So many of you are celebrating valentines day this weekend and, accordingly, I just wanted to share what we did for valentines day in our house this year. First and foremost, I baked. Yes. I have grown an affinity for baking cheesecake this year, and so far I’ve had a ton of success with it (meaning, nothing caught on fire) and I decided to bake Jare a cheesecake for valentines day.

It all started with this book. For Christmas, Jare bought me my new little friend. Anyone Can Bake. And I found out, it’s the truth. If you follow the instructions, you can bake. It’s so simple and yet so awesome.

I actually sort of made up the recipe for the cheesecake I made on v-day, but this will give you the general idea. I encourage you to make up some little spin on traditional recipes(within reason)! I decided to make Strawberry Cheesecake Bars with Graham Cracker Crust:

Graham Cracker Crust: Mix 1/3 cup butter with 1 1/2 to 2 cups finely crushed graham crackers and line the pan with them. The end!

Cheesecake bar: mix 2 8oz  packs of cream cheese with 1 cup sugar and 5 egg whites. This is the part I made up: I added about 2 cups of fresh strawberries, the majority of them were mushed up into juice, and some were freshly cut. Take the strawberrry mixtury thing and beat it in with the cream cheese/sugar/egg combo. Put in the oven at 350 for 20 minutes, and bam! You’re done. You’re a professional cheesecake baker.

Topping: I took the remaining strawberries (about a half cup, maybe more), pinch of sugar, and oooooh about 1/3 cup of orange juice, put them in a skillet and let them simmer for about 20 minutes (until the cheesecake is done) and added it to the top of my delicious master piece.

And I know you want proof that I did this. So here, photographic evidence of my master chef status:

Mmmmmm. You like how I added the little heart to be super duper sweet and romantic for V-Day? I know, I’m good. I paired this yummy little guy with a bottle of Pink! champagne. YUUUU-UUUUM.

So, I challenge you to go forth and make delicious cheesecakes and all sorts of goodies for your man (or lady!). Flowers only go so far, people. Jared said it best when I questioned him getting me chocolates instead of flowers for valentines day, “you’re going to be glad later when you’re scarfing down those little chocolate turtle things out of a heart shaped box. You can’t eat flowers, Shan”. To which I thought, hmmm.. you should have gotten me both. Happy valentines day, lovers !

Okay guys, meet Lesley & Andre. They are such a down-to-earth, fun to be around couple! I loved this session and I really feel blessed when I meet clients who I can see myself being really great friends with for years to come. These guys are awesome and their wedding is right around the corner, and guess what – I can’t wait for it!

Seriously LOVE this shot ^ above.

Then we went to this gorgeous golden field for some quintessential SNS shots. Because really, there’s no better way to pull off timelessly romantic and whimsical photographs than with a field of golden tall grass at sunset.

okay and this next shot is my absolute hands down favorite shot from the day. I freaking love it. See below:

L&A: see you guys soon! I am too too too excited for your big day.

I know that most of my followers check up on my blog to see new wedding or engagement photography (which is awesome and thank you for reading!) but today I’m going to step outside of my comfort zone a bit and talk about some cool things in my personal life (yes, I have managed to maintain some scrap of personal life while running this business!). So this past December, I traveled with my parents to D.C. for a visit. I’d never been there before and it was quite an experience.

This trip was a gift to me from my parents for my 21st birthday. I could have picked any U.S. city to visit but for a few great reasons, I picked D.C.. Anyone who knows me can contest to the fact that I am a political geek, and with a double major in political science – international studies and sociology, D.C. is kind of like a mecca for all things political and/or nerdy, and for that reason alone I knew I had to visit. Also, living in Florida means I never get to wear my adorable winter wardrobe, and I desperately needed to wear those Steve Madden boots with my most favorite black double-breasted peacoat. But more importantly, I wanted to visit the city because I wanted to see the Wall with my father. My dad served as a corpsman in Vietnam, and suffered a number of injuries trying to save the lives of others. He is with out a doubt my hero and I knew with out even a second of thought that I wanted to visit the Vietnam Memorial Wall with him, and if I could, I would be one of the luckiest daughters in the world. So I did, and I am. I love you, Dad.

So, as you can see, D.C. delivered on the cold weather. I now had no reason not to wear my favorite peacoat and boots, over and over and over and over again. Below is a shot of Dad trying to navigate the rainy city.

We finally made our way over to the Wall:

We also did a lot of really touristy stuff because… hey, we were tourists.

Here’s me geekin:

Also, ironically enough, I am the worst person to try and take pictures of:

hahaha. but seriously, that peacoat is awesome, no?

Mom’s photography (yes, i’m still geekin it up):

JFK’s grave:

Arlington:

Delicious delicious delicious Starbucks:

and that was it!

Stay tuned this week for a super gorgeous engagement session!