Rant I had to get this out

I had a comment posted onto what use to be my yoyo tutorial post that sort of set off a bad taste in my mouth.  The tutorial was removed because I am under contract with Annie's Attic to have it removed because they purchased it to help me make a book and the person was mad that they couldn't get their freebee.   For those who follow my blog and know I love to make tutorials for people I have over 102 of them thus far.  I really would like some feed back on this.  Sorry my rant is below for those who have been kind to me in the past and leave nice messages Thank You!  You are much appreciated!



Here is what the person wrote

Anonymous said...

so sad when this happens. I won't buy from Annies attic because they are closing down the free distribution of patterns in this way. Please don't let your copy right go ladies. Commercialisation of old time arts and crafts is too much!

Sunday, January 08, 2012 7:33:00 PM

To anonymous.

You are free to feel that way.  You are welcome to boycott Annie's Attic and my blog.  Please move off the grid it will save the rest of us a lot of grief and you will be much happier.  But in doing that I hope you have the knowledge and skills how to make your own thread to weave your own clothes, grow your own food build a house and so on.  Commercialism = commerce = barter and trading of ideas and goods. You better be 100% self sufficient with out any one else.

But for me Annie's Attic was a major  blessing for my family has had some hard times the last few years that I have not posted on here too personal.  Having people buy a book that had several patterns that I never  would have made otherwise (helped us greatly financial).   So no one would have had those patterns if Annie's Attic had not commissioned a book. Which the sale of paid for bills and my family had food on the table, lots of  medical expenses paid and so on.  I understand people wanting free things but I also understand artisans needing to feed their families and for the need for them to be paid for their hard earned skills.  This didn't take anything away from anyone the tutorial plus the now patterns that Annie's requested are still available in book and PDF formats and there is more variety for those who can only follow patterns and can not make things up on the fly.  It is a blessing not the opposite.  There are plenty of free things on my blog that people are very grateful for but in all honesty that is me being nice to people I don't know which isn't always the most beneficial for my family.  Same is true for other artisans we love to share our work we do it for the love of it and a lot of times we don't get paid ( most of the time) but it is nice to get appreciated, and thanks and paid every now and again too (far to far apart).

With out commercialism of old time arts most of them would be dead the Internet , books and their publishing companies will take our art to new audiences is absolutely a blessing.  My goal when I started this blog was to write a book (I have a hard time writing and being concise and clear scared to death of writing actually).  But  I wanted to be commercial and leave some legacy for my children that they could see and hold. I have written an entire book had a chapter in another edited two other books and been in quiet a number of magazines/emags and in over sea newspapers.  I don't see that commercialism has hurt my family it has made my family stronger  and brought me out of that shell.  It has brought more people to my blog because they now know of me and it because of those other mediums and they come here and find more info and are surprised by all the free things.  I have an entire year of free tutorials that are happening on this blog that I am currently in production of.  I have over lots of patterns for free on ravelry and you are complaining about 9 patterns that would never have existed if it wasn't for Annie’s Attic that and 1 free  tutorial when I have over 100 free on here. REALLY!!!   Because your comment makes me want to remove everything that is free on my blog and on ravelry because you sound so ungrateful and a cheapskate who wants everything with out paying for anything.

You do realize that almost every tutorial on my blog has some where between 30 and 90 hours to make from making the item, making pdfs, drafting patterns, to photographing, editing photos, writing up a tutorial and doing lay out so let say I have 100 tutorial on here that is 3000 to 9000 hours of my time (closer to the later and that doesn't even cover the other 1000+ posts on here that are information too and take hours to do as well that takes more thousands of hours).  You seem to think you have a right to have for free without even a thank you and you are to afraid to even write your real name you write anonymous.

I get paid to teach classes the tutorials on here take more time than teaching a class because I have to write them all out instead of just explaining which is fast. Then take photos which takes forever instead of just making the item. You should pay me for this free knowledge that I have spent many years learning and paying for.  I have taken classes so I could learn from little old ladies in their homes dying arts because I can't find information any where else or buying books that are rare and hard to find in different languages and trying to decipher what I see in these old images to figure out how to make the items I see.  Well that money sure is not in my pocket so I can put food on the table feeding my family.  It was and is me sharing my love of what I do with those that are grateful for it and want to learn and don't know where to begin to find information.  It is also so that when my children grow up if anything happens to me they can still have the knowledge in my head and carry on what I know and love.  I am fine with that copyright going to Annie's Attic I want to make more books too it was fun and I enjoyed it.

Ladies if you can feed your family and work from home and be a full time mom go to all the school events and take care of the kids when they are sick by all means give up a copyright or two or more.  

I am open minded and let the above comment be published.   I want people to understand with out commercialism on some things a lot of the old arts would die real quick.  Books are long lived I have books in my home that are over 100 years old they have survived a long time and I still love them they are the knowledge of generations before me that thought enough to put their knowledge into a book and put it for sale.  I wasn't even alive when they wrote them but I buy them old and used and enjoy and love them and learn much from them. 

Knowledge gained free is usually worth what you paid for it NOTHING!!!  Knowledge you have to earn or work for or even pay for is valued and passed on and down for generations to come.


Sorry I posted this on Sunday as I do not like to post on Sunday (especially a rant) but this just bothered me too much.

Feed back wanted and I am grateful for it.

Thank you for your time I appreciate all of you
much love

Wendy "Sunshine" Harbaugh

I just don't feel like I am "Sunshine" today
Nickname I was given in high school becasue I brought a little ray of sunshine into all my friends lives and so they started calling me that.  I feel like I brought a dark cloud today.