Sunday Snacks - Peanut Butter Nutella Cookies

There are somedays when I really try to earn those "cool big sister" points... Today was one of those days, and i'm not totally sure if I succeeded. A classmate of mine from Sac State posted some intriguing cookies that seemed right up her alley. The recipe for the peanut butter nutella cookies sparked my interest for her because of the very word "nutella" in it. Now, on my facebook post for my last blog entry, I stated that I was certainly no Augustus Gloop when it comes to chocolate. My sister, on the other hand is quite the chocoholic to say. Ever since my dad received Nutella a few years ago from my older brother for christmas, I think its safe to say that she's hooked.
A mix mainly consisting of peanut butter, oatmeal, and nutella, these cookies seemed to bake up nicely, but smelled very on the peanut butter end of the spectrum. I was informed by the house Nutella professional that they were indeed more peanut buttery than nutellay. Well, i tried. Maybe i should stop trying to earn the "cool big sister" points this way. Maybe i'll just stick to hand me down clothes.
to see more of julie's delicious looking posts, you can check her blog out and follow her at always with butter.

"let's do 52" - wk4

so kasey is in germany, right? (you readers might remember her as a set of feet with a silly dog named papa) and with kasey being in germany, we love sending each other fun gifts. for christmas, i sent her two sets of little miss matched socks and a pair of glasses that function as a straw. well, this past week i received some chocolate in the mail from her, as well as friends season 10. yippee! she's been raving about how great this chocolate is, and how her sister loves it, and everything. now, usually i'm not a chocolate lover, but i figured i'd give it a shot.
well, it came, and it was just as odd as it sounded. not only is it dark chocolate straight from germany, but inside each little bite size piece you'll find a collection of poprocks. yes, poprocks and chocolate! the brand is called "shokomonk," and it seems to be quite an interesting creation. i had my chocoholic sister try some (without telling her about the poprocks)... i didn't quite get the effect i was going for as far as facial expressions. but otherwise, i think it is chocolate that i may actually want more of! (well, besides the normal 3 musketeers bars, but who doesn't love those?!)
silly germans. whatever will they think of next?
next up on the blog, some sunday snackage! nutella cookies, courtesy of always with butter by julie craig :) if you want some delicious "from scratch" recipes, as well as awesome food photography, you should definetly check out and follow her blog.

Friday Feet - Jan 28, 2011

well, i've survived the first week back to school, and so have my comrades! we're back again with the feet of the week. wow, it's already our last january post!
amy - "Wearing the socks my mother got me because it's cold this morning! Just getting ready to clean the house some more in preparation of my family visiting! Can't wait!"

emily - "well, its back to school time. and the LAST back to school time for me! (that still sounds crazy to me) jenny and i were able to figure out some time that we could meet and hang out during our uncoordinated school week on our favorite carpet mountain spot for one last semester."
jenny - "Disney Scene It Show Down at Emily's followed by Valentine's Day and sparkly appley beverages. mmmm. my idea of a great night!"

kasey -

What's Happening? - Jan 2011

well, for one, school is back in session... but the plus side? i'm graduating in less than four months!
its back to the grind, and time to let you all in on some new excitement that will be hitting the blog in the next month or so! well, to start us off, lets get back to a reminder of the current contest going on here at the blog.

Valentine's Engagement Session Contest

don't forget! if you've recently snatched up the soon to be mr. or mrs. right, have i got an exciting offer for you! Totally free, and all you have to do is answer some simple and fun questions. the pool of entries isn't large at all, so your chances of winning the big prize of a free engagement session are pretty good! head on over to the original post, shoot me an email (photogbyem@gmail.com) with the answers filled out, and BAM! you're in!

March of Dimes 2011 Contest
Last year's March of Dimes Contest was, i think, a pretty good turn out for a first contest. I photographed 2 families as a result from the contest, and this year i'm in the works of making it bigger and more awesome! i've been talking with vendors, trying to get a rally of super prizes that everyone will love. as soon as i've got the details locked down, i'll annouce everything, and the games will begin! besides, who doesn't love trying to save the world one baby donation at a time?

WPPI 2011
WOO HOO! next month i will be headed out to WPPI 2011 in Las Vegas, Nevada. My dad and i will be driving out friday and heading back home after 5 days of photo goodness on tuesday. There are SO many things i wish i could do while i was there -neon museum- but i think i have overpacked myself with all the excitement of WPPI-U, master classes, and platform classes. Rumor has it, noted fashion photographer Nigel Barker (did i sound tyra banks enough for you there?) will be there as well. Is this not like disneyland where you get pictures and autographs from the famous people? ok... apparently not, but a girl can dream! i can't wait to get the ball rolling after this amazing experience, and hopefully throw some new ideas out there!
New Look

Really, i'm trying... one day. hopefully this year, i will have a new website. my current one is so sad... it sometimes makes me sad. but it still works! Hopefully, during the trade show at WPPI, some amazing vendors (which i know they do!) will wow me over, and save my website soul. so hang tight, try and ignore the dust, and i'll let you know when something is closer to being in the works!
PLUS! i've got a few shoots coming up for sure. you'll see lorelai & kent again very soon, as well as a wedding reception the saturday before i leave for Vegas. so don't worry. some brand new images will be on their way :)

"let's do 52" - wk3

let's start you off with a snapshot from the lovely fujifilm instax, shall we?to be honest, we had planned for this night to happen on new years eve when our original plans had fallen though, and it was going to be just us girls. well, jenny got sick, and thus began our postponing. the end of winter break snuck up on us, and after many facebook posts of "i haven't seen you ALL year"... we FINALLY pulled our game night together. we kicked it off with a rousing 3 rounds of disney scene it, some bubbly martinelli's sparking cider, and good ol' homestyle popcorn. after our games were ended, and our popcorn was gone, we move on to watching valentine's day. sure, its january... but still! all in all, we had an excellent last saturday night... and will begrudgingly be heading off to our spring semester of college tomorrow. *sigh* at least it's my final semester!our lovely little game tokens. jenny chose goofy to be her mascot right off the bat, and i swiped the ever fashionable minnie mouse to mark my place.
mmm. the salty popcorn remainders at the bottom of the bowl. and whenever i think of popcorn, i always think of this video :) i totally forgot to get a shot of our martinelli's cider in the classy cups i chose. let's just say they were very fit to theme by being my toy story cups i bought last month in disneyland. and also some of our trivia cards that we either easy beyond all reason, or threw us for a loop. we apparently still have some disney studying to catch up on for next time!
overall, i would have to say it was an excellent saturday night, and a great fit for our lovely college student lifestyle. hopefully with the new semester, i'll have a lot more shooting to do, and therefore, lots more posts to come your way! stay tuned for tomorrow's "what's happening?" post with some exciting new offers and what not :)

Friday Feet - Jan 21, 2011

amy - "I'm sitting in the Raggio building at UNR waiting for my Small Group Communications class to start. I'm sitting under some really pretty inside trees. Here are some leaves that have escaped. I am also feeling human once again. My throat cold of last week is gone, and my head cold of this week is on its way out. Finally! "
emily - "last saturday i went to the band crab feed before hand so my parents could finish setting up. in the meantime, i booked a wedding reception for next month! but of course, this brought the grand realization that i had NO worthy black pants to wear. so it was off to arden fair mall this past thursday to find some pants. and guess what? i totally did"
jenny - "showing off our cat and mouse slippers during a sleepover. you've never too old for a sleepover when you've known someone for 16 years"
kasey - "Weather is sunny. Went through my day lazing in the rare thing that is the sun. Hubby lay down with me and we watched movies. ♥ Great day."

"let's do 52" - wk2

well. this pretty much sums up my week, as well as a turning point for my sleep cycle. anyone that knows me, knows that i am a night owl. sometimes as late as 2:30 or 3am going to bed, and then sleeping until almost noon. this most recently brought on by not having school since the end of december. well, this past wednesday threw a wrench in my gears leaving me feeling horrible and calling in to work sick. long story short, i left the drs. later that day with a prescription for 800mg ibuprofen pills and to rest. well. i can't swallow pills. went to work on thursday, and a discussion with my boss led to me needing to take some form of vitamins in order to get my body back to normal (i was previously sick this past summer as well). more importantly, she felt i needed to be taking vitamins with iron (or eating mass amounts of spinach... call me popeye, i suppose). well, CVS Pharmacy's selection of vitamins didn't please me, so i called my mom trying to figure out what to do. and after a trip to the children's health section... i found these beauts.
ahh. childhood. i thought i had heard you calling my name. better yet, the back of the box says "for adults and children 4yrs and up". so there you have it. problem, i give you the solution! and as for the sleep cycle... going to bed before 2:30 am is taking some getting used to. harry potter reading is going to have to happen at a different time of day.

Friday Feet - Jan 14, 2010

amy - "This is lightning, our rat. He loves rolling around the house in his ball while i clean!"
emily - "some late night skyping with kasey over in germany :) although, makes me really wish my toes were painted some pretty color. hah"
jenny - "The feet aren't doing too many exciting things today. Filling out their grad school application and facebooking while dressed up in their exciting professional wear. (for the evening job)"
kasey - "What do you do during the weeks when its raining, you have no car, and friends are in low supply? Read! I've been reading Naamah's Kiss all week. the 7th book of my favourite line, and its every bit as good as the rest."

Julia & Matt - Married 01.09.2011

it started in the fall of 2002. i was a freshman in high school, starting out at a new school with new people to meet. megan, julia (who tell the story that they met when they were born in the same hospital, on the same day. megan rolled over and said "hi, i'm megan" and of course julia said back, "hi, i'm julia") & i formed our little "mickey mouse club" trio because of band. yep. we were band kids. somewhere along the high school years, megan and i placed a bet, as to who would get married first. well, megan lost that bet summer of 2009 and now owes me dinner. julia and i had joked about placing a bigger bet between the two of us as to the next to get married... something like a trip to disneyland or something. well. i'm kicking myself now because i totally could have gotten dinner AND a complimentary disneyland trip. haha. who would have thought. anyways, tonight was julia's reception for her and her new hubby matt, and she looked stunning. her dress was exactly what i imagined she would have worn. simple & lacy with a vintage flair.
cute little cake with personalize little topper peoples. the poor little "matt" cake topper kept taking a nose dive in to the cake.
and how can you not love the adorable bird cage card holders at weddings? especially when they're so well meshed with the whole look of the wedding. julia & matt gave out bird seed in the shape of hearts as their favors. too stinkin cute.
for matt & julia's first dance, everyone was given a lighter to click on and hold above their heads. i learned that it is a difficult task to do with your left hand while holding a camera in the right. enough of that, do you see the gorgeous that is julia's dress?
and for everyone that knows julia personally... well... does this really need anymore words?
julia & matt - thank you so much for inviting me to your reception. i had a great time, and wish you both the best for the years to come. like you told megan on her wedding, and she reminded you today, it's not about your wedding being the perfect day, its about every day for the next 50 year being filled with perfect days. :)

Friday Feet - Jan 7, 2011

we made it through the new year, and welcome you to our first 2011 feet posting! some of us were able to go on adventures again this week, but it seems the majority of us hid from the cold world with our houses and blankets. happy friday everyone :)
amy - "This may look like a pile of blankets, but really it's my feet, enjoying the warmness and the end of their second to last week of break. "
emily - "this is what happens when the blog leader forgets to take feet pictures. you get post-work dinner on the couch while watching 'icarly' feet"
jenny - "My feet went ice skating in tahoe this week with their very favorite feet."
kasey - "Been working on some commissions and writing my stories. So i'm at the computer a lot. My friday feet are resting on the legs of my chair."

"let's do 52" - project 2011

its six days in to the new year. today last year, i would have picked up my camera a minimum of six times at this point. that was then. last year, i did the ever challenging 365project, and boy was it a rough 365 days! but to be honest, come january 1st, i felt confused. do i continue and do yet ANOTHER 365 days, or do i just drop off cold turkey and only shoot when needed? well, i didn't want to do either. and well, i think i have finally found a project to keep me going.
my problem with the 365 was i would get points where i just got SO burnt out, and took one picture. just one. no matter how good it looked, it counted as a photo. and that wasn't my goal with the project. my goal was to feel inspired about the project, but instead i felt like my camera was a ball and chain. today, in my usual late night robotic facebook mode, i came across annie manning's "lets do 52" post and was intrigued. of course, i was making dinner at the same time, so i couldn't fully appreciate the post. and then, this happened:when i turned back to go finish making my classy dinner of pasta roni, i found we had acquired some new kitchen decor. i ran to go grab my camera... but didn't grab the one i should have initially. sure, i'm VERY excited to use my instax, but i should have grabbed my dslr. i almost slapped myself on the wrist. really? its has sat on my desk for 6 days now... so i grabbed it, said my apologies by putting on the 50mm 1.4, and found the furry beast still in the kitchen. so its decided... lets do 52 needs to happen. just one "emily acceptable" photo a week. i feel i won't run out of steam that way. so to kick it off, here is 1.52 :)i really hope i'll have more than 52 pictures of cats... although, it wouldn't surprise me in the least. haha. hope to see you back here tomorrow for the other weekly project of friday feet! the first feet post of 2011. how crazy is that?

Valentine's Day Contest 2011

Well, with the holiday season just past us and the new year just beginning, i figured it would be time to hit the ground running! What better to kick the year off with than a free engagement session? Over the holidays, i watched my facebook nearly explode with the amount of people changing their status from "in a relationship" to "engaged" and all the excitement began to swell. of course, being me, i HAD to get excited when one of the engaged was one of my girls that i've known since FOREVER (shout out to you, elyse!) and of course, my favorite amy who's feet you get to see weekly :) with all the new plans in store for all these lovely couples starting out on the journey to the rest of their lives, i figured i'd give them an opportunity to boost them along! so here are the details:who can enter: anyone that is engaged by february 14th, 2011
if you're planning to propose by then, send me an email! i'm an excellent secret keeper :)
how to enter: send me an email (photogbyem@gmail.com) with the following filled out
your name:
your fiance's name:
how you met your fiance:
date you proposed:
how you proposed:
when you plan to get hitched:
and because i love silly questions, here are two for you to fill in the blank:
(fiance's name) & i are like:
when i think of (fiance's name) i feel:
see? easy as pie! all you have to do is shoot me an email with those questions filled out, i'll make a list in order of the emails i receive, and come february 15th, we'll have a winner! even if you aren't pulled for the engagement session prize, anyone that enters will win a special prize in the end. can't wait to hear from everyone! and don't forget to become a fan at http://www.facebook.com/photogbyem

2010 Retrospective

2010 was quite a year! i decided to go through all my blog entries, and all my facebook posts, and see exactly what i had the joy of creating this year. take a look with me, and maybe you'll see some familiar faces :) enjoy!
in the past year, i photographed...
five fantastic family groupsseven adorable girlies in banana cherié pettiskirtseight awesome individualssix super volunteers who played dress up to help me out :)
four cool couplestwo feet and four hooves (aka. my first not cat/dog pet session)two of my favorite littles
and one engagement session turned to my first full day wedding within a week of each other. putting these all together, 2010 seemed more eventful than i thought! and with that said, i'd love to include YOU in my 2011 retrospect. its never too early or too late! hope you had a safe and happy new year celebration, and i wish you all the best in the year to come!