Meet Melody Houghton | Decorative Cookie Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Melody Houghton and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Melody, let’s start by talking about what inspires you?
I always wanted to be artistic and have a way to express myself. For the first thirty years of my life I tried so many things to make myself artistic without seeing where I was already artistic.

Being able to walk through a park, a store, flipping through a magazine and so on, I find beauty and find myself saying “I could cookie that”

Taking that inspiration and making it come to life on a cookie is such a sweet gift.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am a cookier! This means I make delicious and beautifully decorated sugar cookies.
Cookies can be a dime a dozen, there’s cookies everywhere, what I hope sets me apart is my love and joy for my art, from the flavors that I’ve worked very hard to perfect, the design and details of the physical cookie, to the relationships I have with my clients. I have a beautiful honor to be apart of my clients lives for all their most important moments. The joy I get, seeing the same name pop up in my email for yet another birthday, graduation, wedding, or just a pick me up order is beyond words.

This was not an overnight accomplishment by any means, I started my bakery more times then I can remember without any success and feeling like an absolute failure when it didn’t work out.

I taught pre-school for years and came home at night to start the second shift of baking and decorating cookies all while being mom and wife. The day I founded my LLC and left teaching to take a leap of faith as a full time cookier was equal parts terrifying and exhilarating! I honestly wouldn’t change any moment of this journey even the tears and stress!

Along the way I’ve learned not to doubt myself so much, trusting my gut and listing to the cheering voices around me.

One bit of advice I was given and I now give is, Find your clientele and be ok that not every client is your client. Sometimes a client and an artist don’t click and that is ok!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This is a hard one for me, I am an absolute home body who lives in a small town. I avoid leaving my small town as much as possible. However if I am going to take friends out I check in with my sister in law who always knows the best restaurants to enjoy. Dallas is always a good idea, theres always a fun museum exhibit, music, and just generally a lot of fun. But lets be so for real, I would prefer we fling open the back door, cook out and play card games with the beautiful Texas night air

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I can say without a doubt this business I am blessed with would not be possible without my family.
From my grandmother spending time teaching me how to bake as a young kid, watching my mom and sister bake with love every Christmas season, my dad always telling me that I could one day open a bakery and being my very first investor, to my husband who has been the quiet backbone to my bakery.

Without the support and love of these wonderful people I wouldn’t be here.

Then there’s amazing fellow cookiers (this is the term we use to describe ourselves) like Tola with The Cookie Culture that took time to answer my questions when I first started, and probably has no idea how much they impacted this small cookiers dreams.

Website: https://polka-dot-gal-bakery-llc.square.site/

Instagram: Polkadot_gal_balery

Facebook: @polkadotgalbakery