Member Interview

Who are you?  Laura of Creatively Tangled

Please tell us a bit about yourself. 

Hi, I'm Laura Slocum and I live in NE PA.  My shops are creativelytangled, CreativelyTangled2, and lauraslocumpainted.  My sister, jennreese7, opened my stores for me, came up with the creativelytangled name,  designs my tags and banners, and sometimes takes my pictures.  Any pictures that are excellent - she most likely took them.  She's sort of my brains......  She also developed my blog, staytuned09.blogspot.com.

 

How did you learn about Etsy Project Embrace?

Well, EPE, started because of me!  I went in for surgery last May, it was sudden, and I was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer.  My sister Jenn and my niece Kelly, of sweetnessjewelry, immediately reached out to our Etsy friends and there were a ton of treasuries for at least 2 weeks by various people wishing me well.  

When I got home, I mostly recovered on the couch and slept there at night, since my sleeping was all out of whack.  One middle of the night I was up and turned on my computer and was commenting on treasuries.  Kim, of slinkymalinkicat, who lives halfway across the world, saw my comment and that I had mentioned that i couldn't sleep.  We really didn't know each other, maybe from a treasury or two, but I'm thinking that she may have seen treasuries that talked about my surgery.  She convoed me to say that I could talk to her anytime in the middle of the night, since she was up!  Our friendship grew from there, and she was a source of support right from my first week home.  We chit chatted about our stores, families and lives.  

At some point, she asked me to write something about my experience with recovering and the support of my Etsy friends.  I  wrote her on the night before my first chemo in the beginning of July.  From that article, she got in touch with Amy from thepeachtree, and they started an informal Etsy Project Embrace, that would raise money for cancer research. 

By the time I recovered from my treatment, my article was in about 10 different blogs -- I couldn't even keep track.  It was pretty amazing, that Kim would start this for somebody she didn't even know.  She raises two beautiful young daughters, and despite that, she found time in her day to start this movement. She's an incredibly sweet person.  From there, Kristin from loveartworks got involved with a thread on the Etsy forum, and Ginny, from ginnyhuber, started listing all the EPE treasuries..... and all these great people joined and the treasuries continued.......that was the beginning of EtsyProjectEmbrace ... as I remember it!
 

What is your favorite item in your shop at the moment?

My poppy red from lauraslocumpainted and the candy shoppe wire wrapped pendants from my creativelytangled store.

What is your favorite handmade possession? 

My mom and I went shopping and picked out fabrics for a quilt that she started making for me before she passed away in 2004.  I painted my bedroom and furniture to match, and when she was having trouble with her eyesight, I went over and finished it at her house.  I just love that quilt and I keep a little sheet of paper with her handwriting in my wallet, that says "navy crochet thread."  It was the last step in my quilt to pull the thread thru on each square.

What do you collect?

I have to say art and craft supplies.........whatever I'm into at the moment, I have to have every tool there ever was.....plus, I have about 3 million beads and probably 600 colors of paint...........!

Where would you like to be and what do you hope to be doing ten years from now? 
 

Family time is my favorite.  My plan is to be here for my family..... maybe some weddings.... maybe some grandchildren!  I  also would like to be heading south in the winter -- my biggest dream -- I'm just not a winter person what so ever!