Mixed Food Bloggers Conference 2014

Last weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Mixed Food Bloggers Conference at
Mountain Lake Resort in Pembroke, Virginia.
The resort where Dirty Dancing was filmed!!
This was my third time attending Mixed and for me, this was the best year yet!
You can read about past conferences here and here.
Mountain Lake is absolutely beautiful!

I did not plan to attend Mixed this year since I had just attended Food Blog Forum
in Asheville in August.  Two conferences were not in my budget, but I noticed that
Dixie Crystals Sugar was hosting a Mixed Cookie Contest.  Dixie Crystals would
pay the conference fee for the three cookie finalists and guess what?!?!!
I was chosen as a finalist!
Woo Hoo!!
My entry was Pumpkin Dark Chocolate Cookies.

As soon as I arrived I was told I needed to get started baking my cookies for the contest.
I was greeted by a cute Dixie Crystals apron and this fabulous sign!
What a welcome!

KitchenAid was one of the conference sponsors, so I got to use this beauty to make my
cookies!  I wanted to take it home to my daughter since it's JMU purple, but that didn't
happen :(

My cookie baking experience was a little stressful since I was baking in  a
a kitchen that I was unfamiliar with and using a commercial oven, but thankfully they
turned out just fine.

My friend Melanie from A Beautiful Bite and new friend, Joanie from ZagLeft
were also finalists.  Their cookies were so delicious!!
Melanie made Black Bottom Whiskey Pecan Cookies and Joanie made
Pumpkin and Pecan Polvorones - yum!

Guess what!?!?!
I won the contest!!!
Kimberly with Dixie Crystals presented me with my winnings.
I was SO excited!!!

Anyway - enough about me.
The conference was full of great information.
Meredith from In Sock Monkey Slippers, taught us how to make our own photography
backdrop boards. I can't wait to try this at home!

I was so into all of the speakers, I forgot to take many photos, but I learned so
much at this conference.  If you are a food blogger, you should definitely check
it out next year!

There was never a shortage of chocolate, thanks to Hersheys!

And Lavazza Coffee kept us caffeinated!
How about that view!

I had the best weekend!
I made lots of new friends, connected with blog friends I had met in years past
and took home lots of goodies and new information!

Thank you Mixed for a fabulous conference!
And thank you Dixie Crystals for sponsoring my trip!!

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