Local Businesswoman Shows Line of Paper Goods at Cornucopia Gift Fair

Polite, Not Trite, Stationery Makes Manners Fun

By Victoria Scott

For grown-ups who bring their thank-you to the party, Lanie Coldwell has stickers, pre-printed or personalized.

Where Lanie Coldwell comes from, a thank-you note is obligatory, not optional.

The Chattanooga, Tenn., native has brought her Southern sensibility north to Evanston with a line of stationery and cards that make saying thank-you fun - even for children too young to write.

Her lively and affordable collection of stickers, cards, notes and other paper goods will be on display at the Cornucopia Gift Fair this weekend at the Woman's Club of Evanston. The juried event features the work of selected artisans who create everything from knitwear to jewelry and handbags.

Among Ms. Coldwell's innovative stationery designs is the "Color-Me Series," six different cards imprinted with the words "Thank You" and a picture for a preschooler to color.

Slightly older children should enjoy her "fill-in-the-blank thank-you notes." Engaging the young writer as if in a game, Ms. Coldwell gives hints for filling in the blanks in each printed sentence: "Sending you many thanks for the ______ ________(adjective describing gift/gift)."

On a separate sheet she provides further prompts, such as suggestions for adjectives to describe the gift and, later in the note, "how you felt opening the gift."

"I was asked to teach a class on thank-you's," says Ms. Coldwell, who is presently content to let her notes do the teaching. Six years after moving to Evanston she observes that there is "not as much pressure here to write a note" as there was in her hometown. So maybe [a note] means more," she says. "The boost you get stays with you."

Her manners have acquired a Northern accent. For instance, she says, the custom of "bring[ing] a thank-you to the party" instead of sending it afterwards in written form is not widespread in the South. She has folded the notion into her product line, designing self-sticking labels to personalize hostess gifts.

"Picked for you," "Enjoy!" and "Cheers" are among the standard greetings on stickers that work for wine bottles or boxed gifts. Like her other paper products, the labels are either pre-printed or customized with the giver's name.

Ms. Coldwell favors bold colors in combinations like blue and orange or pink and green and is not opposed to cheeky sayings. She has holiday gift tags that say "Save Santa the trip… Be naughty"; cards with a baby photo that read "No more silent nights (or days), but they are full of love"; and recipe cards that are inscribed "From one hot mama to another" or "Hey good lookin', whatcha got cookin'?"

Her current bestseller is a placemat personalized with a child's name and laminated with plastic so children can draw on it with crayons or dry-erase markers. It is a trick Ms. Coldwell has learned with her own children, 3-year-old Jason and 15-month-old Cecilia May - let them color while Mom cooks supper.

Her children were the main impetus for the business. Ms. Coldwell had dreamed in her youth of a career in architecture or graphic design but chose a small liberal arts college that offered neither. After majoring in business, she spent several years as an insurance appraiser. But with the move to Evanston in 2000 for her husband's job and the subsequent arrival of two babies, she began looking for work that both allowed her to stay at home and preserved her independence.

For several years she made a hobby of designing gift tags and stationery for friends' children, creating them on her home computer and printer. Then, about a year ago, a friend "talked her into making a business" of her hobby, she says.

She believed she saw a market for "reasonable but cute" paper goods - especially ones for boys.

The 30 or 40 orders she took at her first home show last spring were "a little overwhelming," she admits. She worked on them after her children went to bed on nights when her husband was out of town.

But while using her home printer kept prices down and facilitated the customization of smaller orders, it presented two problems. First, its water-soluble ink tended to run when wet, an issue she addressed with a water-resistant pigment.

Second, working at home put the burden of filling orders on her alone. She is on the brink of contracting with a professional printer. This should allow her to expand to retail outlets, a move she has delayed while developing a strategy.

Ms. Coldwell has also joined forces with another young Evanston mother, Jennifer Kline. Ms. Kline, who left New Orleans when her husband accepted a job here the day before Hurricane Katrina hit, brings retail experience to the budding partnership.

Their expanding line of imaginative paper products serves up etiquette with an attitude. It might be contagious.

Visit Cornucopia Gift Fair at the Woman's Club of Evanston on Nov. 17, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Nov. 18, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; and Nov. 19, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.

Task Force To Educate on Adjustable Rate Mortgages

By Mary Helt Gavin

Several hundred Evanston families with adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) loans may face unaffordably high mortgage payments in 2007, says DeAngelo Bester of Interfaith Housing of the North Shore and the National Training and Information Center (NTIC). The two organizations are forming a task force to help families and individuals learn more about the risks of buying a home.

A loan that may have appeared to promise financial freedom or home ownership early on, may threaten those dreams as the loan resets to higher rates.

ARM loans typically have a 30-year term, with a low interest rate for the first part of the term (generally 1, 3, 5 or 10 years) and a higher rate afterward. A loan that may have appeared to promise financial freedom or home ownership early on, may threaten those dreams as the loan adjusts (or "resets") to higher rates.

Those low rates are "‘teaser' rates," says Lynda Ancell of First Bank & Trust of Evanston. In some cases the ARM resets every six months, but in others the reset or option period is longer. Gary Marsh of Harris Bank said, "A 3/1 ARM means that the rate will be fixed for three years, then adjust [or ‘reset'] annually after that."

The housing boom that is just now waning attracted, broadly speaking, two types of people to the loan market, said Mr. Bester: those who hoped to be able to purchase a home with a low down payment and a mortgage, and those who found themselves "house rich" and who took out home equity loans for improvements or additions to the house, or for other purposes, such as financing education or vacations for themselves or their family members.

An ARM can be a handy tool for a savvy buyer with earning potential, said Owen Beacom of First Bank & Trust. Mr. Bester agreed, saying these types of loans offer the most benefit to those who do not really need that initial low interest rate. Those for whom the ARM loan is affordable only because of that almost always find themselves in trouble once the ARM resets, he added.

"The customer must make sure that the [low-interest] caps are reasonable. A 2/6 cap means that the rate cannot exceed 2 percent in any year and 6 percent over the life of the loan. This helps alleviate the payment shock when the loan does adjust," said Mr. Marsh.

Yet not all mortgage brokers are candid with their clients. Unscrupulous mortgage brokers have been known to earn their commissions by taking advantage of their clients' lack of sophistication, obligating the clients to make payments on mortgages they cannot afford or tacking on undisclosed costs that may increase the payments above what was discussed, said Mr. Beacom.

"Those for whom the ARM loan is affordable only because of that almost always find themselves in trouble..." DeAngelo Bester of Interfaith Housing

Mr. Bester said that a broker might "qualify" a family for a loan using sporadic or uncertain income as though it were steady. "They might say, ‘Oh, you sell jewelry on the side. Let's say you make xxx dollars from that,' even though they know that sort of side business rarely produces a steady income," he said.

In addition to the planned task force, Mr. Bester says that Interfaith Housing will be offering one-day workshops on budgeting, credit and home ownership "so people won't be shocked when the new interest rates kick in and to teach them about how to refinance their loans."

Mr. Bester will be at the Fifth Ward meeting at 7 p.m. on Nov. 16 at Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center, 1655 Foster St., to discuss the foreclosure prevention taskforce, rescue fraud, and predatory lending.

Baird and Warner "Make a Difference."

Baird & Warner agents, staff, and their families spent a Saturday last month working throughout the Child Care Center of Evanston, providing cleaning, organizing and yard work, as part of its 15th annual Make A Difference Day. "So much was accomplished," said agent Dancy Bateman, "more than what was expected." Even Baird & Warner President and CEO Stephen W. Baird lent a hand.

The company says it is proud to support the Child Care Center of Evanston, whose mission is to strengthen families by providing high-quality, affordable day care to their children. Its highest priority is to help children from all socioeconomic backgrounds gain the skills they need to succeed in school while fostering the shared community values of cooperation and respect for one another.