Where do you call home?
I live in a small town in Indiana called Nappanee. We are famous for our large Amish population and their handmade goods. Our town motto is “Embrace the pace,” because there are always a lot of buggies and bikes on the road. After living in a city for most of my life, I love the quiet, country feel of Nappanee.
Tell us a little about your family…
My immediate family is small, just me and my adult son, but we are blessed with a close extended family. We will also be adding another girl to the family when my son gets married in September.
When did you join Sweet Shoppe Designs & what’s your favorite thing about being a member of the team?
I joined the team in December 2017. The best thing about being a member is that everyone is so nice and friendly. The conversations between the team members are always positive, often funny, and very enlightening. Robin is a hands on leader and the entire team is involved with and passionate about the site. It feels great to be a part of that.
How long have you been designing?
I’ve been professionally designing for just over 4 years, but have been dabbling at it much longer.
What inspires you?
Words. I love words — quotes, poems, lyrics, essays, etc. — any and all of them. All of my kits start with words, either a title or something I’ve heard or read that I think would make a good theme. Once I have the words, I build the rest of the kit around them and the feelings they evoke in me.
Tell us a little bit about your design process…
After I get my inspiration word, I start choosing my color palette. From there I design my papers and then work on elements. I build my kit on my preview and don’t stop until it looks finished. All in all it is a rather random process that I would dearly like to tighten up to save time, but so far I have not found any other method that works for me.
What is something we may not know about you?
You may not know that I am an avid genealogist. I love history, so I especially love finding out about my family history. I’ve been doing it for over 15 years now, have spent a lot of time in dusty courthouses looking at really big books with really small writing and discovered some fascinating things about my family. For instance, I had ancestors from both my maternal and paternal lines at Valley Forge with General Washington, I am a Mayflower descendant and I found a whole new line of the family tree when I discovered that my great-grandfather had been previously married before he wed my great-grandmother. That one raised a lot of eyebrows in our family, because granddad may have “forgotten” to get divorced first. 😉
