Buying Handmade Homemade Hand Altered Online and Local

Buying Handmade Homemade Hand Altered Online and Local. 

Hello everyone, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams! Glad to have you here, and that you stopped by. Thought I was ready with my topic, but I did a little bit more research, and it is amazing what everyone says, trying to find definitions to help with the meanings of words, and etc. 

Why buy Handmade Homemade? After researching a bit I will use both of these words. Handmade is considered made, or prepared by hand rather than by machine. Made by hand, or a hand process, and made by people using their hands. Individual pieces, or materials that compromise a finished item. Paint, wire, pieces combined to create a final item. Projects with a lot of hand work.

Hand Altered seem to have a little bit more suggested for it. Glued, nailed, screwed, sewn, whittled, affixed, stapled, embroidered, mixed, inscribed, painted, drawn, photographed, etc. Any alteration, or embellishment to an item by hand, or by machine controlled by hand, or via traditional art or craft method. Hand Altered is also referred to as hand embellished, or hand assembled.

Homemade can be referred to pieces that are repurposed. I also found made, or prepared in the home, made by oneself, and crudely or simply made. Creative touches, quality supplies, ingredients.

So, why buy pieces like this?

1) Find something unique. You are not wearing what everyone else is wearing. If maybe you like to keep up with the trends you can fix it up with a one of a kind accent piece. 


2) Super Craftsmanship. Handmade items get individual care, special attention, focused with details, quality control, and etc. Also, there is no assembly line with unskilled workers. 


3) Putting money into good hands. When you pay an artist, or craftsman for their work, they are actually getting the profit from it. You are not paying a CEO of a major company, their over head, and so on. You can also improve the economy, and make a difference by shopping this way with Handmade, Homemade, and Hand Altered.


4) Better Customer Service. Oh, yeah! That is something we all really love to have. Buying this way you get individual attention from the Seller. When you receive your products you might have a hand written note, thank yous, and sometimes some will give a freebie tucked with your item too. If you have a problem with some kind of mix up, lost or damaged in shipping, maybe item received was faulty, it is almost always taken care of effectively. Buying this way you will have a better chance with a refund, replacement, or sometimes a return too. These sort of issues though happen less frequently due to the care, and the concern Sellers strive for in having Happy Customers. 


5) End Slavery. I am not saying this in a bad way, or no punt intended with this please. What I am referring to is buying this way you are not supporting industries of sweatshops, child labor, and some of the different industries like those in China.  People are not factories.


6) Go Green. Smaller scale operations will produce less waste, use recycled materials, found objects, industrial salvage pieces, etc. All items that could have gone to the landfills, but with these techniques of Sellers they are spared and used. 


7) Get Custom Items and Alterations. It's great having things made just for you. It's a pleasure to receive one of a king items, and maybe to help complete a vision you might have of something not out there yet. Also, if you don't have the skill to make it yourself, there is someone out there who does. 


8) Make Somebody's Dream Come True. Many of us dream about quitting the day job, becoming your own boss, and doing what you love to do all day, and everyday. Whether it is for you, or helping someone else with this, it is very inspiring.


               "Do What You Love, and the World Will Follow . . . ."


There are many categories that fall under these topics I have mentioned. Jewelry, clothing, accessories, home decor, housewares, vintage, used, soaps, lotions, bath products, but they all have something in common. Start from scratch, or connect things or pieces making something for you. 


So, there you have what I have been reading about, and researched a little bit for this. There are some wonderful sellers out there doing all kinds of work. They take much pride in what they do, and like many others work very hard at what they do to make their items to be offered to you. When shopping please don't forget about them, and I would suggest if you have not already bought something like this . . . give it a try. You will be very surprised at what you get, and will want more. It's addictive!:) Artfire is one of the market places online that has sellers selling such items. Another place to also visit would be with Etsy as they are offering the same things within their market place too.


Thanks for visiting with LilacsNDreams, and hope you all enjoyed it. Take care, and see you again soon.

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!:)

   

Picnik Announces Closure Petition to Stop This With Google

Picnik Announces Closure Petition to Stop This With Google!

Hello, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams! Glad you are visiting again, that you stopped by, and that you found me too! 

Checking my emails today, and I got a very sad announcement. I know we all have our preferences for photo editing programs, and softwares that we use. I myself, for a very long time now, have used Picnik. It was always free, did not have to sign in to use it, could do simple editing without having to first understand the software program, and it was just so easy to use it. They do have a premium fee that could be paid for you to get more tools to use of course. I know of many people who do photography that would use this program as some of the editing tools, and have paid fees too. So, this announcement is quite disturbing to receive. They are refunding all fees back to everyone...even if you only have 1 day left with the premium they still intend to refund the full fee. That is nice, but still does not fix the issue at hand. Now where do I...along with many others go? What program could work in place of this with such an easy, no complications, no hassles, and was actually enjoyable to use because of its ease?

I remember when Google took over Picnik, and it was scarey to see what changes would come. Things still went along smoothly with no hitches. Now, everything is being converted to Google+, you are being referred to that service, and etc. I have clicked the link to take me there to use the Google+ services, check it out, see if I can adapt to it, and actually really get no where with it. I am assuming it is Picasa they have you using? I don't know, it is not telling me much, or taking me anywhere with the announcement of this change. That is Google, right? I enjoy Google+, have adapted with it well, but do not consider them a photo editing program for me to us, and feel like Google+ is being pushed at you more now too. So very very sad. I have to apologize for this being so long today, but I wanted to copy the announcement from my email to you. Actually, I wanted to put the widget here for the petition to sign, and try to stop this....but the google blog is not working fully for me to do this...imagine that, right? So, please, give it a read below, and if you will....please sign the petition to this as well. Thanks so much everyone! I hope ya'll have a super weekend with lots of fun, enjoyment, and of course as I always ask....Please be safe!:) Till the next time everyone....see you soon!:)

	Official Announcement: Picnik is closing Since joining Google in 2010, we have been creating editing magic in Google  products while continuing to keep Picnik awesome. But now we get to focus  on even awesomer things. Picnik will be closing on April 19, 2012.  Your photos liberated Amazing photos are created in Picnik, so we have launched a new  feature, Picnik Takeout, that easily downloads your photos to your desktop  in convenient zip files. You may also elect to copy your photos to Google+  where you can store and share your creations. You may request your  photos at any time and use this handy tool as many times as you like  until our closing date of April 19, 2012. Learn more. Premium Refunds To our primo Picnik Premium members, we'll begin processing a full  refund of your current membership fee within a week of this announcement.  By "in full" we mean the whole darn thing. Yep, this means even if you  are on your very last day of an annual membership, we will refund you  the entire $24.95. Just because we want to say thanks. Now the Good News - Free Premium for ALL! To express our gratitude for your support over the past 5 years, Picnik Premium  is free for everyone! Use Picnik in all of its premium glory, for free, from  now until our actual closing day. Touch-up, Textures, Advanced, and more are  all free for you to use! We have been incredibly proud of building a product that is used and  eloved by so many of you. We continue to be amazed and humbled by the photos you create and we are immensely grateful for all of your support,  creativity, and passion. We are excited by the photo-editing fun we have already brought to  Google products, like Google+, where you can find many of your favorite  Picnik effects in Creative Kit. We encourage you to visit Google+  and give it a whirl. Please visit the Help Hub for more information on our wind down, and  check the Picnik blog for updated information on our April closure. It's been awesome, Team Picnik

Pinterest the Virtual Pinboard That is Addictive

Pinterest the Virtual Pinboard That is Addictive!

Welcome to LilacsNDreams, and always glad to see you here. Enjoy the visits, and remember..don't forget to say Hi so I can come visit with you too!

Pinterest, what is it? What do you do? Oh, another place. Is it worth being involved? Many questions, and hopefully I can give you a few ideas of what it is, and then let you decide about it. 

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard that is done online, and allows you to organize and share things that you find on the web with everyone. You just add a Pin It button in your address bar, and when you see something you like or want to share, click the Pin It button, and take it from there. Many people will use the pin boards to find recipes...and there are many good ones out there. Also, to find things you like with home decor, vintage items, DIY items, and just whatever your interests are. Best of all, you can browse pinboards of other people to see what they are sharing, and to discover some new and intriguing ideas by many other people. 

What can you do with Pinterest? You could redecorate your home with different pins that you collect, and get ideas from all of them. Some like to use Pinterest to help plan their weddings for themselves, or for family members and friends too. People like to use Pinterest so that they can share their style with others who might have some of the same likes, and interests too. This is a great way to save inspirations that you might find along the way. As mentioned earlier, excellent way to get some really yummy recipes too!

Pinterest is a way for everyone in the world to connect with things that they find of interest. Shared tastes, and interests is bringing many pins to the site every week. 

To get started with Pinterest you need to request an invite. Doesn't take long, and you will have a response with your acceptance into Pinterest. Once you have access to setting things up you can start making boards for yourself. Name them whatever you want, be creative, and have fun with it too. The pins that you add to the boards are credited back to the people/place that you got the pictures from...which is good for many people. One important thing....Pinterest asks that you not use the sight as a self promoting tool. It is ok to pin things you are proud of, that you have, but not to overload in self promoting is requested of them.

Stop by to see my Pinterest Boards sometime. I either am adding boards, or sometimes will change the name of the boards too. It sure is fun, and I get to see different things, meet different people, and get some wonderful ideas of things too!

Thanks so much for visiting with LilacsNDreams, and hope you enjoyed your visit! If you haven't visited with Pinterest yet, make sure you get by there to give it a look. Take care everyone, and see you again soon. 

 

Vintage Collectibles Repurpsoed Upcycled Altered

Vintage Collectibles Repurposed Upcycled Altered are things I enjoy, and am passionate about. I wanted to stop by, and leave you all a small note. A reminder that you all are Welcome to visit with my tabs I have above that would interest you as I try really hard to post with some of my others pages here too. When visiting make sure to say Hi so that I can come visit with you too. Also, make sure to visit my LilacsNDreams Store page tab above too. On that page is where I will share items of interest with the online world of selling. I will show pictures for items of mine, where they are offered, I sometimes will feature another seller with some of their items, and etc. Along with the pictures I show I will share the links to the items being offered. Remember, if you see something you like, have questions about, want to know more...visit the link provided. If you are interested in buying it, and do not want to visit the site contact me to invoice you separately myself. 

I hope all of you are going into having a great weekend. Thanks again for stopping by. Take care, have fun, enjoy, and best of luck with all you do. See you again soon.

 

USPS Postal Increases Coming Soon

USPS Postal Increases Coming Soon!


Welcome to LilacsNDreams, and as always glad to have you visiting with Me. We have pretty much gotten through our 1st 2 weeks of the year, and time is just rolling don't you think? With this month speeding by us I wanted to give you a quick note here, and a reminder about our Postal Services shipping increases coming to us. Effective January 22, 2012 the postal rates will be increasing. A stamp that costs .44 now will then cost .45. Boxes for over night delivery will be to anywhere in the country for 1 price regardless of the weight. Of course that weight is up to 70 lbs. Express Mail Flat Rate box will be debuting on January 22 as well. Flat rates for Priority Mail will be as such: Small boxes $5.35, Medium Boxes $11.35, and Large Boxes will be $15.45.  There is going to be a flat rate box that will ship over night, anywhere in the country, regardless of the weight...up to 70 lbs.


As for the regular postal rates for Priority Mail...since that is generally how my items are shipped I cannot seem to get in to find an updated chart, or the prices for this change. Will have to keep watching for it. If you would like to read a bit more about this, see more prices, and to better understand the changes visit the USPS Postal Site for this, or Google it for some answers too.

I will be going through my stores of vintage, collectibles, repurposed, upcycled, and making the corrected adjustments for the shipping I have quoted. I use priority mail which also includes the insurance. Till I can get some definite prices for these I will have to leave them as they are, but hopefully will soon have these changes made for the price changes that go into effect on January 22, 2012.

* * * Also....on Monday, January 16, 2012 the United States Post Office will be closed for Martin Luther King Jr. birthday. Make notes to yourself about this everyone. * * * 

Hope everyone has had a great week. Tomorrow is Friday....the 13th....Hmm. I am not superstitious about this, but know that others might be. Just another reminder of what day it is. Well, time for me to call it a night. Get up tomorrow, and hopefully be more productive getting things done since I will be home, and no scheduled appointments. 


Thanks for stopping by, and visiting with LilacsNDreams everyone! Make sure to say Hi so that I can come visit with you too! Take care, and see you again soon.

After Holidays Organizing Cleaning Inventory Control

After Holidays, Organizing, Cleaning, and Inventory Control. 


Welcome to LilacsNDreams everyone, and happy to have you here. Well, here we are into our second week of the new 2012 year already! Holidays are over, cleaning has been done, things put back into their places for decorations, and now we are moving onto catching up on the computers, and with our online stores. I LOVE selling online, meeting other people, learning from others, sharing thoughts and ideas with others, and all of that wonderful stuff. 


Over Christmas I was able to spend a few hours with a very good friend of mine. MaryLouLavender*s. If you visited my LilacsNDreams Store page here with my blog you would have seen some of the items she had listed with her ebay store recently. It was great seeing her, and as always never enough time to go over everything, share everything, and cover all we would like to do, see, and talk about.

During our conversations we were discussing blogs, things we sell, ideas, and just all that sharing that feels good to do. The idea of organized inventory was brought up. How do you organize everything? What works, what doesn't work, and where do you begin? I know this is something many many of us struggle with in our homes to organize for our online stores, and also for just around the home too. How do you organize this, how do you organize that, what is the best way, and so on. 

You know, these are good questions and thoughts to be asking. As we grow with our online businesses our inventory becomes more, and there has to be a neutral way that is acceptable, and workable to keep organized, and to keep peace of mind with ourselves. Having it organized makes it so much easier to locate for when items sell, for when we list, doing inventory, and etc. I decided to look around a little, and see what others had to offer of what they do, and how they do things. Keep in mind, some of these ways do not always work for everyone as all of us have different kinds of inventory, and things that we sell. 


One of the popular ways I am seeing is to use tubs, and some shelves for each category, and items. Some use this sort of system for each month as they list. Some of the shelving was done with wire racks that are bought from Costco. Some found things with their home to repurpose, and use. The tubs could be colored, or some will use see through ones which enables them to better see what is inside the tub too.  Some mentioned that they used boxes as well.


On the top of the shelves some will use by putting their bubble wrap there, envelopes, USPS boxes, their supplies. It is best to keep enough in supplies for what is needed to help in organizing, and controling your system you have. On the tubs some will use removable address labels as stickers to notify what is in the tubs, or using a numbering system. Item tags are used on some with a bin number system. Along with the bin numbers some will also note the price paid for the item. Then, some will note the tubs with the item title along with the listing number too. Some will use print outs...like an inventory sheet for each tub notifying what is in it. Some sellers will choose to keep their items together by brand, and in alphabetical order. Then there are some who will mark their tubs, or their boxes with dates of when they listed items too.Yet another thing that was mentioned was to put a picture with each tub of what is in there also. Many many ways, and this is something for us all to find our way that works for us.

When placing the boxes, or the tubs on the shelves many noted to keep the spacing right between each one so that it was easier to slide the containers out like drawers when they had to be accessed. I did find that some who had large amounts of inventory would use storage units. They would use units that had set access times to them, video surveillance cameras on the property, tall chain link fences, and some have an access code you have to use to get through the gates to the units too. With the units they not only kept their inventory there, but would also have the tables set out with shipping supplies there for them to box, wrap, package too. Interesting, isn't it?

Many did mention having an inventory spreadsheet for their inventory too. Some would map their inventory from organizing, and labeling. Interesting, huh? When you bring more products home it is best to group items together, and then to organize them. 

Organizing our inventory, and having control with it is an everyday task. Can give us a headache too. Hopefully some of the methods mentioned will help you with your thoughts of what will work for you, and organizing your inventory. It is always nice to get some ideas of what others do to help you in organizing what will work for you. 

Good Luck with all your organizing everyone! Thanks for visiting with LilacsNDreams, and I hope your new year is treating you well so far. Take care, 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 *