All the stockings were hung on display with care . . . .  We had a wonderful time at our annual Salutations Holiday Open House last Thursday!  Everyone got into the Season of Giving spirit, as we collected some great donations for the Second Harvest Food Bank and for the Salvation Army Christmas Angel programs, and we gave away some amazing SWAG bags and lots of special holiday discounts.

Our vendors and neighboring merchants were so generous in providing us with fabulous treats for our SWAG bags.  Smock Paper providing gorgeous letterpressed holiday card & gift tag sets; Dauphine Press sent sets of wonderful letterpressed correspondence cards; Crane & Co. donated copies of their hardcover Blue Book of Stationery; Midori Ribbon sent gift boxes of green organdy ribbon; Inviting Company provided some very fun notepads; Wiley Valentine provided sets of letterpress offcuts assembled into notepads; Modern Salon and Spa provided samples and 20% off coupons; JesseBrown’s contributed $10 coupons; Kilwin’s provided “Buy One Get One Free” ice cream coupons; Her Therapy shared 20% off coupons; and I.C. London provided $10 coupons.  We love our vendors and neighboring merchants, who are so supportive of Salutations.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Salutations is Putting on the Pink!  All month long, we will be offering pink ribbon cards for sale for $5.  In Chapel Hill, we are tickled pink to be a part of the Tickled Pink 2009 Community Partners Program, benefiting the Patient & Family Resource Center at the new NC Cancer Hospital.  In Charlotte, all money from the sale of pink ribbon cards will go to Ann’s Fund in support of The Carolinas Breast Cancer Fund, which allows indigent women to receive mammograms.  The cards can be written on with the name of a loved one who is fighting or who has fought the battle against breast cancer, and will be displayed in our stores.

What’s more, every person who buys a pink ribbon will be able to spin the wheel to win 1 of 6 fabulous savings from 20 to 75% off their purchase that day.  But wait . . . there’s more!  For every pink ribbon card purchased, an entry will be made for a chance to win a Filofax Pink Ribbon planner {valued at $50} .

Our window displays are decked out in pink ribbons and we’re hoping to border the windows completely with purchased pink ribbon cards.  In the meantime, think pink . . . .

{Images via Style Me Pretty}

Would you like a way to make your holiday season a bit less stressful?  Well, we can’t make dear Aunt Fannie refrain from critiquing your turkey or hang your Christmas lights for you, but we can make pulling together your holiday photo card a quick and painless process.

We are so excited to announce the new Salutations Holiday Photo Shoot!  On Saturday, October 10, 2009, you can have a session with a professional photographer and save on your holiday photo cards all in one stop.  We have teamed up with two fantastic local photographers who specialize in environmental portraiture of children and families ~ Jennifer Gaston of Jennifer Gaston Photography in Charlotte and Nancy Ray of Nancy Ray Photography in Chapel Hill and the Triangle Area.

For $20, you will receive a 15-minute photo session and a link to view your photos online.  You will then be able to order prints and, if you’d like your photo printed right on your holiday card, a digital image of the picture(s) of your choice will be sent to Salutations for use in ordering your printed photo cards.  In addition, you will receive a certificate for 15% off your holiday photo cards purchased by October 31, 2009.

Only 15 slots will be available from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on October 10^th.  Appointments will be taken on a first come, first served basis and will fill fast, so you’ll want to book yours quickly!  Feel free to pass this along to your friends.

How great will it feel to have your holiday card photo taken and your holiday cards ordered {at a discount, even} by Halloween?!

Are you feeling the urge to organize?  Every year, around back-to-school time, I am overcome with a compelling need to organize my life.  The end of summer for me means the beginning of middle school, high school, soccer carpools, soccer matches, swim team carpools, swim meets, and {oh yeah} work-related events.  To keep from having heart palpitations over the need to be three people, I begin to organize my home office and work space and to write everything in my momAgenda family planner, my Filofax personal planner, and my wall calendar.

We know that you like to have your own style of calendar and/or planner that works for you, but are often too busy to get out and get your new one before it’s gone.  To help you get organized this Fall, and to ensure that you get your favorite style, we are thrilled to announce our new Calendar & Planner Program at Salutations.

All we need is your name, email address, phone number, and favorite style of planner and/or calendar.  We will enter this information into our records and contact you each year with a gentle reminder in plenty of time for you to pre-order your favorite style for the following year!   And, if you register for our program and pre-order your new calendar, planner, refill and/or accessories by September 12th, you can enjoy either 15% off or, for momAgendas and myAgendas, free personalization!

For calendars, select from the beautiful Italian archival images of the Cavallini wall calendars or desktop calendars, the gorgeous graphic design of Snow & Graham wall calendars, desktop calendars or mini calendars.  For planners and organizers, as well as refills and accessories, select from the hugely popular momAgenda and myAgenda planners, the classic Filofax planners, and the stylish Kate Spade planners.  Any way you go, you will be uber-organized and ready to tackle the challenges of a new school year and a new calendar year with grace and style!  Email us today {helpatsalutationsdotcom} to register for the program and get started!

{If ordering online, just note the requested information in the order notes and we’ll apply the 15% discount or free personalization to your order.}

Oh, the weather outside IS frightful, but our Christmas in July sale is going to be delightful!  We are celebrating our store anniversaries {7 years in Chapel Hill and 3 years in Charlotte!} with a blizzard of holiday savings from Thursday, July 16th through Saturday, July 18th.

All holiday items in stock from last year will be offered at unbelievable savings.  Take advantage of this great opportunity to stock up on holiday greeting cards, photo cards, invitations, and decor and have that checked off your list before the kids are even back in school!

On Thursday, all holiday items in stock will be priced at 40% off the regular price; on Friday, the savings will jump to 50% off the regular price; and, on Saturday, the savings will skyrocket to 60% off the regular price.  But don’t wait too long ~ Santa’s elves may scamper off with the best items early!

You can also order your custom holiday cards and invitations at 20% off during our Christmas in July sale.  And, since we’re really feeling the holiday spirit, our Christmas in July gift to you is a savings of 20% off all non-holiday merchandise in stock throughout the sale when you mention the Christmas in July sale.  You can even take the 20% off already-reduced sale items.  For online orders, we will calculate the savings and let you know your new total before processing your order or charging your credit card.  {Just mention the Christmas in July sale in the order notes.}

The more the merrier . . . please pass this along to your friends!

Crane & Co. has extended their popular Buy 75/Get 25 Free promotion through June 30th.  Purchase 75 or more pieces of Crane’s personalized (engraved, letterpressed, thermographed, flat printed or embossed) products to receive an extra 25 free. This promotion applies to Crane and Kate Spade wedding invitations, birth announcements, and personalized stationery.

Father’s Day is June 21st ~ you still have time to surprise Dad if you hurry!

We believe strongly in building a community of fabulous people like you on Facebook {we refer to it unofficially as the Salutations Nation}.  Through this community, we hope you will exchange ideas with each other and give us feedback on how we’re doing, as well as ideas for new products or services you’d like to see.  Having a larger community of fans will help facilitate this communication and exchange of ideas.

During the month of May, for every person who becomes a fan of the Salutations page on Facebook, and writes on our Wall that you referred them, you will be entered to win a $50 gift certificate.  The winner will be announced during the first week of June.

Ready to start racking up those entries?  Just update your status with this message (or feel free to revise any way you wish):

Help me win a $50 gift certificate! Become a Fan of Salutations Fine Stationery’s page on Facebook and tell them I referred you.  Every person who does this increases my chances of winning!

Then click on “Link” below the status box and past this link:  http://facebook.salutations.com

It’s that easy!  Have fun, good luck, and thanks for helping us build the nation!

Host a Salutations Web Soiree^TM and earn merchandise credit and discounts for your guests!  Think of the gifting occasions coming up ~ Mother’s Day, teachers’ gifts, graduation, Father’s Day, birthdays ~ the possibilities for savings are endless.

Here is how it works:  You send us an email to let us know that you’d like to host a Web Soiree and the date that you’d like the party to begin.  We will email to you a customized invitation and a soiree code that you can email to your guests.  {We don’t require you to submit your friends’ email addresses to us.  If they want to share their email with us, they can register for our Inspirations newsletter.}

Web Soirees last for 10 days, during which your guests can shop on Salutations’ website and receive 15% off of their purchases using the special soiree code.  At the end of the 10-day period, you will receive a merchandise credit worth 15% of the total of purchases made by your guests using their soiree code.

You can even include a theme for your Web Soiree (e.g., Pajama Party, Girls Night Online, etc.).

Get started compiling your list and send us an email today to let us know the date you’d like to reserve for your Web Soiree!  Know someone who might be interested?  Share this with them!

We had so much fun with this give-away.  We gained many new fans on our Facebook page and loved the comments that several of you posted about your favorite birthday cake and invitation combo.  Without further adieu, the winner is . . .

Robin Williams of Charlotte, NC, who wrote “My favorite is the Lion Cake and Jungle Girl invitation.  So cute!”  Congratulations to Robin on winning the 20 Jungle Girl invitations printed by Salutations!  Here are her picks:

A recent post on the Hostess With the Mostess blog, Absolutely Amazing DIY Birthday Cakes, reminded me of my days in Northern California when my children were young and the excitement and anticipation that went into planning each of their birthday parties.  It would begin (giddily) with a trip to my favorite local stationery store, Out of the Envelope, to painstakingly select just the right invitation based on the theme of that year’s party.  I would then walk out of the stationery store, a sample invitation in hand, and walk directly to the fabulous bakery Icing on the Cake a block away and place my order for a birthday cake decorated to match the invitation.

Since I had more time for scrapbooking in those days, the party-day preparations necessarily included a photo shoot of the printed invitation propped near the decorated cake. The cake-invitation display remained in a prominent place throughout the party to elicit the “oohs” and “ahs” of the arriving guests. Imagine if I could have said “I made the cake myself.”  {Picture uber-mom tiara floating above my head.} The how-to tips and pics in the 31 Awesome Birthday Cake Designs article on Parenting.com via HWTM, paired with a Salutations invitation, are all you’ll need to be the most admired (and envied) birthday-party-throwing-mom around.

To help you achieve this revered status, we are giving away a set of 20 birthday party invitations printed by Salutations. We’ll even print your return address on the envelope flaps if you’d like. {Since our Easy-Bake ovens are on the fritz, you’ll need to create the cake to match.}  Simply go to our Facebook page, become a fan (if you aren’t already), and click on Photos {Birthday Cakes & Invites album} to see these amazing cakes paired with our invitations.  Then write on our Wall to let us know your favorite invitation and cake combo. We will randomly select the winning entry from comments posted by our fans and announce the winner on Monday, April 20th.  Good luck!