kitten's very busy

I seem to be chasing my tail around like mad at the moment - there is so much going on - both in the area - the shop - and the other stuff with all the yard restoration.

The big news (for us) is that the sewing shop 2 doors up is moving next week.  This means we can really push our boundaries and expand our stock into all sorts of area that we could not before.  We have know for several weeks now - so when we went to the show It was with fresh eyes that we were hunting for new stock.

We are still staying very true to our core of not doing the 'main stream' brands that everyone else stocks - so we will still carry a unique range of products.  Starting with a new range of cross stitch kits from Fat Cat Designs.  Bit more of a project than the Mouseloft - but not a lifetime commitment ;-).  Big, bold, colourful designs - all full stitches - and no top stitching (unless you want to).  Plus they do 2 super ranges for kiddies and new starters.

We are also going into jewelry making.  With my experience we can stock all sorts of natural gemstones - agates - jaspers etc - plus all the wires, pins, clasps, rings etc that  you need.

Decoupatch should land with us next week too.  That will be fun.

We will also be keeping a few haberdashery bits and bobs - plus pretty little work boxes - pin boxes - tape measures - cute scissors - and nearer to Christmas - knitting bags - storage boxes.

It is going to be an amazing year



Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

Day Off

Monday is kitten's day off

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

New Shambles - opps

I have got an 'ole! - a hole in my ceiling!

The builder has taken a panel out to see why the ceiling was cracking - and the main joint has moved

And they have found a window that has been covered over and they are going to restore it for me - how wonderful is that!

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

shop refit - final dressing

so we have
from the window

then the shelving

I reckon that we have just about doubled the display space - and when we get all the system fully running - we will be able to hold a mountain of stock.

There are one or two little tweaks that I want to make after the summer - and in the autumn (after the landlords have done the restoration of the ally and we are safely waterproof) we are going to empty the stock room and carpet (plus about 3" of under felt ;-) ) it ready for the winter, so we stay snug)

Lovin' my little shop

Now - all I need to do is get back to doing some real crafting!

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

New Shambles restoration

The builders have started work on the restoration project for our ally

The scaffolding is going up - they are trying to avoid putting it in the ally and driving everyone nuts.  There are going to be huge buttresses on each end of the ally and they have to hang the scaffold  between the chimneys as the roof is all so fragile. 

My ridge beam has just broken.  I noticed that the ceiling had cracked and collared the builder as he was passing to have a look.

The whole thing has a huge dip in it.

They are going to put up a mini tower this afternoon and have a better look to see what's going on

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

Shop refit

OK - now we have to chop out the window space!!!!!!

As I said to the ol' Goat - 'trust me - I'm a designer'

I drew a line on the window shelf and said - CUT

Sooooo - we have a bit hole

There you go - see - it all works ;-)




Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

Day off

Monday is kitten's day off

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

shop refit

ok - so we have got all the panels up in the back corridor - we could only fit in 3 - which is a shame - but I wanted them spaced out a bit - and 4 would have been too many

you would  be amazed at just how much light and space it has made.

I struggled to find hooks that fitted the slatwall grooves - the panels are vintage from a Marks & spencer refit waaaaaay back and the new slatwall fittings don't fit.

HUGE luck- Bead time (our new jewellery suppliers) make their own little display racks - and their hooks fit my slats - solution.  And they are really cute - they are little hearts rather than the big metal squares!

So I can display loads

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

news tipbit

Just the way my mind works I think

DoCrafts has a new CEO - Clive Daley - he has 22 years in retail - including Dixons (well they went bust) - B&Q and Superdrug - - 

- so there will be big sizes in everything - and if you can't cope - paracetamol on the side - should be interesting times coming up!

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

shop re-fit day 2

We have one slat wall panel in place

The others are lined up ready to go up.  We will be able to get 4 panels altogether along this wall so that we can display different themes on each one.

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

Shop refit

Total muddle again!!!! - we have started our mini refit.

First of all we (well the goat really  ;-)  ) are going to open out the back corridor.

That dresser is going to move - and the big mirror has now gone into my bedroom at the flat.  Then the pretty stat wall panels are going to be all down the wall instead.  Without the big dresser in the way the corridor should open up quite nicely - and I have tiny little slatwall hooks which don't take up any space - so we can have a whole wall of goodies.

The goat is going to be doing it after we are closed - so  there won't be any noise and mess disturbance - just piles of stock in boxes moving around to keep out of his way.

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

day off

Monday is kitten's day off

trust me - I am going to need it!

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

DON'T COPY AND CLIAM

This is a bit of a rant to support all of  those who folk out there who are drawing their own digi images - the big stress is that the digi images that they are selling  should be their own design - not copied from other working artists

"Thou Shalt Not Steal"

We all know how easy it is to be an artist, right? You just find something you like, copy it as best you can (maybe change a couple of details) and there you go. Um no.  WAIT!! Stop right there. Copying even parts of an image is copyright theft.

 So . . . yet ANOTHER so called artist is ripping off Saturated Canary illustrator/owner Krista Smith, whose original work you can see in her shop.  ANOTHER "wanna-be" who fancies herself an artist has tried to jump into the business of selling art without taking care of two very important prerequisites FIRST:

1. Understanding copyright law

2. Knowing how to draw her own ORIGINAL work

  This time it’s a woman named Francesca Lopez. Stamp Out has been communicating with her and her husband for several days, wanting to get this taken care of quickly and civilly by explaining why it is illegal -- a federal crime in fact -- to copy another artist’s work. We have attempted to educate both Lopez's on the facts, by showing them these side by side samples which should be instant proof for anyone one with eyes that Francesca is COPYING, and by directing them to some of the important info on copyright law and "substantial similarity" you can find by simply searching.

We also encouraged them to talk to some IP lawyers THEMSELVES so they could be informed by a neutral third party, since they refuse to listen to us. Instead the absurdly irrelevant clippings they have posted on Francesca's blog about copyright indicate they don't have even the simplest understanding of how original artwork is protected by the law. (Scroll down past the Bible quotes.)

Here’s another example of a highly questionable drawing that is very like a well known Precious Moments illustration.  It this one, it appears the angel's head has been put on the bed boy's body -- then the bed flipped and small details changed. 

From "The illustrated Story of Copyright" by Edward Samuels, copyright 2000:

"The issue in these cases is whether the second work is “substantially similar” to the first. It doesn’t have to be an exact duplicate to be an infringement, but it does have to take enough of the copyrighted work that it can be said that the second work was not “independently created.” Drawing the line between noninfringement and infringement, between independent creation and substantial similarity, can be frustratingly difficult. The courts have pretty well refused to adopt a simple numerical test to resolve this issue, instead relying upon general statements of policy, and sensitivity to the facts of particular cases. What is clear, however, is that taking even a small portion of a copyrighted work can constitute copyright infringement."

(Search "Striking Similarity" or Substantial Similarity" to find more information about this online)

And another taking legs, feet and theme and pose directly from a Magnolia image.  While it is PERFECTLY FINE to draw using the same theme (ideas are not copyrightable), and poses may be really similar just by coincidence, this particular image is obviously NOT coincidence as the legs, pants and feet are nearly traced they are so exact.

Of course, besides this being illegal, it’s also immoral. Besides theft, it’s cheating and lies -- things that good people try to avoid.  Obviously, communication has failed with this pair. They have closed or disallowed all private talk with them -- so here we go. Wall of Shame.

Please BEWARE of “Cute as a Button/Buttin” owners Francesca and Art Lopez in all their iffy endeavors. (They are particularly marketing toward Christians as you can see.)  

Any questions about about this aspect of copyright, please ask in the comments and I can bring your concerns to the group or please join the facebook group discussion.

*****

For those unaware, the Stamp Out Stamp Theft Facebook group is a closed group. Anyone can request to join and you can do so HERE.   The group is over 600 strong and is "dedicated to crafters and artists that are serious about combating the intellectual property rights violations that are so rampant in our field. (Mo Manning)" The group makes sure any possible infringements discussed are backed up with screenshots, links, or side by side images!  This group confronts those who not only copy the work of other artists and claim it as their own, but also deals with "pinners" on Pinterest and Facebook sites that illegally "share" digital images.

  The artists are very disgusted and sad. It is a wonder to me that they continue to produce such beautiful images for us!  I don't know that I would want to continue if day after day I saw my hard work pinned and shared and copied all over the internet!  I am sure that is not what they had in mind when they sat down at the drawing table!

   Sadly a Wall of Shame was created as an outgrowth ofStamp Out Stamp Theft to expose those who after being shown side by side evidence of the copyrighted images against their images, and after being respectfully asked to remove the images in violation, continue to sell and/or misrepresent these images as their own original ideas and illustrations. 

Thank you for stopping by my blog
and reading this important information.

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

The Stitches Show award dinner

We ended up at the award ceremony on Sunday night - don't ask me how - a very nice young man just took us along.

There was a lovely spread of 'nibbles' on the tables - and them they brought out some hot nibbles (gorgeous hot mini egg and bacon quiches - oh yummie) - and glasses of wine.

Them it turned out that the 'nice young man' was one of the 'Singing Waiters' and they went round the tables serenading someone on the table.  Yes - muppet here stood up and had a dance when they did me!  I think they did me on purpose - I was already singing along before they arrived at us.

The challenge of this year is to work out how to get onto the list to be voted for - it's always the same faces - and I hadn't even heard of any of the craft shops that won the North East.


Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

Queen Beads - the I-can

Another new company we have 'collected' is Queen Beads

They are a well established bead shop in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, and they are now producing their own kits.

It is very different - not just shove a bead on a bit of string type thing - something to tax you a bit more.

Really, really pretty projects and styles - and you can use the instructions to make more.

they also do a really pretty angel hanger (you probably can't see the pretty angel beals - you will jusr have to believe me).

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com

Fat Cat Cross stitch

I was in bed just after 8pm last night - and light out about half past!  Lovely 12 hours in bed!!!

Today I am going to tell you about a new cross stitch company that we will be dealing with.  Fat Cat is a darling little company - very bright, modern designs - smaller projects- a bit more of a challenge than the Mouseloft kits, but not too big that you think you will never finish it!  Very much fits in with the kitten ethos of the smaller hands on projects and getting you crafting. 

You have been asking for little kits to start kids off - these guys have 8 count binca - very simple block colours - kits

I just picked up one of each design to see what you like.

When they get better at it - we move up to 11 count aida and a few more colours in the kit.

the we move up to more 'meaty' kits - still full of colour - and just whole stitches - but more detailed designs.

When you are ready to tackle something bigger - there are some wonderful samplers - bird houses - patchwork look - sea side themes

I started out as a stitcher many years ago - and I can't wait to get my hands on them.

Love
kitten

www.princesskitten.co.uk
www.thekittenandthegoat.co.uk
kittenandgoat@gmail.com