You came here to see a really awesome post whose photos I had to remove. Nothing sucks more for a blogger than to disappoint their readers and I’m so sorry. In trying to share some really cool creative stuff with you (the intent of this blog), I unknowingly violated copyright laws set forth by the publication which brought the story to my attention.

USA Today Made Me Do It.

I began this blog a decade ago to bring the creative talents of others to your attention. I don’t do it to sell my own stuff or to promote my own advertising work. And they don’t pay me. Basically, I spend 8 hours a day writing about other people’s talents for free.

One of the most frustrating things about blogging (and the reasons are increasing) is that when trying to highlight and share something you think is worthy of appreciation, you may unknowingly violate a copyright. And since the rules are getting more stringent and sites are being policed like never before, sharing art you found elsewhere is becoming increasingly difficult.

I try to make sure I credit the proper people and publications when sharing a story but sometimes I am not aware of the necessary protocol and make errors which piss people off.

My post on the two amazing and impressive custom Mid-Century Modern dollhouses created by Amy Lee and Liz Sutton has given me nothing but grief as a result. Not from Ashley or Liz, but from the Indianapolis Star (aka Indy Star), part of the USA Today Network. Because of rules set forth by their parent company Gannett, despite my adding “photo: Indy Star” largely and clearly to each photo (photos, which by the way, I believed were provided by the artist rather than taken by a staff photographer), the publication wanted a minimum of $250 for use of each photo on If It’s Hip, It’s Here. Something I cannot afford to pay.

This was brought to my attention by the author of the Indy Star article (to which I had referred and linked) journalist Amy Bartner, who also filed a complaint with Facebook getting me banned from the platform for three days, and photo coordinator and RetroIndy editor Dawn Mitchell who reached out to me via email after being contacted by Amy.

I understand these two women are merely doing their jobs, but it makes it much harder for me to do what I set out to do with this blog. I apologize to Liz Sutton and Ashley Lee as well, whose wonderful dollhouses, I was so thrilled to share.

Below is the post as it was originally written without all the wonderful pictures.

Liz Sutton and Ashley Lee, both of whom work as interior designers for Indiana’s Axis Architecture designed two detailed and unique custom Mid-century Modern dollhouses, complete with furnishings, which sold last week at a silent auction benefiting charity. The two doll houses were part of a fundraiser for Gigi’s Playhouse “I Have A Voice” Gala 2018, the proceeds of which benefited the Down Syndrome achievement center and families. (more…)