Friday, May 31, 2013

WooHoo It's Friday, Weekend Here We Come


WooHoo It's Friday, Weekend Here We Come!

Whew! What weather we have been having in NW Iowa! Rain...love it, but along with it comes lightning, hail, thunder, winds, and the usual stormy weather. Daytime has been cloudy, then sunny, then cloudy which leads to the darker clouds at night, and all of the other severe storm symptons. 

Wednesday we lost power during the night, and then Thursday night we were having some severe weather again. Things calmed down a bit so that I could get on the computer, and get my posting done on site for ya'll. 

I hope everyone is surviving the weather where you are, and pray for those experiencing issues with tornadoes. They are in our thoughts, and prayers. Thanks so much for sharing your time with LilacsNDreams everyone, and I hope to see ya'll again soon. Take care, and have a wonderful fun weekend!

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Domains Which One to Use


Domains Which One to Use

Of course many of us are blogging, some have their own websites, and some buy their domains in order to direct them to maybe their shops or market places they sell with. I have quite a few domains myself. I have LilacsNDreams.com for this blog, I have LilacsNDreamsShoppe.com for my shoppe page with my blog, I have a domain for my website, I have domains for a couple of my shops, and I have picked up quite a few to direct them with here, there, and there. I use GoDaddy for my domains. I have never had any issues with them in directing my domains, changing and directing to another address, using them, contacting them, etc. When I buy my domains there they are mine...as long as I keep renewing them. 

Anyway, there are so many places out there to get your domains with. I often seen many mentioned, and I hear good with bad about many of them too. I have seen quite a few mention 1and1.com, namecheap.com, name.com, 123.reg, and there are sooo many out there to mention I could bore you with all of them. I do have a notebook I have many of them written in, but it must be the memorial weekend holiday that is catching up with Me, and not being able to find that particular notebook.

So, do you have your domains? Have you maybe gotten your domains to help lock your brand names, but just have them parked right now not using them? That is how I started out with mine at first was just buying them. For whatever reason that you do, or don't have them I would love to hear from others what places they are using, and their experiences they have had too. 

Hope ya'll had a super Memorial Weekend! We did here as our son was home from the army for a few days. He is back to work doing what he loves to do, hubby is back in the truck, daughter and her family still with us, and I am doing what I enjoy doing as well...blogging. 

Thanks so much for sharing your time with LilacsNDreams, and hope to see ya'll again soon. Till the next time everyone, Have a Sweet Day!

Monday, May 27, 2013

Memorial Day, Please Remember Our Heroes





Memorial Day, Please Remember Our Heroes!

Make this special day one for you, and your families. Please stop for a moment to remember those who cannot be with their loved ones because they have paid the ultimate price for freedom, and those who are serving far away. May the Lord Bless, and keep them all!

While we enjoy this Memorial Day with family, and friends with firing up the grills to eat our burgers, and hot dogs, please remember why we celebrate this day. We celebrate our many freedoms fought for, and won by brave men and women who today cannot be at home with their families, and for those who have given the greatest sacrifice by laying down their lives to guarantee us the joy of this day! Please, remember and honor them all!

Giving thanks to all those who gave their tomorrows so that we all can have ours! For those who are on foreign soil today still protecting us, and keeping us free. . . . Stay safe, and return to enjoy the freedoms you fight for!

So, today or anytime that you see someone in uniform or maybe know of someone serving our country, please walk up to them and shake their hand, give them a hug, or salute them as well. Tell them Thank You for what you do for Me, for my Family, for our Friends, for our Country. Believe Me, they really enjoy this, and are happy to receive this from us all. I've watched it done to our son, and the smile with pride he gets on his face for knowing he is doing our country good. 

Have a fun-filled Memorial Day everyone. God's Blessing to All!!

Friday, May 24, 2013

Happy Memorial Weekend to Everyone


Happy Memorial Weekend to Everyone!

Wishing you all a fun-filled safe Memorial Weekend of Celebrations! While enjoying your weekend of celebrations with family, and friends please remember those who have fallen, those who are on foreign grounds, and those who are home as they all fight for our freedoms of today that we have. 

Blessings to them all, God Bless Them!

Thursday, May 23, 2013

DIY Craft Handmade Repurposed Lanterns


                                           Pottery Barn Lanterns

                                             DIY Stencil Glass Lantern

                                              Make Your Own Wood Lantern

                                              DIY Picture Frame Lanterns Chandelier

DIY Craft Handmade Repurposed Lanterns

I often adore lanterns whether they are made of wood, metal, have that beachy look, and some of the simple chandeliers have the same look too. You know some of them timey old time lanterns. I love all the colors that I find, and of course how they are displayed to show giving me more ideas. I truly enjoy looking at them, and consider them till the price tag catches the eye. Go to Pottery Barn to see some of them, and how the simplest of designs can be spendy too. Starting at maybe $19.99 up to $129.00 and more! Like many other times I see something I like, don't want to pay the price, and I know it is time to go to places like the Dollar Tree stores, go out thrifting, junking, and to some how find the pieces I can put together to make this work. 

Upon researching, and spending my time lounging like I generally do . . . when I should be getting projects done . . . I came across some neat tutorials, and ideas of how to make these adorable lanterns myself. One technique I found to be quite interesting, and very easy to do was using picture frames from like the Dollar Tree stores. Yes, picture frames! Takes 4 picture frames sized at least 5 X 7. Now, you can do this project with glass, and without glass too. You can also make these lanterns with stenciled glass, bottoms and tops, you don't have to have either if you don't want to, maybe a bottom with no top, or add some wire to make a wire handle for a hanging chandelier. Neat ideas isn't it?

Please see the pictures above with their links that will better assist you with tutorials, ideas, instructions, and etc. The first picture at the top is from Pottery Barn and are priced $39 to $129. As you can see the DIY lanterns look just as good as those from Pottery Barn, but of course as noted were done cheaper too. 

Hope you enjoyed looking, and got some wonderful ideas from this today. Thanks so much for sharing your time with LilacsNDreams! Was a pleasure, and hope to see you again soon. 

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Thoughts and Prayers For People of Oklahoma


Thoughts and Prayers For People of Oklahoma

I had been planning a different blog post for today, and was searching notes along with researching for pictures too. After the devastation of what has happened in Oklahoma the past few days I decided instead to have some much needed prayers sent for all those who have been effected. My heart goes out to all those who were caught within these horrid paths of these tornadoes. All of our thoughts, and prayers go out to you during this time. Prayers are requested for your hearts to be healed as you are putting your lives back together. May God Bless you, and help you during these trying times. 

Blessings to You in Oklahoma, and those who have been in the path of this devastation!


Monday, May 20, 2013

DIY Handcrafted Pots Planters For Home and Outside

                                            DIY Handcrafted Planters With Circles

                        Terra Cotta Pot Tower - Sorry this had a bad link when tested

                                 Black White Address Pots For Porch came from Pinterest


                                          Flower Pot Made From Water Can
                                            Floor Lamps Into Pedestal Planters

DIY Handcrafted Pots Planters For Home and Outside

Hi! Welcome to LilacsNDreams! Hope ya'll had a gorgeous weekend. The weather has been interesting for many of us this year. Late snow storms, freezing rains, and spring was prolonged for some of us. Now that spring is here many of us are working with the outside appearance of our homes which involves planters of all sorts. Sometimes it is hard to find the planters that we seek, and to find what pictures we have in our minds. Why not handcraft some of them to decorate with?

When it comes to diy handcrafting there are many things that we find can be used for our projects. I have seen terra cotta pots painted, jars that have been painted and decorated, wooden boxes made for planters, tires used, pallets used to make planters, teapots, coffee pots, and so much more! Some of us will use real flowers, succulents, greenery, and so on. There are some of us whose green thumb does not work so well, but will instead use some adorable outside flowers to decorate with too. 

Above you will see pictures, and most having links for what was shared. For the terra cotta pots there is a decor art outside paint that is a patio paint which is specially formulated for terra cotta pots. You could use painters tape to mask stripes, or get some that is decorative to use. Make sure to get some paint pens to use for maybe when you stencil letters, words, shapes, or numbers. Don't forget using the rustoleum spray paint formulated for plastic also. There are some adorable tiered planters I have seen made, and so many wonderful ideas to fit with all of our home decors. These wonderful pots can be made for outside the home on porches, by the steps, and made for inside our homes too.

Generally if I need some ideas I will visit some of my favorite blogs, and of course I will research with Bing and Google search engines too. So much out there being shared, to see, and to get some wonderful ideas from. Hey, if you have some ideas we would love to hear from you as well. Don't be shy, and share what you have done, or know. 

I hope this finds everyone doing well, enjoying the weather, and enjoying our spring time. Thanks so much for sharing your time with LilacsNDreams. Have a wonderful Monday, and hope to see ya'll again soon. 

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

DIY Handmade Repurposed Recycled Wall Clocks

                                                                 Blue Embroidered Handmade Clock

                                                             Handmade Teacup Clock DIY

                                                          Wood Scraps DIY Clock

                                                      Repurposed Handmade Vintage Inspired Clock

                                                     Recycled Repurposed Vintage Cake Pan Clock

DIY Handmade Repurposed Recycled Wall Clocks

Hi! Welcome to LilacsNDreams! I love vintage, junking, and repurposing. When it comes to researching, and viewing shared DIY projects I can easily get lost with all of being offered. Something I have often stopped to view is DIY Handmade Repurposed Recycled Wall Clocks. There are so many out there being made from so many things. I know that I have to mark this on that "to do" list that has been growing for Me. 

There are many materials you will see used for these handmade clocks, and many ideas that are just awesome too. I have seen clocks done with record albums, dominos, adorable plates, scrapbook paper, buttons, gems, silverware, vintage pans or trays, and the list is endless. By making clocks like this, or buying them from some of these creative sellers it would be easy to find a clock for each room in the home. Adorable clocks have been made for different themes to work with your home decor too. 

Above you will see pictures of some of the many I found being shared with everyone on the internet. With the pictures comes the clickable links so that you may further view them, maybe get some of the instructions that were shared, and see what these wonderful creative people have made. Don't forget to search some of the market places where pieces are offered, and if you check through Google and Bing search engines you will find many offered too. 

Really nice seeing you all again, and I appreciate you sharing your time with LilacsNDreams today too. Hope you enjoyed the ideas shared with making clocks, and I look forward to seeing you all again soon. Till the next time my friends.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Happy Mothers Day to All


Want, Love, Excel, and most of all...Never Give Up! It couldn't get any better! It's the greatest job in the world being "MOM"   HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to ALL those Mothers who are here, have gone/passed, in memory, and also to those Dads who have become Mother too!

       Have a beautiful Mother's Day Everyone!!


Friday, May 10, 2013

Welcome to LilacsNDreams Blog Site


Welcome to LilacsNDreams Blog Site. Nice to see you, and glad you stopped in. 

Hello Everyone, and happy to see you dropping in with LilacsNDreams! I normally keep this site for sharing items found, likes and dislikes, informational, things I have read, business, things of interest, and etc. Generally I try not to do anything personal here, but today wanted to visit with you all shortly. 

As you have seen my posts are off this week compared to what I normally share, and I apologize to you deeply for that. I have been home in bed ill for about 2-3 days now. Starting to show signs of improvement, but still worn out from it, doing a lot of sleeping, and the usual of what comes with this stuff. So, just letting everyone know I am still around, and did not purposely forget about my postings for the week. 

Hope this finds you all doing well, and hopefully everyone had a great week! Here is the start to our weekend, and wishing you all a super weekend with all that you do! Thanks so much for visiting, and sharing your time with LilacsNDreams everyone! Appreciate it, and enjoy seeing all of you, and hearing from you too. 

Thanks again everyone, and have a super weekend! See you again soon!:)

Monday, May 6, 2013

Ebays Yearly Spring Seller Changes Have Started

Ebay Yearly Spring Seller Changes Have Started

Happy Monday, and Welcome to LilacsNDreams! How many of you deal with Ebay? Do you only buy there, do you maybe auction there, or are one of the many many sellers that they have? If you are a buyer you might notice changes with different things as time moves along. Some you might like, and some you might not. As a seller there are many things to face, and always changes when dealing with Ebay. 

I started Ebay in 2004 as my first venture of selling online. Whew! Did I have fun too! I enjoyed what I did, enjoyed finding things to sell on ebay, treasure hunting and thrifting were always a blast to do for this venture, I enjoyed some of the extra cash, and really enjoyed selling online because of ebay. As time as gone along ebay has made changes. Some have been drastic, and some are disappointing and questionable too. For me what use to be fun, and enjoyable has really become a heartache selling there. 

Every year Ebay has their spring changes they do. Generally it is a price increase for selling there of course. They are now at 10% they charge on your final value fee of what you sell. No more listing fees, or at least not for the first 50 listings. Those first 50 are free, and then they will charge a listing fee after that. If you have stores with ebay you will also see some changes for you. Then there is the final value fee you pay with your shipping cost that you charge. 

This year by July 1st you will see most changes have gone into effect for what they have notified of. I recently read with Ecommercebytes for those who have signed up with ebay, have accounts with them, but have not been active for a long time that they would like to expire those old IDs. Interestingly ebay has been around for about 18 years, and some of us have had our user IDs for like forever. If you want an account there it has been frustrating for some who choose a name they like, and find out it is already taken. Even more frustrating is to find the person is no longer registered with Ebay, has not had an active account for 2, 3, 4+ years, and so on. So, emails are being sent out to those who have been inactive too long to determine if they keep those user IDs, or if ebay is expiring them. 

Another thing I have been dealing with when I am relisting items myself to ebay is another new change. You will have your listing price of items, and some of us along with a listing price/auction price will also include a buy it now (BIN) price too. Some people don't like to auction, and would just rather buy the item now which is fine. Ebay is now enforcing with sellers that if you have the buy it now price it is to be 30% more than your listing price. Say what? Seriously? Not quite sure what it is to them about this new rule, and why it is being enforced. Isn't ebay making money from the sellers no matter what they do? So, upon relisting items if I want the buy it now, and they don't like the amount I have because it is below the 30% they are not letting relist items till I change that. To me this is disappointing, and as mentioned before, the fun of selling on ebay back when I started is not anything like it use to be. 

There are more changes, but I promised myself I would not write a book with this posting to you all. So, do you sell on ebay? How do you feel about the changes that they have been making? Have you found other market places that you enjoy selling with? Would love to hear from some on this issue, and would be happy for us all to discuss this a little. 

Also, I just wanted to note to those who are buyers. I am sure it is frustrating sometimes when buying there, but please do not have ill feelings to all the sellers for some things that you see. It is no longer our items to sell as we use to. For us to sell on ebay we have rules to follow, and if we don't we cannot list, our items are pushed to the bottom of searches, or sometimes they do not allow our listings.

Thanks so much for sharing your time at LilacsNDreams today everyone. I love having you visit, enjoy hearing from all of you, and it's always a pleasure coming by here to catch up. Hope to see you again soon. Happy Day to everyone!:)  


Thursday, May 2, 2013

Simple Technique For Cleaning Bottles With Oils


Simple Technique For Cleaning Bottles With Oils

Hi! Welcome to LilacsNDreams! Do you ever see some old oil bottles that you find appealing to want to use again, or maybe keep them? You know the more popular olive oil bottles, or any other oil bottles may have that distinctive shape that you wish to use once the contents are gone from it. Of course you can repurpose some old glass bottles as center pieces, for gifts, and as some art or craft projects too. Cleaning these bottles can be a challenge as we know that water, and oil do not mix without leaving a residue. With many of these bottles we find them adorable with their thin necks, but also learn that we cannot use a bottle brush, or any other cleaning utensil to help in this process.

Here is a simple idea to try with your attempt at cleaning such a bottles. Fill the empty oil bottle with water to help clean out as much of the oily residue as possible. Fill the bottle halfway, cover the top, give it a good shake, and then pour it out. 

Next use some hot water that is like close to boiling, but is not actually boiling. Again fill the bottle about half way, and then add some drops of a liquid soap. Use a soap that will cut some grease like Dawn, and know that you might have to repeat this process a few times

You then can consider adding some white vinegar to the solution. The vinegar can help cut down any akali, or oil dirt. Replace the top with the cover, or use your hand to cover the opening , and shake vigorously. Shake it till your arms hurt, or feel tired. Now, set the bottle on a flat surface for a while which could be a few hours. During this time make sure to shake it now, and then to make sure that the solution is working on the inner walls. 

After a few hours of this dump the water solution, and again rinse it with a warm water. You should do this a few times to remove all the excessive soap, and vinegar. Then set the bottle down to dry. 

Now, if you don't have white vinegar to use, or maybe you still see some residue inside the bottle after doing these steps. grab some rice. Fill the bottle halfway with some hot water, add some uncooked rice, and give it some drops of your dish soap. Shake it like you had done before. The rice should help by working away at the residue, and the oil dirt by scrubbing the glass. Empty the rice into the trash once you have finished, rinse it, and then let it dry. 

Remember that you might have to clean the bottle more than once as oil is a touch residue to clean. The ending result is that cute bottle that you are wanting to adorn your decor with as it sits, adding a flower, some ribbon, twine, and etc. 

Hope ya'll found this little tidbit for cleaning those bottles you treasure helpful. Thanks so much for sharing your time with LilacsNDreams, and hope to see you again soon. Have a most wonderful day!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Image Optimization for Online Shops, Websites, Blogs


Image Optimization for Online Shops, Websites, Blogs

Welcome to LilacsNDreams! Images and optimization is something else we need to consider when we are doing our SEO work for our shops online, websites, blogs, and etc. Reducing file sizes, naming images, and getting search engines to index them is another part of SEO that is being found to be quite helpful too. 

People usually begin their searches for a product online, and your products can have a good chance with many others of being found as long as your images are optimized. Using keywords in your web page content is quite useful we have learned over time with page ranking. Using keywords with your image names is also quite useful in page ranking too. 

The file names for your images should be descriptive, in plain english, and also include the right amount of keywords. Search engines not only crawl your text on your web pages, but also will search for keywords within your image files too. When doing a web search you can click on images, and let me tell you it feels good to find one of your images showing along with many other images from others too.

It is really easy, and does become a habit to keep the file name given to your pictures by your camera, but it is also a habit you should work on breaking too. An example from your camera might be ProductImage12.jpg, and a better choice to maybe use would be Pink-Cake-Stand-Pedestal.jpg. 

You know it might not seem like much, but a few extra seconds of load time on your website could also cost you customers. Your pictures should be resized, compressed, and optimized. These optimized images are more suitable for web pages, email attachments, blogs, listings in your shops, and etc. 

A good rule of thumb for images is that the larger the file size, the longer it takes for the page to load. To help with this issue you can decrease the sizes of your images by compressing them. Most consumers wait about 3 seconds for website to load with a desktop, or laptop. About 5 seconds on mobile devices. Amazon found that if their pages were to slow down by 1 second they would lose about $1.6 billion a year. Ouch! Google does use page load times as a factor in their ranking algorithm.

There is always something to learn, and to be shared with everyone isn't there? I want to thank you for sharing your time with LilacsNDreams, and I hope to see you all again soon. Have a most wonderful day everyone!