wow, getting a hundred comments was like pulling teeth! But we made it in the end and created a great wave of enthusiasm across various social networks as well as had fun doing so all the while and that’s what matters. I can’t thank you all enough for making the effort to spread the word about giving credit, I do hope it’s a topic of conversation that keeps spreading to help make the online community we have going here a more rewarding and inspiring place to be. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading all your comments and blog posts in reaction to the new “giving credit” prints.

Choosing winners has been rather more difficult than I expected as there have been so many thoughtful comments. Among them I loved Natalie’s honesty in her comment,

“I have to admit I’m not the best at giving credit where credit is deserved… the part about finding it on weheartit really hit home. I will for sure go that extra step and give the original person credit”

along with Tricia’s fab frankness,

“Not only is it common courtesy, it’s the right thing to do. Stand up and be proud of things you find interesting and beautiful instead of feeling jealous and insecure – promote your fellow artists work and it will come back to you.”

I loved this remark from sweet Hayley:

“The internet is an intricate WEB of information, not a one way flowing river, and really, giving credit is just good karma!”

while Michelle said,

“I would feel almost as if part of my identity were stolen”.

Dear Tara wrote,

“too many people seem to mistakenly have the idea that anything online is free” which I whole-heartedly agree, and mommycammille said,

“If something is good enough to capture your attention, then you owe the creator credit” – indeed.

Another one that resonated with me was this from Kim:

“…for me personally it can be so frustrating to come across an image and want to know more – who made it, where it came from, the story behind it – but not have even a link or a name as a jumping off point!”

And this one from Dara:

“It is hard enough to create works of art without having to worry that your creativity and talent will get taken from you. There is nothing easier than adding a little “photo by” at the bottom of a photograph or image. If nothing else, it gives the artist a little jolt of appreciation and if there’s one thing we could all appreciate more in this world, it is artists.”

See the difficulties in picking two clear winners? But I finally chose two. Please join me in giving thanks and congratulations to Rebecca and Debbie for their lovely comments…

…………………………………
These are stunning!! I love the deep sea colour.
Reading this flow chart has made me realise that I need to work harder at giving appropriate credit when I use other peoples images. The old saying ‘do to others as you would like done to you’ comes to mind, and I’d love to be properly recognised for the work that I’ve done & others should be too.
Also, I feel that if we recognise people properly for their effort, they will continue creating & inspiring (which can only lead to more good things!).
Thanks for creating such an inspiring blog xx
Rebecca
…………………………………
As a teacher librarian I am always driving home the message of plagiarism to my students as they have no concept of intellectual property. I would love one of these posters to have in the classroom to teach a whole new generation to respect and credit the intellectual property and the creativity of others! Wonderful idea!
Debbie
…………………………………

Thank you everyone for your support, encouragement and continued enthusiasm for this topic. Remember, for those of us who blog, we were all blog novices at some point and no doubt posted images with ‘sources unknown’ in the early days. But we’ve learnt, and this print is a culmination of what we’ve learnt and what we feel is important to pass on to others who are new to the online world, or who have not quite worked out the importance of crediting thus far. This is a starting point, a place to create awareness and support of one another.

May online artists prosper!

all photos taken on my iphone using instragram

While on the topic of crediting, I’d like to take this opportunity to say thank you to my dear friend Kylie who, when I hollered from her living room a few weeks ago, “I’m hopeless at picking colour words  – have you any ideas for words that are more creative than ‘green, pink, yellow and grey?” and she answered boldly and confidently, “yes! how about ‘deep sea, fuchsia, butterscotch and storm cloud’!” Brilliant I thought, and hence the names of the print colours were born. Kylie and her incredibly generous creative community in Brisbane will be the topic of my next post, so stay tuned.

xx

Related Posts :

special announcement & giveaway: "giving...

giving credit...

3 little steps...

my heart wanders to newspaper taxi on...

the photos: brisbane book launch...

invitation to create: the LASSie creative...

…………………………………………………
UPDATE: I’ve decided to wait until there are 100 comments on this post before I announce the winners and before I continue posting in the (blog)house. So, please help spread the word, post this post on your blogs, let’s all help to get this message out there! Victoria from sfgirlbybay wrote a lovely post about it today – thank you vic! And there have been some great comments & conversation on her post in response to it already. One thing that comes about in conversation time & time again with this subject is that bloggers fear that they have to ask permission every time they post about someone’s work  – please let me clarify – this poster’s message is not targeted to people who promote other artists work – for example, I’m fully aware that people write posts about my work and they have not first asked me permission, I personally do not have a problem with that because I appreciate the exposure. Instead, this poster is to raise awareness and educate bloggers – new and old – who take images off people’s sites and do not credit the image at all, and do not bother to find out who created the image.  At the very least my fellow bloggers, we need to credit the ORIGINAL source – not the last place you saw it, but the original source. Thank you to all who have commented on this post so far, and to those who have helped spread the message. px

PS these prints which are for sale in special limited edition by Mammoth Collection are NEW & IMPROVED – you may have noticed on the original poster there were a number of little mistakes, but since then I had help from my dear friend Therese who helped form the original poster into a beautiful, printable piece of art. So, if you are blogging about the print, please use the NEW print, not the old one. Thank you!
…………………………………………………

You thought I’d forgotten all about “giving credit”, didn’t you? But I hadn’t at all, in fact, I’ve been working determinedly this past month with the awe-inspiring online print house Mammoth Collection, turning our original ‘streetcred’ image credit flowchart into something rather spectacular.

With many thanks to Troy & Ben from Mammoth, and my dear friend + designer Therese Petre who helped me shape the original piece into poster format, I would (finally!) like to announce that the “giving credit” print is now, officially, for sale…

It comes in four gorgeous colourways: Storm Cloud (pictured above), Fuschia (pictured below)…

Deep Sea…

and Butterscotch…

And they each come in four sizes: 8×10(edition of 200), 11×14(edition of 100), 16×20 (edition of 20)and a whopping 24×30(edition of 10). Each print is made in-house using archival pigment inks on heavyweight 100% cotton fibre archival paper, and each is numbered by hand and signed. For more info about the prints, Troy & Ben asked me some questions for their fab Mammoth blog, click here to read the full interview.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The extra exciting news is that Mammoth are offering to giveaway 2 $20 vouchers as part of the launch of the collection. This means 2 lucky (blog)house readers can choose an 8×10 “giving credit” print in any colour or put the voucher toward one of the larger prints! To be in the chance to win, just write a comment on this post about why you think giving credit is important.

On Wednesday, June 1st we’ll announce the winners.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

A big thank you to Erin, Chelsea, Lisa, Nichole, and Amanda for being such wonderful support and inspiration throughout this giving credit journey. It’s very exciting to know that our email conversation some months back have amounted to these beautiful prints. And a never-ending hug to my dear friend Yvette for offering her incredibly handmade fonts, of which I do believe make these prints so special. Each of us hope that this little initiative will spark the beginning of other online projects as well as be able to create funds to put toward an education+arts foundation of sorts. Small steps first, but what a wonderful beginning.

Please feel free to spread the word about the prints and special giveaway on your blogs, to your friends, or to people in the street! You are welcome to use any of the photos in this post to help spread the word – I give you my permission with one request: “give credit where credit is due”.

Thank you mes amis!

xx

Related Posts :

and the winners are...

giving credit...

and the beautiful vintage silk cushion...

invitation to create: the LASSie creative...

my heart wanders to newspaper taxi on...

need some assistance...

click here to see the larger version.

………………..

UPDATE: there have been many requests to buy the print – thank you! We’ll be looking into it this week – so hopefully by the end of the week (that being Friday March 25), we should have something available. Thanks again for all your support and positive attitude, it’s so wonderful to see so many of you enthusiastic about giving credit where credit is due. x

………………..

Have you noticed that image crediting on blogs has become a rather hot topic over the last few weeks? There have been some great posts about it from Chelsea at {frolic!} and Grace at Design*Sponge (who wrote three posts as part of her online etiquette + ethic series for biz ladies: here, here and here).

A couple of weeks ago Erin, Chelsea, Lisa, Nichole, Amanda and I started an email conversation about it, wondering if there was a way we could get the message across about the importance of image crediting in a fun and informative way. Because let’s face it, it’s a confusing topic that needs some serious clarification. In my industry, we are often talking about the lack of image crediting on blogs – there is very much a love/hate feeling for blogs with most photographers, stylists, art directors, editors and publishers. I, for example,  love the concept of tumblr but get so frustrated with the lack of crediting – countless times I’ve found a gorgeous image that I’d love to blog about but after hours of research still cannot find the original source. Not to mention finding my own images on there without credit.

We’ve already had some great feedback this morning on Grace’s post about the poster (thanks so much Grace!) and I’ve made some minor changes with those in mind, so what you see above is the finished poster. Also, some people have asked if the poster is for sale. We will keep you posted about that. Erin from design for mankind wrote a fab post about it today too,  and I love & agree with all she wrote. Erin has been a big inspiration in the making of this poster – from the colouring of her new blog design (which I adore!), to her funky style and funny, heartfelt words.  My dear friend Yvette van Boven let me use her incredible handwritten fonts, thank you sweet Yvette.

Thanks to everyone who has kept this topic hot over the last few weeks. I hope this poster helps to shed some much needed light on the subject and helps all to understand why it’s necessary to credit images. Please feel free to blog, tweet, tumble, or pin this poster  – we made it to share, so please do, merci beaucoup!

xx

Related Posts :

special announcement & giveaway: "giving...

and the winners are...

oh, be still my beating heart...

my heart wanders to melbourne...

a little gathering at empire vintage...

design in milan (and a little story)...

I officially declare my new online portfolio live! Above is a sneak peek of some of the images you will find when you peruse the site. There is lots to see, so please take your time scrolling through each page, and check out all the links within. Not only are there sections showcasing my styling work and photography, but there are now individual book pages for each of my books, including previews, sales contacts and a stockists page. I’ll take the time to explain some more about each page on the website in the weeks to come, and will also showcase various new work here in the (blog)house:  a little ‘behind the scenes’ of the making of some of the images.

Oh, I do hope you like it. Please pass on the news about my new website to anyone who you think might be interested in my work. Thank you so much.

Now, I think I need a little rest.

xx

Related Posts :

new website: house of orange

now you see it, now you don't...

some sweet editorial features...

amy merrick's fairy tale flowers...

Anthology: living with substance & style...

swarm gallery in London...

Today and for the month of October,  I’m delighted to welcome a very special guest cook to the (blog)house. But before I introduce you, I want to say a big thank you to Yvette for holding up the fort for so long! She was so self-sufficient -  baking up irish tea brack when the mood & weather struck, serving up rhubarb compote, and sharing some Dutch Fare with us all among so many other delicious recipes over the course of the last few months – beside taking full advantage of her enthusiasm to cook for others, I got very used to her company. Alas, we must say au revoir to my dear friend Yvette for now, and let her enjoy the fruits of her labor with her new cookbook, home made.  Merci Yvette,  for being such a generous, wonderful, fun guest. Until next time!

…………………………………………

But with this au revoir comes a warm and heartfelt bonjour! to our new (blog)house kitchen guest.  Would you like to meet her? Not only is this special guest a very talented cook, inspired by markets and small artisan producers, but she also runs cooking classes and market tours, hosts wonderful evenings called “dinner with the cook”, and is committed to living a sustainable life.  When she moved to Burgundy in France, she ditched her car and as she says so eloquently  “took to the proverbial “French bike” adorned with a basket of market produce and flowers as my preferred choice for transportation.”

Please join me in giving a very warm welcome to Marjorie Taylor, the cook herself from one my of favourite places, The Cook’s Atelier…

Marjorie has prepared a fabulous Autumn menu, just for us here in the (blog)house, each accompanied by beautiful photographs she has taken herself. And during the month of October she will be sharing a recipe or two from the menu each week, starting this week with the entrée. There will be 5 recipes altogether. Marjorie notes,

“this menu is the perfect example of an autumn menu for dinner with the cook, or the type of menu that we would prepare for a market tour and cooking class.  Everything is made from scratch and guests enjoy a convivial dinner at a long, zinc topped French farm table.  Dinner with the cook is like a supper club, only guests help prepare the menu for the evening. ”

How utterly marvelous. Thank you dear Marjorie for taking the time to share these amazing recipes with us, and to give us all a delicious taste of what dinner is like chez vous.

Mes amis, I hope Marjorie’s October-long stay in the (blog)house kitchen will inspire you in your own kitchens. Perhaps her stay will also inspire you to enjoy a weekend in burgundy, dining at The Cook’s Atelier table. Perhaps we could go together.

……………………………………………………

Click here to view Marjorie’s first recipe, Roasted Cream of Cauliflower Soup.

All images in this post are by photographer Jen Altman.

Related Posts :

many thanks to the cook's atelier...

Marjorie Taylor's roasted cream of cauliflower...

sweet treasures #10: a little plate...

Marjorie Taylor’s Rôti de veau …

Monsieur Vossot’s filet de canard

Spring Menu + Styling Tips

It’s raining buckets here in Amsterdam this morning. The lack of sunlight makes my little boat dark, but oh so cozy.

On Saturday I received the latest (september) issue of Australian Home Beautiful. It is always a real treat to receive a little slice of Australia through my front door mail slot all the way over in this part of the world. But this particular issue of Home Beautiful is extra special, take a look…

A big thank you to Vanessa Keys for asking me to be a part of Home Beautiful’s style insight section in this month’s issue. The article is so beautifully written, and I love the little “guide to unearthing the handmade in your own city” at the end.

+To view the article in full, I suggest you buy the September issue of Home Beautiful… but also, you can click here.

+All images in the article are by photographer David Finato and me.

……………………………………………………………

I’d also like to direct you to a very special giveaway that dutch designer mariska meijers is holding on her blog this week: Mariska is offering a signed copy of Amsterdam: Made by Hand, read all about it right here. Thank you so much for your support Mariska. x

Related Posts :

thank you for the mention: Home Beautiful...

Amsterdam: Made by Hand recent press...

thank you: town & country...

pia's paris chic, out now...

a pretty place to take rest...

a little gathering at empire vintage...

Good morning mes rayons de soleil, I hope you each had a glorious weekend. If it wasn’t so glorious, then perhaps there was something special that lit up your heart at some point, some way, even just for a little moment. I worked for 36 hours straight, with a  few pit stops in between. The highlight of my weekend was a wonderful dinner on Friday night hosted by some new friends at their gorgeous apartment, north side. And then a wander along the Amstel with french boy yesterday afternoon to get some fresh air. Everyone who was anyone it seems, was out on their little boats, zipping about the canals – drinking, laughing, being generally merry  -  it was lovely to watch.

I have another busy week ahead of me although I plan to post about one particular adventure that I will be embarking on mid week. Until then, I’ll just pop in and out of the (blog)house as usual. Oh yes, and I have two bits of news for the moment: one is that dear Cath shared some more glorious photos with you in the guest quarters on Friday, click here to see where she takes us this time.

another collection from Amsterdam: Made by Hand.

And my second bit of news is that on Thursday last week, I spontaneously decided to activate my twitter account. I know, can you believe it?  I said some time ago that I would never ever twitter, but I don’t know, something just sparked inside me on that day during my tea break, it just felt right all of a sudden. So in I plunged and boy, was it fun to be welcomed into the twitter world by fellow bloggers – it’s like a whole other universe over there. The aftermath is that I must admit, I’m having some sort of reservations  about the plunge because I can see it does tend to suck the life out of you and since I’m struggling to maintain status quo as it is, perhaps it’s not the best thing for me right now. But lovely Susannah assured me this morning that I’ll find my comfy spot soon, so I’m going to take her advice and give it some time. So, if you are a twitterer and feel like following my tweets, then here is my twitter link - hope to see you there.

xx

Related Posts :

welcome Cath Conroy, our new guest in...

in the guest quarters...

autumn is really here (and I have something...

a very special post in the guest quarters...

in the guest quarters: made by hand...

the question I am asked the most...

There are a number of lovely readers who have subscribed to my rss feed these days (thank you!) who I wanted to remind about the blogs in the spotlight feature in the right side bar.  This is updated every couple of weeks, it’s my way of trying to be ‘time management savvy’ – instead of writing complete posts (like this one you’re reading right now) about some of the blogs I’ve recently discovered and am loving as well as oldies but goodies, I just pop them in the sidebar so you can click on them whenever you like. It’s also my way of highlighting some of the blogs in my blogroll (which is another important feature of this blog). But I’m realising you may have forgotten about this feature which can only be accessed by visiting my blog directly so this post is a reminder but also, I’m about to change the list so be sure to check out these spotlighted blogs before I do so.

Above is a peek at my scandanavian retreat – filled with luscious Scandavian interiors. Pippi is the author of the blog and she has her very own scandanavian summer cabin – it’s beautiful, click here to see it.

………………………………………………………….

Then there is Kristina Klarin’s blog color stripes which is full of Kristina’s latest creations (like the one above) as well as colour inspirations she gets from various sources, it’s really interesting – a visual feast for those of us who love getting creative with colour.

………………………………………………………….

And missed connections which I’ve been reading for a while now (with thanks to my dear friend Liz who introduced me to sophie’s work - thanks Liz!). Sophie’s illustrative interpretations of missed connections are so so gorgeous, I can’t get enough of them and if you haven’t already read about her work, I’m sure you’ll become as addicted to them as I am. Also, here is a neat video about sophie and how she makes her illustrations.

………………………………………………………….

Next up is a thing for - stunning mosaics of gathered inspiration, complete with image links and original source information (something I’m a stickler for in the blogosphere)…

………………………………………………………….

And last up is of paper and things – a blog full of all things paper related, and some. Beautifully curated by it’s author, monica.

………………………………………………………….

I do hope you enjoy this collection of blogs in the spotlight – tomorrow I will be changing the list so don’t forget about this feature of the (blog)house. If you’re reading my posts daily through the rss feed only, then make sure you visit the blog once a week or so to see what else is new that you might be missing out on (you know I like to play around with my nice clean blog page often). I’ll try to remind you by adding a little mention of the blogs in the spotlight at the bottom of upcoming posts.

Related Posts :

a pretty place to take rest...

beautiful distractions from around the...

thank you: town & country...

blog favourites on friday...

currently inspired by...

amsterdam weekend inspiration...

comment #74: Terry! Congratulations!

Thank you everyone who participated, you made this giveaway extra fun and special. And a big thank you to Cassandra from haven workroom for giving away such a gorgeous treasure.  Terry if you could please send me an email with your address details so that I can let Cassandra know, and for the rest of us who missed out, Cassandra has offered a 15% discount off everything in her store, click here to read her post with code details. I have my eye on the peacock cushion, and the tropicals, and the stripes and…

Thank you again mes amis. I’ll be back here again in uno momento…

xx

Related Posts :

a special gift, just for you...

inspiration overload: haven workroom...

a fave photo and giveaway reminder...

a poster (and a reader's report) of...

special announcement & giveaway: "giving...

today's "something fun" have arrived!

I’m not the least bit bashful to admit that I’m quite alot in love with haven workroom.  This wonderful atelier based in London is run by New Zealander Cassandra Ellis who creates custom-made contemporary quilts, cushions and lampshades from vintage silks & cottons, as well as restoring and up-cycling vintage furniture. It’s a dreamy space (both online and offline) of inspiration, great ideas and loads of gorgeous fabrics for making all kinds of marvelous…

Cassandra runs quilting workshops at the papered parlour (i’ll write more about this fab place in coming weeks), and has also recently started taking orders for quilts made with your own personal collection of fabrics (read more about it here)…

…a little montage of inspiration I compiled from haven workroom.

A couple of weeks ago while I was in isolation-writing-retreat mode, Cassandra wrote to me with a very special thought: she wanted to offer you guys, my dear readers, one of her beautiful handmade cushions in lieu of my absence. I thought that was the sweetest and most thoughtful idea ever!

So we chatted back and forth (a bit of “no don’t be silly!” from me and a little of “it’s my pleasure, don’t think twice about it!” from her and so on) and I decided that instead of announcing her offer to you then when I was not blogging so much I decided to wait until today, in celebration of me (and hopefully you) being back regularly here in the (blog)house…

Cassandra even let me pick out the cushion to offer you from the haven workroom online boutique and since I know how much we all love shades of aqua, turquoise and ruby red combined, I thought this one would be utterly perfect…

This gorgeous cushion is made from vintage japanese silk backed in hand-loomed cotton and measures a generous 50 x 50cm, for more of a look-see, click here.

Now I must admit, I’m a little envious that you guys get a chance at owning this cushion! But I know you will love it as much as I would and that makes me happy. So what do you have to do to be the lucky recipient? Well I’ve decided that it would be wonderful if you could all visit cassandra’s blog, website, or shop - have a browse, have a wander and then all you have to do is leave a comment below: It’s about sharing the love really.

That’s it!! That’s crazy good.

I will choose and announce a winner randomly via some fancy-random-selector-computer-application-thingo this Friday, May 7th. But you have to make sure you have left a comment on this here post otherwise you will not be in the draw. Cassandra will send the cushion to you the following week.

As you know, giveaways don’t come by here regularly (the last one – and first one - was over a year ago!) so you know then that this is super, super special.

Thank you dear Cassandra! And thank you, my dear readers,  for your company, generosity, enthusiasm and encouragement over the past 2 or so years that I’ve been a blogging lass.

xx

PS tomorrow I will announce the details of the amsterdam: made by hand book launch! Oh, this week in the (blog)house is already so gooooooooooood…

Related Posts :

and the beautiful vintage silk cushion...

inspiration overload: haven workroom...

new creative ventures, part two: welcome...

a fave photo and giveaway reminder...

Amsterdam: Made by Hand in Vogue Living...

TASK, New York...