MEMORY MAKING: OLD FRIENDS AND FAVORITE PLACES ON THE CENTRAL COAST
Leading with the Human Connections
On the way to town we’d connected with one friend and had dinner with others as soon as we arrived. Now we’d be stopping by for “coffee” with even more people we’d enjoyed when we lived there. I put quotes around coffee, because I don’t drink it, but it’s easier to make coffee appointments and explain my odd negation of the beverage for later. If we were going to be in the area for an extended period, I would have reached out to quite a few more favorite faces, but our time was limited.
First up was Sally, a sister in the Lord. We met at South Bay Women’s Network, which was a group I loved all the time I was there. Sally and I have stayed in touch, mostly thanks to the magic of Facebook and her very sweet spirit. Since we’d last seen each other in person, she’d gotten married and moved from Los Osos to Avila Beach. It was great to catch up, meet her guy and see her very lovely home.
Too soon, because we could have continued the visit for hours, it was time to head to Arroyo Grande to visit Melissa, a sister in real estate. I did real estate while I was there and besides being one of the nicest people in the world, Melissa was also one of the very best real estate agents I ever met. I tried to emulate her in everything thing I did and gave her my client list when I left. She was still married to the same guy, but had given up a big rambling house on a large lot to downsize in the city. We shared all the real estate gossip and I caught up on her family. Then she showed us around her remarkable estate. In the front it looks like just another lovely home in the Five Cities, but the backyard seems more like a resort than a residential space and then there were all the garages – one with her beloved RV. Her daughters carried on her real estate business for her and Melissa is busy being a grandmother and RV traveler.
We Built That
Having fulfilled our coffee appointments, we made our way to our old neighborhood, not to see someone, but some place. Our home at 37 La Gaviota had been Bill’s labor of love and he wanted to spend some time there. Even though he’d done my real estate photography on the Central Coast, he didn’t learn to fly a drone until we opened Spot On Images in Texas. Bill had brought his drone along so he could get some shots of the old home place. At the time, it was the pinnacle of his home building experiences. Now we live in what he considers his masterpiece.
I’ll leave you with the pages I made in Artisan from his photo shoot of our old home.
If you’re in the habit of sending Holiday Greeting Cards, then I don’t have to tell you how appreciated they are by the people on your list. If you can’t remember the last time sent out cards, then why not do it this year?
FOREVER makes greeting cards easy all year long, but the holidays are their season. You can find gorgeous cards for Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Christmas, New Years or whatever you celebrate right here on FOREVER. We’ve had gorgeous cards for a long, long time, but now there are more choices than ever. There are standard cards and foiled cards. There are three different card stocks. Every card has a long list of available fonts. You can edit the front as well as the back. You can set up a free Address Book and never have to worry again about addressing your cards. Many cards even have a choice of colors to choose from. There is seriously no reason to go to the fish or the fly.
So Why Now?
Why? Because now means you don’t have to worry about it later! No matter what your good intentions might be, you know you’re going to be running out of time. One day you’re putting out your Halloween decorations and the next you’ve got a NYE celebration hangover.
Seriously, here’s your to-do list.
Gather up all your various address list from all the places you have them stored (including wherever you’ve ordered your cards from before) and upload them to FOREVER. This will be the hardest part and that’s why you start here. Getting databases to agree about anything is difficult, so get on it and get it done. If you have any questions along the way, call me or customer service. (And by the way, you won’t have to do this next year. The list stays on FOREVER forever – or until you take it down.)
Go through your photos of the year and choose your favorites. They’ll be your friend and family favorites, too. Don’t forget the pets! (If you’re a FOREVER storage customer, you could have been adding hearts to your favorites all year long and only have to choose your favorites among favorites.
Shop the Cards on FOREVER: https://www.forever.com/create-and-print/cards-and-stationery/cards. You’ll find helpful filters on the left side to help you pinpoint exactly what you want and if you already have what you want and just need a place to print it – we’ve got that, too. Even folded cards! Or, if you want to design something special, don’t forget Artisan 6 or you can have me design it for you.
Personalize your card and hit print. Once you’ve selected which card design fits you best, FOREVER will walk you through all the steps you’ll need to take to get exactly what you want.
Feel smug for weeks on end, because you are so far ahead of the game. Stuff your addressed cards while you binge some great series. Then send.
MEMORY KEEPING: THE BEST JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER
Always Striving to Improve
One of the best things about FOREVER is that they never just sit around congratulating themselves on how great they are. Instead they continue to review every single thing about our services and listen to every comment and suggestion that comes their way. Their motto could be, if if’s not broken, improve it. Another great thing is that instead of spending money on advertising, they invest in making FOREVER better.
The latest improvement introduced is in the Digitization department. I mean you do know that not too long ago they opened the largest, most technically advanced digitization center in the world. But that wasn’t enough. They felt the online experience for our clients should match the world class treatment their media was getting in the digitization center. So they took a long, hard look at every inch of the process and considered how to make it better.
Improvements That Matter
I hate when a company raves about their new stuff, but it’s just a repackaging of the old stuff. That’s not what happened in the Digitization department. Here’s what they’ve done:
A longer period of time to preview your project: Clients used to have 60 days from the time of digitization to decide what to do about their newly digitized items. For many, digitization is a huge investment, so people would just download their newly digitized images and hope for the best. FOREVER has extended that to 90 days. By extending the time the images can stay in the preview area, clients have more time to make arrangements for permanent storage, so they’ll have the best, rather than just hoping for it!
Sharing from the preview area: In the past, to share newly digitized images, clients either had to move them to FOREVER storage or download them to their devices. Now, the images can be shared immediately from the preview area for 90 days. That’s better for new clients and also for the people they want to share with. What’s more, the preview area has been improved to operate just like regular storage. No more handling things one way in the preview area and another way once the items are in your storage. The experiences will be the same.
Making it easier to do what’s next: Ordering, filling and returning a digitization box for the first time can be challenging. Even though I explain exactly what is going to happen to each new client, there always seems to be something they miss. “Oh, I didn’t realize I would be charged for extra items,” is the usual one, even though I know I explained the box would be inventoried and they would be billed for anything over the digitization allowance they’d purchased. So, it’s no surprise that whatever I told them about permanent storage, facial recognition and video streaming is totally forgotten by the time they get their images in the preview area. So, FOREVER gently reminds them and gives them the opportunity to purchase these services right in the preview area.
Another 90 Days of Video Streaming for New Paying Customers: One thing new customers love is the click & play of videos available in the preview area. So, when that new customer purchases storage for their digitized videos, they get a 90-Day extension of free video streaming, so they can continue to click & play their videos. Without video streaming, they must download to play. That’s a $70 bonus for new storage clients.
Something that matters to me: Digitization projects now have a home, just like print projects do. I ordered my first print project from FOREVER back in March of 2021. If I want to take a look at it or show it to someone, it’s right there in my account, just like all the images I have stored in my account. Now, Digitization is the same way. Even if I’ve spread the items in a box all over my account, I can still go to the digitization tab and see each project. It’s another short quick way to access my stuff.
Better Follow-up
Once your digitized images have been in the preview area for 30 days, FOREVER reaches out to remind you to save them and it reminds you of the various ways you can preserve those memories, while pointing out the dangers of merely downloading. This is the easiest way to go about purchasing the amount of storage you need for your project AND you have the choice of a one-time payment or a 24 month payment plan.
If you choose to purchase permanent storage for your project, FOREVER follows up with an email to remind you to download the free FOREVER app and to introduce other wonderful services you might be interested in taking advantage of.
I hope these new improvements inspire you to take the leap and order your first or second, or third…digitization box!
MEMORY MAKING: BETWEEN A ROCK & A HARD PLACE IN PISMO BEACH
Deja Vu All Over Again
Though we hated to leave our glamorous digs in Huntington Beach, it was time to head up the road to see other good friends in the Pismo Beach area. The day was uneventful until we decided to get off Highway 1 and take a scenic backroad. Then it was deja vu all over again.
My plan was to meet Deni in an Orcutt coffee shop called Plenty on Bell and then drive on to Pismo for dinner with, let’s call them, A & B. Dinner is something you have around 7:30, right? Well, A & B had decided, since we’d seen them last, that it’s at 5. Things were about to get tight and that’s where the deja vu came in.
The last time we’d been to Pismo, we stayed with A. We also had plans with another friend we’ll call C, but as we drove into town, A called us with the news they’d gotten us tickets to some gala and we had no time to see C. We were between a rock and a hard place with no place to win. We went to the gala (which was not a gala at all, more of a drunken brawl) and missed the time with C. A went on to monopolize the rest of our time, so I never got out to C. My friendship with C cooled to an acquaintance sort of relationship after that (and who can blame her). That was a great loss for me.
I thought I’d learned the lesson I needed to learn. So I booked our hotel before we even told A we were coming. We love her to death, but after living out there for six years, she’s not the only person we love in the area. We thought staying in a hotel would keep her from monopolizing all of our time, but the struggle was not over.
Back to the Present
So, here we were on the backroad to Orcutt. The GPS had been very wrong at estimating our arrival at Orcutt, so our time with Deni was already shrinking and A is on the phone demanding we get our butts to Pismo posthaste. Lesson learned, I wasn’t going to let A’s demands cost me another friend. So I pushed back and made room for Deni. It wasn’t enough time, but my friendship with Deni is longer and deeper, so she got both the rock and the hard place. We chatted for a while, shared a couple of hugs and I got back on the road to Pismo with that friendship intact.
Our dinner with A & B was lovely. We laughed so hard we cried. At the end of the meal, A started trying to organize the next day around their schedule, not ours. It was hard, but I pointed out the brief nature of our visit and the long list of people we needed to see.
Despite my many protestations, I was to call her as soon as I was free the next day. Not to worry by lunchtime she called us and demanded to know when we’d be there. As I had told her at dinner, we weren’t.
The lesson I learned this time was to let A know we are visiting Pismo after we’ve already seen the rest of our friends. I hate that it has to be like that, but it’s that or not have any other friends in the area and I plan on keeping them all.
MEMORY SHARING: HELLO & FAREWELL IN PRINT PRODUCTS
One of the things I love about FOREVER is that there’s always something new – a new feature in storage, a new product in print, a new event to enjoy and even new software from time to time. But sometimes there are also some farewells. Let’s talk about some of both!
Hello to Greeting Cards, Thermal Cups, Towels & More
FOREVER has been ever so busy this year. I’ve seen many products come along. Some of them are not completely new products, just new styles of standard products. Take Greeting Cards for instance.
FOREVER has been a great source for stationary for many years, but they don’t rest on their laurels. They are constantly adding new, fresh designs to match current trends. Have you seen the price of cards in retail outlets, like grocery and drug stores. Oh my, by the time you put a stamp on them you’ve made a huge investment, so cards from FOREVER are a great way to save money and keep up the tradition of greetings in the mail.
There’s always something new and you can customize them all with your own photos, multiple fonts and colors. And the personalized touch sends a message your recipients will appreciate – so next time you want graduation announcements, wedding stationary, holiday greetings or any other cards, see us first.
This year FOREVER has been very prolific in creating completely new choices. Just last month they added two new thermal cups – a 20 ounce tumbler and a thermal mug – to complement the 40 oz Tumbler with a handle. You can get drinkware lots of places, but not with your own photos and words on them!
And Towels! Earlier this year, FOREVER introduced beach towels, kitchen towels and golf towels. I ordered a tea towel right away and display it proudly in my kitchen. They’ve been a big hit! But there’s also an au revoir in the near future!
Golf Towels Will Be Seasonal
It may have more to do with their vendor than it does with FOREVER, but it’s been announced that Golf Towels will only be available seasonally. If, like me, you thought, “Christmas Presents!”, then you need to order what you want now, because after September, they’ll be unavailable for a while. Don’t miss out!
Only in Artisan
Most of the items you might want are in both Create & Print and Artisan. Create & Print gives you thousands of templates to help you design your photo gifts, stationary and such. Artisan gives you a blank page, so you can create your own from scratch, but Artisan also has some items or sizes of items you can’t get in Create & Print. Like Mousepads! Did you know FOREVER had mousepads? Well, you do now! And folded cards? I’ve used those for Christmas greetings the last few years. So, if you’re looking for a particular item and can’t find it in Create & Print, I might be able to get it done in Artisan.
Fond Farewells
Fashions change, trends change and tastes change. What was hot last year might be passe this year. FOREVER keeps up with that, too. So, sometimes things are just taken out of the product line. Take water bottles for instance. Before giant thermal cups became a thing, stainless steel water bottles with a twist cap were all the rage. The stainless steel bottle was discontinued to make room for the 40 ounce Tumbler.
One of the most recent changes to the FOREVER line up has been a readjustment of the calendar products. Why? Because there’s been a readjustment to what people actually use. We’ve several styles of calendars available for a long time, but virtually all the calendars sold were 12X18. So, they trimmed the line to fit the demand and all calendars are 12X18!
One other item has gone away this month and that’s 8.5X11Page Prints. Unless you’re a digital scrapbooker, you may not even know what a page print is. Some people like to design their scrapbook pages in Artisan and then print them for a traditional scrapbook, rather than for a photo book. This change has come about, because the makers of traditional scrapbooks are no longer offering 8.5X11 albums. Instead 8X8 albums are preferred and those Page Prints we will continue to carry.
So that’s what up in gorgeous items designed to share your memories! What’s your next project! Can help?
Many of my new clients come to me because they are looking for a solution to their obsolete memory media, things like film reels, slides and VHS tapes. I’m always happy to help, but I hate it for them when their project ends with digitization and they haven’t prepared a permanent home for their valuable memories.
The Best Digitization in the Industry
It’s no wonder people come to me for digitization. FOREVER leads the pack in digitization services. Our quality is unsurpassed, our turnaround times are remarkable and we do it all, not just photos and VHS tapes, but all the obsolete media – even scrapbook pages.
The process is simple. Order a box. When you receive it, fill it up and return it. Track your box online and then enjoy your digitized memories. And yes, unlike other digitizers, we do return the original items to you.
The Best Keeps Getting Better
Even though we’ve led the way in digitization for a while now, we’ve stepped up to make the process even better. Tracking your box online was always easy, but it was a completely different experience than the rest of FOREVER. We wanted new digitization clients to have a seamless experience from ordering their box to making their memories permanent and that just wasn’t happening. On August 14th, FOREVER released the new digitization tracking system with many improvements built in.
First and foremost, notice the Digitization tab in the standard FOREVER menu. You won’t have to go to the Digitization Page or find a link in an email, to follow your digitization, like before. It will be right there with everything thing else.
The viewing time will be expanded to 90 days rather than 60 and sharing from your Box Tracker will be seamless. In the past, you had to download it or add it to your storage to share it. Now, you’ll be able to share from the Box Tracker directly – a huge improvement.
Keep FOREVER
And here’s where the two step comes in. Getting your memory media digitized is only half the battle. What are you going to do with the digitized files? Over 40% of new FOREVER customers, whose first purchase is digitization, then buy storage at the same time or shortly thereafter. CONFETTI!! That’s a win! They understand getting it digitized is just the first step. The second step is making it safe permanently.
To help make this transition easier, the new Box Tracker will have a great big blue button that says “Keep FOREVER”. Click that and automatically purchase the amount of storage you need for your newly digitized items. Every digitization customer who doesn’t already own storage should take this step. The other options can lead to heartbreaking results.
The Unfortunate Alternatives
But what about that 50%+ who choose NOT to take that second step? What happens to their memories? Honestly, I feel personally responsible when clients choose not to invest in permanent storage for their digitized memories. I feel as if I have somehow failed them. It happens a lot more than I want it to and it breaks my heart every time, but without FOREVER storage, you’re guaranteeing obsolescence, device failure and other unfortunate results. Here’s what I hear people do instead of permanent storage and the results they will eventually suffer.
Downloading to a Device
Oh, I’m going to download it to my computer OR I’m going to put it on a thumb drive OR I’m saving it to an external drive – someone will say. EEEEEEKKK! Name any device you want: PC, laptop, tablet, thumb drive, EHD, phone. All of them are temporary solutions. They were not designed to last forever. PC’s and laptops are designed to last about 8 years – that’s if the files aren’t corrupted and the device isn’t damaged. Some drives promise to last 14 years, but before the thumb drive or EHD dies, it is more likely to be lost! Your memories should be prepared for a future you’ll never see.
Today’s devices are remarkable, but they will soon be obsolete. Do you remember the floppy disc? It was the answer for tomorrow when it came out, but now it’s just data you can’t access. Look at all the VHS tapes being digitized these days, because people no longer have a player. Even CD’s and DVD’s are obsolete, because new computers don’t come with slots for them. Technology moves too fast to be reliable for the future and with out FOREVER, your memories are toast.
In addition, it’s your technology. How is someone else supposed to know which files on your computer are worth saving and which need to be wiped? If you have a box or bag of thumb drives, those will most likely go into the trash. No one these days wants to spend time sorting through them. Memories on devices are eventually headed to the landfill! Memories on FOREVER are shared for generations to come.
Uploading to a CloudOther Than FOREVER
Perhaps you’ve invested in a cloud to protect your data and if so, you’re not alone when you think that’s where your memories should go. Your Amazon or iCloud (or whatever cloud you rent) absolutely will protect the valuable data you need to run your life, but access to the cloud depends on you making a monthly or annual payment. What happens then. Will your next generation continue paying for your cloud?
What your memories need is a cloud you own, that can be enjoyed in the future without someone keeping up the payments. Perhaps your next immediate generation isn’t interested in your photos of Great Uncle Jimmy, but that doesn’t mean the next generation won’t be. Save your legacy on FOREVER. Someone in the future will thank you.
Uploading to Free
Instead of renting your cloud, perhaps you’re using one of the free storage solutions offered all over the internet. Every wonder why they’re free? It’s because you’re not the customer. You’re the product. Perhaps they’ll mine your images for advertising or just enjoy the income from the advertising they surround your images with or maybe it’s all about keeping you tied to some other program that is making them money, but one things for sure, when it’s not profitable to them anymore, you’re free service will be gone. Maybe they’ll warn you to claim your photos before they leave, but they aren’t required to. Oh the horror stories I could tell!
Bottom Line!
Do the two-step! If you’re going to spend the money to digitize your memories, then don’t waste that investment by allowing your digitized memories to disappear into the ether. Invest in Permanent Storage you own rather than rent and the only place to get it is FOREVER.
My friendship with Lizbet started at work many years ago. I was in a bind with a customer and she fixed it, when everyone else in the company shrugged their shoulders at me. I was in sales back in those days, which I hated, and when I moved to admin, one of the best things about it was being in the same building as Lizbet. What started as a transactional solution, led to being lunch buddies and on to her being one of my favorite people on the face of the earth. There’s a lot of water under that bridge.
No one can make me laugh the way she can. We love talking about odd, esoteric things that few others care about. And she gets Bill. There’s more, but that’s enough!
Tour Guide Extraordinaire
Because she gets me and she gets Bill, she knew we’d love the things she loves about the area. Such as the ferry to Balboa Island, which was her first treat of the day. It’s a tiny ferry that only holds one or two cars. These days there’s a bridge that takes you there without waiting for the nostalgic reminder of yesteryear, but we loved the experience. She also took us up a winding Laguna Beach road which leads through gorgeous residential areas to an overlook that’s known as Top of the World. Bill’s favorite thing was Crescent Bay Point Park, which was a lovely park high above a beautiful bay.
But the best part of the day, by far, was spending time with such a good friend. Neither one of us is particularly good about staying in touch, but the occasional holiday greeting and texted update keeps the friendship alive, until we spend another wonderful day together. From a day like that, there should be hundreds and hundreds of photos, but there’s not! Here’s some that we did take.
MEMORY KEEPING: START YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ARTISAN 6
Not Exactly Point & Click
Have you ever used Canva or another program like it? Yes, they’re great and it’s easy, but at some point, it’s just not going to allow you to do what your imagination can dream up.
How about Photo Shop or Lightroom? They’re amazing, but a lot of overkill and not designed for scrapbooking.
I’ve used all these and I don’t love any of them the way I do Artisan 6, the scrapbooking software from FOREVER, but the relationship was rocky at the beginning. When it comes to digital stuff, I rarely read the instructions. I just start clicking and somehow things work out. When I bought Artisan 6 and downloaded it to my computer, I couldn’t even figure out where to point and click!
So, I followed some breadcrumbs to download the Getting Started Guide. I have to tell you honestly, it wasn’t the greatest documentation in the world and honestly, IMHO it’s still not. All of the videos were made for Artisan 5 and even though they promised everything was in the same place, “the fresh new look” for Artisan 6 threw me for a loop. But I kept on trying. Then I hit Lesson 2: Create a new project using the FOREVER Design Maps Template Book.
I tried. I really tried. Tameka, the head Pixie and the voice on the training videos, kept telling me to trust the process and just do what she said, but I ran into a brick wall. She talked about using templates like it was something everyone in the world had a familiarity with, but I was lost!
After a very emotional confrontation with the Getting Started Manual, I was crying and the manual was bouncing off my wall. This doesn’t sound like much of a recommendation, but I hope you can appreciate that in spite of this, I now love Artisan 6. Your brain may work completely differently or you might already be a template queen, so you might breeze right through all this. The point is this, even if you don’t, don’t give up!
I skipped to Lesson 8: Starting with a Blank Page and after a few false starts was creating pages, which in a day or two became a photo book.
I’d be lying if I pretended it was happily ever after for Artisan 6 and me. I also doubt that I would have ever gotten a handle on it without pixels 2 Pages and the annual Online Party. I’d also be lying if I tried to pretend I was some sort of Artisan 6 guru, but then again who is? Every time I sit in on a training, one of the Pixies says, “I didn’t know it could do that!! With Artisan I’m always learning and to be honest, that’s part of the fun.
So, Why Do I Love Artisan& pixels 2 Pages
Reason #1: You can do things with Artisan you could never dream of with paper and tools. The layering, the frames and masks, the cut & color tools – if you can dream it you can do it!
Reason #2: Digital is forever. You never run out of embellishments or paper. When you buy Artisan 6 you get so much free art you can make pretty much anything and when you use an item, it’s still there to use again. In fact, you could use it on the very next page and no one would even know it, because there are so many ways to change it up! See, the wild maroon and soft blue paper are the same thing with edits.
I remember the day I used up my last sheet of polka dot paper from Creative Memories and when I used the last of a floral embellishment kit I adored. I was bereft. I still run onto scraps of favorite CM papers no longer printed. You never run out with digital.
What’s more, you can’t ruin a digital photo. Crop it too close, cut it by mistake, whatever! As long as you have it digitally you can put it back on the page and give it another try. You can use it in more than one album without having to reprint. Heck you can even print multiple albums from just one creation.
Reason #3: I love the feeling of accomplishment I get from winning things, sharing things, learning things, getting bargains and downloading free stuff. The image above is my badge page from Over the Rainbow. Each item on the page represents a badge I earned for something. Once you’ve gotten a certain number of badges you earn a free blueprint and those are my favorite blueprints. Online crops bring a great way to learn more and the pixels 2 Pages gives you someone to celebrate with.
Reason #4: Blueprints are flexible templates! I explained that the Create & Print Templates have limitations, but the limitations disappear completely when you move into the world of Artisan and p2P. The Blueprints are merely places to start! You can move the title, delete it, reduce it, enlarge it, change the font and so forth and so on. You can add photo drop points, remove photo drop points, enlarge them, reduce them and the same with the rest of the features on the page. Each Blueprint has limitless possibilities and when you belong to p2P, you get new Blueprints every month as part of your membership.
Reason #5: The Productivity Challenge! Sometimes I need a little incentive to participate. It doesn’t have to be anything big. I can get excited about badges and I love sharing my pages. The Productivity Challenge gives me both. As I complete a page to go along with all the Blueprint offerings in a month, I add them to a badge page and I show them off with appropriate hashtags. At the end of the quarter I post my badge page and get a prize. It could be a Blueprint or perhaps some digital art. At the end of the year, I qualify for a bigger prize. But at the end of the year, if I complete it all, I will have created 108 pages. That’s a lot!
There’s more to love, but I’ll stop there. If you have questions, let’s talk. Otherwise, your subscription to Artisan is waiting. You can get started NOW!
MEMORY KEEPING: LEARN TO STACK YOUR DISCOUNTS WITH FOREVER DEALS
With FOREVER there’s always a deal to be had and if you play it smart, you can just keep adding up discounts to find the very best price!
The Deals Page
Your savings always start on the Deals Page. It lists every deal that’s available right now. It will tell you what the deal is, what the time frame is and how to get that deal. So basically, never buy anything unless you’ve looked at the deals page.
Don’t see what you were hoping to buy on the Deals Page? Then let me know. I have access to all the deals for the month and maybe what you want to buy will have a Deal tomorrow or next week. I love any excuse to talk to you, so you won’t be bothering me. You can let me know what you want and I can let you know if it’s going to be available for less soon.
Always the Best Dealon Basics
There are several items from FOREVER that never go on sale, because they are always sold at the best price. Those would be Storage, Video Streaming, Facial Recognition, Genealogy and Programs like Artisan, Historian, etc. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t sometime earn a discount, one way or another. Let’s talk about those opportunities!
I could give several examples, but for this example, during the Second Quarter of 2025 FOREVER had a Digitization Promo. During the last few weeks of the Promo, they sweetened the deal with a 5% off Coupon for Storage. If you had digitization done during that time, then you were sent an email with your 5% off storage coupon. This coupon is good for two storage purchases if used by September 30th. So, some of you may be holding on to this valuable coupon and hadn’t realized it was still good. If you lost your code – I have it AND there are ways for you to get even more off your storage purchase.
Always 5% Off for CLUB Members
The Club is a tool you can always use to get 5% off most everything from FOREVER and in ALMOST every situation you can stack this 5% off with whatever other deals are going on. There are rare exceptions, but they make it very clear when those occur.
The CLUB is designed for serious Memory Keepers. CLUB Members invest in dollars in the CLUB each month, like a savings account. The money is theirs from the get go and they can use it whenever they want – right then or or they can use it to cover monthly payments or they can save their dollars up to buy something special. However, pretty much whatever they buy, as long as they belong to the CLUB is 5% off. But there’s more! Every third month you belong to the CLUB you are awarded free storage. 5% off, free storage – what’s not to like. There are other benefits, but those are the biggies.
So, remember those people who earned the 5% off coupons for the Q3 promo? Well, now they have 5% off from that AND if they are CLUB Members, they have another 5% off. They just doubled their discount.
Or There’s a Back Pocket Discount
Some people have no desire to join the CLUB, but they’d like to make a large one-time purchase. As an Ambassador, I can give them a one-time 5% Discount. So, if you purchased Digitization in late June and have one of those coupons, but you don’t want to join the CLUB, then you can use your coupon and my one-time discount so that you too, can double your discount.
I did this for a family recently who was buying a TB of storage. That’s $6,000! The guy who was buying it isn’t going to be using it himself, but he’s turning it over to the Family Historian. Why would he join the Club? But, with my 5% Back Pocket Discount, he saved $300!
And Then There’s This Quarter’s Storage Offer
My July TB of Storage customer was brand new to FOREVER, so he couldn’t take advantage of the Q2 Bonus, BUT he did qualify for the Q3 Bonus. Because he bought storage last month, he had the opportunity to also buy Facial Recognition and/or Video Streaming at 5% off. So, he went ahead and purchased Permanent Facial Recognition for the Family Historian. Permanent Facial Recognition is $1300. He got 5% off with because he bought the storage AND another 5% off because he was using my one-time Back Pocket Discount. That was $130. So he stacked and saved a total of $430!
New Customers $20 Off Welcome Coupon
But that’s not the end of it! Since this customer was also brand new to FOREVER, he got a $20 off coupon from FOREVER and I was able to apply it to that transaction, for a total savings of $450!! Isn’t that amazing! What would have been a $7300 purchase was instead $6850!
Are You Ready to Stack Up a Great Deal?
With FOREVER, every purchase can be a great deal. With tools like the CLUB, Back Pocket Discounts, Welcome Coupons, Referral Coupons and Monthly Deals the value of your Memory Keeping investment just gets greater and greater. Whatever you need, let me know and I will dig deep to get you every discount you qualify for!!
Whether you’ve been my customer for a long time or you’ve just now decided to start rescuing your memories, let’s talk! You’ve got a great discount waiting for you!
However, in recent years, Bill has demanded I be a little more discriminating in my bargains, because I have landed him in some dumps. Even so, luxury resorts are not our go-to choice. As I researched Huntington Beach, however, pretty much everything was expensive and the Hyatt Regency deal I found was only a small stretch. I was so glad when I sold it to Bill and made the reservation.
The Parking & Checking-In Thing
Bill may prefer I upgrade our accommodations these days, but he draws the line at exorbitant valet parking. Take our almost disaster in Detroit, for instance. As we drove around the exterior of the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach I knew we were in for another adventure in parking. I left Bill to it and went in to claim our room.
I admit I’m chatty and often find myself in a little trouble with Mr. Bill for my gift of gab, but this time my chattiness paid off in a big way. The hotel clerk was clicking away on her computer. She felt they’d booked my room a little too far from the lobby. Perhaps she thought an ancient senior citizen like me was too feeble to walk very far. I told her I was more interested in view than proximity to the lobby and about that time Bill comes in gawking around said lobby like a rube on his first visit to the big city. I said, “You’ll have to excuse him, this is a bit of a splurge for us.” She replied, “Then how about a full ocean view!”
What a Room!
Convinced I was hearty enough to make my way around the hotel grounds, this wonderful lady put us into what has to be one of the greatest hotel rooms in the world. This was the view as we opened the door to our room!
Once I got over that and looked around, I was even more astounded. This room was huge and gorgeous and well appointed. I wanted to move in forever!
There was an entry area with furnishings to accommodate all those little things you like to leave by the door. The bathroom would have pleased any ancient Roman. There was an area with a desk and bed raised on a dais like a throne room on the other side of some columns was a lovely sitting area next to the balcony.
I never wanted to leave, but we still had economy parking to deal with. It turned out to be not big deal at all. Apparently, we’re not the first people to think $65 a day is a little steep. There’s a public parking area right across the street from the hotel for like $10 a day – a far cry from $65. The hotel gives you a permit to stay there overnight. They even have a very elaborate pedestrian bridge to get you safely back to the hotel. We parked near the bridge and enjoyed the stroll back to our room, because the resort is beautiful.
For dinner, we found a place called Baja Sharkey’s at a nearby shopping center where we had margaritas and nachos. Then time for bed, because we were going on a tour the next day.
Here’s my photo book pages of the resort, made in Artisan, of course. Bill would want you to tell me that the fuzzy image on the left is the result of me trying to create a heavenly effect on the page, not his photography.
jane sadek 