So when I missed the opportunity to buy Girl Scout cookies this year (hello, where are all the girl scouts in my neighborhood??), you can imagine that I was pretty sad. I tried to convince myself that it was a blessing in disguise, better for my health and my waistline. But who am I kidding? I couldn’t stop dreaming about those Carmel DeLites (or Samoas, or whatever they are called now!).

This week I stumbled upon a recipe for homemade girl scout cookies from Baking Bites. Genius! I am forever indebted to her for giving me these delicious recipes. So, the day I found the recipe, I couldn’t rest until I tried making my very own Samoas at home. I followed her recipe very closely and discovered a few things I’d do differently the next time around. View the recipe here.

Of course, I took photos to share the process. It was quite a process, but not a difficult recipe to make… it just had a lot of steps!

Toasted coconut made my house smell so good. Note to self — don’t toast for quite so long. And chop the coconut so it’s a little finer, and use much more coconut in the topping… after all, there is no such thing as too much coconut.

Baking the cookie base. Next time I’ll make the holes in the centers bigger.

Spreading the caramel/coconut topping… this is where it got tricky. I had too much caramel, not enough coconut, and it was hard to spread without covering up the cute little center hole. Now I know what to do differently!

The last step requires dipping the bottoms in chocolate and drizzling the chocolate stripes. By this point, I had pretty much lost the cute holes in the middle of the cookies… and got a little messy with the chocolate.

But let me tell you, they are seriously delicious! This is definitely a recipe I will be making again, maybe when I try out the recipe for Thin Mints!

See how sweet they are?

The sign in this one made me laugh — “no standing.” Oops!

This reminds me a movie… I just can’t think of which one. Don’t they look like they could be in a movie together?

I think this one is my favorite. They just look so sweet and comfortable.

Congratulations, Colleen and Tobie! I can’t wait for your big day in July!

Maggie is so adorable. She’s one of the awesome high school students that I get the chance to know through volunteering with HOBY. She drove a few hours from her hometown to Kansas City so I could take her senior photos, and I was so honored! I’m so jealous of her incredibly long, beautiful eyelashes! You will be, too, after seeing her pretty eyes in these photos.

We met up on the Plaza for the session, and it was a busy day there since the weather was absolutely incredible. Shooting at the Plaza is always interesting, since the storefronts are always changing displays and there are fun things to work with. Here are some of my favorites from the shoot!

I love the mannequins in the store window!

I love this happy face!

Congratulations on your senior year, Maggie! Enjoy your awesome Spring Break cruise!

Don’t forget about the portrait specials I’m offering coming up to directly benefit HOBY Kansas! Very limited sessions are available in Wichita March 27th and 28th… and sessions are available in Kansas City April 19th through 30th! See this post for the details about how you can give back and get great portraits.

We planned their engagement session to capture the city that helped their relationship happen. We met up at Liberty Memorial and finished our shoot at Union Station on a pretty chilly, windy morning. I love how the cloudy haziness of the morning helps their photos look more romantic.

My favorite image from their shoot:

Union Station is a place that holds memories for Bob’s family — his grandfather would come in on the train for work when Bob’s dad lived in Kansas City. It’s neat to hear stories about historic buildings in Kansas City, and I’m so glad that Union Station is still standing and operating today. I’m also glad that we could capture some engagement photos in a location that has meaning to Bob’s family!

I love the old Union Station building reflected in the new office building behind it:

Jessica went to K-State, and Bob went to KU, so they had to support their teams. And, of course, I had to take a photo showing which team is more important. Just kidding. I took one of Bob in the front, too…

Congratulations, Jessica and Bob! I hope your wedding planning goes so well!

HOBY is a youth leadership seminar designed for high school students entering their junior year — helping them explore topics like volunteerism, leadership, community involvement, education, business, and on and on. It’s a time for them to meet students from all over their state or region, and for them to get ideas on how to make a difference in their hometowns. It’s amazing to get to spend time with the brightest and best high school students in Kansas every summer. I’m truly blown away every year by how smart, thoughtful, and caring these students are.

I volunteer every year with the local HOBY program that covers the state of Kansas. I am a big believer in community service and investing in the bright futures of our youth. So, I’d like to give you all an opportunity to invest in their talent as well. I’m offering super awesome deals on portrait sessions — with all of the proceeds from these shoots going directly to HOBY Kansas. How great is that? You’ll get beautiful updated portraits of your family, kids, dog, or yourself (or gift a session to someone you know!), all while donating to a cause that is so dear to my heart.

Here are the details:

1. 1-hour session at the location of your choice (or my choice if you need some help!)
2. A disc of the high-resolution, edited images
3. An online photo gallery to share your images
   
4. Only $150 (the price of one HOBY registration)

I’m offering these sessions in Kansas City any date between April 19th and April 30th.

I’m also offering Wichita-area sessions on the weekend of March 27-28th.

Time slots will fill up very quickly, so book now! Last year we did ten HOBY fundraising sessions… you all helped pay for 10 students’ expenses at HOBY! This year, I want to do more! Remember, your entire session fee is going directly to HOBY Kansas.

To reserve your special spring session and provide an awesome learning experience for a talented future leader, just shoot me an email: me @ ericamay .  com or visit the “contact” page at www.ericamay.com or leave a comment right here at the bottom of this post and I’ll reply with details!

Here are a few shots I took during the fun “HOBY Olympics” part of the seminar last year — a fun night of games with the local Big Brothers Big Sisters group!

The infamous “spirit stick” based on last year’s group themes — board games!

I was recently delighted to receive a really cool package after a photo shoot — one that not only had great contents, but great details. I loved it so much, in fact, that I’m blogging about it and you’re reading it right now.

Askinosie Chocolate is made in Springfield, Missouri. Shawn Askinosie is a lawyer-turned-chocolate-maker, and I’m here to say that I’m glad he’s out of the courtroom and into the kitchen. This is seriously incredible chocolate. But what I love the most about this company is that they put thought, energy, and care into the details — of their product, and of how they present it to the world.

Brett and Jennifer sent this to me — a “Chalk-late” box. How clever is this? And check out the packaging of the chocolate bars:

Even the chocolate bars are detailed. This one (white chocolate pistachio) spells out “chocolate” — one letter on each square (yes, I already ate the “cho”).

My point is, Mr. Askinosie could’ve just made plain old bars of chocolate and packaged them in some kind of tin-foil and paper wrapping. But he didn’t — he thought about the details, and I’m glad he did, because it helped me enjoy his chocolate even more. And I’m glad Brett and Jennifer sent this my way. Thanks, you guys.

Go read the story and how they approach this chocolate making business. It’s a really great one.

I hope that I keep focused on the details, too. The details of making your wedding photography experience or family portrait session a memorable, comfortable, joyful one. Because life is all about the details.

The walls used to be tan. Normal, unassuming tan. Almost brown but not quite dark enough to be called a rich brown. Just tan.

I’m not sure what prompted the sudden change to the bright, bold color — but I’m thankful my husband is the patient, willing, heart-of-gold kind of guy that he is. When I said “let’s paint it green!” he said, “okay.” When I said “let’s go to Home Depot right now to pick out colors!” he said, “okay.” When I said “you do the hard part of painting the edges — I’ll use the roller!” he said, “okay.” Because he loves me.

And I love the color green.

And I believe in surrounding yourself with the people, things, experiences… and colors… that you love.

So here’s to our new green room. And the happy life we live in it. Now… if we’d only start eating dinner at the dining room table…

Check it out, and let Jeff know what you think (you can leave a comment here… I promise to pass it along)!

Aimee & Jeff – HD from Jeff Short on Vimeo.

When we were in Yelapa, Mexico at the beginning of January for Kendra and Fernando’s wedding, Jeff took along his video camera. When you’re traveling to other countries with a bunch of photography and videography gear, you have to pick and choose what equipment you’re going to take with you. This meant that we left behind the Steadycam contraption and just opted for the video camera. Since Jeff was also assisting me with photography throughout the weekend, the video was like a bonus. I love what he put together using the various video clips he took throughout the wedding festivities!

Hopefully this video will show you more about the natural beauty of Yelapa, Mexico, and the awesomeness of Kendra and Fernando’s big day! You might remember from my post with their photos that they had two wedding ceremonies — one in Spanish in the town’s church, and one in English on the beach. You’ll see both here, as well as fun footage from their reception!

These two are so incredibly beautiful. Seriously, I’ve watched them laugh and smile at each other over and over again and it just gets cuter.

Kendra & Fernando – HD from Jeff Short on Vimeo.

Besides the photos from the actual shoot that featured her make-up and hair skills on Aimee, I also took photos while they were getting ready so you could see Colleen in action!

And, the final product! I loved how natural Amy’s make-up looked — so perfect to showcase her natural beauty!

Thanks so much, Colleen! I’m excited to work with you more in the future!