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

Hey everyone I’m excited to bring you one of our blog feature, 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: LaShawn (shawnbear in the forum)

Tell us a bit about yourself. How you came to find digital scrapbooking? Day job, where you live, pets, kids? Give us the tea!!

She says: “How you came to find digital scrapbooking: I had always been interested in scrapbooking & memory keeping. I worked in a print center in the early 2000’s. There was a lady that would bring in scrapbook pages she made digitally for me to print out. I marveled over them. Fast forward to 2007. I became a mom and that spurred me into wanting to scrapbook more. I searched around, found digital scrapbooking, and that is all she wrote! I have been doing it ever since. 15 years!”

“I live in the US in the state of GA. I live about 30 minutes from the GA/TN line. If you know this area, it is around the Chattanooga, TN area. I have lived here my whole life. I am married to my college sweetheart. We have been married going on 17 years. We have 1 son who will be 16 in a few months. We have 2 doggos and 1 kitty. I work full-time outside the home doing customer service for an manufacturing plant. We make products for bigger Automotive companies.”

 

I love our members and I love looking through the different galleries. LaShawn’s gallery was full of her fun eclectic style like this one:

I love her fun style in all of her pages she adds bits of whimsy, eclectic, and soul. I always enjoy that she uses lots of word bits to help tell the stories of her family even if she doesn’t add journaling.

 

I asked LaShawn about her favorite pages from her own gallery and she was happy to share these with us:

“I am a sucker for an Autumn kit/collection. I spend more money that time of year on digital scrapbooking supplies because I have to have them all!! I am also a sucker for that guy I am smooching on.”

 

“I LOVE dark backgrounds with bright elements. I am also a template junkie, and really like striking large titles. And my work besties as well.”

 

“And if you know me longer than a few minutes, you will know that I am a huge Harry Potter nerd. HUGE! So, there isn’t a Harry Potter kit/collection I don’t have. This was also my favorite vacation I ever took.”

 

Of course LaShawn has lots more of beautiful pages in her gallery. If you want to see more or leave her a little love in her gallery. I’m sure she would like that.  But this interview isn’t all about her gorgeous creations before we go let’s learn some more about LaShawn. I gave her a list of questions to choose from and asked her to answer any 15 of her choice.

1. What’s the next place on your travel bucket list?
Scotland! Have you ever seen photos and videos of a place, and just feel called to it? That is Scotland for me! My husband and I are planning to go on our 20th Anniversary.

2. Are you an introvert or extrovert?
100% introvert. I can put myself out there if need be. But I have to have a recovery period away from everyone. It is also why I am not so chatty in the forums. Even though I want to be. I just can’t seem to do it.

3. Tell us one of your nicknames?
Shawn Bear! My forum name is my nickname, given to me by my husband when we were dating. LaShawn + my love of panda bears = Shawn Bear!

4. What’s one weird fact you remember from school?
Not so much a weird fact. But I took ASL in high school 22 years ago. I still remember everything to this day and can converse pretty well in ASL.

5. Amusement park or National park?
This one is hard. I love hiking, and being in nature. BUT…I went to Disney and Universal for the 1st time a few years ago. And it sucked me in. I could be a Disney adult so easily! So…both!

6. Are you the prankster or the prank-ee?
My whole family loves playing pranks on each other.

7. If you could create the ideal career for yourself what would it be?
I would be a digital scrapbook designer, honestly. But I have always wavered in taking that step. I don’t want to take that step, and then stop scrapbooking itself.

8. What’s your favorite season?
Autumn!! If I could live somewhere that it was like that year-round, I would move!

9. Share a pet peeve with us?
Incessant noises. Like tapping of pens, dripping water. It makes me mad!

10. What is your go-to app for wasting time?
Tik Tok. I spend too much time watching those videos.

11. What’s your “regular” coffee order?
Iced Shaken Espresso from Starbucks with Stevia and just a splash of milk. So much so I learned how to make it at home and drink it every day!

12. You’re alone for 24 hours, what do you do?
I love being alone. It is the introvert in me. My alone time is usually filled with naps, scrapping, and reading. I could fill 24 hours with that!

13. What’s on your desk at work or home?
My digital frame. It is one of the best gifts I have ever gotten. As a memory keeper, it makes my heart happy. I enjoy sitting on endless meetings at work watching my loved ones and friends flit by on my frame.

14. What would your 10-yr old self say about you now?
She would be so proud! Proud of where we came from to where we are now. Proud of the marriage we have, and the amazing son we have.

15. How do you separate your work life from home life?
I am really good at drawing that line. There is nothing more important to me than my family. Time if fleeting. We blink and kids are grown, and people are gone. Work doesn’t come close to that and I have a hard line I keep to make sure it doesn’t.

 

 

I loved learning more about LaShawn and share a few things in common with her but separating home & work life is the one I resonate with the most. Seriously not sure how those that are always taking work calls at home do it, I have to have that line so I can totally feel her answer. LaShawn thank you so much for taking time to answer my questions and share more about you with us. Hope you all enjoyed learning some more about LaShawn too. Until next time….see ya!