My girls were itching to swim yesterday evening. Our pool plans fell through at the last minute when they were already standing at the door dressed in bathing suits and sundresses. So even though the clock was ticking closer and closer to dinner time and I wasn’t really in the mood to swim, we decided to go to the stream. Our usual spot was overrun by fisherman and Sunday afternoon loungers, so we pushed a little further upstream, only to discover a spot that we’d overlooked and turned out to be even better. Big rocks to lay on, shallows and minnows for Birdy, a deep swimming hole for the big girls and except for a spider the size of my palm attempting to share a sunbathing rock with me, it was pretty perfect. Worth a late, thrown-together dinner.

In other, frustrating news, I found out last week that my sheep fabric design had been stolen, altered and was being sold on Etsy. Apparently the scale and repeat at which I had printed the design wasn’t to this person’s liking, so she had purchased some of my fabric from me, copied the design and was reprinting it herself, in this altered form. She was selling the fabric in her (very successful) Etsy shop in the form of baby bedding and accessories. And by printing it herself, she was no longer paying me a commission and she was getting credit for the design. I’m not going to name any names here. Or call anybody out. I will say Spoonflower handled my issue quickly and pulled my fabric design from her account.

I’ve since contacted the seller and asked her to remove all my prints from her shop and Instagram account. And I’ve pulled the sheep print from Spoonflower for now. I know this happens all the time in the design world and it has happened to many of my friends. It’s disheartening and frustrating. Especially in this case when we are both makers, creatives, mothers…we’re in this together, people.

But, if there’s any good to come from this, it’s a bit of a kick in the pants for me. I’ve been sitting on some designs, some ideas and this experience feels like the push I’ve needed to get going on that idea. And in the meantime, if you’re looking for my sheep print fabric, shoot me an email. We’ll work something out.