Show Me The Cookies

Hey Ya’ll!

I thought I’d share a quick recap of the Mixed Conference this past weekend.

You know I entered a cookie contest. You know I was a finalist. You know I made a fancy apron and was a nervous wreck. You know I thought I had no chance.

And then I WON! Or, my cookies rather. Click here to take another peek at those Pecan Praline King Cake Cookies for everyone who has been asking to “Show Me The Cookies!”.

The weekend is a blur, but here’s a few highlights I thought you might enjoy.

The hotel.

Holy cow, batman simply being at Kellerman’s Mountain House-the hotel where Dirty Dancing was filmed was in and of itself an experience.

No cell service. Spotty wi-fi. No televisions. No irons. No hair dryers. No connection to the outside world, really.

Had I not been whisked (get it, whisked) off to bake a truck load of cookies, I might have found it quite relaxing.

However, upon 30 minutes of checking in I was in a commercial kitchen, surrounded by a sea of Kitchenaid mixers and unfamiliar ingredients.

Here I am.

Photo via Dixie Crystals

I look so confident, right?

Um, yeah. About that. I was a nervous wreck. Primarily because I had no means of ironing my apron.

I would like to take this time to publicly thank my roommates, Courtney from the go to entertaining site Pizzazzerie and Sandy from the delicious site Firefly Confections. These girls were the BEST cheerleaders. I am beyond grateful to call them friends and cannot thank them enough for their unwavering confidence.

When I wasn’t thinking about who was going to win the cookie contest, I was decorating cookies with Sweetopia.

She taught me to decorate. And my cookies kind of rocked.

She is seriously as sweet as can be. Like she doesn’t even realize she’s Sweetopia.

Then there was Duff Goldman. I need an entire post to talk about what an awesome hunk of a person I think he is.

I also need an entire post about how wearing your “brand” and believing in yourself catapults you into situations that are beyond your wildest dreams. Wild, you guys. Wild.

PS: Never ever take your hair out of a ponytail for a photo. It’s not good. Not good at all.

They announced the cookie winner.

Here’s the official winning photo.

It’s crazy unflattering. I look like I’ve eaten ALL the cookies at the conference. But it’s the polite way to accept your prize.

This however, is probably not. Someone should have warned the Dixie Crystals marketing team…..this is what happens when a girl from the South wins the prize.

Here’s a little snippet of my plane ride home.

Yes, that’s me with Duff again.

And the tweet that followed.

Yes, he called me his homie.

And then I died.

The end.

Just joking! I didn’t die.

I can’t die because then I couldn’t share with you all the fun things coming up.

Hope your day is delicious. Thanks for reading and for your AMAZING support this weekend. You guys had my back, and your emails, tweets & texts (even though I didn’t get them until it was all over with) made me blush.

Now go make those cookies!