Meow? Non, c'est Miaou!

Month of Daily Downloads No.2

Lili of Sunken Treasure Jewels loves cats! Today's free download is for you, Lili, and for all my new 12,000 customers out there....:)[inside joke, read yesterday's post] One of the sweet items Lili offers in her Etsy shop is customized pet brooches.

One look at this and your cat will be saying "Miaou." At least, that's what French cats say. Really. Next time you're in Paris, find a cat. Listen to it. If it says "Meow," it's a British cat that's swam the channel.....
Back to our pretty Persian in her blue ribbon collar ... I wanted to pass on this bit of trivia. My original postcard was mailed in 1907 from Marguerite Zimmer to Eugenie Jolie in Nancy, France. (A second cousin to Angelina?? Imagine going through life with "Pretty" as your last name?!)
I have a 'thing' about having some kind of a story with any item. Even if one doesn't know the whole story, a little is better than nothing. Sometimes all we have is a paragraph or a line or two, but it's part of the story, part of the history, part of what makes anything unique.
A few blog posts back I was ranting about Pinterest. I love it and hate it at the same time. Pinterest asks those who pin to credit the source. But often, it's not done.
I came across an antique photo of a woman in a crown and jewels that was posted with the comment "I wish I knew who this woman was. I would love to know more about her." Well, I recognized the image because I have a postcard of this same woman in a different pose and because the museum down the road and over the state line from me has a standing exhibit dedicated to her.

She is Queen Marie of Romania (October 29, 1875–July 18,1938). The specific portrait on Pinterest did indeed have a link back to Flickr where she was clearly labeled and idenitfied. Obviously, the commenter didn't want to know the woman's idenity bad enough to make a click ... and that's a sad commentary on our digital generation.
Because of the abuse of distributing items, photos, music, stories, etc. on the Internet, many countries are passing laws. Unfortunately, those laws may end up doing more harm than good.

Anyway... I have a personal favor to ask: if you pin a FrenchKissed item to Pinterest, please do so from one of my shops where the image has my watermark across it. 

Now Nancy, collage artist extraordinaire and FrenchKissed blog reader, specifically asked me about posting one of my freebies on Flickr -- with no watermarks, just my copyright logo, and I gave her my blessing to do so. She also included enough beatitudes about my vintage scans to make me blush -- and links to both my shops:)

As the month goes on, I hope to share more with you about this whole copyright thing, linking back to sources, giving credit where credit is due, etc. Think of this as the FrenchKissed timeshare promo. Yes, you have to sit through a boring sales pitch and a bunch of other info that may not really interest you, but when it's over, you're gonna walk away with 29 digital scans to play and create art with -- all for free:)!
Speaking of free: fellow bloggers, please feel free to share this link or yesterday's post to let your readers know about this month of downloads!