Raina Shults: Propelling Community Through Dreams

Story by Maddie Steele McMurry
Photos by Maddie Steele Photography

My mom would always call her friends a colorful thread in the tapestry of her life, and she would always tell us the same is true for our friendships. It’s why leaving a certain place you live and invest in is so difficult sometimes. The more you are woven together with people’s lives, the deeper the roots are, the harder it is to uproot. These relationships that make up this tapestry are ultimately what help us get from one place to the next. They might help us get a new job, reach new goals, find a home in a new city; the list could go on. Each thread in the tapestry of my life, whether deeply sown in or just starting to weave its way into the artwork, is a relationship attached to innumerable memories — some good and some bad. 

Achieving dreams usually doesn’t happen alone. Even if a dream is solely “mine” to accomplish, it requires connections to propel me forward. The tapestry of life’s relationships propels us toward our dreams. 

For Raina Shults, owner of Sprinkle Me Sugar, there are many colorful threads that are interconnected into her story and business of bringing authentic french macarons to her hometown of Jackson, Tennessee. 

“For me, it’s always been about my sons. Sprinkle Me Sugar has always been so interconnected with my story of being a mom,” Raina said as I sat in her shop at theLOCAL, watching her set out her macarons for the day. 

Raina’s journey started with a trip to Paris with her husband, Phillip, for their anniversary. It was a transformational trip, altering their lives forever. It was on this trip that they fell in love with French culture, how people would sit and enjoy a cup of tea with a macaron and have a moment with one another. There were no phones, no rushing to get to the next thing. Paris was filled with slow moments of connection.

It was also on this trip that Raina found out she was pregnant, and they would soon discover it was twins — yet another life altering change. 

Prior to this trip, Raina had a long, successful career at Nordstrom. During her time at Nordstrom, shortly before they traveled to Paris, she had a very close friend who died suddenly. This shocking reality of the fragility of life made her realize she didn’t want to wait to live her life. This sparked the decision to travel to Paris like she had always dreamed and to start a family. 

As life progressed in the return from Paris, Raina and Phillip’s twins were born prematurely during a harsh flu season, which led her to the decision to quit her job and stay home with her twin boys. It was their life at stake, and she would do anything for her boys. Postpartum depression quickly hit as her life changed overnight. She went from career-driven to staying home with her babies to keep them safe and well. 

As depression crept in rapidly, Raina started to bake, and it quickly became like therapy for her. Soon after learning to bake various treats, she started her business. She would bake anything people asked of her, and if she didn't know how to make it, she would figure it out. “No” was not in her business vocabulary. 

“Bringing joy to others and focusing outward really did help me through that really hard time,” Raina said. “To just focus outward, give myself a project where I could contribute.”

During the pandemic, Sprinkle Me Sugar shut down, and she had no intention of bringing it back. But she knew if she ever did bring this business back to life, she would want to focus on one thing: macarons. After a medical diagnosis with Raina’s twins, she and her husband made the decision to move back to Jackson, where she was born and raised, after living in Middle Tennessee for 12 years. 

“I had always held on to the dream of opening up Sprinkle Me Sugar in Jackson. It just felt like such a far-fetched dream. I didn't know if we’d ever move back, but I always knew it would be really fun to do something like this in my hometown,” Raina said. 

This business has progressed quickly, first with sharing a storefront with Bryce Miller, owner of Earth Borne Goods, to opening her full store at theLOCAL, to expanding her business with a Macaron Vending Machine at Catbird Studios. This growth has happened in less than a year, rapidly creating a business that is now run by Raina and her husband together, and ultimately provides for their family. 

“I watched Raina, while sharing a space at theLOCAL together, take her macaron vending machine from an idea to a real place Working through the small details and through the big roadblocks, she figured it out,” Bryce Miller said. “Lots of people have ideas. Not a lot of people execute on those ideas, but she sure did. It was a true honor to work with her and help her vision turn into reality.”

Raina compared the experience of the past year to the concept of “death ground” for soldiers. This is a situation in which soldiers are forced to fight a battle, with no option of turning around, or else they will die. She and her husband dove headfirst into accomplishing a dream, but dreams aren’t always easy. This dream involves hours of manual labor. Raina’s baking days involve waking up at 3 a.m. and baking for 10-12 hours straight. It involves her husband hand-separating 200-400 eggs every single week. It has required grit and persevering forward even in moments when the dream didn’t feel too “dreamy.” 

“It’s more than providing a product or sweet treat; it’s really about providing connection for people,” Raina said. 

Not only does Raina’s shop include new and creative flavors each month, but it also includes all kinds of tea selections. The choice to create a tea and macaron shop was one filled with the intention of forcing people to slow down. Tea, unlike coffee, is meant to be enjoyed slowly, savoring each flavor. The same is true for macarons, as they are carefully crafted to showcase each individual flavor in them. 

On the opening day of her shop at theLOCAL, she looked out to see a grandmother with her granddaughter enjoying tea and macarons, bridging the generational differences with a slow moment of connection. 

“I started crying because this is what I wanted. It’s so much more than just macarons or baking. It’s about moments,” Raina said as she retold this story. “And even with the vending machine, I wanted it to look like a French bakery. I don’t want it to just be about convenience. I want it to also be a moment that’s special, even if it’s quick. This is something that you’re going to share with family and friends and have a moment. Have a moment of connection.”

Each week, young teenage women come up to Raina expressing how she is living the dream they have for their own lives. Moms enter the shop and realize Raina is accomplishing what their little girls dream about being when they grow up. Her aim is to show that a crazy dream is possible — it is attainable, and it inspires other people to do the same thing. 

“I want women to feel motivated and inspired, and that’s what is exciting. It’s not something that was the original intent of Sprinkle Me Sugar, but having other people tell me, “Oh, you’re inspiring my daughter,” or having young teenage girls come in who say, “You’re doing my dream,” it just shows how interconnected we all are in the community,” Raina said. “We’re all woven together, and when one of us starts thriving and succeeding, everyone starts thriving and succeeding. Seeing that happen is really humbling. It shows you how you’re just a small piece of a huge tapestry. It fills you with so much joy.”