Welcome!

via email:


Good morning, ladies of the Uncrushable Jersey Dress!

I would just like to write you a quick email of praise for your wonderful blog, which I discovered and joined this afternoon (under the handle of Ketharil). I have begun trawling my way through the years of posts that I was lucky enough to find, and thought I would email you to tell you how much I am so far enjoying it. I've been a Betty Neels fan since I first discovered her books in a used bookstore while in college in 2003 or so... I must admit I enjoy her books even more now than then - they're perfect "slice of life" novels for the days when I just want to curl up and wallow in a girl triumphing over the world and earning her happy ending. Though it's hard to get any of my friends to read anything so "old-fashioned"! I just love the glimpse into (what seems to be, at least) another time and another world.

Of course, the constant mouthwatering food doesn't hurt, either - I've been known to attempt scones and tea cakes, and plan on working my way through quite a few of the recipes on your blog!

I wanted to thank you for your lighthearted and obviously affectionate reviews of the books - I haven't managed to read all of them yet, and you're helping me organize my wish lists nicely. I'm slowly working my way through your posts and expanding my "to-read" piles!

I'm also taking quite a bit of notes off of your website! I don't know if you're familiar with NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month - but it's fast approaching in November. The goal is to hammer out a 50,000 word story over the course of the month, and then edit, edit, edit at your leisure afterwards, once the bulk of everything is complete! This year is my second year attempting this massive undertaking, and I was planning on writing an affectionate homage to Betty Neels's works. While I'm not sure if my heroine shall be a nurse (I'm afraid that as a teacher/office assistant, I don't know nearly enough about hospitals...), there shall have to be a rich Dutch doctor in there somewhere to sweep her off her feet, fund a new and flattering wardrobe, and escort her to lavish meals I can't ever hope of reproducing. Finding your site was like finding manna from heaven - complete with recipes to try and more books to read!

It was icing on the cake to notice that both of you are also Pacific Northwesterners - I did grad school in Spokane but moved to Seattle a year ago, so I'm still finding my feet in new territory and I'm already finding new things to do in Seattle from some of your posts. It made the blog feel even more "homey" and welcoming to me - though I apologize for not having a new, unique, and exotic IP address to add to your world map!

Thanking you most gratefully, and looking forward to reading far more reviews and posts,

-Beth
(Which goes rather horribly or perfectly with Betty; I can't decide which)

Dear Betty Beth,

First of all, welcome! Secondly, Betty Beth is adorable, thirdly: Yay Pacific Northwest! Of course we'll forgive you for not adding an exotic local (although in all honesty, we do love new dots on our map and have been known to request spouses to log onto the site when traveling abroad).

I'm not sure if Betty Keira has heard of NaNoWriMo - but I have. My daughter-in-law and I were just discussing it last week. She has participated in it before and is considering doing it again this year - we were chatting about topic and style choices. Good luck! I'd do it but a) I'm too lazy, b) I'm too busy, c) I'm too slow, d) all of the above.

Again, welcome to TUJD!

The Founding Bettys