good Place to Start".
If you fancy getting to know what makes me tick creatively, then pop on over for a nosey!
Also I am giving away a signed copy of Pencil Lines the sketch book to one lucky reader over at Vicki's blog!!

Over the last few weeks I have started receiving layouts I have had published in The Scrapbook Magazine and Crafts Beautiful. As you can imagine most of the layouts were done months ago and its always a nice surprise when they are returned. I had forgotten a few of the layouts!

Today I am going to share a favourite I did for The Scrapbook Magazine using Nikki Sivils "Its Your Day".
Lilly and her BF at her birthday party last year. I had managed to buy lots of goodies from Florida for Lilly's Tinkerbell theme at a fraction of the cost here in the UK.

love the party hat bunting!

cute buttons from Such Sweet Tierney

Supplies : Bazzill cardstock, Nikki Sivils Its Your Day papers and diecuts, Such Sweet Tierney buttons

I cannot do a blog post at this time without mentioning the horrific riots that are taking place all over England. I wish everyone who lives in the effected areas mythoughts and prayers, hope you are managing to stay safe and well.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Saturday was the annual Bowkis get together and memorial for all those we have lost. As always I took loads of photo's but today I am going to share one of Peter and his brother lighting the Chinese sky lanterns, ten in total for each person we have lost but always remember.


A totally magical moment for us all. I went up Castle Hill with Peter and his brother and Sister to snap photo's whilst everyone else looked on from Nana's garden. We could here them cheering every time one went up.
I looked at purchasing these a few years back and they were not cheap, today Tesco sell them in packs of 10 for £10! a total bargain don't you think.
Hope to share some more photos by the end of the weekend with you all form the day.
Thanks for stopping by
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