And when you view the product issues it says that it is because the product doesn't have a "Google Product Category"?

You then look on the product's page to see where to input that information, and you can't find it?

Well, here is how you fix the issue. 

I thought originally that the "Product Type" in the listing was what I needed to update, but once I updated that, it didn't fix my issue. 

I finally searched just the right thing and found this article in the Shopify Help Center.

Essentially it tells us that in order for products to sync to your Facebook store and in turn to sell on Instagram all products must have a Google Product Category (GPC). When you first sync this is auto-filled for your products to help you get started. But when creating new products, this isn't always the case.

To edit this, you have to go into your Facebook sales channel. 

Click on 'View all products' on the top left.

This will take you to the Bulk editor where you'll see a list of all your products. For each product you can see any errors, you can check if you want it available on Facebook (and Instagram), you can choose the Google Product Category, and you can note its condition. 

You can either use the drop down menu to select a category or it will let you type in the search field to find one.

Once you've found the appropriate category and hit save (which takes a bit of time), you should be all set. When I fixed this issue for our gift tags, I was able to find them on Instagram to tag in a post within 5 minutes, so it syncs pretty fast. 

If you already purchased a 2021 UPstudio Weekly Planner, check your e-mail from us with a coupon code you can use on your next UPstudio purchase!

(Ornament purchased from CraftsByChelleUS's Etsy Shop)

2021, we've been waiting for you. You've given us a hope in some tough months of a better future, where we won't take things for granted like we may have before. You're bringing with you a vaccine for the public, and awareness of ways that we can improve as individuals and as a country. 

You're also bringing what is honestly the best run of UPstudio Planners that we have ever seen. We're the first to admit when something is an issue with a planner, and we've had a lot of lessons learned from both design and print issues. We've taken all of those lessons and now are reaping the benefits in our favorite planners of all times (and you guys, our standards are Very High).

If you haven't grabbed one yet, planners are still available for purchase!

We sincerely wish you a safe, happy and healthy New Year.

Happy 2021, and Happy Planning!

As for us, we're hunkering down in our respective homes, with plenty of warm blankets and bubbly drinks, ready to ring in the new year with friends and family virtually. We wish you a safe and happy New Year!

And as always - Happy Planning!

*As a heads up... the satchel colored weekly planners are going quickly, so if you had your eye on one of those, get it now before it's gone!

Today (Monday, 11.30) is the LAST day of the final UPstudio sale of 2020, where all orders in the UPstudio shop will be 20% off when you use code "2020". From stocking stuffers to presents to holiday cards to treating yourself, you can find gifts for everyone on your list (these are also great for teachers, and coworkers!). Take advantage of the sale and feel good about crossing a few things off your list too - and if you need sticky pads for making lists and checking them twice... well you know we've got those too!

Happy Shopping and Happy Planning!

By the way, we're thankful for you, for supporting us. 2020 has been trash for a lot of reasons, but planner season always perks us up and gives new hope for the future. We hope that you and your loved ones are safe, happy and healthy this holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving, and Happy Planning!

It's been said that a planner was one of the worst purchases that could have been made for 2020. Who are we to disagree - no one could have predicted what this year had in store! All we know is that we personally thrive on organization, and if there is something small that we could control this year, that gave us some comfort. Planners help us do that.

In addition to just surviving, we did focus efforts of making some updates to the 2021 Weekly and Monthly planners. If you know anything about UPstudio, you should know that we are a company that listens, that will respond to every (yes, every) comment, suggestion, and question about the products that we make (we also LOVE getting mail from you guys!) While we didn't receive much feedback with suggestions for updates or changes this year, we still took a step back to look at what might need to be revised.

You may remember that for the 2020 planners, we included a number of additional holidays to celebrate different cultures and backgrounds. We reviewed these again this year and realized that a few key holidays were still missing. As a reminder, some are difficult to put in print, because they are defined by lunar patterns and are not determinable until later in the calendar year.  These were not included, but we are happy to announce that Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples' Day are now included holidays in Weekly and Monthly planners. 

These 2021 Planners though? They're dreamy - this is the best run of planners our printer has been able to provide us in years and we are so so excited to share them with you. We hope you are as happy with them as we are, and that they might help make 2021 just a little easier to manage.

We sincerely hope that 2021 finds you happy, healthy, and ready to take on new challenges - after this year, we can handle anything. Let's get planning!

We've said it before and we'll keep on saying it - we care about what UPstudio Planner users think.  We're always happy to receive feedback on the planners - good or bad.  In the end we want to create the best planner we can, and to do that sometimes we need a fresh outlook.  This is where you come in.  This past year, we received 2 similar comments from multiple users that informed updates that you will see in the 2020 Weekly and Monthly Planners.

The first update is a full year outlook - the same future planning pages that are included in the back of the planner for the upcoming year are now also included at the front of the planner for the current year.  This can be used for any number of things - tracking birthdays and anniversaries, planning reading or daily goals, etc.  We would love to hear how you plan to use this! 

The second update for the Weekly and Monthly Planners is the inclusion of more holidays.  We received an email from a user that indicated that the planner was a Christian planner, and this user wished that they had known that prior to purchase. They were not a Christian, but had felt an offense at the fact that no holidays other than Christian holidays were included in the planners, and that there was a Bible verse included in the front greeting page.  We responded to the email with explanation - that at the time we were creating the original planner, we looked at many other planners and included holidays that were also included in those.  As for the Bible verse, well, we are Christian women, and this was our personal introduction and thank you for purchasing the planner.  We felt this was an appropriate location to include something personal to us.  We are Christians, but the planner is not a specific Christian planner. We sent this response back, but we knew this wasn't a final resolution.

While we personally only celebrate some holidays, we have friends and colleagues who celebrate others.  We respect other ethnicities and religions and want to learn from others that celebrate different holidays. This also aligns with our desire for the planners to be versatile. We took another long hard look at holidays to be included.  Some are difficult to put in print, because they are defined by lunar patterns and are not determinable until later in the calendar year.  These were not included, but we are pleased to include a number of holidays celebrating many beliefs and cultures. 

We are excited to get the 2020 Planners in your hands and look forward to hearing your thoughts about these changes. Pre-order your Weekly or Monthly Planner today to get yours right when they come in, and save 15% while you're at it - just use code 'FINALLY' at checkout.

We've always preached honesty in our brand, so today we're here again being honest with you. First, the question that everyone has been asking us: yes, we are still here, and yes, we will still have 2020 planners (*collective sigh of relief!*)

For the majority of this past year, we've been hanging on by a thread. The truth is, we're incredibly busy. We have shared before that we are both married, we each have 2 kids, and we each work full time jobs. UPstudio is a passion project, with its main attention given during our free time. But lately, neither of us have had much free time. Turns out that having young kids, jobs that we care about doing well, and maintaining any kind of a life is hard. So hard, that we've had conversations about where UPstudio is and how we can feasibly maintain it.

We've entertained the idea of simplifying our lives by having one less job, but when we boil it all down, we still really care. We care about customers asking when the next planners will be out, those sending comments or suggestions for improvement (we're still listening!), and we also want to keep up with this company we built from the ground up that's steadily growing each year. We didn't work this hard to give it all up. We're not going anywhere.

So, please forgive us for the late release of planners this year - they are coming! In an effort to get planners into users' hands as quickly as possible, we are offering pre-order sales for 2020 Weekly and Monthly Planners, and to sweeten the deal, we're offering 15% off of all pre-orders with the code 'FINALLY'. They are available now in the shop. 

Look out for the next blog post sharing updates of changes included in the 2020 Monthly and Weekly Planners (if you didn't believe they could get any better.. you'd be wrong!)  In the meantime, don't give up on us - we're still here and working hard to make the best and most flexible, simple, adaptable planner you can find.

Last year, the cost of shipping that was charged when a customer purchased an UPstudio planner was the exact cost of flat rate shipping from USPS.  We looked in to all options for shipping to get the best rates, with the required insurance for all purchases to make it to customers quickly and efficiently.  We have this same conversation with USPS every year in order to make sure we understand any changes that may have been made.  Like we said, last year we charged shipping at the exact rate that USPS charged, which was $6.85.  This year, prices for the same shipping were raised to $7.15.

We feel comfortable with the price of each planner based on the quality of the design and construction ($40 for the Weekly and $32 for the Monthly) but honestly we would be a little hesitant to spend $7.15 on shipping. So we decided this year to cover some of the shipping cost for you so that the cost of shipping doesn't deter you from purchasing one of our products. The updated shipping costs are reflected at check out. To put it simply: we decided that a single planner shouldn't cost more than $5 to ship, and we'll pick up the bill for the rest. 

When we shop online, a lot of the final decision lies with the total cost, and shipping can make or break that decision.  If you feel the same way that we do, we hope that this helps you to take the leap when purchasing a planner!

note that $5 shipping is limited to US customers only, for any UPstudio Planner

You can purchase a Weekly or Monthly UPstudio Planner for yourself today, just click here!

Each year we attempt to take a step back and put ourselves in your shoes and ask questions like: would we buy this product for the list price? would we spend that much on shipping?

We feel comfortable with the price of each product based on the quality of the design and construction ($40 for the Weekly and $32 for the Monthly) but honestly we would be a little hesitant to spend roughly $7 on shipping. So we decided this year to cover some of the shipping cost for you so that the cost of shipping doesn't deter you from purchasing one of our products. The updated shipping costs are reflected at check out. To put it simply: we decided that a single planner shouldn't cost more than $5 to ship and we'll pick up the bill for the rest. 

And now.. the biggest change in UPstudio Planners for 2019... 

We are introducing a new Monthly Planner!  The Monthly Planner is a slightly larger format, approximately 8" x 10", with a flexible black leather cover. The planner is bound with smyth sewn binding, so it lays perfectly flat, and includes full spread month layouts, a look ahead for 2020, followed by 62 pages of grid paper, similar to the Weekly Planner.  Because it does not include weekly spreads, the overall thickness of the planner is much more slim than the Weekly Planner.  The Monthly Planner also includes the same upgraded ribbon as the Weekly Planner, as well as an elastic closure, and pocket in the back.

We are so excited to share this new product with you!

For 2019, the Monthly Planner will only be offered in black leather.  Weekly Planners will still be offered in the same colors as last year - gray and satchel (since satchel was such a hit and we had to re-order last year, we upped our initial order number, so there are plenty to go around!)

  (here she is!)

Fast forward to the next year where we outlined our process in the Planning a Planner v2017 series.  The biggest change for the 2017 Planner was the binding type and cover.  2016 had a spiral binding type and a chipboard cover, but after using the planner for a year, we felt (and heard from you guys) that changing the binding to something less obtrusive and upgrading the cover to something more durable was critical.

  (lemme lemme upgrade!)

For the 2018 Planner, we revealed in the blog series a few upgrades, a big change in Monday starts to the weeks for the month layouts, and the most exciting change: a second cover color option.  

 (sisters!)

The UPstudio Planner is now developed enough that small tweaks are the biggest changes.  The 2019 Planner will look very similar to the 2018.  We reached out to you all for opinions on a few thoughts we had, and those ideas were pretty clearly vetoed through comments on the blog post and on social media.  Because our main goal is versatility for everyone, and we *do* listen to all feedback, we decided to not make any changes to the composition.  We did have a few other things that we knew would make the planner better, however, and we are revealing those in this series:

• The first change has already been revealed - upgraded ribbon!  We've wanted to upgrade the ribbon in the past but because we're *ultra* picky, we decided not to settle on something we didn't love.  We're truly excited about the new texture, thickness and durability that this new ribbon will bring.  See ya later, unraveling ribbon!

• Another change that we knew we wanted to make was with the front pocket, and it's purely aesthetic. (see above: ultra picky).  The folder in the 2018 Planner is constructed so that you can see the backing above the top edge of the actual folder.  In 2019, this is greatly reduced (and oh so pretty!)

• We concentrated on quality A LOT.  We were disappointed in some aspects of the 2018 Planners, which were largely printing errors.  To be clear - we like our printer very much, but we also expect a lot.  We expect near-perfect crops and construction, and we had multiple instances where planners were constructed less than perfect, and we put a lot of planners into the scratch and dent pile due to less than stellar crops.  We expressed all our concerns with our printer, and they have worked extremely hard to live up to our standard this year.  The production photos that we've seen are truly great, and we are very excited about the 2019 Planner!
• Speaking of excitement... oh wait, I can't reveal this one quite yet.  Stay tuned for next week's big announcement and our biggest change for 2019! What a cliffhanger!

Make sure to read next week's blog post for a detailed look at changes made to the 2019 Weekly Planner.

We just wanted to reassure you all that we have had multiple conversations with our printer about the best way to resolve this. The solution we have settled on for the 2019 UPstudio Planner:

1. The ribbons will be fired on the end to hopefully prevent unraveling and fraying.
2. The ribbons will also be thicker which should help.The ribbon in the 2018 planner is 0.021mm thick. In 2019 they will be 0.033mm. They will also have a slightly different texture, which we feel will look a bit better.

Crossing our fingers we don't have this same frustration next year! 

We are working hard to improve the UPstudio Planner each year. The difference in a quality product is in the details.

Sidebar: I definitely googled how to spell "uggh." Anyone else remember from second grade that words like that are called an onomatopoeia? Cause I didn't!

A huge supporter is DECO Raleigh. They not only support the local maker community but contribute to the community at large. If you haven't heard of DECO before, it is a brick and mortar located in downtown Raleigh. They have the most amazing gifts, cards, home decor items, local finds, and so much more.

DECO just moved around the corner from their previous location, 19 W. Hargett Street, to their new location, 207 S. Salisbury Street. 

In honor of One Big New DECO opening at 207 S. Salisbury Street, DECO is throwing a Grand Opening Celebration tomorrow, Friday, August 3.  The festivities begin at 1:00 pm with special guest, City Councilor Nicole Stewart, joining for a ribbon cutting and will continue into First Friday with beer from Trophy Brewing Co. and yummy cakes from Union Special Bread! They have invited all to come and celebrate and enjoy treats and special give-aways all day, they'll be open until 9:00 pm!

They will also be opening EARLY for Union Special Bread on Sunday, August 5. All are welcome from 9:00 am until noon  (or whenever they run out) for some early morning shopping, sweet goodies and Slingshot Coffee Co.

They recently shared a sneak peek of the fresh paint job at their new digs on Instagram. We can't wait to check out the finished product!

If you want to send us mail, we'll be happy to get it!  

UPstudio
324 S. Wilmington Street, Suite 226
Raleigh, NC 27601

The first one I tried was from a blog called Love Grows Wild:

Ingredients:

1 can (12 ounces) seltzer

Instructions:

In a large pitcher, combine wine, lemon liqueur, lemon zest, and sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves. Add lemon juice, apple slices, and pear slices and mix well. Place pitcher in refrigerator for 4 hours to chill and allow flavors to blend. Just before serving, top sangria off with seltzer. You can also strain sangria after chilling to remove lemon zest, if desired.

My second attempt was from Celebrate Magazine:

On to this week's blog post..

We released the Weekly Planning Notepad last September. Our goal with this product is to add one more layer of flexibility to your planning. The layout is very open and versatile. You can use the pad as a standalone planning tool or you can use it to compliment your planner.

I regularly post one on my fridge so that my family can be on the same page about what we have going on that week:

On the weeks I have time to meal plan, this notepad is a great tool, I can even make a complete grocery list in the area not delegated to specific days on the bottom:

One of our friends uses the Weekly Planning Notepad to help organize her daily tasks:

The opportunities are endless!

These pads are always available on our website, snag one for yourself here. For fellow Raleigh, North Carolina residents you can also purchase them at DECO Raleigh downtown.

Our current evaluations deal with the overall composition of the planner.  In all previous versions, including the current 2018 UPstudio Planner, the individual month layouts come directly before each of the week layouts in that month.  Preceding the month layouts are monthly goals layouts.  There are a few things at play in our minds:

• We've had this layout because having the months directly before the weeks in that month seems to make sense.  It groups them together and is easy for people who may use them in conjunction with each other a little more easily.  The problem is that weeks don't always fall perfectly in line with the month before it or after it (actually, this hardly ever happens), which means that there are always a few days of a month that are grouped with the preceding or following month. There has been confusion from users about days that they initially think are missing, because they don't know to look in a different location for them.  This leads us to the meat of the first potential change:  grouping all month layouts together at the beginning, and all week layouts together directly following the group of months.

• The next thought relates to the monthly goals layout.  To be honest, this layout has always bothered us just a bit, because it has a title.  One of the biggest achievements of the UPstudio Planner is that there are almost no defined ways to use each space, but just by putting the word "goals", we're implying that you have to write goals here.  We want you to write whatever you want in whatever space you want - versatility!  So, we're thinking about nixing these sheets, with the idea that the graph pages found at the end of the planner (or the blank section on the month layout or graph on the week layout) can replace this space.

What do you think?  Will you be able to make goals for each month if there isn't a layout that says "goals"?  Will you go crazy looking at the beginning of the planner for the month of October when the week layouts are in the middle?  Would another ribbon help?  

Let us know what you think, I promise, we listen!

*update*  we received so many requests to leave the goals page, that it's still in there!  You guys can breathe easy now.  Thank you for your feedback!

All that being said, we will only charge full price for our 1000% good products.  If we deem something to be less than 1000%, then it's officially "scratch and dent".  We fully expect to get scratch and dent planners in our final deliveries. After we receive them, we go through a QC of every single planner over the course of several weeks in order to categorize each and every one.  Sometimes a planner will have a literal scratch or dent (due to shipping or packaging, or any number of things) but more often than that, a scratch and dent planner will have a slight printing imperfection, or a small glue spot, or something that majority of people may never notice. 

Scratch and dent is a tricky name.  When someone sees "scratch and dent", they likely expect to see a major visual mistake on the exterior of the planner, and inherently, they don't sell as well as those planners that are not labeled scratch and dent, even at a lower price point.  The truth is, these are more like "slightly imperfect" planners.  Here are a few examples of things that would make us categorize a planner as scratch and dent:

Yep, that's honestly it.  These planners are 100% functional, and a true steal as they are a fraction of the cost of the regular version.  If you're on the fence about the UPstudio Planner, try grabbing a Scratch and Dent for just $10!  Trust us, it's worth it, and bonus - both cover colors are still available!

While we do go through each and every planner before it is sent out, sometimes one may slip through the cracks and be less than perfect.  If you experience any quality issues with your UPstudio Planner, please notify us immediately.  We do our best to provide the best customer service we possibly can.

The 2018 UPstudio Planner is only sold in stores in North Carolina (for now anyway!) but this little gem called the internet makes it possible to get one from literally anywhere in the world. It's pretty amazing.  We took a look at the reach of the 2018 Planner, and thought it would be fun to share with you guys.  Who doesn't love a good map and graph? 

These maps show the states and countries where UPstudio planners now call home.  The first map is of the United States, and the second map shows our lone international traveler - all the way in Estonia!  (Shipping prices get a little steep outside of the continental US, but we're willing to ship anywhere!  Send us a message if you want more details.)

If you're wondering, that's 37 of the 50 states (up from 29 in 2017!) - and yep, you're reading that right, there's an UPstudio Planner in Hawaii (aloha!)

The official language of Estonia is Estonian, however English is one of the most popular foreign languages to learn in the country, so the UPstudio Planner is still right at home overseas.

These next graphs show the distribution of quantities sold throughout the different states and countries. No surprise, the most planners have sold in North Carolina, but we were interested to see that the next most popular state placing orders is Texas (same as 2017!) with California following close behind.

Did your state make the map?  We would love to see all 50 states and even more countries represented for the 2019 Planner!

(It's not too late to order your 2018 Planner or scratch and dent Planner!)

**US Map created with United States of America with States - Outline by FreeVectorMaps.com

I jotted a few of those newborn-isms down that we failed to remember:

• Babies are typically born nocturnal and it takes a few days (in our case weeks) for them to readjust to a regular schedule.
• The most in-depth conversations that you end up having with your spouse seem to all happen at around 4:30am when you are both for some reason really awake. The few moments you don't have a toddler melting down or a baby crying.
• Babies cry. Our first hardly cried. Maggie seems to express all emotions, good and bad, by crying. Definitely an adjustment for us. 
• The "let you baby cry it out" thing is a lot harder to do when you toddler is sleeping soundly.
• Babies have growth spurts where they are hungry all the time. 3 days, 7-10 days, 3 weeks, so on and so forth.
• We completely forgot about acid reflux and gas. Our new addition seems to want to be upright or decently angled all of the time in order to be comfortable. 
• For those that breastfeed, it takes up so much of your day, completely forgot the time commitment. 
• Also for those that breastfeed, you forget about having to live life in 2 hour stretches of time.
• I regularly have to look at my phone to know the day of the week. 
• How long does it take for a baby to sleep through the night? We hit it at 8 weeks with our first, I'll keep you posted regarding round two.
• You're continually washing everything: bottles, poopy clothes, milk covered everything!
• We hadn't fully processed how our son was going to react. There have been very high highs and very low lows on this front. 
• Cabin fever is real!

• We're friends with our local post office workers.  With a time sensitive product like a planner, we make every effort to ship out orders ASAP, which means that we're making daily (sometimes multiple!) trips to the post office.  Inherently, we see the same people every day and get to know them.  We even gave Christmas gifts and share baby photos with our local PO workers, because they're so great!  (Thanks Jackie and Allen!)
• We know way too much about shipping rates.  Another reason to spend time at the post office was to get as much knowledge as possible about shipping rates.  After researching USPS vs UPS, the overall rate for our products was better with USPS, so we ship through them exclusively.  Shipping is the fastest way to lose money as a small business, as it can get very pricey depending on the option.  We offer both priority and priority express as shipping options.  On occasions where free shipping has been offered as a coupon incentive, we've had to eat the cost of the substantially more expensive priority express shipping.  We also frequently price shipping rates to areas outside of the US for specific customer questions.  
• We barter with other local businesses.  Don't get us wrong, we are big fans of supporting other businesses (see next bullet point) but sometimes there are opportunities that present themselves, and it doesn't hurt to take advantage of them.  For example, our day jobs are located just upstairs from the best sit down or grab and go lunch spot in downtown Raleigh - Manhattan Cafe.  Because we're in there so frequently (especially MB!), we've gotten to know the owners.  They've catered for our parties in exchange for a planner or two or design services.  Win win!
• We aim to pay cash whenever we can to other small businesses.  Especially if you're at a show and not ordering online, cash when possible is the best way to ensure that the small business owner is seeing the most profit.  Credit cards are incredibly convenient and of course we use them, but we know how much a 3% charge can add up over each transaction, so try to help out others too!
• We work the system to fulfill bank card requirements. As a small business, and especially one with a seasonal product, sometimes we struggle with enough getting the required number of transactions on our bank cards that are needed in a month.  For our bank, 10 are required, which seems totally doable until you realize how many things are automated within larger accounts.  For example, our website is hosted through Shopify.  Shopify offers a slightly discounted shipping rate for products, so we use them instead of paying for shipping individually from the PO each time (which would otherwise be on our bank cards).  So, instead of multiple transactions, we just have 1 through Shopify.  Whenever we are purchasing multiples of something, we try to do as many transactions as we can!  We're not the only ones that do this either, as cashiers have asked if it's for a business bank card.  If we still fall short, around the 28th of each month, we're buying a pack of gum or a drink to get a transaction, and reimbursing the company, just to make it work.
• We research free apps to install on our website.  Unless you're initially really successful or going through a crowd funding site, you're probably putting in some of your own money to fund your small business.  Because of this, we try to save any money we can wherever we can.  We take the time to research free apps to make our website a little bit better than the standard, and research any coding that is required for things we can fix ourselves (read: MB does all this - she's an engineer and knows coding and is completely running the show on this stuff.  After she learns what to do she gives me the short version in terms I can understand, and we work together where we can.)  Here's an example of one genius thing she's fixed.
• We are genuinely excited when people comment on blog posts.  This one has the most comments by far and we LOVE them!  One of the reasons we started a "lessons learned" series is for other small business owners who are out there struggling with the same issues that we are.  If we find a solution, or learned something the hard way, we're happy to share it. 

As a small business, we can't say enough about how critical these reviews are!  Because we have a small reach, we rely on our website to do a lot of heavy lifting for us in regards to marketing.  Our photographs need to be simple, clean and authentic to showcase our products in a true light, and reviews need to be as high as possible with positive information about both our products and our company.  We value good customer service and high quality products, and are proud to say that we have received many wonderful reviews. 

If you haven't taken the time to review an UPstudio product on our website, on Etsy, or on Amazon, please take a minute and do so.  And don't forget to do the same for other small businesses, trust me, they appreciate it more than you know!

Here are a few reviews that we have received - THANK YOU to those who have left any comments and ratings!