On The Road to WordPress

Hello, sorry I have not posted anything since before Christmas.  I have been very busy making P. Lynne Designs, the website a reality and I have been mostly behind the scenes on WordPress.  What I am about to say may go over most people’s heads, but I will try to explain it in layman’s terms as much as possible because I am still learning it all myself.  Before I do that, a little backstory on this whole process.

As many of you who have been reading this blog off and on know that this is my first blog and it started in 2010.  Coming from a minor background in writing (meaning having only a bachelor’s degree in marketing and being a crafter), I decided to take a chance in blogging.  What you also may or may not know, is I wanted a business too of my crafts, either making crafts and selling my designs or doing custom work for people on a commission.  This came about when I was working at Archiver’s, A Memory Store when I would constantly get requests from customers if the store had an area where a customer can ask for these products (like cards and scrapbooks) to be made.  Of course, the answer was always, “No we do not have that type of service”.  After all, the store was like Michaels and Joann’s where you buy the craft supplies and make the projects yourself.  I left in 2010 and the store officially closed in 2014. 

It was around 2011, after I had started this blog and left Archiver’s, I thought about having a little online shop and eventually a physical store to create my designs from and sell, but I did not know how to start one, and I thought that I needed thousands of dollars to get this done. 

In came this woman on YouTube who talked about starting your own online handmade store, and I subscribed to her channel.  She was very funny but had some major points that I understood about opening a business online. Her name was  Renae Christine, and she had this face that while she was spraying Cheese Whiz into her mouth while making a point about how she started her 6-figure stationery business, it was really convincing. 

Rich Mom University

On one of her videos in 2013, she mentioned that she was holding a free webinar on how to start an Etsy store.  Now I was already on Etsy because for one, I wanted a couple of products on there and two, I needed some money, so a made a couple of composition notebooks and they had sold, so I wanted more, and Renae was willing to give it to me.   I took the course, and while I was listening, she had decided to work on websites of her listeners who really wanted to make some money.  The price was too high for me, and I cried, but I also told her that I could not because of my money situation at the time.  Her fiancé, Tom, emailed me back and told me these words, “if you cannot take a chance on yourself, who will?”, so I thought, “OK”, and signed up for the website makeover.

The website did not work out, and I thought that I was being scammed by her, but then she came out with this new course called Ultimate Architect, that was a game changer, and the best news was I did not have to pay for it.  My membership in the other course was my payment. So, I jumped right in and I loved doing it myself.  Renae provided the instructions and I followed along.  The only problem at the time was and still is to this day is I am not a programmer, never was but someday I hope I can get behind the hood of my work, and it is all because of UA.  I zipped through modules 1-3 like I have been programming all my life. “I can do this,” I thought as I rounded the corner to Modules 4 and 5, then life got in the way.

Had to stop.

Around 2015, I had to stop because not only did I start having health problems, including a car accident, which totaled my well-beloved Honda Accord, but my parents' health.  Not only that, I was neglecting my Etsy shop and other things. I am not going into details, but I had to stop working on my website.

Skipping ahead to 2018

Things settled down in 2017, and I decided to pick up where I left off on my website in November 2018, on October 2018, I received a strange call from a person who wanted to get rid of the malware on my site, P. Lynne Designs, the site I was getting ready to work on.  I thought that he was a scammer or desperate to find something to do, and I did not know that Google had flagged my site, so I thanked him, but no, after he quoted the price to fix it. So, I looked into it.

I logged onto my site at three in the morning, and I saw what was a red sign warning me not to go into it, and Google Chrome would not let me either, so I called Hostgator, and they pointed me to SiteLock where I had a not so the pleasure of talking to a Sean. When he quoted to me on how much it would cost to fix the problem and monitor it, I almost fell out o my chair but thought that OK.  The debit card would not go through (thank God).  God had another idea.

Enter Siteground.

Google continued to block my site after one of Renae’s Guru’s Benji told me what to do, so in January 2019, I severed my ties with Hostgator (who Renae no longer recommends, and neither do I), and took up SiteGround as the host of my website and blogs.  The process is so simple.  I got my domain names at GoDaddy.  The new domain name for P. Lynne Designs is https://plynndesigns.com (You will see a coming soon page, and I will notify you when the site goes live).  I also have the domain names pldmdn.com, patriciallogan.com, and I still have plynnedesigns.com, and I am working with Google to release it so I can put something on that is hopefully more awesome and amazing for you.

 P. Lynne Designs and Blogger

This past week, like I said, I am working on the website, and this blog will be switching over to that platform as soon as the website is finished.  So far, I like what I see, but it is not up to me, I want you to enjoy it too.  This site will also be compliant with the GDPR agreement, even though I may never plan on doing shipping across the big pond (as it is rather expensive to ship from the U.S.), but just in case someone from there wants to sign up for a newsletter.  It is better to cover all bases, then to get hit with some kind of fine because someone from Italy wants to order a card or two.

Also, this means the end of my Blogger blog, but not yet, I will still have this blog until the website goes live.  I have not decided if any of the posts from this blog will transfer over or not.  If they do, you will know, and I only transfer the newest ones. Sometimes, you just want a change and sometimes not.  My reason is to be more consistent, and well, with WordPress I will feel that.  I know a lot of people still use Blogger, so, it is a matter of preference.  Besides that, Google will still be monitoring my blog.  After all, that is how my old website was banned.

So, this is an update on what I am doing on this blog and with the website.  If you want to be notified when my new website and blog will go live, go to https://plynndesigns.com and sign up.  I do not share personal information (I do not like it either), and you will be notified.  By the way, this is my new font that is going to be on the website, so let me know what you think of it, and if it is readable.  If you have any other comments, list them below.

Thank you for your patience, and God bless.

I am Back…. Well, sort of.

Some of my current and past projects
Copyright 2018 by P.Lynne Design

Happy New Year.  Why am I saying this now?  Simple, I have been away from this blog.  Since I have been away, let me introduce myself, or rather re-introduce myself and my company.

My name is Patricia Logan, owner of P. Lynne Designs. I have been in this business in one form or another for over 10 years.  10 sounds like a good round number. I started out as a crafter, wanting to make a scrapbook for my nephew, who is now 22, and expecting his first child.  His mom was not able, and my mom asked me to do this, after seeing my high school scrapbook album.  I had nowhere to turn to since, at that time, I did not know much about scrapbooking.  Well, I kind of did.  I knew how I did scrapbooking and my album, which was through those old magnetic scrapbooks.  I had no paper for the background, and I used only journaling spots to describe the event and the people.  That was my high school scrapbook, but for my nephew’s, it had to be more. 

After I finished the book, which he was at the time, age 3, I had graduated to making cards and tags.  Next, I did a Disney vacation scrapbook, and by that time, I was working at Archivers, a Memory Store.  I was working there until 2010, and by that time, I wanted to open my own business, making scrapbooks, cards, and other projects for customers.  I was not allowed to do it while I was an employee, so I left the company. 

This company started with the name, MDN Creates, and along with it came this blog.  In 2013, I changed the name officially (meaning acquiring a business license through the State of Ohio) P. Lynne Designs.  I will explain the rest later.

Where have I been?

I wrote my last blog post in March 2017.  It was titled Tool Organization.  In this blog post, I talked about some of the tools that I used and how I organized them, which was mostly with Longaberger baskets.  I felt pretty good with the post, then I had to take care of family life and blogging on this blog and another blog, Tricia’s Baskets took a backseat, and I concentrated on my main blog, My Ambiance Life.  About September 2017, it too took a backseat to life, and I stopped blogging altogether.  It was around this time, that I was preparing to go on a much-needed cruise, that took a backseat to Hurricane Irma, so it was postponed to December 31, 2017, New Year’s Eve.  I must say, for my first cruise, I had fun.  I am ready to book another one, but hopefully not before a desired Disney trip with the siblings. (Mom and dad may not be able to go due to her health)

Anyway, I want to fast forward to today because since I have been going steady on My Ambiance Life, I might want to update this blog and re-niche (if there is such a word) Tricia’s Baskets.  If you are a follower on all three blogs, I will explain further on Tricia’s baskets. So that is where I have been.

What have I been doing besides vacationing….

The vacation cruise, which took me to Montego Bay, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands (which I did not know I was a stone’s throw from Cuba), and Cozumel, Mexico, ended with a day’s stay in New Orleans, LA, ended January 9, 2018, and I created a video of my adventures.   I did a lot of swaps in 2017 and at the beginning of 2018.  I am in the process of revamping the Etsy shop and finishing the website with some products. 

I started back Vlogging and I have a YouTube Channel, featuring what I have made for swaps, shopping hauls, and I am in the process of editing my first “Come with me” shopping video. 

So, what is next for this blog?

First, better blogging.  I can not think of what I need to do as far as a set schedule.  I just know that it will be a once a week upload.  How many will show up will depend on what I upload.

As far as what I will post, I want to give you a written copy of the materials of a project I made for a swap, demo, or client’s project unless it is too private, then I need to get a client’s written permission first.  I also want to do craft tool reviews and a list of products I love using in my projects and where to find them.

Now for the hard part, as much as I think it is wonderful for Google to have Blogger, I will be moving all of my blogs off of this platform.  I think I can do so much more than what Blogger has to offer.  I have grown in the time I started my first blog post.  I need something that allows self-hosting capabilities, something that Blogger allows in limited supply.  The store website of this business is on WordPress through Hostgator.  As I get closer to the setup and move time, I will mention this, so you know where to look for it.  I will be keeping this one for a good year after that point, so you know where to find old posts as such.

So, that is about it for now.  It is good to be back.  Oh, one other thing.  I do have a Facebook page called P. Lynne Designs, and it is the only thing that I had been keeping up with before today.