The Shape of Things to Come…

THIS IS A SHORT POST TODAY!  NEW POST IS COMING AFTER THIS ONE!

The way that this world today is mind-boggling.  Never would anyone imagine that a little thing like a virus would stop the world as we know it.   

Two weeks ago, I was contemplating this stuff I had to do for my business, my home (spring cleaning), and time. 

I am not here to talk about the world and what COVID-19 is doing to it.  Unless you decided along time ago (as in 5-20 years) to isolate yourself from the world, to which congratulations are in order and live in a cave somewhere off the coast of The Caribbean on an island, I am here to talk about a different shape of things to come.

(c) 2020 by Pixistock.com

I am talking about this blog.  I have hinted this on the My Ambiance Life blog, and it is finally getting ready to roost. First off, the current blog of At Home with Tricia's Baskets will change names once again (hopefully this will be a permanent name-next time will be in the art of deleting it).  The reason has to do with how this blog was set up, and how it functions as of now. 

First off, I did a major scramble when Longaberger first closed its doors for what I thought was a permanent thing.  Anyone who has been following this blog for quite a while knows that I used to be a home consultant for the company, and the first thing I did after naming this blog was to get rid of anything remoting related to any sales on this blog.  I only left a couple that highly mentions Longaberger and any of its past products. I was not ashamed of selling for the company, I did not want to keep explaining to potential clients that the company was no longer in business, and I could not take their order if that was the end goal for that person.

I would like to invite you to look at the New Longaberger website, and the company will be run by Rachel Longaberger Stukey, another daughter of Dave.  When Tami was running the company, Rachel was behind the scenes running the Longaberger Foundation and attending the convention for consultants.   The company has a new owner, and currently, there are no consultants, only the website and QVC, that are selling the products.  As I stated in the past post, when the company starts requesting for consultant again, I will not be part of the salesforce.  I had my run, and I am working on my own company, P. Lynne Designs.

Second, The name will not reflect my name at all.  I know, shocking.  It will not contain the word, “baskets” in it either.  The name of the new blog is called, “Home Prep”.  It will be on the WordPress platform and it will talk about the home and family. 

Finally, the travel portion of the blog will have a new blog.  It is tentatively named D’Princesses Travel Blog.  You know what that means, Disney Travel first, the rest of the world and cruises later.  It will all be there.

This time, I will not be removing posts from the blog.  I realized that it was a big mistake.  I will not be changing the blog name on the old blog.  I am keeping the name, At Home with Tricia's Baskets and there will be a link to the old blog as well on the new one.  I fact, I will have a link to all of my blogs and websites on all of my blogs when I change, as well as affiliates. 

Here are the topics I have on Home Prep:

1. Organization:  This has been a running theme since I was writing in Simply Organized Crafts.  In this category, you will find:
1. Home-closet, kitchen, bedroom, and craft room (which was previously covered in my craft blog, P. Lynne Designs) are the main subjects.
2. Work-time management, office organization (which may be different than The home office)
2. Time management- Believe it or not, time management is part of home organization, and once you divide your time into manageable pieces, your life will be easier to manage as well.
3. Decoration:  Once you have organized your home, it is time to decorate, and not just any decoration will do, it must be on a budget. I am not talking about only Dollar Tree, but there are some really good deals in Target, Ikea, and even Pottery Barn, if you know where to look. There are also projects to make ordinary-looking items look like you spent thousands of dollars, when you only spent a fraction on creating them.

There is so much more.  These are only the major parts of the new blog.

New Name, Same Blog: Home Prep With Tricia

OK, you may have wondered where I have been for the past, oh say, a month or two, maybe three.  I have been thinking.  It all started when I changed this blog’s name from Tricia’s Baskets, home of all things Longaberger, including the products, sales, and whatnot, to At Home with Tricia's Baskets. I had said all this time that the name was a way to transition from the decorating with Longaberger feel about this blog to other brands, decorating with what you have, Ikea, organization, and traveling to name a few.  Well, it is time to abandon Tricia’s Baskets for real this time.  It all started with a journey, a Disney Journey. 

Planning for a change-Photo by
DarkWorkX for Pixabay

Back in September, I believe it was, I set out to talk about how to go from “I’m Going to Disney World with my family” to “We are getting ready to ride Dumbo”.  Let me tell you what a failure that was, and I very rarely admit to failure.  It was a total disaster on my part.  I will write about it later, but the problems stemmed from failure to inform a family member until the last minute and feeling guilty about it to enforce the money paying schedule to members who were paying, to finally swallowing my pride, and calling Disney World reservations to cancel the trip in October.  This to me was no way to do any type of prep, both in the home or getting ready for a trip.

This gave me an idea: Change the Name, again.

I know there are tons of information out there about preparing for something, like finance, Home buying, decorating, and travel, but in one place?  It is possible for me to entertain and to inform.  I have tackled this in the form of Simply Organized Crafts (Now Simply Organized Business on Facebook), where I covered these same topics, except travel, which was in the form of “Traveling to the Mouse’s House”, a blog about traveling to Disney World with a large family.  I really did not want to have 5 blogs also include My Ambiance Life, and P. Lynne Designs (which is becoming a selling website).  So out of the ashes comes Home Prep With Tricia.

Home Prep With Tricia is basically At Home with Tricia's Baskets and Tricia’s Baskets without the Longaberger products.  If you want to learn more about the blog’s purpose, you can read here.

The name is shorter for both me and you, but mainly for you.  I want you to remember the name, and the average human cannot remember a title any more than 4 words, and they have to be short and sweet.  The name gives purpose, even though there is some traveling sprinkled in there.  I will focus on budget decoration, budget organization, working inside the house (I refuse to say the “C” word (cleaning), and traveling.  It sounds like a lot, but really it isn’t.

come and relax a while -Pixabay

The platform is changing, and I have the groundwork for a WordPress platform, which is on the SiteGround hosting site, so that means that the blog is moving.  Yes, I know most people use Bluehost, but this comes highly recommended by one of my mentors, Renae Christine.  As a side note:  I do not recommend HostGator at all.  I had a really bad experience that I will and have talked about over on my other blog, My Ambiance Life.  This resulted in someone stealing my site, placing Malware on it, Google rejecting it, and HostGator not caring.  It was a terrible 5 months back in 2018. I also have some choice words for Google about Blogger, but they are mild in comparison to my choice words about HostGator, and I highly recommend the host site to someone who is just getting started with a website or blog, and they do not want something technical because WordPress can get very technical, and if you are not ready, then again, I recommend this website host. 

Well, I had said that this was going to be a “short and sweet” post.  The blog name will come when I switch over to the new platform.  I am typing after Midnight, Eastern standard time, so I do not have the time to set things up.  I will start placing this week, hopefully, no later than next week.  Once that is done, and the announcement of further changes and additions will be made on Home Prep With Tricia, and there will be some changes in the future as this blog grows in its new home.

In the meantime, thank you for being patient with me and this blog.  If you read my other blog, My Ambiance Life, I made the announcement of things to come on that blog as well.  Also, come and leave a comment or two.

Announcement: Career Change

Making a Career Change
Image by P.Lynne Designs

Hello, and Welcome to At Home with Tricia’s Baskets and the first day of June.

From time to time, I will be making announcements on my blogs and on my YouTube channel.  I do not like being in the dark on changes, and I am sure you do not like them either.

This announcement comes on the heels of what I have been dealing with the whole month of May.  As you may have seen on the news and on social media, the owners of Longaberger made an announcement that Longaberger has ceased operations due to a number of things that I will not address on this blog, nor on my Facebook Pages, Tricia’s Baskets-Longaberger and At Home with Tricia’s Baskets.  The reason being that they are dealing with a lot of legal issues, some which I, as part of the sales field, are not privy to seeing, until the owners are able to talk about it to us about it.  I have been going through so many emotions about this, even some that my friends and family do not know about.  I am going to leave it at that.

It will be a month since they made this announcement on May 5, and if sometime in the near future they are able to reopen and resume operations, I will not be continuing with them.  This decision was hard, and I only have one customer who may be affected by the company not able to complete her order.  It was an order in August 2017, and before my website shut down yesterday, I was able to conclude that since there was still an extended order on two the items she asked for.  I will try to contact her to see if she received them, if not, then she can dispute the order with the credit card company and get a refund on the items not received.  This gesture would probably be my last as a Longaberger consultant.  I will inform my upline, Marilyn of that decision before June 30^th, which would have been the last day of the current selling season.  I do want to remain friends with her.

June 30 also ends my run in the direct selling industry for now. It has been a good 18 years total.  During this time, I was also a Tastefully Simple consultant and a Your Inspiration at Home consultant (a sister company to Longaberger).  I had fun, made new friends, new customers who are also friends.  It has been a wonderful ride.  My life is changing to a new industry…. The stationery industry, the crafting industry, and Freelance writing. With these industries, I am able to touch more lives, and expand then being just a consultant with an established company, should Longaberger reopen.  I feel like I need to explore this, which I had the company, P. Lynne Designs since 2010.  You can read about it sometime, not in this blog.

This was the whole reason for me to change this blog from what it was, which was an all Longaberger blog.  Now it is including other decorating companies, some home life, family (including pets and singlehood), and travel.  I hope to make it better than the three blogs I had before (Tricia’s Baskets, Simply Organized Crafts, and Traveling to the Mouse’s House).  I hope you will enjoy it.

Here’s to the new blog, full of wonderment, shiny, and new.

Changes are coming to this blog

So many Choices
Copyright @2018 The
Longaberger Company

Hello, and welcome to the new At Home with Tricia's Baskets.  It has been over a year since we talked, and I do apologize for being absent.  I decided to revamp this blog for several reasons, but first, I want to explain briefly why I have not blogged in that time span.

1)      I have been blogging.  Not here.  For those who follow me in social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and YouTube), know that I have my rounds as a crafter, writer, graphic designer, influencer, and now YouTuber.  

2)      I have restarted my YouTube Channel (never really left) but finding content for all my blogs and a YouTube channel has been challenging that I am willing to take.

3)      My family and I have had some health challenges in 2017.

4)      Finally, as of May 4, 2018, I am faced with an uncertain future as an Independent Home Consultant with The Longaberger Company.  As of this writing, I still do not know what’s up, and the news that you are hearing is of a temporary closing.  I will not know until they (the owners) send me an official email of what is the current and future status of The Longaberger Company. I know that I am angry that we (the sales field) was not better prepared, but an email is better than finding out when you place an order that your website was closed.

The last statement is what got me to see if I closed this blog or not.  I know I had downloaded a copy of every post written by me, in the form of a single file, so that I could purge this blog.  I am so glad that I forgot to do it, as I discovered 3 days ago. 

So, what is next for Tricia’s Baskets?

The last statement also had me thinking, “what if Longaberger closed its doors for good?”  Surely, everyone will find out through the news media, rather you are an employee of the company or part of the sales force getting that official email or a customer who has ordered from their consultant in the past, or visited Longaberger’s headquarters (Big Basket, Homestead, or their new place in Dresden, Ohio).  I want more from this blog than showing you how to decorate with or to buy Longaberger products.  There is so much information on decorating for your home, and I showed that to anyone who read my now closed Simply Organized Crafts blog.  I also showed you lifestyles for family living, as well as travel tips.  I want to transfer that knowledge to this blog.

I want to Introduce you to At Home with Tricia’s Baskets

This is the last post under the name, Tricia’s Baskets.  I am not getting rid of talking about Longaberger either.  The blog is getting a new name and a niche upgrade.  It will also be a little less “sales”, meaning I will not be placing sales flyers in every corner.  I think that is what turned people off from engaging in the posts and not fully reading them.  If a product is on sale, I will only provide a link to the article, and maybe say something like “Featured in this post”.  Something like that.

In addition to the way I present Longaberger products (if and when the company is fully back in business), I will also feature their sister companies as well.  I am no longer “Just a Longaberger product” consultant.  There are Tomboy Tools (tools made specifically for women’s hands), and Paperly (paper products, such as notepads, clipboards, business cards, and more).  I will also talk about decorating on a budget, especially with products from Ikea, Dollar Tree, Target, At Home, The Container Store, and Walmart as examples.  I will also include Amazon when it applies to what I am talking about.  I will include online coupon codes, but only if it applies to the post I am writing.  I will not have it as a weekly feature.  Finally, I will talk about travel, but since I do not travel every month, it will feature some tips like, “what to pack for a cruise”, “How to plan for your family vacation”, or even some Disney Tips and tricks.  This is just a sampling of what is possible for this change.

I cannot do this alone…

This blog is for you the reader.  I gave you my ideas and I want to hear from you.  I want this to be a place where you can get some tips, some tricks, and trends.  I will do my best to give you information on what is trending, but on a budget-friendly scale.  Not everyone can afford to Rose Gold everything, but by just having 1-2 pieces to start with, and when you can afford to get more, get the pieces within your budget.  This is an example of the advice I would present to you each week and your tip for this week. I also do hauls and starting “Come with Me” videos on my YouTube Channel, but it is not enough.

I want you to make suggestions.  If there is something that you have seen or want me to do, tell me in the comments area below each post.  You can even make these suggestions on my YouTube channel.

So, it is nice o be back, I wish it was on happier terms with concerns with The Longaberger Company, but I have faith that whatever happens with the company, there would be a reason for the decisions made, and I trust God for it.  If this company does continue, I will be continuing to be a consultant until June 2019.  I will explain when the time comes. 

Until then, it is time to revamp a blog.   Talk to you later.