Late August Newsletter

I hope you've all enjoyed an enjoyable and restful summer. Whether you spent it far away or right at home, those long summer days will soon be ending and will be replaced by crisp fall weather, thoughts of the holidays and, in my home, a busy school schedule during the week and juggling three soccer games each Saturday. I also plan to see many of you this fall, whether at one my Uppercase Living Open Houses or Project Days, at your own UL party or perhaps at a friend's. It's going to be a very fun and busy season and I'm really looking forward to reconnecting with my customers and hostesses and meeting lots of new ones too.

Save Now With 15% Off SpecialNow through Sept. 9 you can save 15% off any order over $40. It's that simple! Place your order online or with me. Save on accessories, new products, gifts, Photo Prints and more! Don't forget that anything you order will earn Double Up Rewards so you can save now and get extra free products later when you host your own Uppercase Living party.
Holiday Mini Catalog Available Sept. 1
Just when you thought it couldn't get better than our new Fall/Winter catalog, we have a new Holiday Mini Catalog with even more good stuff. I definitely think the star of this catalog is our the brand new Iron On Vinyl. Available on a limited basis, it is the perfect solution for custom holiday crafts. The Halloween designs are adorable! I also love the Gratitude Tree for Thanksgiving (or year round) and the erasable Countdown to Christmas. For those of you who like to make homemade holiday gifts, there are a ton of ideas. The vinyl samplers make it easy to affordably create several holiday gifts. As always, the mini catalog is also filled with kits, party decor and coordinating items for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. You'll find great deals in our all-inclusive kits and super ideas for your own home or gifts.

 

My former hostesses will receive their copies of the catalog in the mail as soon as I get them. Everyone can view the catalog on my website starting on Sept. 1. I would also be happy to email a copy of the catalog to you. I will have them available at all of my fall parties and I can also mail you one. Just let me know if you'd like one.

Early birds will be able to save on their purchases from the mini catalog. The 15% off orders of $40 or more discount will also apply to all purchases from the holiday mini catalog through Sept. 9.  I can't wait to show you all the cute ideas in this catalog. With lots of different styles, price points and ideas, there is something for everyone here. If you see so much that you can't choose what you'd like, just schedule your own UL party with the goal of getting your wish list for FREE. I'd love to help you earn great holiday decor and gift items while you spend an enjoyable morning, afternoon or evening socializing with friends.

Annual Pre-Holiday Open House One of my favorite events of the year, my Pre-Holiday Open House, is coming up later in September. Grab a friend and come see new products, display ideas, gift suggestions and more. I will have swatches of our new colors, specials, prize drawings and lots of yummy snacks, of course.
When: Sunday September 26  1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M.
            Monday September 27  9:30 A.M. to 12:30 A.M.

Where: My home in Westlake Village (please RSVP for address and directions)

If you've been thinking of having your own party but haven't gotten the chance, you can invite all of your guests to my Open House and have their orders count as your party. I'll do the cleaning and make the snacks, all you have to do is bring your guests!
Coaster Extravaganza PartyOur coasters are one of our most popular accessories and just about the perfect gift, either as a set or individually. To kick off the holiday season, I will be holding a Coaster Extravaganza at my home on October 15th. I will provide the snacks and supplies to make coasters in lots of different designs. Each set of four glass coasters is $15 (plus tax) and includes your choice of words or designs from my large selection. Word choices include: Thanks (perfect Thanksgiving hostess gift or teacher present), Hope, Love, Peace, Ho Ho Ho, Family and more. I will also have Pink Ribbons (Don't forget: October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month), Poinsettias, Pumpkins, Snowflakes & other seasonal and botanical designs.

You can also order customized monograms, embellishments or even the Coaster Kits in the new holiday mini catalog. My favorite is the Cheers! set which can be used year-round. Contact me for details and pricing on custom orders. All coasters must be ordered by Sept. 25th but if I receive your order and payment by tomorrow, August 31, you will receive an additional 10% off your order. Just let me know how many sets you'd like and plan to come over to have a fun morning creating one of a kind coasters.

If you work during that time, you can still order your coasters and work on them at home. If I get enough requests, I'll be happy to schedule an evening or weekend Coaster Extravaganza too! You can also design your own craft or project party. They are so much fun and everyone leaves with their finished projects! Watch my newsletter for details on an Ornament Extravaganza in December!
Don't Wait to Schedule Your Fall PartyWith so much great holiday product from UL, my Fall calendar will fill up quickly with smart hostesses who prefer to check off their holiday lists with the FREE products they earn with their hostess benefits! For many of you, school has started, sports are underway and the schedules are starting to fill up. Before it gets too hectic, schedule your Uppercase Living party with me so you and your guests can have your orders well before Halloween. Please contact me as soon as possible to reserve your preferred party date. Your hostess kit will include a FREE Fall/Winter catalog as well as the Holiday Mini Catalog so you can start your wish list before your party date. Don't forget: out of town friends and family can now place orders on my website and associate them with your party to help you earn even more rewards!!
It's A Fantastic Time To Join Uppercase LivingJust ranked #138 in the Inc. 5000 list of fastest growing companies, Uppercase Living has been achieving tremendous growth. Our innovative products, exceptional promotional materials, and wonderful home office support make us a truly great company to represent. While the economy on the whole has been challenging, direct sales companies have done well, perhaps because many people need to supplement their traditional jobs, or realize that it's no longer enough to rely on steady work from traditional employers. In my business I've noticed that my customers are no longer spending many thousands of dollars on big home remodeling projects but still want an affordable way to personalize their homes with unique custom decor.

With the busy holiday sales season just ahead, it's a great time to consider joining my team and enjoying the wonderful benefits this great "job" offers. Whether you want to use the discount for yourself and a few friends or plan to make this a career, you'll have so much fun sharing our products with enthusiastic clients. Start your own UL business for as little as $99. I'd love to help you get started so just contact me for more information!
Double Birthday WishesHappy Birthday wishes to my customers and hostesses who have birthdays in August and September: Denise B., Jenny W., Marissa H., Wendy G., Laurie R., Sunny B., Erica N., Leah A., Lauren M., Katie C., Kathie F., Gail F., Joyce W., Elsa D., Erin E., Jodi H., Stacey T., and Sarah G., A special Happy Birthday to my sister and my wonderful neighbor Wendy. Ladies, my birthday gift to you is 10% off any item. Please email me directly to take advantage of this discount as I can't apply it to website orders. Happy Birthday to you all!!
Referral BonusAs I work to grow my business, and earn my Caribbean Cruise!, your referrals are my greatest resource. From now until the end of the year, I'd like to thank you for any referrals with a special gift. If you refer a new customer you will receive a mini vinyl sampler. If your referral hosts a party, you will receive a FREE expression from my exclusive collection. And if you refer someone who joins my team, you will receive a Mini Punched Metal Tile in your choice of color and an expression to go on it! I'd love to give away lots of free gifts so please let me know who you think my next best customer, hostess or team member will be. Perhaps it may even be YOU!!

 

Thank you all for making my job so much fun. I'm looking forward to a terrific fall season with you all!

Ideas for FREE September Gifts

It's time for a preview of  September's FREE expressions and some ideas of how you can use them in to make some cute projects this fall. As a reminder, each month Uppercase Living gives you a choice of up to three FREE expressions with qualifying orders. Hostesses can choose from six expressions for FREE; it's just another great benefit of hosting an Uppercase Living party.

In addition to the "Think Pink" expression I recently posted about, customers can choose the Halloween Skull and Crossbones. It's shown here in Bright White on a Black Vintage Metal Embossed Board. You can add Shimmer Effects to make it sparkle on those dark fall nights.  

Another fun choice for Halloween is the Trick Or Treat free Hostess expression. In this photo, it's been applied to our new (and fabulous) Double Frameworks insert, covered with decorative paper, on top with a magnetic insert on the bottom. I love the clever candy corn in the corners. Two Lemon Chiffon and two Pumpkin Spice 2" Candy Corn embellishments were switched around so each corner gets a two-color design! The best part is that you can change out the embellishments and the inserts for each holiday, season or event in your family.

 After Halloween, hostesses might choose this FREE expression to decorate their homes for fall. This warm autumn welcome is shown in Terra Cotta and Pumpkin Spice and has been applied to the large Cocoa Punched Metal Tile. Don't forget that you can choose something different for the back of the tile. We love accessories that pull double duty. 

Although it's hard to choose, this elegant frame is my favorite of these ideas. I love that the two-part hostess expression has been cut apart to accommodate the shape of the frame. This gorgeous accessory is one you'll keep around long after the season.

To view this month's FREE expressions visit my website and just decide if you're going to place an order, host a party, or both! My fall schedule is filling up quickly. Don't wait too long to get your preferred party date.

Going Back to School With Chalk Wall

Kids look forward to going back to school for lots of reasons, but doing homework is definitely not one of them.  What better way to get them motivated to hit the books than by creating a fun homework station? Paired with Erasable Chalk Wall or dry erase tiles, our new Decorative Print tiles are the perfect decor for a homework nook. The Decorative Prints add the fun and the Erasables provide space to list assignments, figure out some pesky word problems or for Mom or Dad to leave an encouraging note.

The smart Dad that designed this space added an extra Chalk While tile to the top of the study table so his girls (how cute are they? They just ooze sweetness and sass, No wonder they've got Dad wrapped around their little fingers!) can doodle or practice their handwriting.

The Decorative Prints used here are the Groovy Retro Tiles. For a boys' space you can use the Classic Sports Retro Tiles. You can even create a memo center in your kitchen using the Fruit Label Retro Tiles. I'd love to see how you use our great new Erasables to create a cool study space for your little students.

Thinking Pink Year Round

Some of you many not know that Uppercase Living offers FREE expressions every month to all of our hostesses and customers. The designs change each month, but there is almost always a seasonal choice to correspond with any upcoming holidays or just the change of the seasons. Our designers work several months ahead so that you'll have your expressions in plenty of time to decorate well before the holiday. That's why you'll see a Halloween option among this month's designs, for example. The August free gifts also include two choices to help commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month, which falls in October.

Personally, I'm thrilled that these expressions are available now for our customers. Unfortunately, cancer doesn't wait for a particular time of year to strike and so we need to be vigilant about it year-round. Check the girls regularly, talk to your doctor, get your mammogram...all that stuff, and that's not just limited to the ladies. Many of us have loved ones who have fought this disease and it's also nice to honor their battles throughout the year, not just in a particular month.

The hostess expression above is displayed on a punched metal tile but would look just as great on our square Frameworks or on the wall with some pictures.

The more casual "Think pink" expression is perfect for a car so that your message of hope, awareness and encouragement can travel with you. But it also fits nicely in our rectangle Frameworks. It would also be great on a refrigerator as a reminder to reach for something healthy each time you open the door. These would also be perfect gifts for anyone who is currently fighting or has dealt with breast cancer in the past. You won't find these items in our catalog or on my website, so please contact me to find out how you can earn one yourself.

As a mother, daughter, sister and wife, as someone who has a daughter of my own and has had too many loved ones affected by breast cancer, I am eager to see this terrible disease cured once and for all. Therefore, I would be happy to organize a fund-raiser for any breast cancer organization and donate a portion of my sales to further research, provide mammograms and/or help care for patients and their families. If you're interested, please contact me. It would be my pleasure to be part of this crusade.

Whitworth-Buchanan Middle School Media Center

Remember when school libraries were boring spaces, stacked floor to ceiling with books, magazines and those long drawers which held the card catalog? Not only do they not look like that anymore, they're not even called libraries anymore. Today's media centers house books, of course, but also AV materials and computers, to start.

Today's media specialists (don't call them "librarians") not only have to keep up with all of the materials under their care, but they also have to make their spaces accessible and inviting for the students who use them. That's a pretty tall order with the state of school budgets today. Luckily for the students at Whitworth-Buchanan Middle School in Murfeesboro, Tennessee, their media specialist used Uppercase Living to fun lettering and inspirational words to the bare walls of the media center.

The words are created in a variety of fonts with letters as tall as 13 inches! See all those circles? Each is actually one of a three part design which was divided to make the budget stretch further. The overall look is colorful, fun and whimsical.

These tables will hold computers. The custom design was created to reach across the bare wall and reflects the purpose of the space.

Another inspirational custom design fills an awkward space.

Notice that the walls in this media center are all made of cinder block, a common building material in schools and one that is difficult to decorate without drilling holes. Vinyl, therefore, is a great choice. Totally versatile, customizable and easy to apply, it is a fantastic solution for classrooms, gymnasiums and even outdoor spaces in schools.

I better wrap this up before I start making awful school references like "Uppercase Living really makes the grade," or "UL helped this media center get an A+." Oops, too late. 

A Note About Returns and Exchanges

One of the many things that sets Uppercase Living apart from other places that sell vinyl decor is our generous exchange policy. In fact, your satisfaction is so important to me and our company that we offer replacement for products even after you've applied them to your wall! You have 90 days after your order date to contact me if there is ever a problem with your items. In the rare case that there's a mistake or defect on a product you've ordered, just let me know within 90 days and a replacement will be on its way to you right away, free of charge.

However, you might just decide that you don't like the placement of something you've already applied, prefer a different color or had some trouble with the application.  In those cases, you can still request a replacement and will only be charged our normal $7.95 Shipping and Handling fee.  If you find that you just don't like an item as much as you expected, you can exchange it for something different and pay the difference in their prices plus Shipping and Handling. Uppercase Living does not provide refunds in the case that your original item was more expensive than what you choose instead.  As a matter of fact, Uppercase Living doesn't provide refunds in any case, but our policy is designed to make sure you do receive a high quality item that you love and that looks great in your home.

The exception to these policies is for custom designs created in our MyDesign Suite, including Photo Prints. As you can imagine, items that are completely customized are not able to be exchanged, but most definitely will be replaced if there is a manufacturing defect.

You might think that those custom designs and Photo Prints are the only custom items we offer.  But the fact is that none of our expressions are manufactured until your individual order is submitted to our production facility. We have so many options for expressions, sizes and colors that it would be impossible to anticipate our customers' choices and create anything ahead of time. So, in reality, every expression we ship is a custom expression. Even so, our exchange policy applies to all of the hundreds of exclusive expressions in our catalog.

Another reason that we don't pre-manufacture any of our items is to make sure you receive expressions made with the "freshest" vinyl possible. That's important to make sure you'll have a smooth application, with no cracks or brittleness in your vinyl. If you've been to any of my parties, you've heard me tell you to apply your expressions as soon as possible. That way your vinyl will still be fresh and, if you run into any problems, we'll have time within our 90-day Guarantee Period to fix it or get your item replaced. Besides, you didn't purchase these expressions so they could stay rolled up in the corner of a closet. Put them up and start enjoying them now!

My last bit of advice is this: If you ever have a problem with something that you've purchased from Uppercase Living, please tell me about it no matter how long ago you bought it. Even if your 90-day Guarantee Period has passed, I may have a tip or suggestion to fix whatever the problem might be.

As Seen On Today's Jen's List

One of our brand new items, this adorable chore chart was featured today on Jen's List. Yes that's DRY ERASE vinyl, right on the wall, with no nails, pins, or damage to the surface underneath. You can choose the color of the lettering to match your decor and customize it in so many ways to fit your family's needs. For example, you can remove the days of the week and make it a daily chore chart. You could also remove the word "Chores" to make it a reward chart. Or remove all the lettering and use it for potty training! The chore chart, like all of our Erasables products, comes in a chalkboard finish as well as dry erase. How will you use it in your home?

Some Quick Updates: Summer Savings For You and a Summer Getaway for Me!

This is my favorite kind of update to share with you: UL IS ON SALE!! Starting today, you will save 15% on all orders of $40 or more. This applies to everything in our gorgeous new catalog, from the smallest embellishment to the largest Grande Format expression. Choose anything from the very first accessory we ever introduced to the brand new ones just released last month. Stock up on every color paint, get some Mistick, Chalk Wall pens in every color. Whatever you choose, your $40 order will be 15% off. 
You can order online on my website or contact me to place your orders. Better yet, collect some orders from friends or organize a live or online party and save even more by earning FREE hostess benefits! This is a limited time offer so don't wait to take advantage of the great savings.

Many thanks to Bruce Tuten for this gorgeous photo of an Oahu sunset.

While you're browsing my website and making your choices, I'll be taking a long awaited trip to Honolulu for a family visit, lots of fun and hopefully some relaxation. My plan is to fill my schedule with long stretches of beach time, only to be interrupted for a lovely umbrella drink and the occasional nap. However, I may be able to tear myself away from this gruelling routine to talk to any new Hawaiian friends about Uppercase Living. Uppercase Living is also great for all those wonderful military families stationed in Hawaii. You can finally decorate your walls without painting or damage, and yes, we do ship to APO/FPO addresses, even overseas. If you would like to discuss joining UL or would like to organize a very casual party, please let me know as soon as possible. Not only do I need to make sure to get you on my calendar, I'd also like to pack any supplies I might need. I would LOVE to add some new Hawaiian members to my team...so I can schedule some future business trips, of course.

Enjoy the sale and Aloha!