Things are moving slower then usual for me now since I had to evacuate my shop due to flooding again two weeks ago. Unlike the 2006 flood (archived posts from July 2006 can be found here ) where my shop was submerged in over seven feet of water almost too quickly for much to be saved, this time around we were much better prepared. We were able to spend an entire day emptying my four room shop. Almost everything from my shop ended up stacked up in my kitchen, living room, pantry, and computer room of my house. Can you say cluttered? I wish I would have thought to take pictures of that. Well, I actually I do have a really funny picture of my kitchen so full of stuff that my husband is crawling on the counter to get over to where our cell phone chargers were stored. For his sake, I won't post that...unless he makes me angry...then all bets are off!
Thankfully, this time we only ended up getting a few inches of water and we did not need to evacuate our home. The bags were packed and by the door, but were wonderfully unnecessary. The only thing I lost was a big old bottle of violet scented oil that fell to the ground and smashed while I was putting it away. Whew, that was pretty potent for a few days. In fact my husband told me that you could smell it halfway down the block...and none of my windows where open!
What took five adults an entire day to pack up and move is taking me days and days to put back (in a methodical and organized fashion that is). It's been slow going but I would take this any day over the loss that we experienced in 2006. As humbled as we were with that situation, I know that it in no way compares to what hundreds of thousands of people are experiencing right now in Japan alone. I can't stop thinking about it and wishing that there was something more we could do to help.
Help Japan, by Rob Dobi, can be purchased here
I really wanted to be able to do something on a business level, like a special shopping day with profits going to Japan, but at this point I'm just not able to work quickly and effectively enough do anything on a grand scale. I'm still considering some options so perhaps I'll be able come up with something that I'll be able to manage. In the meantime, here are some resources that I found to help support Japan beyond the traditional monetary donations.
Posie Gets Cozy has a complied a list of crafters donating to the cause. You can view that post here
Handmade for Japan will be holding an Ebay auction started tomorrow (March 24th) with over 100 pieces of art created by 95 artists. You can read more about that here and find them on facebook here (you can preview what will be up for auction).
