Valentine's Day Aftermath

Valentine's Day was supposed to be filled with small, special surprises for my husband.

And it was. I purchased a bottle of wine with a custom label, a box of chocolate covered strawberries and a cute card. I made a tasty dinner of Steak Diane with roasted potatoes and salad. My husband was happy as a clam at high tide; that is, until, he uncorked the wine, sipped a glass, gazed at the wine label and said "That's my photograph on the wine bottle!"

Now, I had purchased this bottle of Valpocella from a client who owns a franchised custom wine shoppe called Vintner's Cellar Winery. She purchases her wine from a winery in Canada and creates some of her wine labels as custom labels. This particular label was called "1st Iron Bridge Red Wine" and had a wonderful graphic depiction of an iron trestle bridge. As unlikely as it seems. it was my husband's photo. A photo he had taken and posted on Flickr. We both examined it and there was no doubt in our minds it was his photo.

He was incensed. He is not opposed to anyone using his work, but it is copyrighted and he wants permission. He would give it for the referral on the label or, in this case, a nice case of the wine.

So here I am, wondering what happened to my Valentine gifts: a delicious bottle of wine with a label that reminds me of one of his photos (who knew?), a gift of chocolate covered strawberries and a steak dinner. I felt like an idiot. This was Valentine's Day gone askew.

He has composed an email to her, asking where she obtained the label art. She is my client so I will be dealing with this on that level. As much as I don't want to deal with it at all, he is right to pursue this. Ahhhh, so much for that good deed going unpunished...

Happy Valentine's Day!

from Joli Pacquet's "pretty little kits"

Greeting Cards or Email?

I have been working on my holiday greeting with photo attachments for three weeks. It began as a Christmas letter. Missed that deadline. Then a New Year's letter. I finally realized I did not know how to create a pdf and became frustrated trying to find the most flattering photos of family members so I zipped through the final stages, edited twice and attached eight photos. I sent it to over 60 people. I normally send at least 80 Christmas cards every year but I have more physical addresses than email addresses. One of my friends always sends a cute pdf greeting and donates the money to charity he would have spent on cards & postage. It's amazing to think postage is more expensive than the cards. I've been sending Christmas cards since I was a little girl. My mother always sent them and she was not a letter writer! Her card was it for the year. I was an inveterate letter writer & card sender; cards for Valentine's & Christmas, letters the rest of the year. I bet I've only missed three times in the past 45+ years. Seriously. It's a wonderful way to let people know you still think of them. So few of us write letters any longer. Christmas cards often contain personal notes, photos, sometimes even lengthy missives. I love receiving them and am grateful for the thoughtfulness of my friends and family.