Commercial FUN!

Hello beautiful people!

As some of you know I am pursuing an acting career and am represented by an agency here in Dallas.  Core Talent is my Dallas agency and Dynamic Talent is my San Antonio Agency.  Dallas is a big commercial spot so recently that is what I have been doing the most.  Commercials are fun and a quick way to make some money.  Film is my ultimate goal though, as it is my passion.  So far, I have done a United Commercial, Six flags, Taco Cabana, Ford, and American Heart Associations.  I am hoping to get to LA soon because that is where most of the films and pilots are cast.  I wanted to share a few photos from the commercials!

The first pic is from the American Heart associations commercial....although I would never trust myself as a doctor and neither would anyone else LOL!  I also played a sick patient who had just had knee surgery.  Fun times!  The second pic is the dress I wore in the United Commercial.  The third pic is the hair they used to go along with the dress....I know you are thinking...WHAT EWWW!  UGLLYYY!!  I thinking the same thing.  It was 80s themed so that explains the lack of hair style.  I attempted to rock the hairstyle that my mom "rocked" back in her day....but I failed. I want to do a comparison photo of my mom's hair back in the day and mine.  Now that would be a good picture for the scrap book! :-) It was still a super exciting shoot though! We shot from 4 am-9am, it was an early shoot but I kept my energy up by drinking more than enough caffeine.  When people ask how I always have so much energy I thank healthy eating and CAFFEINE!!!  If you want to get into commercial work, take some acting classes, get some head shots, and submit to agencies.  That is all you do.....People always ask me but when I tell them how they never do it.  You have to put forth some effort, I know its terrible right? Just kidding, I would much rather do commercials than work at Wal Mart :-)  My next post will be about the films I have done!  Can't wait for you all to see them!

Be a flower!!

XOXOXOX

Grace

Commercial Audition in Austin

Hello lovely people!  

Today I want to talk about how crazy pursuing acting can be sometimes.  I have been completely and utterly obsessed with acting since I was twelve.  My parents have sacrificed time, money, and lots of time in the car to help me pursue this wild dream.  Even now that I can drive they still come with me to the out of town auditions and shoots.  This year my mom went to Alabama with me for two weeks to shoot a Wonderwomen TV pilot presentation.  I played batgirl....it was awesome!  I am nineteen so I could have gone alone but my parents always want to make sure I am safe.  I also tend to get lost very easily.....and I am a terrible driver so I can understand the concern.  So, the other day I got an email saying I needed to be in austin the very next day for an audition for a bank commercial.  I called my mom and told her I was going to be heading to Austin the next day by myself and of course my parents said no.  "I would get lost" or "Get a flat tire"....I agreed I probably would LOL!  So my mom decided to drop everything and drive me to austin for an audition that I might not even book.  We met early that morning and I surprised her with all of her favorite things, Coke, candy, and flowers! 

It's important to show your appreciation to the people who do the most for you.  I know this is not near enough to repay her for her six hour unplanned road trip but I hope that one day I will be able to repay her for everything she has done for me.  She is QUEEN! Love you mom! 

This is the outfit I wore for the audition.  Do I look like a normal teenage girl who is getting a new pink car?  Well I hope so because I want to book this commercial! If I don't book it, there will be many more.  I'm not giving up anytime soon, or ever, so if I keep coming back they will have to cast me eventually.  It's all about persistence my friends.  Never. Give. Up.

XOXOX

Grace

A day with my grandma

Hola!  I have not blogged in forever because I have been insanely busy finishing my first year of college, pursuing an acting career, and all of my dance team activities.  It's totally cray but I enjoy it all!  Anyways, the point of this post is to brag on my grandma.  I am not very close with my dad's mom, but I am best friends with my mom's mom.  Grandparents are people we always promise ourselves we will spend time with "when we have time" or "in the future" but I think most of us forget that they will not be around our entire lives.  Some people don't have any grandparents alive but I feel extremely fortunate to have three grandparents alive at the moment.  I call my mom's mom "Nan".  I am the first grandchild and when they tried to get me to say "grandma" I only said "nan" so that stuck around nineteen years.  My nan only lives an hour away from me and I try and go visit as often as possible but things always come up or I am traveling, in school, filming, the list goes on.  This past weekend I put "Visit Grandma" in my calendar and made it my first priority to go and see her and my papa.  I drove to Arlington after church and they took my to my favorite restaurant, Jason's Deli, I know basic right... You are probably thinking "Why would that be your favorite restaurant?" It's more of a deli, but don't hate on it.  I get the same thing every time, a side of grilled chicken and a side of steamed veggies.  I also make my way to the salad bar and take some sliced apples and pickles.  I think that it probably frowned upon but no ones says anything so I'm gonna assume it's fine.  I chatted with them for about an hour and after we wrapped up lunch, my grandma asked me if I need new shoes.  "Well, I mean....I love shoes...but whatever you want to do is totally fine with me" So she drove me to DSW and we began shoe shopping!  MY FAV! If I held my glance at a pair of shoes for more than 3 seconds she would say "Do you want that pair? Get it!" I ended up getting three new pairs of shoes (Two wedges, and a pair of bright pink nike running shoes).  When we were passing the jewelry section she asked if I needed new jewelry....I didn't say no....I'm a sucker for shiny objects.  So she bought me around 7 pairs of earrings and some necklaces.  

So as you can see we left the store happy!  She got seven pairs of the same black flats lol!  We went back to her house after the shopping adventure and watched a few lifetime movies.  If you do not watch lifetime movies, please start watching them ASAP.  They are a classic way to bond with your mom or grandma.   I spent the night with her and we stayed up until midnight chatting away about life, God, and family.  She is honestly the wisest women I know.  I hope that I can become half the women that she is in my lifetime.  Anyways, my point in this post is to inspire you to spend time with your grandparents and treasure your time with them.  Here is a picture of some of my "casual wear" wedges my sweet grandma got me.  I think these will be my new "Go to" shoes.  I'm obsessed with casual wedges because they complete any outfit.  Now go and schedule a lunch date with your grandparents :-)

XOXOX,

Grace

Are we scaring the kids or are they scaring us?

Happy Halloween!

I hope you all had a great Halloween and ate way too much candy.  Most girls use Halloween as an opportunity to dress cute or inappropriate.  I use Halloween as an opportunity to scare little kids.  Yup.  I'm one of a kind.  I started out the day with Spanish class....wooohoo!  So much fun.  My level of sarcasm is at an all time high because I despise Spanish with all of my heart.  Nothing against the language but it has never been my forte.  After Spanish, I took a journalism test and met my friend Jordan for lunch.  When Michael got out of class, we went to his house, ate dinner with his family, and watched some TV until it was dark enough to scare the children.  These are the masks that we thought would be a guarantee scare to the children.  I imagined the kids running in fear of how absolutely terrifying we looked roaming down the dark streets hissing and screaming.  But in reality, we got bullied.  Bullied? How? As we ran down the streets screaming and hissing the small children hurled insults at us.  They called us "losers", "lame", "freaks", and even told us to "get a life".  Instead of the fear we expected to see, we ended up with hurt feelings.  We could not manage to get one scream from a kid.  Not even one.  Ridiculous.  The kids are tougher now a days than ever before.  If I had been the child, I would have peed my pants, cried to my mother, and sworn to myself that I was never tricker treating again.  I guess next year we will have to step up our game and try something new.  We will need to create a better scaring tactic.  I'll let you know next year if we have better luck.  I should have been a flower instead.  Flower power for life!  It was still a great Halloween though!  I ended my night with some gluten free mac and cheese and a pb gluten free sandwich with honey just because it's Halloween and everyone deserves to treat themselves on such a day :-)

xoxoxox

Grace

Prayer Jars

Hello,

Since Thanksgiving and Christmas are right around the corner, I thought it would be a perfect time to post an idea for a homemade gift.  PRAYER JARS!  They are so simple to make and adorable.  I have made them for friends, family, and people in my church.  Everyone always seems to love them!  I have one that I made myself along time ago and I still use it even today.  They are simple, sweet, and thoughtful.  You can make them a "girl" gift or a "boy" gift.  You simply, purchase a mason jar, scrap book paper, ribbon, and stickers.  That's it.  Super simple.  For the girls, I put heart and flower stickers on the outside of the mason jars and filled them with pink, blue, and yellow scrap book paper folded in half.  For the boys, I did not put much decoration on the outside.  I asked my boyfriend to choose out a "boy" sticker because he seemed to think my idea of using tractor stickers was lame, but he thought that none of the stickers looked manly enough so we just kept them plain.  I did a black ribbon around the tops of the mason jars and filled them up with colorful "boy" colors.  This way they were not super boring and ugly.  Here is a photo of the jars that my boyfriend and I made for our church community.  The point of these prayer jars is to write down your prayers on the little pieces of paper that are provided inside and you place it back inside of the jar.  In a few months, years, decades, or whenever, you can look back and see what you had been praying about and how God worked through your prayers.  WALAH!  You have a fabulous and easy present to show how thankful you are for the loved ones in your life!  I posted a video on my youtube channel as well on how to make these cute little jars, so if you are confused than check it out.  Happy hump day!

xoxoxox

Grace

Angels Do Exist

Hello,

I know that I have already posted a blog today, but it has been on my heart today to post this story for the past few days.  I have been working up the guts to post it and it has taken some time.  The is my essay I wrote last year for my senior English class.  I wrote this story about my youngest brother, Matthew, who is special needs.  I hope that this story will touch your heart, just like Matthew has touched mine.

Angels do exist

            I was born into a perfect little family with a mom, dad, one sister, Jade, and one brother, Clay.  I was the oldest of the three children.  My parents had just built their dream house on 50 acres next door to family.  They had envisioned their children’s lives to be fun, carefree, and spending time outdoors with cousins.  We all had bright futures in front of us.  Then the fourth addition to the family came, a little boy named Matthew (which means “gift from God”).  He weighed eight pounds and had chubby cheeks and a contagious smile.  Matthew caught the flu a few weeks after he was born and my mother took him to the hospital.  He soon was put on dialysis as his kidneys began to fail.  The nurse then programmed his machine incorrectly and removed 500 cc’s of fluid instead of five.  She then unknowingly went down the hall to talk to another nurse.  During this time, too much blood from Matthew’s body was drained and he suffered a cardiac arrest and clinically died.  The doctors quickly rushed in and after a code blue of forty minutes they were able to rescuitate him.  I will be forever grateful for the doctor’s hard work and determination to keep my brother alive.

            Even though Matthew was alive, nothing would ever be the same again.  Matthew was diagnosed with severe brain damage from the lack of oxygen during the cardiac arrest.  My parents were told he would never walk nor would he talk.  Being a child of five years during this time, I remember that the laughter and fun in my perfect family stopped.  My mother who was always smiling was no longer doing so.  Our lives from this point were never the same. 

            Luckily my parents and family do not accept defeat that easily.  My mother began to take Matthew to the best therapists in the area.  His therapists included speech, physical, occupational, oxygen, eye, language, and play therapies.  I spent my childhood years waiting for my brother in therapy waiting rooms while other kids my age were having play dates and having fun.  Even though this had not been the plan, I spent lots of time around other kids like Matthew who are considered special.    I learned to talk to them and make them feel included and loved.  There was one family that we befriended that had two special needs boys who spent two summers with us so they could receive therapy in the Dallas area.  One of the boys was in a wheelchair and my mother was so proud that we always included him by making sure he was in the room where we were playing and even having races down the hallway with him. 

            Honestly, I will confess that this journey has tested our family’s faith in Christ.  Prayers are not always answered the way that we want them to be answered.  But our God has his plan.  And his plan included so many blessing that we would have missed out on if we had not journeyed through it.  I am pleased to announce that our Matthew is walking and talking.  He is still challenged but he is continuing with the best of therapies, love, lots of prayers, and most importantly, his family.

            Having a brother with special needs has taught me many life lessons.  Those include, patience, the importance of being kind to others and to not take anything for granted such as health.  I believe that Matthew is an angel sent straight from heaven.  How appropriate is his name a “gift from God”.   He encourages me to be a light in people’s lives just like he has been in mine.  He will always be my hero.  Not many people can say they have an angel in their family.  We have been blessed.

Here is a photo of my family!  I love them all to death.  I hope that this post touched you in some way.  God Bless!

xoxox

Grace

Makeup Channel

Hello,

Happy Tuesday everyone!  I hope you have all had a great Tuesday.  Today has been crazy for me.  I  have been running around nonstop all day long.  I woke up this morning and went straight to take my TSI test.  I have been trying to score high enough to exempt a math class that I have no desire to take next semester.  I have taken the TSI six times and have gotten within two or three points of the score I need each time....it has been so frustrating.   Today I decided that I would destroy this stupid test that has been ruining my life once and for all.  Guess what?  I DID!!  I scored high enough and now I am not taking a math next semester...holla!  It was a fabulous start to my day.  I went to buy myself a quest bar after to treat myself for my success.  (I'm a quest bar addict).  Than I went to the gym, ran 3 miles, went to lunch with my friend Jordan, had a bible study with two girls from my church, went to a meeting, and went to a fundraiser for the dance team.  I didn't stop running around until I got to my dorm around 5:30 and had an hour to spare until Michael (my boyfriend) was coming to pick me up and take me to dinner and church.  In my spare time, I decided it was the perfect time to start my own YouTube channel!  I have started a makeup, fashion, and blog channel.  I will post the link below to my very first video.  I hope that you will check it out and comment any feedback you may have.  I am new to the whole editing thing so it will take time getting used to and talented in that department but I will try my best.  My first video is just my daily makeup routine because I noticed that those types of videos seem to be popular on Youtube and what better way to start my channel than with makeup.  I'm a makeup fanatic so I thought this video would be perfect.  Check it out here and let me know what you think!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idK8XZHAS9w
Here is a photo of my boyfriend and I as well just in case you were curious.  Arn't we adorable?  hehe!
I hope you enjoyed!!

xoxoxox

Grace