Christmas In July for a Christmas Baby

Christmas in July hits closer to home for me than normal.  My birthday is on Christmas day and my entire life it has been overlooked or forgotten.  As an adult, it never really bothered me but as a child, it did.

When I worked for the City of Rocky Mount, my captain and our department within the police department, always went out to eat lunch to celebrate everyone’s birthdays. We exchanged small gifts and somebody always baked a cake.  After the first few years of our not even being at work on my birthday, another employee suggested that I celebrate my birthday on July 25 so that I would not be left out.  Even though it didn’t bother me that my birthday was overlooked,  I thought it was sweet of her to think of it and the plan was put into place.  From that year forward we celebrated my birthday on July 25 with a nice dinner out with our small but intimate group.  It was really fun to receive little gifts from everybody—something that I honestly wasn’t accustomed to—again, my mom was about the only person who remembered my birthday each year.  It was a nice and meaningful tradition that I carried into other areas of my life.  Other than on legal documents, when asked when my birthday was I always responded ‘July 25’.  It turned into a rather nice habit.

I am at the age now that I find myself begging my family and friends to forget my birthday—whether they think it’s July 25 or December 25.  My number is getting way too high....I am not aging gracefully—I’m kicking and screaming all the way. 

Those special years of dining out, receiving small gifts, a homemade cake, and celebrating my birthday on July 25 with my coworkers will always be terrific memories.  So Christmas in July has a very special meaning for me and the phrase always brings back very loving memories of my dear friends who didn’t want my birthday to be overlooked.   

(from the editor - you can See all Pat's eBay listings in her ebay store NICALUCKS )

Something For All The Women in Your Life

"We give gifts because we wish to show appreciation for another person. It is a pity if it becomes a meaningless ritual. It is possible to ignore the commercial hype surrounding gift-giving and retain the simple joy of giving for the sake of it, whether or not you receive back or if your gift is of great monetary value. For Christians, it can be a reflection of the gift given by God to man, which is at the heart of the celebration as we know it“.I for one never buy a gift just to buy it. I try very hard to buy something I know the person will enjoy and the one thing you can buy for the Women in your life is Jewelry.
What does every woman want for Christmas ??? Diamonds , Gold !!!! Most of us can not afford that, but there are all types of beautiful Jewelry for everyone’s budget  - and that is vintage or new costume jewelry. Jewelry is a great stocking Stuffer.

 Go to
WWW.bitzofglitz.com and you will find jewelry that fits any pocket book. Sterling silver,Lucite, Cameo’s, Pins, bracelets and more. We have turtles, bugs, horse’s and even a cow belt buckle. My wish for you this year is health, wealth and happines and a stocking full of Bitz of Glitz
thanks
Delores, Jewelry Ring, , Costume Jewelry Collectors International

Visit Bitz of Glitz for more selections Or GlitzyGramy on eBay
Join me at my other eBay id GRAMY
And on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/bitzofgitz4u/


Onlinebusinesssuccess@yahoogroups.com

Saint Nicholas becomes Santa Claus! Christmas in July

Every November, I become fascinated with all the rituals and history of the Christmas Season, such as Santa Claus.  As a child, I accepted that Santa was a big man with white hair and beard.  He lived at the North Pole (whatever that was) and didn't seem to exist for the rest of the year.
Here, in the middle of July, the fourth day of an on-again off-again thunderstorm, I found a wonderful old world St. Nicholas doll wearing clothing more like that of an Old World Greek Bishop than the jolly rolly-polly pink cheeked man in a red velvet suit with a thick black belt.  Often people say that one evolved from the other.  I finally decided to track it down and see where it happened.  Not too complicated, but surprising to me.  Here's a brief note of what I found out.
Saint Nicholas was an historic 4th-century Saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, part of modern-day Turkey.  He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and thus became the model for today's Santa Claus.  His feast day is the 6th of December.
The dramatic clothing change came in 1892 as a result of magazine illustrations created by the great artist, Thomas Nast as illustrations for Harper's Weekly Magazine.   Nast's original drawings were of a small Santa who could slide down chimneys, but his later works made him full size. He was also the first to draw Santa wearing a red suit with fur lining, a stocking cap, and a black belt with a large buckle. This has become the image of the American Santa, while in some European countries where Saint Nicholas remains popular, the outfit worn is closer to religious clothing, including a Bishop's mitre.
This brings us back my vintage St. Nicolas doll in religious clothing.  If you'd like to see more about it, visit my store on eBay, PhoenixRising2000.

Our Logo for our Christmas in July Promotion

Our Promotion certainly needs a logo for Christmas in July and here is it. Marion does wonderful things with graphics and always shares them with our group.

Actually she has made one for a promotion a few years ago and Beth was the one to remember that and asked her to make one for this promotion.

Marion has a way with graphics and so I just had to share this with you so as you see this during the month you will know it is our promotion.

We all use social media my favorite is Twitter but others use Facebook, Pinterest etc so you may see this logo pop up just about anywhere this month.

Just like it says the group will be running sales on both Christmas and gift items so keep an eye out for great deals this month and help us have a great Christmas in July Celebration.

Christmas In July on ebay is a Happening Time !

Every year from July 1st to July 31st there are lots of ebay sellers running Specials on Christmas Items of all types
 I am one of those sellers. KDMORE-CRAFTS-AND-MORE 
  here on ebay you will find a large array of items to decorate your house for the Holidays and many Christmas Gift ideas for those on your Gift List

I`m not really sure who came up with the idea of Christmas In July originally, but I have always thought it was a neat idea


Here are a few of the items I have in my store right now. If you are a Disney fan you might like these Disney Christmas Plush Characters.



I have always loved having Scented Candles lit during the Winter Months when the house is all warm and toasty these Yankee Candle Items with Santa would make a Great Holiday Decoration addition

Yankee Candle Santa Candle Topper & Votive Set

And of course having Christmas Music to play during the Season is a MUST in my house


Christmas Music CD set


And if you are the Creative type or know someone who is you can make your own Family Heirloom Creation

Bucilla Christmas Stocking Cross Stitch Kit

No matter what you like, or need, I`m sure Christmas In July on ebay is going to be a Fun Place to be !  Please Come Join Us

Christmas in July

We often see the saying Christmas in July and I wondered what it means to you. For many that sell items or own a retail store it's a way to promote a month for sales of a very popular selling time. We all know that everyone buys gifts for Christmas and July is often a slower selling time for retailers.

According to Wikipedia there are a few different ways this started. One is that winter falls in July in the southern hemisphere. Therefore in countries such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in order to have Christmas with a winter feel Christmas in July events are undertaken. However, Christmas in December, the usual month, is a far more common practice, despite it being summer.  

We decided to get together this month and have a big celebration of Christmas in July and also quite a few sales on our items. We all love Christmas items and many of us sell them and are always looking for unique Christmas gifts for the people we love. What better Month to look for sales and get a jump on our Christmas Shopping then July? 

So follow our blog this month as we share our items and sales for the month of July.

How Do You Promote Your eBay Items?

I am part of a wonderful online group this is working together to promote our eBay items. We started by sharing our items and liking them when eBay had the like, want and own buttons showing on our listings. They now are showing up some of the time for some of us and not for others so I started to look at other things we could do as a group.

We all are store owners and so I thought it would be a great idea to post our store link and have the group promote it. I post 2 stores in the morning and then we promote each other in various ways like Twitter and Facebook. eBay gives us traffic reports which is a great tool and where we can check on our store front traffic.

You can find me at the Book Corner Cafe and I sell a wide variety of vintage items including racing and Christmas items.

Beth can be found at the Depression Glass Warehouse who also sells a wide variety of vintage items including Depression Glass.

Elaine is quite the expert on vintage antique books and art prints and can be found at the Phoenix rising 2000 store.

Katarina has a great store name The Very Desperate Housewife and sells many beautiful fashion items along with many other things.

Marion's Store can be found at  This N That Freeland Enterprises and has a large variety including both Avon products and vintage items.

Suz is the place to shop at if you love books and other vintage items. She can be found at My Mom's Books

If you love Cross Stitch items Susannes Little Corner is the place to shop.

I just wanted to share with you what some of my friends are doing to help promote our items and increase sales so what are you doing to increase your sales?

How Do You Promote Your Business?

If you have been around as an online seller for a long time you remember the early days of eBay. Do you ever yearn for those days or have you moved forward with the times and learned new ways to promote yourself?

It was so easy years ago when eBay and online selling was new and different. You could list things with very few rules and see sales and even bidding wars. If you sell online today you know it is very different and we all need to adept and change with the times. I am not saying it is easy but it can be done and one way is to promote your items and your business.

So the question of the day is how do you promote your items? One way I promote my items is by using Twitter  and in fact I really enjoy Twitter both as a business and a person. My Twitter friends are people I know or who I have met on  Twitter and we re-tweet each other items. We also have quite a chatty conversation going about all kinds of things.

I can Tweet from my phone, my Kindle, my laptop and yes my desktop computer so I check in regularly too keep up with my friends. If you would like to follow me and join in the fun you can follow Bookcornercafe

eBay gives us traffic reports to show us how people find our listings and month after month Twitter is in my top 5. I know it helps me promote both my items and business name and as any online seller knows that's very important.

So I ask the question of all of you where to do you promote your items?

Is Selling Online A Science or an Art?

Yesterday, I was talking to a store manager about buying some of his old inventory at a deep discount so I could flip it on eBay or Amazon. He said that he’s already got someone working on developing the science of eBay so his current employees can learn to do it.  So he’s hanging on to the outdated items as they accumulate in his already over crowded warehouse.

My knee-jerk reaction was to say: “It’s not a science, it’s an Art!”  Well, he thought that was some kind of sales pitch, so it ended the useful part of the conversation.  But I couldn't stop thinking about it.  I guess baking a cake is science – 2 cups of this and a tsp of that, stir, cook at 375, etc.  But it doesn't give me the sense of having accomplished something that I get from finishing a good listing a rare and interesting one of a kind old book.  There’s so much room for individual taste and preferences.  Experience certainly shows through.

So, I started to wonder:  what’s the difference between a science and an art?   For one thing, I think it’s a lot easier for a scientist to get a job than it is for an artist to find work doing art.  Scientists don’t get to have wine and cheese parties.   There’s certainly an overlap with both technology (the science part) and creative both required.   Here’s where I stopped myself as I recognized the vicious cycle of the chicken or the egg sort.

I’d like to hear any other thoughts on this question.  

Are internet sellers scientists or artist? Both?

I am part of a wonderful group of friends that support each other in all our online venues. We share and learn from each other every day and have become a family. This blog is part of our way of sharing our lives and also our listings with the world. We all sell on a variety of venues and most sell on eBay and Amazon among other places.

One of my venues is eBay and I sell a large variety of items some new and many vintage. I have listed items ranging from Dodge Truck parts to Vintage Racing Program Books.

You can find my items at the Book Corner Cafe n More Store on eBay.

Today I would like to take a few minutes to invite all my online friends to share with you one of their online selling venues.