Win Two Tickets to the Moms Who Make It Conference!

If you have been following any of the Backstage Bloggers (aka the Sexy Six) in the past day or so then you probably have already seen or heard that the mini-class tickets and all-day tickets for the Moms Who Make It Conference have SOLD OUT! Holy Cow! I can't begin to tell you how excited I am that I get to meet, mingle and get inspired with so many great women next week!

What you may not have realized is that you can still come to the afternoon/evening session of the conference and hear some amazing speakers and get really inspired to be empowered and change your life for the better. To be honest, as excited as I am about the amazing selection of mini-classes and being able to attend the conference all day, I am really looking forward to the afternoon and evening as well. The dinner is going to be awesome (let's face it - we all know I think about the food a ton!) but aside from that it is an opportunity to learn from some amazing women about how to take what life throws at us (which is a LOT) and not let our circumstances dictate who we are.

That is why I am so excited that the amazing gals at CreatedbyMom.com and all the sponsors of the conference are making it possible for us Backstage Bloggers to win a pair of tickets to the ENTIRE DAY OF THE CONFERENCE - meals included AND you get to attend the mocktail party afterwards as well. It is going to be amazing!

Obviously, you need to be able to attend the conference (in South Jordan, Utah on July 16, 2009) but other than that all I am going to ask is one thing enter to win the pair of tickets here. Just name one thing - simple, complicated, big, small, whatever - that you are grateful for right now.

It is really for me, because I know I have the most amazing, talented, passionate and wonderful readers and frankly, I can use all the reminders of why I should be grateful that I can get. So, please, make sure to leave an email address or way for me to contact you. You can enter until this Saturday, July 11th at midnight MST and I will announce the winner on Sunday. Oh, and by the way, if you already purchased tickets, they will reimburse you for them if you win.

Want to really up your chances? Check out the other Backstage Bloggers for more chances to win tickets from them! And if you don't win, remember - there are still tickets for the afternoon session available!

April at Sweet Life in the Valley
Lauren at SuperMom Central
Joanie at Keeping Up with MOM
Vanessa at I Never Grew Up
Evonne at Sell Party of...

Moms Who Make It - Almost Sold Out!

I can't believe that the time for the Moms Who Make It Conference is almost upon us! You still have a few hours left to get your tickets to the upcoming conference at the lower price (price goes up at midnight tonight (Tuesday) MST!).

In fact, if you haven't gotten your tickets yet, you need to hurry because they are selling out fast! The mini-class and full-day tickets are almost gone! There are still some available and there are still many tickets available for the afternoon/evening portion of the event - this is when the main keynote speakers will be talking about women, business and how to take the hardships life throws your way and turn them into positive experiences - the afternoon/evening session is nothing to be missed!

Go get your tickets now!

Red, White & Blue Tie Dye Cookies

Red, White and Blue 'Tie Dye' Cookies - a fun and easy treat for Independence Day!

Last night's hype party for the upcoming Moms Who Make It Conference was a success if I say so myself! The moms got to mingle and chat, kids got to play at Gardner Village and decorate star shaped sugar cookies and have a great time.

As you can see from my son's smile, he loooooves sugar cookies. This is our favorite way to decorate them because (1) he can do it himself and (2) no piping for me to mess up!

Besides, the effect is so pretty!

He also dearly loves getting the scraps to roll out at home and play with.

Lauren of SuperMom Central helping decorate cookies

The kids seems to get a kick out of swirling their frosting colors together and then dipping their cookies to decorate them - before eating them while the frosting was still wet.

While the kids dipped and ate some cookies, the moms got to enjoy some chocolate fudge cookies with cinnamon chips, cinnamon italian sodas, fresh strawberries, and chocolate hazelnut scones with blackberry jam - all provided by Tiffany, the fabulous owner of Lorken Food Finery. In fact, the scones, jam, and cinnamon syrup for the sodas are all items available at her store!

All of the 'Sexy Six' Backstage Bloggers were present - I just didn't get pictures - but it is always so fun to hang out with these ladies. They are so inspiring and such a joy! Speaking of inspiring ladies who are a joy, it was so great to see Emily and Quinn again!

Perhaps, my most favorite part of the evening though was the fact that Tiffany gave all of us a discount on items purchased that night at buy one, get one half off. I can't wait to tell you more about what I scored! I am sooooo excited! Besides, how could you not be happy shopping in a store as cute as this!

Vanilla Roll-Out Cookies

Source: Dorie Greenspan on Epicurious

• 10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour

Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl at medium speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and salt and beat until pale and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add egg; beat until well blended, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and beat in vanilla. Add flour and beat on low speed just to blend. Gather dough into ball; divide in half. Form each half into ball and flatten into disk. Wrap disks separately in plastic and chill until firm, at least 4 hours. DO AHEAD: Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.

Position rack in center of oven; preheat to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between 2 sheets of waxed paper to 1/8-inch thickness for smaller (2-inch) cookies and 1/4-inch thickness for larger (3- to 4-inch) cookies. Using decorative cookie cutters, cut out cookies and transfer to prepared sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. If cookies become too soft to transfer to baking sheets, place in freezer on waxed paper for 5 minutes before continuing. Gather scraps, roll out dough, and cut more cookies, repeating until all dough is used. If not icing cookies, decorate with sprinkles or other sugar toppings, if desired.

Bake 1 sheet at a time until cookies are firm on top and golden around edges, about 10 minutes for smaller cookies and up to 14 minutes for larger cookies. Cool completely on rack. Decorate with Royal Icing, then sprinkles or other sugar toppings, if desired. Let stand until icing sets. DO AHEAD: Can be made 4 days ahead. Store between sheets of waxed paper in airtight containers.

Royal Icing

Adapted from Dorie Greenspan on Epicurious

3 1/4 cups (or more) powdered sugar, sifted
4 teaspoons meringue powder + 4 Tablespoons water = 2 egg whites (easier to work with and safer for kids)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Assorted food colorings (optional) - I use gel food colors to get the vibrant shades seen here

Using electric mixer, beat 3 1/4 cups powdered sugar with meringue powder and water until thick and shiny, adding more powdered sugar by tablespoonfuls if mixture is too thin to spread, about 3 minutes. Add vanilla. Divide icing into portions, if desired, and add different food coloring to each. Cover until ready to use.

DIRECTIONS FOR RED, WHITE & BLUE 'TIE DYE' COOKIES:

Divide icing into three bowls - keeping about half of the frosting white and dividing the other half into two portions. Color each of the other portions, one blue and one red.

On a small plate, place a large spoonful of white icing. Using separate spoons for each color, drizzle a little of each of the other colors on top of the white. Using a toothpick, swirl the frostings together a bit to get a pretty marbled effect.

Dip a cookie 'face down' into the frosting without moving it. Gently lift the cookie straight back up, set aside on a rack to set - or just eat while the frosting is glossy and wet. Enjoy!

Utah! Moms Night Out - Bring Your Kiddos & Decorate Cookies with Me!

What would you say, if I told you, you could bring your kids to

decorate some fresh baked, homemade sugar cookies - for free?

What if, added to that, you got to meet some other

amazing moms and bloggers?

What if I said that it was in a shopping area that is quite possibly the cutest and most charming shopping area in all of Utah?

What if on top of it all, it was in a darling kitchen store,

there would be refreshments - and you could get a buy one item,

get a second item half off discount?

What if you got to learn more about the most inspiring and amazing conference this summer while you were at it?

Does it all sound too good to be true? It's not!

I really hope to see you at Lorken Food Finery

at Gardner Village (in West Jordan) tonight

for the SL Edition of the Moms Who Make It

Conference pre-party tweetup and hype event.

See the page here on Facebook!

Tweet Up Party and Sweet Tooth Fairy CUPCAKES!

Sweet Tooth Fairy Cupcake Flavors Shown:
Double Chocolate Fudge, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Black & White, Key Lime,
Chocolate Vanilla, Toasted Coconut, Red Velvet, Orange, Strawberry Shortcake

This past Tuesday night I was lucky enough to have a really great friend who was willing to watch the boys for me while I trekked on down to Orem for a preview of the catering we will be having at the upcoming Moms Who Make It Conference - being held July 16 at Noah's in South Jordan - more about the catering soon!

Just after the catering taste testing at Utah Celebrations Catering, we headed down to the Sweet Tooth Fairy in Provo. It is this adorable, comfy and yet chic bakeshop where they make cookies, cake bites, brownies, wedding cakes, and of course, cupcakes! In fact, they were even featured on Rachael Ray. All the gorgeous creations you see above were goodies that were provided for all the moms who attended this fun mom's night out. Lucky, lucky us!

This little get together was, of course, to help promote the conference and tell more Moms all about it. We ate cupcakes, we talked, we shared stories, we laughed, we sympathized, we tweeted, and most importantly we all heard more about the inspiration behind the upcoming conference - which is basically how to be empowered and inspired to take the hard things that come our way in life, and not let them define who we are.

Among those in attendance were @jylMomIF, @emihill, @evonnesell, @ajpassey,
@petit_elefant, @inevergrewup, @keepingupwmom, @sweetlifeinthe, @momswhomakeit, and of course the genius behind the event, Quinn @createdbymom as well as her product manager, Crystal. Needless to say, with this group of incredible gals, it was a blast and I was so glad I made it!

This conference really isn't to be missed, and since the organizers were savvy enough to break it up into portions, for those of you that can't make it to the entire day, you can still at least join in for a part of it (though, if at all possible, you should take the day for yourself - your family will be better for it).

It's Nie Nie's Birthday!
Get Your VaNIElla Squared cupcakes!
This Saturday, June 27

The cupcakes were heavenly and so is Megan, owner of the Sweet Tooth Fairy. In fact, if you live in Utah anywhere even remotely near Provo - then you really should go to their shop this Saturday and buy yourself some cupcakes - especially the VaNIElla ones. (Actually, they ship, so order some cupcakes!)

That name isn't a typo either. This Saturday is the one and only Nie Nie's birthday and to celebrate the Sweet Tooth Fairy is donating ALL PROCEEDS from sales of their renamed vanilla cupcakes - Nie Nie's favorite - to her family and the Arizona Burn Center. If you haven't ever read the NieNie dialogues, then you really should. When I grow up, I want to be as inspiring and wonderful as NieNie.

Obviously, this cupcake was mine - you'll have to get your own!

Stay tuned for details on another Tweet Up Party
to be held in Salt Lake County on Tuesday, June 30th!

Moms Who Make It Conference - Get Ready to Attend Utah!!

This may very well be the most important post I have written in a while - please, please do yourself a favor and read about this conference because it is something you really won't want to miss!

I recently got to preview the facilities for the upcoming Moms Who Make It Conference being held July 16 in South Jordan (UT). I am lucky enough to be one of six blogger mom's who are 'Backstage Bloggers' for the conference and we are here to tell you all about what this event is going to be and why you really need to make the effort to get yourself to this event.

I'm in amazing company, because aside from the two women who are working hard for all of us to put this event together - Emily of Georgie Tees fame and Quinn at CreatedByMom.com - I am getting to spend time with these amazing ladies:

April of Sweet Life in the Valley

Evonne of Sell...Party of 3

Joanie of Keeping Up With M.O.M.

Lauren of Supermom Central

Vanessa of I Never Grew Up

I also had the pleasure of meeting the one and only Mandy of The Potted Pansy, who brought all the gorgeous flowers you see in these photos!

The venue for the event is a place called Noah's and it is amazing. Seriously, I just wanted to move in!

Think I am exaggerating? All the pictures you see here are from our preview tour - these beautiful rooms are where you could hang out, relax, learn and really take the entire purpose of this event's theme to heart:

Get Inspired,
Leave Empowered,
Change Your Life for the Better

Just so you know, the cost of this event, compared to others you might see out there, is minimal and do you know why? Because the creators of this event at CreatedByMom.com are more interested in helping you than anything else. Seriously. These ladies are passionate about what they are doing here and you owe it to yourself to attend the conference - even if it is just for a little while - and find out more. They are putting their hearts and souls into this for all Moms!

In fact, this event is important enough that rather than go on and on and on - and I could, believe me - I'm going to just tell you to click here and read all about it - especially the fact that there is a HYPE PARTY to help get excited about the event on JUNE 23 at Sweet Tooth Fairy in Provo - check out the Facebook page! - come have fun and some cupcakes and find out what it is all about!

Just click the annoucement above to see all about the sweet tooth fairy!

There are mini classes, key note events, luncheons and dinners and so many wonderful things that you should find out about it straight from the source where you can get your tickets to this one-of-a-kind event!

I'll see you there - I'll be the quirky one who is probably laughing at a really bad joke I made myself. 'Cause you know that's just how I roll.

Want your very own badge for your blog or site to help hype the event - please please feel free to take one of these!