Trying out a few new things, perhaps retiring the watermark in favor of borders (and new ways I’m taking the blog.  What thinks you, dear readers?

Yeah that’s about all I have for you today, sorry.  That dear son of mine in the photo above decided to be the ultimate toddler hipster and pick up a vintage illness by the name of Scarlet Fever.  Oh yes, apparently it is making a comeback, I guess you haven’t heard yet.   Yeah, anyway.  Totally not as hip as one would think, what with all the overdramatic toddler moaning over the sore throat and uncomfortable rash and overall general malaise.  No worries though, I think he’ll survive.  By eating popsicles like it’s his damn JOB.

(For real, we have gone on popsicle-restock runs a few times already.)

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Okay so maybe I have one actual interesting thing to mention today: I wanted to talk to you about Pinterest.  Eeeeeeeeverybody is on Pinterest these days, am I right?  Well, we put together a Pinterest page specifically geared towards the studio.  When you visit SixThirtySix Studio’s page, you’ll find all sorts of fun things: ‘what to wear’ options, ways to display your finished images in your homes, lifestyle session ideas, and possible props available for shoots.  There are also several ‘inspiration’ boards – I pin things that catch my eye, and have numbered on each board.  See something you love and is the type of thing you want to get out of your shoot?  Just tell me the number, and I’ll file it away

So head on over and check it out, Follow me and I’ll Follow you back!  I looooooove me some Pinterest and love to see what other people are pinning.

That’s all that’s fit to print for now, time to hit the hay in case the whiny patient wakes up 2-million times again, like the past several evenings.  Will update again soon – until then, have a lovely week

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I am not ignoring this blog, I promise.

I have been booking jobs – I’ll have plenty of fun weddings, engagements, babies, and family shoots to share in the coming year . Funny thing though, people don’t want to actually have their shoots done in the winter. Something about standing outside in the freezing cold with dead grass just isn’t appealing to people… Yeah okay well actually, that’s not so shocking. But! In the meantime I would like to keep this blog dusted off and in tip-top shape, and that means sharing things once every few weeks.

I have the family blog for family pictures, though, and my readers more than likely aren’t too excited to look at 18 pictures of Pete splashing in an indoor pool. So instead, I thought I’d share a few other things on this blog. First up, a fun little recipe I tried this past weekend (seemed rather appropriate for the Super Bowl, in my mind anyway).

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So, how about some cooooooooo-kays! Everybody loves a good cookie, am I right? Especially a buttery, crumbly pecan shortbread. Dipped in chocolate. And with a certain something else going on that you can’t quite place, something deliciously crunchy and buttery and salty… And that would be potato chips, my friends.

Yup, potato chips. In a cookie. And before you fall over and perish at the thought, please know: it’s amazingly good. I made these for the Super Bowl, I was good and had only one (okay, two) but the guys could not stop eating them, and that’s a sure sign that I am not, in fact, lying to you. They are buttery and salty and chocolately and oh my goodness, just make them and see for yourself. You won’t be disappointed. Pinky swear.

Chocolate-Covered Potato Chip Cookies
(Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

The cookie:
1 c. (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 c. granulated sugar, divided
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt (optional)
1/2 c. chopped and toasted pecans
1/2 c. finely crushed potato chips
2 c. all-purpose flour

Dark chocolate dip:
4 oz. semi- or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 tsp. butter, canola oil or vegetable shortening

Potato chip salt finish:
1 Tbsp. crushed potato chips
1/2 tsp. flaked sea salt

Preheat your oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter with 1/2 cup of the sugar until lightly and fluffy. Mix in the vanilla and salt, if using, until smooth. Add the pecans, 1/2 c. crushed potato chips, and flour together and mix until just combined.

SIDE NOTE: At this point: I rolled my dough into a long log-ish sort of shape on top of a long piece of plastic wrap. I wrapped up the dough, smoothed into 4 sides to make more of a square shape, and popped it in the fridge to chill for about half an hour. The plan was to slice them rather than roll into balls; this worked decently for the first few trays but by the third tray, the dough was crumbling when I cut into it. C’est la vie, I made balls with the rest. So anyway: slice or roll, either way will work!

Place the remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a small bowl. Take your slices (or balls) and give a good coating of sugar. Place on prepared baking sheet and – if you rolled the dough into balls – use the bottom of a drinking glass to slightly flatten the cookies. Cookies only need to be an inch apart; they only spread a little.

Bake cookies until lightly golden at the edges, about 15 minutes. Transfer to cool on a wire rack. While they are cooling: mix together the salt finish (sea salt and crushed chips) and set aside.

Once the cookies are cooled: melt the chocolate with butter, oil or shortening in a double boiler or in short bursts in the microwave. Stir until smooth. Dip half of each fully cooled cookie in the chocolate, and let dry and harden on a wire rack. Sprinkle with salt finish before the chocolate hardens.

Eat up!

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I recently had the opportunity to photograph Kennedy’s first birthday party, at Sylvester Powell in Mission, Kansas. You might remember Miss Kennedy from this post back on the family blog, she of First Photo Shoot EVARRRR  fame   We have a special bond, that little lady and I.

Well, guess what, that baby girl is officially a one year old! So her parents threw her a sweet wintertime penguin-themed party, with lots of friends and family in attendance and good food and a sweet play area and dudes, the firemen even showed up at one point. So I think I’d call this party a smashing success.

Thanks for including me in your day, Crawford family! And a very happy birthday to Kennedy – may every birthday to come be as memorable as this one (but maybe with less fire alarms, for your parents’ sake).

Now on with the show.

The guests ‘signed’ Kennedy’s first-birthday page with their fingerprints and a message, to be framed later.

Food glorious food! Quite the spread at this shindig

One of the available guest favors, penguin hair barrettes.

So about the time we were going to move to the gym for playtime, the fire alarm went off.

No, really.

And so we all filed out nicely, and the firetrucks/firemen showed up, and it was pretty darn memorable to say the least. Thank goodness for an unseasonably warm January day, so we were all just mildly entertained by the whole situation.

Daddy did a good job of watching over his girl during the whole ‘ordeal’

After the fire drill excitement, everyone headed to the gym area for some playtime. Here the kiddos really wore themselves out.

Kennedy, honey: a very happy birthday to you, my dear. I look foward to our next adventure together

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Welcome.  Good things to come soon.  :)

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