Hello! I sincerely hope everyone in the US is enjoying the long Labor Day weekend, and that others elsewhere are finding some time to chill out as well. I too am trying my darnedest to get in a little downtime before the fall sugar show season kicks in next weekend. (An aside: If you didn't know, I'm sponsoring and judging two upcoming cookie competitions, both with fairly sizable cash prizes - $500 and $1750, to be exact! If you're the competing sort, you might want to check them out. The first is the "One Smart Cookie" prize at next weekend's Show Me Sweets event here in Missouri. And, the second is my namesake "Julia Usher's Decorated Cookie Competition" at the Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show at the end of the month. Give 'em a shot - you never know, you might just end up being the big winner! 
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With that brief PSA behind us, let's get back to the matter at hand - this Spotlight's big winners! Below, you'll see our hot list* comprised of the ten top-trending posts on the site. They are as different from one another as "different" can be, yet each and every one is a showstopper in its own right. One special note before the grand reveal: we had a number of double honorees this week, including newcomer @PUDING FARM and site veterans @Kim Damon, @Cajun Home Sweets, and @Teri Pringle Wood. Please give them an extra round of applause! 
Now, onward, shall we?!
#1: Tutus for Molly by Teri Pringle Wood
#2: The Heart of the Forest by PUDING FARM
#3: Molly is 6 by Teri Pringle Wood
#4: The Heart of the Forest - Redux by PUDING FARM
#5: 3-D Gramophone Cookie by PiernikoMania
#6: Koi Pond by Kim Damon
#7: Set for Shorter Wedding by Cajun Home Sweets
#8: Blowing Bubbles by Kim Damon
#9: Louisiana Old State Capital by Cajun Home Sweets
And, last but certainly not least, the subject of our Spotlight banner . . .
#10: Animales Coquetos! by Nadia Rodriguez
One last word on sugar shows! Because they can often be all-consuming for those in attendance, I will NOT be posting our usual Saturday Spotlights on the weekends of September 8 (Show Me Sweets), 15 (CookieCon), and 29 (Oklahoma State Sugar Art Show). However, please expect a wealth of up-to-the-minute CookieCon coverage from our CookieCon Press Team in the lead up to, as well as during, CookieCon. Our able squad of four correspondents will be posting everything from photos to blog journals to video interviews. I will also be posting a recap of the CookieCon Sugar Show winners on Saturday, September 15 in lieu of our Spotlight, so stay tuned! In the meantime, please post your requests for CookieCon coverage in the comments area under @Econlady's recent post here, and we'll do our best to accommodate them.
All for now! I hope to see many of you, whether competing or not competing, at these shows!
So that no one has an unfair advantage in making it onto a hot list, the algorithm is secret even to site administrators. Only our platform developers know the code, which has been exhaustively tested by those developers and Cookie Connection staff.
All photos shown here are the courtesy (and copyright) of the designers listed.
To check out our other hot lists, at any time of day, visit our Hot Spot, also found in the site's main navigation line.
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