Sweet Shoppe Designs – The Sweetest Digital Scrapbooking Site on the Web

Hey everyone I’m excited to bring you one of our newest blog features, Sweet Talk, which sheds some light on YOU. Our amazing community members. Once a month we will indulge in some “sweet talk” and have some fun getting to know you all a little bit better.

“When someone tells you a piece of their life, they’re giving you a gift.” – Patrick Rothfuss

We’ll start off with an ice breaker and show off some gorgeous pages then we’ll end the interview with a lightning round of 15 questions to learn some fun, interesting and cool things about a different member of the sweetest spot in town!

This month I’m excited to introduce: Charlene, (SweetChar in the forum)

A few facts about you?

Charlene says: “I’m trying to think of some facts about myself that are somewhat interesting and I’m making jokes in my head about being a bit boring. Let’s see, I’m a Southern girl as I have lived in Georgia all my life. I think I’m an easy-going person and a homebody, so I’m easily pleased just hanging out at the house with my family. For 10 years, I did the Bible imprinting from home for my husband’s Christian bookstore. Around Easter and Christmas, I would have stacks and stacks of Bibles. Although they would never know, I would pray for each person receiving the Bible as I put their name on it. Lastly, I have too many cookbooks. There, I’ve admitted it. I’m not sure if I will rectify the situation though.”

How you came to find digital scrapbooking?

Charlene says: “When my husband (fiancé at the time) was in the process of opening the bookstore, I wanted to put Bible verses on various pictures and frame them so he could sell them. My computer had come with Photoshop Elements installed on it and I found out I could use it for my project. As I was researching how to use it, I stumbled upon digital scrapbooking and jumped right in! Those early layouts are so different than what I create now, but I still look at them fondly. Well, maybe I cringe a little. lol”

What’s your day job, where you live, pets, kids?

Charlene says: “My “day job” is also my “night job.” lol I am a stay-at-home mom with only one son at home now. We just wrapped up our 6th year of homeschooling. My older two boys (twins) are, most of the time, off at college which leaves my sweet husband, youngest son and myself to live with the antics of one cuddly 100-pound Black Labrador Retriever and ten entertaining chickens.”

Our Babes get into everything behind the scenes and I asked Sugarbabe Cherry to choose a page from Charlene’s gallery. Cherry had this to say about Charlene’s cool Mini Cooper page:

“I have always admired Charlene’s style of scrapping, her shadow work was amazing and realistic and she has a lot of stories to tell.”

I also asked Charlene about her favorite pages from her own gallery here and this is what she shared:

“The first layout I picked is because it shows the earthiness that I love: browns, greens, woodgrain, the outdoors. And I’ve recently discovered that I like using yellows. It also shows my youngest son with his inquisitive mind. I love seeing him explore or investigate his interests.”

“The second layout I picked is because I also love bright, elegant looks. I loved how the colors of the kit worked so well with my pictures and it all feels so cheerful. I love seeing all my men together!”

“The third layout I picked is because I also like fun kits with doodled, illustrated elements. I had fun with this one and it has examples of my superpower that I talk about in the upcoming questions.”

I too am a big fan of Charlene’s pages and always find something to fawn over while I’m in her gallery here. But this interview isn’t all about her gorgeous creations before we go let’s learn some more about Charlene. I gave her a list of questions to choose from and asked her to answer any 15 of her choice.

1. What’s your favorite way to spend a day off? Well, a day off would mean not a school day and not a day for appointments or errands. Ideally, the first half of the day would be at a park hiking with my family and our dog, Rocky, through the woods and checking out a lake or river with the second half of the day spent at the house with some scrapbooking going on.

2. What type of music are you into? We have a couple of Christian radio stations available, and the cars are always tuned to them.

3. What’s the next place on your travel bucket list? We all want to visit the Ark Encounter in Kentucky.

4. What’s your guilty pleasure? Turtles candy or Turtle Tracks ice cream. Yum!

5. What’s one family tradition from childhood? And did you keep it for adulthood? We used to say prayers together then sing a part of a hymn. I do that with my youngest son still. Years ago, we expanded it to singing part of a hymn before we ask the blessing at meals when we’re home.

6. Tell us one of your nicknames? I don’t really have any nicknames these days. In my high school service club, we had “Chuckles” put on my jersey. Ah, those carefree days when I laughed a lot. Hmm… these days aren’t so carefree, but there is a lot of laughter still in my life.

7. Is there a word that you always mispronounce? I can’t seem to say Worcestershire without saying it multiple ways!

8. What’s one weird (silly?) fact you remember from school? Coming from a family who didn’t watch the news or read newspapers… I took notes in 7th grade Social Studies class and wrote from what was on the chalk board that the Olympics were being held in LA. On the following test, I answered the question about where they were held with “in Louisiana.” Ha! I didn’t know that LA meant Los Angeles. lol

9. Amusement park or National park? Definitely National Park! I like hiking and exploring. When I was much younger, I loved roller coasters. The last time I was at Six Flags, each roller coaster made my head pound more and more until I got sick. And the crowds aren’t for me.

10. What’s your favorite board game? I want to say Wingspan because it’s so pretty and is about birds. I love birds! But the one I’ve played the most is Great Western Trail. About cows! lol Buying and delivering cows, building houses/posts along the way, dealing with hazards, hiring railroad engineers, handymen and cowboys. We love it!

11. You have one superpower, what is it? I have become the great, the mighty, the silly… Word Scrambler! My earliest memory of this awesome power was saying, “A marrel full of bunkies” instead of “a barrel full of monkeys” when I was a youngster. More recently my husband asked what the medicine for our dog does. I said that it protects him from heartworms and teas and flicks. (Fleas and ticks!) Luckily, it’s not every day that this awesome power shows itself, but we get a great laugh when it does.

12. Choose a fictional character to be your best friend, who is it? Anne of Green Gables. I’d love to daydream with and hang out with her.

13. What’s your favorite season? I used to say Fall, but I think I’ve changed to a Spring gal. As I type this, I’m looking out of our sunroom windows at all the fresh, bright greens of the trees. The woods behind our house are just so full right now of various shades of fresh green. And we haven’t reached the humid, hot days of Summer yet.

14. Share a pet peeve with us? I’m guilty of my pet peeve. I get irritated with myself for talking out loud to drivers that bother me or just saying out loud why what they are doing is so bothersome. I’ll then apologize to my son and say that it does not help anything for me to say something out loud. I don’t want to be “Ms. Negative” every time he’s in the car with me.

15. Are you cooking at home or picking up to-go? Most often cooking at home. I’ve got all those cookbooks I need to use!

 

WOW some pretty interesting things here and I can definitely say, I used to love autumn too, but now I think I’m taking to spring more as well. We’ve got that in common Charlene. It’s been a pleasure to get to know Charlene more. I enjoyed learning more about her and I hope that you all did too. Thank you again, Charlene, for letting me interview you and being my first “guinea pig” for this “sweet talk” feature. lol

See you all next time!