Friday's Faves..."My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean" a story of a faux pas and forgiveness

I love everything about the blog, Sunday Brocantes.

The author is Cat, writer, photographer, foodie, vintage seller, wife to "the French Guy" and mama of three, who lives on a farm called Rabbit Hill in Normandy, France.

Cat has managed to roll everything I love up into one beautiful blog bundle...

• France - I've never been there, but my dream trip would be to go on one of Cat's tours of the French Brocantes.
• French Farmhouse - Cat's home, Rabbit Hill, is just about perfect in my book, just the right mix of rustic and elegant.
• Family -  She has a handsome French husband, two sons and a sweet baby girlie and she clearly adores them all.
• Faith - I love Cat's story on God's provision of getting to move to Rabbit Hill.
• Food - My can she cook!  And the photos she takes of the food are mouth watering.  Seriously, the woman needs to write a cookbook.
• Fabulous vintage/antique finds - She sells her beautiful brocante finds in her online shop.  I wish I could buy one of everything!

So, one day I was reading a blog post that Cat wrote about the cows that lived in the pasture next to Rabbit Hill.

One photo, (the twelfth one down on the link above if you want to click over to her post),

captured my heart.

The cow, the fence, the gate...it was a perfect cow photo if there ever was one.

So, I showed Cat's blog photo to my friend who paints and asked her to paint me a cow.

At the time, it never occurred to me that I was, in essence, stealing Cat's image.

You see, when I watercolor something, like a tulip, for instance,

if I don't have a tulip to look at I sometimes have to look up an image of a tulip,

so in my mind it was sort of like that.

EXCEPT, my painting skills are lacking enough that it never looks like the original.

When my uber talented friend showed me the painting of the cow when it was about half way done,

it hit me what I had done, for this wasn't sort of like Cat's photo,

this was exactly like Cat's photo!

That night I emailed Cat and attached a photo of the painting,

confessing what I had done.

I truly felt heartsick.

I loved my painting.

But, I knew what I had done was wrong, even if I hadn't started out with that intention.

I had stolen her photo image and not only that, 

I had involved my sweet artist friend as a blissfully ignorant accomplice!

Cat so graciously emailed me back

asking that I simply give her credit for the original image when I showed you my painting.

(Of course, I am more than happy to do that!)

She also told me that this cow, "Bonnie", was her favorite.

I feel so privileged to have "Bonnie" hanging in my home.

 So that is my story of Bonnie, who lies over the ocean in France,

of my embarrassing faux pas,

and of a most gracious lady, named Cat, who forgave me.

The moral of this story is,

it is NOT better to ask forgiveness than permission.

If you want to use someone else's image in any way,

ask permission first!

Well, it's almost Friday, friends.

Have a HAPPY, HAPPY Friday

and 

a BLESSED weekend!

     
         

                  

Jennifer Rizzo's Fabulously Creative Friday