Showing posts with label housewares. Show all posts
Showing posts with label housewares. Show all posts

Monday, March 8, 2021

Handmade Homemade Hand Altered Buying Online and Local

 



Handmade Homemade Hand Altered Buying Online and Local with LilacsNDreams. Welcome to everyone visiting!

Special reminder that buying products this way is better for everyone, creators and buyers. 

Handmade is considered made, or prepared by hand rather than by machine. It is made by hand, a hand process, and made by people using their hands. Individual pieces, or materials that compromise a finished item. Paint, wire, and pieces combined that create a final item. 

Hand Altered is glued, nailed, screwed, sewn, stapled, embroidered, inscribed, painted, drawn, photographed, etc. Any alteration, or embellishment to an item by hand, hand controlled machine, and traditional art or craft method. Hand Altered can also be referred to as hand embellished, or hand assembled too. 

Homemade can be referred to pieces that are repurposed, upcycled, restyled, reimagined, etc. Made or prepared in the home, made by oneself, crudely or simply made. Creative touches, quality supplies, ingredients, and so on. 

So, why pieces like this? Many reasons which I will mention a few.

1)  Find something unique. Home decor, clothing, wall decor, and many things will not be exactly what someone else has. You can keep up with the trends  by fixing, adding, changing, fixing it up. Makes it unique for you.

2)  Super Craftsmanship. Handmade items get individual care, special attention, focus on details, quality control, etc. There are no assembly lines 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 overhead, 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. I like to think that buying this way you get individual attention from the seller. When receiving products you might have a hand written note, a thank you, and once in a while you might get some little freebie included with your item. 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. These sort of issues though happen less frequently due to the care, and the concern Sellers strive for in having Happy Customers. 

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

6)  Get custom items and alterations. Great to have things made just for you. It’s a pleasure to receive one of a kind items, and maybe to help complete a vision you might have of something not yet out there. Also, if you don’t have the skill or time to make it yourself, there is someone out there who does. 

7)  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 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”

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

There are many 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. 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! 


The picture below was made by a friend who is no longer here. She took much pride in her work, and spent much time with it. This bunny was made from colored glass beads using safety pins to form the body. Under the body was a light, and when lit was so soft colored and cute!



Thank You for visiting with LilacsNDreams. See you again soon. Till then take care, and be safe!
Toodles . . . . . . 











Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Welcome Back to LilacsNDreams!!


Hello and Welcome back to LilacsNDreams!! Wow! It has been a very very long time since I have visited here. I deeply apologize for the absence of about 3 1/2 years from here. Wow!! Seeing that number, it really has been a very long time. I ask everyone to bear with me as I hopefully make some changes to my blog/website to update it...once I can figure out what I am doing again. LOL...I honestly feel as though I am learning things all over again because it has been soooo long. 

Trying to make my story short, and not sharing my whole life story, but things got really hectic/scary for a while. I had become ill, and was later hospitalized a few times with meningitis. I wasn't contagious, but it sure was scarey. The recovery time is something else too! I found out the hard way it wasn't something you just shrug off, and a few days later you are cured. It really truly is a long process of healing. For quite a while I couldn't be left home alone as I had to be supervised during my recovery....sorry, I am too stubborn for that! I couldn't drive, used a walker for a bit, had to rely on others...which I am independent.  Sometimes I pushed myself too hard, and later would pay for it. 

Now, during my illness, in and out of hospitals, husband drives truck and was home 1-2 times a week to check on our home and such....within the first month+ our home had been robbed 3 times. I know, how horrid, right? We pretty much lost everything...computer, cameras, tv, jewelry, food, etc. It was devastating, and a total shocker too. Being ill, trying to recover, and who could do such a thing, right? 

It took a while to recover from robberies as well. The ones who were guilty were caught eventually, but we were never able to get anything back. Without sharing details of all of this it took us a very very long time to come back from this situation. Besides getting new things....which it was really hard to shop for items lost, my husband wanted me to get a new wedding ring as well. Great, huh? Love him for it, but it was just really hard to deal with all of this. I couldn't get in the mood to do any shopping to replace things, plus I was still recovering from my illness too. 

Soooo, here I am today!! I am back, ready to work on things, clean house, get things back into order, and start doing a lil of what I was doing before all of this happened to change our lives. I finally brought a new computer home....let me tell ya. Waayyy different than using my iphone, and my ipad!! But, it's a good thing. Just I feel like I am learning things all over again....frustrating, but also fun too. Hey, at least I can laugh at myself when I make a mistake and realize what I have doneπŸ˜‰πŸ˜„ No one is watching, right? LOL!!

It's all a working progress....figuring out all my accounts, emails, passwords to things, activating some things again, etc etc. Taking a lot of notes, and it is slowly coming back to me. First things first...working with my website here, facebook, pinterest, and getting things in order. Once I am comfortable with all of that I hope to soon be back online selling things again too. A little bit of vintage, along with some DIY, repurposed, recycled, reused, and restored pieces too. 

Sooooo, that's everything that has happened from time past, and things I am projecting to work on from today and moving forward. Like I mentioned before....please, please bear with me. Stop by now, and then to visit with me/check on me. Hopefully soon you will be seeing a few changes with my blog/website as I train myself again on how to fix some of the issues, revise, and update things as time goes along. It's a working progress that I am looking forward to, am excited about, and ready to take on!!

Thanks sooooo much for visiting with me today everyone!! Was great seeing you stop by, and hope to see more of you as time goes along. You can always leave a comment, or drop me a line too. Love hearing from everyone!!

Till the next time, take care everyone! I'll be back!! LOL!😊


Tuesday, November 20, 2012

LilacsNDreams Shoppe Page Being Updated on Blog

LilacsNDreams Shoppe Page Being Updated on Blog

Hello, and Welcome everyone to LilacsNDreams! Shopping in stores, Online Shopping, Thrift Stores, and so on. We all enjoy shopping them, and we all enjoy bargains too. Online Shopping is a very hard business to deal with, takes a lot of work, a lot of time, and eventually over time depending on what your goals are things can be good for you too.  Yes, having a brick and mortar store is also much work, and that I won't deny. But, there is a bit of difference from the physical to online as we learn over time too.

I am a slow bloomer I guess. I have done Online Sales since 2004 where I first started with Ebay. I enjoyed the hunting of products, finding good deals...some of them stayed home with Me:) But, I always enjoyed shopping, and digging for just the right items to be offered at Ebay to sell. Since then I have moved on. I still sell occasionally with Ebay, but I have moved more products over to Ecrater, Etsy, and some things with Artfire too. Lower fees, better sites, little bit more control of things you can do, and more opportunity as well. As I moved on I also had the need for something else I should be doing. I then got into repurposing, upcycling, recycling, and reusing items to make different pieces for the home. I adore vintage, glassware, pretty things, and have been enjoying what I have done so far with different pieces. I am selective with items found to use, and sometimes I think I am too selective. But, if I would be happy to have it used/displayed with my own home, then I feel it is ready to offer to others as well. 

At some point I thought it would always be a great accomplishment if I could have my own website too. Whew! Has anyone ever really checked into those, what it takes, the cost of things, all the coding, the complications, the different hosts being offered, domains, shopping carts, etc, and etc. It can get really spendy. Well, I am one who has always tried to save a penny where I could, but still have the advantages of what some others might be offering too. I do have a website I have been working with slowly....very slowly really. I have enjoyed working so much with my blog, and what I can do with it. The more I learn, and teach myself the more I enjoy it. As many of you can see at the top I have tabs to different pages I have added with my blog. I did these pages in a way that we could all still interact on them, and that when I wanted to make changes, add things, remove things, and etc....that they would work for what I needed them to do. So, right now I am doing the best way I know to do things, what I have taught myself, and making things simple for everyone too. 

As of today...still a working progress, and things will change as I move along with it. My secondary page to my blog that I focus with is my LilacsNDreams Shoppe. Here I have always shown pictures of items I am offering in my shops, and I leave clickable links for everyone to visit so that they can view more pictures, see more details, and so on. Wasn't trying to hide anything from anyone on this landing page of my blog, my main page here, but I also did not want this to become all about business with my blog either. That is where different pages I wanted were slowly added in for different interests, and to keep some things a bit separate from the next one as well. 

Anyway, I have now started to add buy it now buttons to items I am showing on my Shoppe page. No shopping cart yet, it is all a working progress for me. Learning, trying things out, and looking at shopping carts as well. Paypal offers them, and there are others that also offer them for sites as well. But, for me it is a start, a working progress. So, when you get a chance hop on over to see what I have done so far with my LilacsNDreams Shoppe page. If you have any ideas please share them as I am still learning, and many others are also learning as well. Some day (one of my goals) I am hoping to mostly be selling from my Blog/Website, and not having to deal with the extra shops, rules, glitches, and etc. Anyway, till then....have a look, and I hope you enjoy what I have started with so far. 

Take care everyone, and thanks so much for visiting with LilacsNDreams. I know I generally don't post on Tuesdays, and this comes a little later in the morning than what I schedule, but hope it finds you all doing well. I am sure the rush is on in preparations for the holiday, travel, and etc. Be safe everyone, and enjoy!:) See you again soon.