LilacsNDreams Vintage Collectibles Repurposed Upcycled Altered

LilacsNDreams Vintage Collectibles Repurposed Upcycled Altered Informational, and sharing Blog. 

Welcome to LilacsNDreams, and as always glad to have you visiting with me! I apologize to everyone in blogland, this has been one of them off weeks for me. I have slowly been working on things to list in my stores, and to show with my page here too. But, by the time the day passes with other things I have been dealing with I seem to have lost a little of my spit, and fire that keeps me going at night. Hopefully this weekend I get things moving a little bit more again...that is a goal I am setting for me to do.

It is almost 3 a.m. my time, and I am going to finish my late night with this blog to start your weekend. I have a renewal that is due soon with one of my domains that I have. I honestly have never really liked the domain using that .co. Sorry, but to me it is too close to the .com, and I sometimes feel it is confusing. Don't you think? So, this week I have thought about things, made some notes, and finally decided it was time to do it. Gonna make a few minor changes, or adjustments if you will. Gonna see if maybe I can get things rolling a bit more for me with the changes, and have it work to my advantage. 

You will notice at the top of this page the tabs I have for other pages that come from this blog. Of course my 2 main pages are first this main blog page of LilacsNDreams for ya'll to come to, and that you are now visiting. My other one is what I am now calling LilacsNDreams Shoppe page. From this main page it is your choice if you wish to read more by visiting those pages. Also, remember you can always leave comments, and say Hi to me when visiting any of my pages so that I can come visit you too:) Ok, the minor change I have made, (if you have visited the page before you will see the change made) is with my other LilacsNDreams page which is now called LilacsNDreams Shoppe. If you can remember it was LilacsNDreams Store. Sorry, besides the change of the domain with the .co I did, using that 'store' word was just not jiving with me. Just felt a little blah for me. So, the page  is now called LilacsNDreams Shoppe. I also have a new blog address for that page which is LilacsNDreamsShoppe.blogspot.com AND the new domain which should now be working is LilacsNDreamsShoppe.com.

With this Shoppe/Store page I had the .net domain directed to it. But, again, a minor change I have made:) I will be dropping the .co for my website, and directing my .net to my website instead. Makes more sense to me, and hopefully not so confusing with a more well known domain used for the website. 

Ok, I honestly hope this all makes sense with my babbling everyone....Please forgive me. It is getting late, and I know I love to talk, but I need to give it a rest for the night too. Thanks so much again for visiting with LilacsNDreams! Make sure to say Hi so that I can come visit with you too. Hey, comments are also welcome here too!:) Take care everyone, and see you again soon!:)

   

Happy Monday Bloggers and Blogland Visitors From LilacsNDreams

Happy Monday Bloggers and Blogland Visitors! Welcome to LilacsNDreams, and happy to see you stopping by to see me. Sorry, been MIA again here. Kept busy over weekend with moving things from upstairs to the downstairs, making room for workers, loading car to donate items, and just when I think it will calm down...I change my mind, and decide to donate a few more items. Hopefully this week the plumber gets his part done so then the rest of the bathroom can be completed. 

The weather has been great here! Not a normal winter for us northerners at all! But, I will take it, and enjoy it as much as I can. Sorry to say I did not have much to cover in this posting to all of you wonderful readers. I have some notes made, have a topic in mind, but have not gotten any further with it. So, wanted to stop by here, and say Hello to all of you passing through. Wishing you all a super Monday, and a beautiful week! Thanks so much for visiting, and see you again soon. Take care. 

A Year in Review in Blogland Bloggers Websites Market Places

A Year in Review in Blogland Bloggers Websites Market Places, and etc. 

Hello, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams! Always glad to have you stop by. Make sure you say Hi so I know to come visit you as well, okay?

As usual a slow day, should be doing this, should be doing that, and here I am at the computer and doing things in between my internet roaming. As I am doing this I was thinking about how all of us each have reflections of some kind of what the year was for us, what it was all about, and of course what we would like to see with this New Year. Many set goals, make plans, and will set forth things to do for the year. Me? I don't really do that anymore. When the end of the year comes I don't want to be sad, disappointed in me, or upset because I did not achieve everything. Life happens sometimes. I like to feel good, and be happy about the New Year, and accept it openly and ready for good things to come. 

I have been traveling around Blogland a little bit today, and have seen many showing their beautiful and great projects that were done for 2011. There have been many accomplishments, and many things shared by everyone. Made me think, and reflect a little bit on what I had done. I do not have Big projects to show you all. I guess I can say small things were completed with reading things on the internet, learning, becoming a little bit more knowledgable with some things, many notes taken, thrifting, junking, repurposing, collecting, and just roaming and taking in things from everyone else. Course now and then a little dream, making some notes with those dreams for the next year to come, and so on.

I can say that one of my accomplishments this year has been with my Blog. I have enjoyed working with it, changing things, learning to add things like pages, how to do my own background, making my banners and own buttons, and just learning some things with it too. I have also enjoyed sharing things with all of you that I myself know, have learned, heard from over here, and heard from over there. Just sharing A lil bit here, and a lil bit there, and I have enjoyed it all! I love seeing everyone stop by, leaving me a note, sending me an email, visiting and reading all of your posts, and I want to Thank You for sharing with Me...LilacsNDreams.

As we start this new year I want to wish you all the very very best in 2012. May it be all that you wish it to be. May you all just be "Happy to Be" Remember to "Let the beauty of what you love be what you do" Jalal Ad-din Rumi

                              * Simplify * Dream * Create *

Welcome to LilacsNDreams Blog Website

Hello everyone, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams Blog! Sorry, I guess this was my week to slack off just a bit. I do have a topic I am going to share, but will probably do it this next week. Got some pictures, and some blogs/sites I would like to add with the topic too. Also, don't forget the tabs at the top for other pages with this blog too. I try to share things a little different with each one:)

For our area, most of the schools have started. Kids seem to be doing good, and enjoying themselves. For me it was quite different this year not rushing around getting school supplies, looking for any school lists, registering kids for school, having a meet the teacher night, and so on. Both our kids our grown up now...last one graduated last year, and our daughter is a bit older, and is married with a 6 year old too. Oh, yeah, Grandma I am too....she decided she had to start young I guess:)

Hope everyone had a great week, was enjoyable, able to get some last minute plans in, final vacations, but hang on as we have Labor Day coming to us soon too!:) Thanks for visiting, and stopping by to check on things here. Ya'll take care, and see you again soon. Have a sweet Weekend!:)

 

Welcome to LilacsNDreams Blog and Blog Pages

Hello again everyone. I do hope I am not bothering, and making this an inconvenience for anyone. My Blog has been a working progress for me to add things, update some things, and making some changes. I was happy to find a way with getting more pages for everyone to visit, but still did not like the links on the side bar. Don't know what I was thinking, but I NOW have all the pages listed at the top with the tabs.....Like I was trying to do before. Long story, I am not computer techie, learn as I go, but have come to a place I am happy with it now. Sorry, I try not to make too much clutter on the right side bar, and this was something I could remove from there, and put to the top for more visibility to everyone.

Thanks again for understanding, and I do apologize for any inconvenience this has been to anyone. Thanks so much for visiting with LilacsNDreams! Glad you stopped, and don't forget to visit with my stores too. I appreciate all of you. Take care

Website Hosting Domains Shopping Carts, Do I Need It

Hello everyone, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams! Glad to have you here!


Time to have another topic for ya'll to read, share some opinions, and offer what I have read too. Websites, should I have one, do I need one, so much work, is it necessary, and boy those things cost too. Yes, you are right, they can be costly. Depends what you all want to do with it, what your goals are, and how much you would like to spend with it too. 


No matter how many storefronts a person has it is good to have a website. The website can serve as your home base, links your web presences to one another, and serves as your "hub" that will direct visitors to your stores, your blogs, and serves as kind of an online business card. 


Before jumping into this I recommend searching around a bit. Do searches about them, see what others say, and suggest. Calculate how much you would like to spend for the website. Cost of hosting, your domains, the shopping carts, and do you intend to advertise to get your website out there too? A lot of things to consider. 


What is the best Host, and what should you consider? You need to consider it needs to be affordable for you. I know Hostgator starts about $3.96 a month, and I see that one mentioned often by others using. The host needs to perform well for you, and your visitors. You need to be able to draw traffic. Does it give you the option of setting up a shopping cart, or is it included maybe? Make sure you have support staff that is available 24/7, and that it has the tools to let you edit the site yourself too. And, this one I like myself, it should provide for a blog if you would like to have one too. Another thing is can you do the domain with them, or do you need to go some where else for that? 


Having a website is great for business cards. You use your main domain name on the card with the URL, and it will lead people to the website. From there they can view, and click to where they prefer to shop at. Your traffic can come from your host, and also your business cards too. 


Now, there are some websites that are free to use too. Depends how much work you want to work with it yourself, what you are knowledable with, and where you feel comfortable at. 


I have one. Actually on my 3rd, 4th, or whatever I had signed up with. There are different free ones out there. Some I have liked, and some I do not like as well. Google has one you can set up as many pages as you want, it's free, and takes a little work. But, I am not all computer literate so sometimes anything will take a little work for me. Check google for  sites.google.com/?? Or, just go to google, and search it there. There is  Microsoft Office Live,  FreeWebstore.org, Webstarts.com,  Wix.com, and  Weebly.com. I know you can get one at Vendio, don't let the ebay thing bother you as it can be done without ebay, and I think that one was free? 

There is also Pro Stores that can be used, and I do believe that starts at about $30 a month. I have heard others mention it, and they like it.  I have been noticing some websites being done with vistaprint.com, and do not know the cost for them. Yahoo has business sites/stores that can be used, and not sure of their cost. Just a lot all there, and no way I could mention them all. Search google for many of them, read forums with sites and social medias to learn of some, and just roam the internet to find them too.


As I mentioned I have my website free, and that is with Weebly.com. Through bannerfans.com which is also free, I have made my banners, avatars, and such that are used with the site. I have set a tab that is a blog on my website...free, and I could add it in if I wanted to. I have directed 1 of my domains to this website. I got my domains through GoDaddy.com. I have never had an issue with them, pay a small yearly fee for the domains, and that cost is sooo small compared to paying fully for a website, and all the extras with it. 


I do not have a shopping cart on the site, although I could, or I could use the buy it now buttons as weebly does have that. Instead I use my rapid cart from Artfire, My widget from Ecrater, and for Addoway and the other stores I also have my RSS Feed going to the pages for them. 


I have chosen to use my website, and my blogs as my landing pages showing my links to the stores I sell with, links to all the blogs, link to my website, and so on. Maybe at some point I will add the shopping cart, and sell either with my blog or website. But, for now, for me, I am comfortable using them as landing pages, and making an internet presence that way. Please, visit my LilacsNDreams Website, and have a look around. It is not perfect, I am sure there is much more to do with it, and different ways to do things, but I am comfortable with it, and it works for me. Great support at weebly, and they have been getting used by quite a few too.


I hope this has helped you with the issues of a website. I know I have not covered everything for you, but hope I was able to give you some things to think about, consider, and research with. Thanks again for visiting with LilacsNDreams, and visit with me here anytime. Always welcome with the visits, comments, sharing, and so on.

          

Views and Opinions of Selling Online

Hello, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams! Glad to have you here, see you again, or see you for your first time. All are always Welcome to LilacsNDreams.

Today I am going to touch on a subject that many of us deal with as sellers online.  Gonna do a little comparison here, and remember this is in my opinion. There is no right, or wrong. You are welcome to comment, or share with us here too. When searching, or doing a listing with any of the venues I sell with I try to put things into perspective as if I were the buyer.

I believe that Selling Online is hard work. It is very time consuming, and much harder to do than selling in person in my opinion. I feel it to be harder because the buyer is not able to touch what is being sold. Therefore we have to work more with our descriptions to help the buyer feel the product, and also make the search engines happy with words we use, and that things are acceptable to be found with searches. Along with this are pictures so that the prospective buyer can also better see with our descriptions what is being offered. As some of us know, pictures can also be time consuming with lighting, finding the right angles, showing more than one picture to help with our descriptions, and etc.

Another issue is that there is no two way conversation between the seller, and the buyer so that the seller can see the buyer's eyes. Seeing someone's eyes helps to get a feel about the upcoming purchase. This helps so that you can better assist with addressing things right on the spot. Conversation is always helpful, and I myself feel like sometimes I get too winded when describing things in my listings. I do it because I am trying to get the buyer to see what I see, feel what I can feel, and hopefully answer questions so that time is not wasted between us with contacting each other through emails, and that purchases can be made sooner too.

Time is spent with shipping costs, finding the best one to offer for the item being sold, and the best way to ship from past experiences too. Unless the items I offer can be put to something smaller like an envelope, I generally send items USPS Priority Mail with insurance included. Reason for that is generally the shipping rates are a bit better, customers get their items within 2-3 days, and the insurance is always included for a more secure delivery. That comes from past dealings with the postal service. Since I have been shipping that way, how I mark the boxes, and so on I have not had any issues to complain of...just the cost like many other things. If a customer contacts me, and wishes to have it sent another way, I will work with them to do so as requested. Sometimes though they have found that the way I offer has been a little more cost efficient for them than what was anticipated. All the same, I work with my customers that best possible way that I can.

Another thing as a seller to keep in mind is the venues we choose to sell with. Some of the venues do not cater to the same type of buyers, and sellers. I have found that sometimes what can work for one seller does not always work for another seller. There are many venues out there to choose from, some have higher fees to sell with than others, some of them advertise for their members, some of them work well with their members by having an operational site with support that can always be contacted too. It all depends what works for you, and where you find to feel comfortable with. It is important for you to pick the right selling venue for You. 

Some have their own websites. That is more cost to some with lower sales revenues due to hosting fees, domain fees, shopping carts, and then with your own website you also have to work harder to get yourself seen within search engines for the prospective buyer to find you, and your products too. For me I have my blogs, my website, all having domains directed to them, and find this to be a smaller cost for me. With my blogs, and websites I am found, I offer links for the venues I sell at, instead of the shopping carts I use the Artfire Rapid Cart, Ecrater Widget, and the RSS Feeds for the sites including Addoway. If any questions I can be contacted with no problem as I do read my emails through out the day. And, if a seller would like to purchase directly from me I am more than welcome to invoice them through paypal. 

So, what do you think? How has it been for you selling online, and have you found what can work for you? If so, please share with us here. Thoughts, comments, and opinions are always welcome at LilacsNDreams. I only ask everyone to be civil, and remember that we all have our own opinions to things with not everything having a right, or wrong answer.

Thanks so much for visiting with LilacsNDreams today! I enjoy the visits, the comments, the sharing, and hope to see you again. Take care till the next time Everyone.  Remember to visit with my stores, the links are on the side bar, and they are clickable for you too. I have my website listed there as well. Thank You!