When Inspiration Hits: #CupcakesAndCreativity

Posted on January 29, 2016 by BeautyFrosting

Just my favorite kind of Friday.

Cupcakes and creativity. Let’s hashtag that, shall we? #CupcakesAndCreativity

Any writers out there?

Know that feeling when you’re going along, and – all of a sudden – WHAM!! – inspiration hits?

Today, I had a voiceover session, went to a movie matinee of Joy, and then came home and went on a walk with the pup.

I had 3 mini cupcakes sitting patiently on my kitchen bar, and on the walk, a rhyming children’s story unfolded about the said cupcakes.

Came home, where I sat for the past 2 hours, scribbling away in baby blue pen until the story was out on paper, and finally on my laptop and then printed.

I swear…creative inspiration is the closest feeling to falling in love that there is out there.

If you’re searching for a little of it yourself, may it strike you smitten soon. 💗🙌

Happy weekend, inspired ones!

xoxo,
Dawn

Dawn’s Diary: Dreams, Destiny and Detours

Posted on March 14, 2013 by BeautyFrosting

When I moved to Los Angeles in the early 2000s, I wanted more than anything to act, write and sing. I felt like it was my destiny. My calling. My friend, Sarah, once told me that I was one of the most confident people she’d ever met when it came to knowing what I wanted to do.

Confident I was not. In fact, my acting teacher in Austin – Mona Lee – once told me that my lack of confidence was the only thing standing in the way between me and success. By 2002, insecurity and fear had set in and had me by the throat.

Me, age 23

I never felt like I was “enough” – pretty enough/thin enough/talented enough/cool enough/confident enough – to do all of the things I wanted to do in this town. I let fear take control of the wheel and acting and writing got the brakes. My day job of shopping for Barbra Streisand and my band, Hawkeye, ended up taking center stage and all my other dreams kind of fell into the background. I thought I had missed my chance and that the life I was going to live was going to be very different from the life I had always imagined for myself.

Fast forward to 2013 and I am so grateful that what used to be my “dream day” is now my normal day. I love waking up to check emails & blog feedback, auditioning and being a paid, working writer. What have I learned since those first days in LA? It really is a 10 year town. And dreams can come true – even if they’re not just like how you imagined them. Now, I am so grateful for the time it took and for the bends in the road I navigated to get me to this point.

Hard at work or at play?

Creativity reigns supreme in my life. I am never bored. And I am utterly delighted and humbly grateful to get to do what I do daily while being surrounded by people I love who inspire me.

Never bored - Writing, Singing, Voiceovers, Acting

Friends always ask how I am able to stay so busy and yet be so positive. I have found that the old adage is true – “if you really love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life”. While I still have many dreams yet to come true and a long way to go, I am so grateful for the daily dreams that are being actualized every single day. And every day, new ones present themselves to me. Next up? Hosting. Who knew?
If you have dreams that have been cast aside due to work obligations, family, time management or the-ever-defeating fear, try taking small steps to reintroduce them back into your life.

Ask yourself today, “If I could live any other life right now, what would I be doing?” It doesn’t mean that you have to change your whole life, it’s just the first chapter in finding the best ways to reintroduce your passions back into your life and live the life you’ve always imagined. After all…
It is never too late to make your dream a reality.

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” (Steve Jobs)

xoxo,
BF

BF Asks: What’s holding you back from going after your dreams?

High-Low 17: New Year, New Opportunities

Posted on February 18, 2013 by BeautyFrosting

Well, now, it has been A WHILE since I’ve done a High-Low. My apologies for that, beauties. There have been a lot of changes – for the better – but I didn’t know that at the time.

So what all has happened since December? Well, I left my day job, gained 2 new writing clients, learned some hard lessons about boundaries and betrayal (ouch!), traveled to Dallas for Christmas and back, got the flu and recovered, finished 2 more books in The Cupcake Kid series, had 2 of my commercials air during The Grammys, had a super memorable show at The Hotel Cafe and more! Whew.

HIGHS

Christmas in Dallas was punctuated with breakfasts, dinners, drinks, shows and parties with friends, a myriad of Mi Cocina (my favorite restaurant visits) and LOTS of delicious food!! People often ask where I got the bug for baking and I always tell them from my Mom and her mother, my Nanny. Just look at the deliciousness I get spoiled with when I go home!

When I returned to L.A., I knew New Years was going to be a doozy. I had invitations to 3 parties all over the city. I went to the first one, at my friend Vanessa’s house and in the midst of it, realized I was sick. The flu hit me and I was out for almost 2 weeks!

When I healed, there were lots of events and meetings to attend so I was busy! But not too busy to bust out 2 more books in The Cupake Kid series!

My show at The Hotel Cafe, where I sing my signature bluesy country, was so much fun! I got to play with some of my favorite musicians, see tons of friends, bake Strawberry Milkshake cupcakes to share and top off the night with a dance party with friends at The Room. Goooood times!

Then, I was delighted to be called in to do 2 more Target voiceover commercial spots for Taylor Swift & Pink that aired during The Grammys! 12-year-old me was over the moon!

So far, I am a big fan of 2013!

LOW

If you’d asked me a month ago, I could have told you a low point. I learned the powerful lesson that things really do happen for a reason and that while I might like for everyone to be my close friend, it’s better to keep work relationships separate sometimes.

But now, I realize that the perceived low point was a beautiful opportunity. It opened so many doors. I was amazed, once again, that life truly turns lemons into lemonade sometimes and that lemonade is sweeter than anything you could have imagined.

High-Low 10

Posted on September 3, 2012 by BeautyFrosting

I have been swamped and my High-Low has become the victim of my busy schedule.

But it has been such an exciting, productive time that I just had to share.

Here is my High-Low 10.

HIGHS

1) I was thrilled to get the call that everyone wants from their agent! A booking call! I booked a national voiceover radio spot for UPS. I am beyond thrilled! So much so that my friend, Kristin, captured my excitement of receiving the news in this collage!

When I'm excited, I resort embarrassingly back to my high school cheerleading days doing herkies and high kicks.

2) Baking a successful new recipe: Sour Cream Apple Pie in a Buttermilk Maple Crust. Yum. Everyone at the BBQ said it was delish!!! I’ll feature the recipe soon! Stay tuned!

Sour Cream Apple Pie with Buttermilk Maple Crust

3) Seeing my favorite band, the Old 97s 2 (!!) nights in a row at the El Rey here in Los Angeles. They were here on the 15th anniversary tour of their album, Too Far To Care. Rhett Miller, the lead singer, grew up in the same Dallas world where I did. He was a coffeehouse darling who became a prodigy and now an alt-country star. I love them so much. My favorite band. Period.

Rhett Miller

Murry Hammond

Rhett Miller of the Old 97s

The first night I went with my super fun friends, Jennifer, April and Sari.

The next with my friend, Jolie, whom I’ve known since I was a kiddo at the Episcopal School of Dallas. Jolie was in my big brother’s class and I always thought she was the coolest!

Me, Murry Hammond and Jolie

But there was nothing cool about us dancing like schoolgirls to Rhett and Murry and the boys… but do we look like we cared?

Dancing like schoolgirls!

4) I also had an AMAAAAAZING time with my fellow LA bloggers and PR friends this week.

Melrose PR’s First BloggywoodLA event at BruHaus. What an awesome place and amazing people!

Nicole Myden & Gina Wade Creative’s “A Dinner To Blog About” at Rosa Mexicano where I met MORE amazing bloggers and had the most delicious food a Tex-Mex addict could enjoy.

The Angeleno Magazine Poolside Beauty Event – A luxurious evening of glammer & glitz on the rooftop of the London West Hollywood. The perfect farewell to summer! Check out our complete Angeleno event post here!

5) And lastly, finishing the first draft of BOTH of my children’s books. I’ve never written a book before and I couldn’t be more excited about these stories! It’s almost as good a feeling as being in love! p.s. I had a verrrry good assistant! She sits in my lap every morning when I work. I’m a lucky kid!

The best assistant a writer could ask for!

LOWS

Hmmm…I don’t have any this week! Wait. That’s not true. It was very hot and I don’t have air conditioning. Then again, being from Texas originally, 90 degrees is not hot. On second thought, Nope, no lows this week. Just gratitude and happiness!!!!

BF Asks: What was your HIGH-LOW this week?

xoxo,
BF

Freewriting Friday: The truth about the past…

Posted on August 17, 2012 by BeautyFrosting

A myriad of memories...One of my MANY collages over the years...

Recently, I had a nice, long talk with a friend about the power of memories. We agreed that some days, a memory can burn brighter than the sunshine in any modern moment.

And that, my friends, can be deceptive.

We build up the past in hopes of it taking away the pain of the present. Or the boredom. Or the troubles. Or simply the routine. It’s our escape into something that’s familiar while being just foreign and different enough from our current situation.

After many questions, a few tears, a couple glasses of wine and a goodbye, this is what I emailed my friend.

The past is precious because that’s exactly what it is.

It has PASSED us. Or, rather, we have passed it.

Memories remain those beautiful moments frozen in time for a reason.

Like a scene from a favorite movie we can’t forget.

Or the lyrics of a song, from the soundtrack of our life, that we will always recall.

As much as we may try to thaw out those memories, to recreate them…

we cannot.

We never will.

They will live THERE forever.

We must remember them. Cherish them. Share them. Grow from them. Let them live on in us. Pass them on. And move on.

Who we were is not who we are. Who we wanted to be is not always who we have become.

But, in the promise of the the wishes of the dreams, the hopes for those plans, and the phantoms of our expectations, we become who we are meant to be.

And the adult us is way better than any child could have hoped for.

We wouldn’t have liked the person, now, that we wanted to become, then, very much anyways.

So cherish the past, relish the present and procrastinate, as much as possible, when it comes to the future.

We will wish for the very day, we are having now, one day down the road.

xoxo,
BF