Hello! My name is Laurel and I reside in the East SF Bay Area where I live with my two children (Lorelai, aged eight and Desmond, aged five), my husband, a miniature poodle named Gus, and two kittens that have adopted my family (they were abandoned in my backyard by their feral mother as tiny babies) and have now made their way to living in our house. 🙂 I am currently a stay-at-home mom in my second semester as San Jose State University working on my Master of Library and Information Science.
In my previous life I worked in the fashion industry and have degrees in Fashion Merchandising Management and Fashion Design. I went to school and worked in New York City before relocating back to the Bay Area to start my “own thing.” I got a bit disillusioned by the New York fashion industry. I then started my own online plus size vintage shop and blog, which I ran full time for many years. I acted as buyer, clothing designer, model, webpage and graphic designer, blogger, and shop manager. if you would like to check them out: The Curvy Elle Shop and The Curvy Elle Blog. After having children, my business has gone to the wayside and is now more of a “hobby.” I am excited to start this new career path!
***[Picture] Owned and taken by Laurel E.
@laurele So nice to see photos of your kids. Glad you found your way to our program. New York sounds like an adventure. Nice Etsy site and blog. I would say everything you’ve done will inform your experience as an information professional.
Welcome to #hyperlib!
Thanks @michael! I look forward to learning a completely different profession, but I hope to bring in my creativity and knowledge from my fashion background into my new career path.
Also, I did not have you as a professor for INFO200, but I really enjoyed your lectures for the class. That’s what led me to take this class. Your passion for the library world in infectious! 🙂
@laurele Thanks for those kind words about 200!
Hi Laurel! Can I just say I love the fact that you started your own plus size shop and blog?! As a plus size woman myself, it’s hard to follow fashion when there is not much plus size representation (although that is slowly changing). Your sites are wonderful! Thank you for sharing, and have a great semester!
Hi @marleneroblesortiz,
I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed my work! I definitely agree that things are changing so much in the fashion industry in regards to plus size people and about body positivity for the better. It is still a struggle, but I hope things keep changing!
-Laurel
Hi Team L-Names! : )
Love your blog theme (which one is it or did you import?) and your background is so interesting. My husband and I used to live in Berkeley and Emeryville back in 2007 – 9. I was also a stay-at-home mom for about 10 years and then decided I was ready to embark on a career path. Do you have any pictures of your kittens? I’m more of a cat person, myself, but my husband’s allergic so… : /
Hi Laura,
Sorry for the late reply, for some reason I didn’t get an alert to approve your comment. 🙁
I’m using the “Twenty Sixteen” theme and edited it and made a graphic on Canva. I spent way too much time on tweaking this theme. haha But, doing the creative things is one of my favorite parts!
It’s always nice to meet fellow “stay-at-home mom” alums going back to school. It’s nice to know I’m not the only one in the same boat! 🙂 As for cats, I have never been a cat person and always thought I was allergic, but for some reason these cats don’t bother me. My daughter is in love with them and loves to “baby” them. I don’t have a good picture of both kittens, but here is a picture of one of them (they look identical anyway!):
https://share.icloud.com/photos/036i0MHnfDm2VZEACzTOpA3Bg
How sweet! Thanks for sharing : ).
I can definitely relate to the “spending too much time” on perfecting/tweaking graphics! There’s a funny YouTube video about this.
And yes, absolutely, “stay-at-home parents” unite in academia!!