Here are the brands we tested:

The famous Thin Mint:

Keebler. good ol’ Keebler.

Wal-Mart brand.

Local grocery store brand.

It was all very scientific.

And they were blindfolded. Me too! Only don’t ask about the picture of me…I have no explanation for that.

And the resutls:
Well, not shockingly, we all preferred the Thin Mint cookie. Every.single.one.of.us. Even blindfolded, and with the cookies broken into bits, the Thin Mint won four out of four times.

The cookie we liked the least: Keebler! I had high hopes for this one, but it had a strange aftertaste and it kind of left my tastebuds confused.

The cookie that we will be substituting Thin Mints for until next season: The Wal-Mart Brand! Yes! The flavor is second best and the price is nice, too…the least expensive of them all. So now I can finally bake that pie with the thin mint crust and it won’t break the bank! Wahoo!

For the record, the Publix brand had a good flavor, but it was too thick & heavy. Texture and crisp factor expectations weren’t up to par here. But kudos to Publix for putting their own twist on the mint cookie and making it square!

I’m so glad you stopped by the blog today. You’re welcome.

Love,
Stacy the public servant (and Thin Mint addict)

ps. kim sullivan I do not want to hear it. don’t even!

And the resolution is this: “To wear these ridiculously comfortable pajama pants as much as humanly possible.”

The good news is that I will not fail at this resolution! I am doing a great job of keeping it, as I sit here and type this! Okay, so seriously…I love these pants, and I wanted to share them with you. I would venture to call myself a pj pant critic, and these, my friends…these are the best I’ve found. I am going to stock up, cause that’s what I do!

Here’s the link to AE: best pjs ever

Among other resolutions that may or not be so easy to keep:
1. to have fewer misspellings/missing words on my blog. (my cheeks flame red when I find mistakes!)
2. to manage my calendar better (this is so hard for me, as I find it really difficult to say no)
3. to be more like my brother in law, Troy, who is super hip and up on current music. Yes!

Happy New Year to you all, and thank you for an amazing 2010. I have been blessed by so many of you that are reading this right now! I love you!
Stacy

ps. blue socks are my favorite.

Set Free Photography ™

Our tree + my two favorite ornaments. The first is…the bird. Oh, the bird! I found a set of three at Home Goods and must go back for more! They clip onto the branches and grace my tree with their feathery perch. And my other favorite ornament is the paper Sullivan family…my daughter made this last year and whenever I look at it, my heart is full!

The stockings are hung off the counter with care:

Amazing foil wrapping paper found at Home Goods! I will never go back to regular paper after such a glorious wrapping experience. Trust me on this and go get some on clearance! The Twisted Peppermint candle from Bath & Body Works is my new favorite. It is minty with a hint of warm vanilla and I sort of want to eat it.

I have these candles glowing all over my house…they are flameless but the light flickers a bit, which gives the feel of a real burning wick. I found them at Target and then for a much better price, a set of three at (you know the place) Home Goods!

These are some of other the scents filling my home…I have a slight addiction to Bath & Body Works candles! They are regularly priced $19.50, but are on sale right now: 2 for $20! Oh, and be sure to pick up a Twisted Peppermint soap…at half price, I am going to stock up because I love the minty scent left on my hands after washing them!

One of my all time favorite Bath & Body Works candles is the Creamy Nutmeg, and I am giving one away! To enter, just leave a comment below, telling me what your favorite candle scent is. I can’t wait to read all about it!

One winner will be randomly selected tonight at 9pm EST. I will post the name of the winner right back here on the blog!

Merry Christmas with love,
Stacy

Set Free Photography™

My daughter took the pic…I know the focus is on my hand, and not my nails. But I think that’s cute. Not my hands. The fact that my daughter…oh, nevermind.

I always have blue toes, but this is the first time that I went for it on the fingernails…I usually avoid dark colors on my fingers because the polish always chips and looks bad after one day in my life, which includes constantly washing over-sized cups by hand because my husband has no mercy on me and doesn’t care if they don’t fit in the dishwasher. And hot water always made my polish peel off.

Anyway. I had a plan to photograph my nails every day for two weeks to show you just how awesome this new product called Gelish is. But I was too busy using my hands to scrub toilets, fold laundry, snap pictures of awesome peeps, edit pictures of said peeps, give my daughter pigtails every day, etc, you get the point. I love this product, and wanted to share it with you, ’cause that’s what I do!

The scoop:
Gelish is available at Studio RK, the best salon around. I think the name Gel-ish is so clever…the polish is like a gel-nail polish hybrid (if you know what gel nails are, then you understand.) This stuff cures under a UV light in no time, and when you leave the salon, you nails are dry and ready to face the world. I love Studio RK…they always having cutting edge products. Now…they also have Shellac, which you might remember my posting about. The concept is the same, but Gelish has more colors to choose from and my nails feel a bit more durable with Gelish. It’s just my humble opinion, and honestly, I love both products so much that I am happy as a little clam. A clam with blue toenails and fingernails.

Thank you, Pam for rocking my nails. I love you.

Have a great weekend, bloggers!
Love,
Stacy
www.setfreephotography.com

Now, for my family and friends that weren’t able to be there, here is your virtual tour. Dad: This is for you! I love you and missed you more than ever last night. I can’t wait to hold your hand and walk you through the studio this winter.

The front entrance…a big thank you going out to Shawn Bright at Signs in One Day for rocking our sign and window decals! You guys are the best!

We are looking forward to having this area landscaped by our friends, Beth & Mike, so stay tuned!

Here I am with the kiddos…this was approximately 30 minutes after my nervous breakdown. I pulled it together, but on the way to the opening I was sweating bullets and silencing my children after the boy karate chopped the girl in the neck “on accident.” The screaming in the car sent me over the edge…I almost came undone…but thankfully they could see that I was literally teetering on the edge of sanity and we had a nice, quiet ride to the studio with lots of deep breathing exercises.

I didn’t like the light there, so I asked Brandon to take another shot. Please excuse this picture…I included this for one person, and one person alone: Tashia Webber: “Does my hair look okay?” Gosh, I missed you last night!

Back to the tour (sorry!)

Here is the view from the entrance:

Another angle, showing our awesome dividers from Ikea that separate the shooting area:

Here’s a view of our sitting area & packaging station, where orders are boxed up & ribbon-tied:

My favorite chair ever…and the bathroom, which I named “the detail room.” All of the pictures in there are wedding details: shoes, dresses, flowers, rings…my favorite things!

Shooting area…not the best picture I’ve ever taken, but I wanted my Dad to have a full view of the place!

This is the viewing area, where clients come and comfortably view the photos from their session. I love offering the capability to view pictures in a large format, rather than being limited to the computer screen!

Here is our office…it is adjacent to the viewing area. Now that we put yellow accents in the viewing area, I am determined to find yellow office chairs. If you see any, please let me know!

Before everyone arrived, our dear friend Jeff presented us with the MOST amazing gift ever. EVER. It’s a Dave Matthews Band gold record, framed, engraved and dedicated to us. The lyrical quote is absolute perfection: “Turns out not where, but who you’re with that really matters.” The thoughtfulness of the gift was overwhelming…I cried…and Brandon got choked up too, you can see it in his eyes in this picture:

Thank you, Jeff & all the folks at Way FM. We are extraordinarily blessed to know you. And we love you!

I couldn’t believe the generosity of my friends, my heart was bursting last night. Here are some of the gifts we received:

Thank you to: Karen Cubler for the gorgeous (& functional!) silk bouquet from Jan at www.rentyourflowers.com. Thank you, Sharon Brotherton for the fabulous purple bouquet…Patty’s Flower Shop made a gorgeous design! And to Patty herself: thank you for such a sweet, fragrant bouquet…you are so generous, and of course…I love your work. Shout out to Bonnie! Thank you going out to Jennifer and David Rodriguez of Jaz-Mar Photography for the flowers and for being there to snap a family picture! Your grace is an inspiration, we love you guys! Thank you to Glen & Lizette…you have encouraged us from the beginning and we will always treasure your wedding memories. We love you! And finally, thank you Donlyn Turnbull for the treasure find…a vintage camera…something I have been wanting but never thought I would find! You have no idea how special that camera is to me–I can’t wait to use it for an engagement session!

p.s. you know I had to write on the cork and add it to our collection…if you don’t know about our collection, click here: corks

Thank you to Elba Plaza, of Jewels by Park Lane and to Kristen Pell of WAY FM for contributing giveaways…they were fabulous!

I am still floating on cloud nine from all of the loving support lavished upon us last night. I truly can’t express my grateful heart, I am so emotionally overwhelmed by the encouragement and kindness of you all! There are just no words to describe how blessed I feel…if I could wrap my arms around you all and give you a great big bear hug right now, I totally would! Here is a virtual one: (((hug)))

Here’s my favorite new family picture from last night, courtesy of Jaz-mar Photography:

Phew.

After things cleared out, Brandon and I took some time for a little dancing…and the kids snapped some pictures. These images are blurry and precious, kind of like the entire day!

If you missed the event, it would be my pleasure to give you personal tour! Thank you for stopping by the blog today.
Love, Stacy
www.setfreephotography.com

I am going to introduce each cake below, but it won’t nearly be as funny as the way Jen puts it at www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com. She has a way of talking about these cakes is so witty and clever…it’s pure hilarity.

This just rocks…it’s white-out for cakes. Who would buy this?

I love it when cake decorators write the instructions on the cake:

Wedding wrecks are so sad. Here is the inspiration photo given to the baker:

And here is the wreck:

But my favorite, my absolute favorite wrecks are misspellings. I don’t know why, I just laugh the hardest over these: (I’m laughing now)

So I am going to stop here because you really need to view these at the Cake Wrecks site to get the full appreciation of the wreck. Be sure to leave Jen some comments on her website! Better yet, be sure to keep your cameras handy when you visit grocery stores and bakeries so you can send her some wrecks It is one of my life’s goals to find a wreck for her!

Jen recently published her best selling book! Check it out here: book Go Jen! You rock!

Thanks for visiting the blog today, and I hope you’ve had a laugh!

Jen: Thank you for letting me share your site here on my leetle old blog. I am so thankful for you…I am a much more relaxed & smiley person due to your writing & wrecks. You have a gift, and I am thrilled that you are sharing it!
Love, Stacy

I thought some reflection was appropriate today, so I am posting about our summer time fun. I’m reflecting on the time we spent together, the sleeping in and the fact that time flies. I have never wanted a pause button for life more than I do right now.

We played the game of Sorry alot–did you know that Sorry is “The Classic Game of Sweet Revenge?” Aka: Brandon and Stacy forget all strategy and ruthlessly try to knock each other out, even if it means handing the game to one of the kids!

We have this fun vintage box version, it’s the second in our collection of vintage games. Brandon has hopes and dreams of filling a shelf with every vintage version he can find.

Here are the sweetest hands and feet ever…oh how I already miss them running around the house. It’s so quiet here. And serene. And there is no fighting. No whining or constant requests for snacks. hmmm why was I crying this morning?

And finally, after weeks of defeat, victory is mine:

Welp, thanks for humoring me this morning as I wallow. I just never thought time would go so fast, even though I would be rich if I had a penny for every time a complete stranger in the grocery store would see me holding my babies on my hip and say “enjoy that, it goes so fast!”

Love,
the sad, reflective, sorry-winning Stacy

www.setfreephotography.com

The backstory:
My kiddos and I love the show Cake Boss…we watch it all the time, and it’s my daughter’s life-long dream to work for Buddy in New Jersey. She also recently announced that she hopes to go to New Jersey on her honeymoon, so that she can meet Buddy in person.

Anyway, fully armed with the knowledge that my daughter has gained from the Cake Boss, she decided that a Buddy-style cake was in order for my birthday. She managed to get Brandon to the craft store where they bought fondant and various decorating supplies. SIX short hours later, my birthday gift was done. They even recorded the process for me (not all six hours, thankfully!). Every moment spent on this cake is precious to me. Ready? Here is the masterpiece:

The top is formed out of “cereal treats,” covered in fondant and sprayed with edible spray paint. I. love. it.

The taste was …ahhh…well, another story. But it didn’t take away from the love that was literally poured into this process that left my husband with a whole new appreciation for our “cake shows” on TLC. He even did a “Buddy-style” interview at the end of the recording…it was hilarious.

Among my birthday presents were:
Two bags of gummy bears (from my boy)
Many hand-crafted gifts from my daughter
A sushi dinner
And a stylin’ hat from Brandon (so I will stop stealing his)

I did pick out a little something for myself with the help of Pam over at Studio RK…they sell adorable jewelry! Here’s my new necklace…my favorite part? The clasp is at the bottom-genius!

Thank you for stopping by on my birthday!
Love, Stacy

www.setfreephotography.com

I should mention that I am a natural-nail girl.  I have tried acrylic and gel…and I always went back to my natural nails.  Then they would break, and I would cry.  (right, Pam?)  Shellac is available at Studio RK Salon in Fort Myers. They are my favorite!

Here is a link to a youtube video with more information:   shellac

And I leave you with a special reminder! There is a bridal show coming up at Germain Arena on August 15th at 1pm! Set Free doesn’t have a booth there, but I encourage you to go and check out some of my favorite vendors, Lace & Roses Bridal and The Plantation Golf & Country Club. Oh! And be sure to grab a catalog from Lace & Roses, where you will find my work on the pages, as well as this ad:

Thanks for stopping by today!
Love,
Stacy | Set Free Photography™

www.setfreephotography.com

This is one of my favorite shots…this lamp is the FIRST thing that I bought for the studio. The color pallette started with the lamp shades, and everything fell into place after that…if you look closely, you can see the entire place.

Thank you for reading the blog today and for all of the support we have received in our latest adventure! We are very excited to share our new digs with you and who knows? maybe you will find a picture of you (or your baby) on the walls!

Lots of Love,
Stacy
Set Free Photography ®

www.setfreephotography.com