November Challenge Day 17

Before I write anything else I need to wipe the egg off of my face. I said the pattern for the socks I was working on yesterday were from Vera’s blog at “The Threaded Lane.” Vera very nicely corrected me and said that it was not her pattern. But it IS Cindy’s pattern at the blog “Delighted Hands.”  Cindy, I am so very sorry. Sometimes my brain doesn’t work very well. I absolutely love this pattern. I finished the first sock this evening and started it’s mate. Thank you for sharing the pattern with us, and for forgiving my error.

The challenge today is the meaning behind my blog name. Well, it’s pretty self-explanatory and easy. My name is Betsy, I live a fairly simple life and my last name is Queen!  An extra little tidbit is that my grandmother’s maiden name on my Mom’s side was King. Now what are the odds of that?  

The reason as to why I started the blog has a story behind it though.  As you know Alex lives in Japan. He was there during the big earthquake and tsunami a number of years ago. He also lives in the part of Japan that was affected by the tsunami. When he told us how bad it was and I saw the hardship of the people online, I felt compelled to help in some way. It gets so cold there and lots and lots of snow. Most people don’t think about Japan having that much snow. They actually have a lot more than Spokane does every year. I decided I was going to knit 300 hats by fall to donate to the shelters. Well, word got out and you know how generous knitters and crocheters are.  Before I knew it, we had filled several huge boxes.  And I mean huge boxes!  Dennis and I spent over $2,000.00 just shipping those boxes to Japan!!!!!  Poor Alex! He had boxes, boxes and more boxes all over his tiny apartment. I started having people mail things directly to him so double shipping wasn’t being paid. Then, I flew to Japan in September. When I saw his apartment I couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t even sleep in his bed. He had a little space on the floor that he curled up in. Boxes were piled on his bed and everywhere else too. He took a week off of work and we drove to Sendai and several other towns and delivered all of the lovely things that people had made to shelters, but that wasn’t all. Several times Alex opened up the trunk and people came running. Ladies chose hats and mittens for their children and scarves and hats for themselves. They thanked us over and over and told Alex their stories. I will never, ever forget that week. People who had lost virtually everything they had in the world, were so gracious and kind to us.  Dennis, Mandy and I had visited Alex the year before. I couldn’t believe we were even in the same place.  It was like being in the middle of a disaster movie.  

I started the blog as a way to share the trip with all of the generous crafters who donated the beautiful things they had made to the people of Japan. I wanted them to see the photos and read the story of my trip and where their precious items went. The stories are still there at the beginning of my blog if you get want to look back, but blogger made me take some of the photos down several years ago when they were having issues over photos taking up too much space. Beginning in August 2011 there are photos there of some of the preparations for my trip in September.  Anyway, I hope you find the story of why I started my blog interesting. I had never planned to continue it after I came home, but I was encouraged to do so by the people who had contributed and were reading about the trip. So here I still am, all these years later.  I am so grateful that I am, because I have met all of you here, through this blog.

Whew!  That was a lot of reading wasn’t it? I apologize. I’ll show you two more photos of my decorations before I leave.  I told you I like snowmen didn’t I?

A friend from church stopped by this morning and left this beautiful poinsettia on my doorstep. It was nice to at least get to see her face from the other end of the drive, since we couldn’t be closer.  Now, it really does look like Christmas in here!

I think I’ve droned on enough for one day so I’ll stop here. Stay safe and stay well my friends.

Blessings,

Betsy