Posted by swistle on 31st December 2008
Categories: At the office, House & Home
25 comments
Picked your 2009 calendar yet? It’s one of my favorite shopping trips of the year. I shop the week between Christmas and New Year’s, when calendars are 50% off at most bookstores. This started when we were younger and poorer, but now it feels like the sporting way to do it.
Shopping as sport makes me more open to unusual choices: I might not choose a calendar of baby pigs if I’m paying full-price and choosing from the full line of options, but I might do so if I’m choosing from the picked-over shelves—and sometimes a calendar of baby pigs is the very thing I never knew I needed in my life.
This year I was in the mood for a bird calendar, and was hoping to find this one by David Allen Sibley. No luck. I did find this one that plays each bird’s call, and it nearly went home with me—but in the end it lost out to another.
And besides, perhaps I was more in the mood for half-naked men cleaning the house. I did seriously consider this one because I think it’s so funny, but I didn’t want to have to explain it to the kids.
I bought Cynthia Hart’s Victoriana calendar last year for my daughter’s room. It went nicely with her girly room, and it was fun for her to look at all the little pictures of cats and flowers and children.
But this year Elizabeth discovered Hello Kitty, so that’s the calendar I want for her room this year. I had a Hello Kitty calendar as my own calendar one year and thought it looked super-cute. Paul…disagreed.
Oh, Futurama! How we’ve missed you!
Er?
M. C. Escher makes my head hurt, but my older kids love him. If I see this calendar on a good deal (calendars often go down to about $3 in mid/late January), I’ll buy it and hang it up in one of their rooms where I won’t have to look at it.
Work It, Retro Mom!
Ooo, I had a Mucha calendar one year! If I remember, it was only a little bit naked, and the colors were gorgeous.
The Tiffany calendar made it into the Finalists Pile this year, but it wasn’t the winner.
The Linda Nelson Stocks folk art calendar was also a runner-up. I don’t think of myself as liking folk art, but the pictures have lots of detail and hold up well to a month’s viewing.
And here’s the one I chose: Vintage Covers of Better Homes & Gardens magazines. It was the birds that caught my eye. The calendar comes with a card you can fill out to get a free six-month subscription to Better Homes and Gardens magazine—-or, if you like that magazine only in waiting rooms, you can also write “refund” on the card and get $3 instead.
What did you choose this year?
I’m a landscape girl myself, who occasionally branches out to gardens, although one year the kids brought home a “healthy meals” calendar, with recipes and photos of the meals–this was a good one for where we keep the family calendar (the kitchen). Unfortunately the meals were not especially delectable.
Melospiza | December 31st, 2008 at 1:43 pm
Our wall calendar is of our nephews. I love it to be honest. I have a plain 2009 day timer which I love, but wish was a little smaller so it could be more portable.
lindsay | December 31st, 2008 at 3:08 pm
I did not go calendar shopping this year in the traditional sense. I was putting together a stocking with a goat theme for Torsten and I thought, huh, what’s a cheap way to get 12 pictures of goats at once? So, that’s the plan for 2009. Goats galore!
Jess | December 31st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Okay, I LOVE Mary Englebreit stuff, not in the want it all over my house sense, but my desk and wall calendars for myself are always hers. BUT I keep a calendar for each of the kids that I write daily happenings in and I have great fun picking their calendars every year. I SHOULD wait until they all go on sale, but the last year I did that I had a terrible time finding a good kids’ calendar for Harper. Now I tend to buy them on amazon right before Christmas, when they are not half off, but not full price either.
This year Harper gets Fancy Nancy (we are having so much fun with Fancy Nancy, I like that she is frilly but also SMART) and Michael gets classic Pooh Bear - which goes with our nursery. The best kids calendar I have ever found was a bunch of old Golden Books covers which made me very nostalgic for my childhood.
My biggest calendar fail was last year, when Harper ended up with one of my dad’s free charity calendars. . . as a bonus it was all children’s artwork, but it was a cheaply made calendar and is basically in pieces, not so good as I intend to gift these filled out calendars to my kids someday.
Gee, maybe I should have just made this my end of the year blog post and left a link!
Kelsey | December 31st, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Last year I chose a calendar I thought I would love: a story by Edward Gory (he did the Gashlycrumb Tinies) that continued from month to month. The pictures were great, but even reading back through the whole year, I have no idea what the story is about (and I’m an English teacher!).
This year my husband got my the New Yorker cat calendar, and I’m happy that each joke is contained to one month. I may have to get that Porn for Women one for another room, though.
Lasha | December 31st, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I am a teacher so my new calendar is purchased over the summer in time for the start of a new school year. I buy the type that is meant for the over achiever high school/college kid. It has a layout of the whole month and then space for each day in the month in weekly form. Usually by this time of the school year I have lost it. I actually still know where it is so I am pretty happy with myself!
For my house, my sister-in-law chooses which calendar will hang in my house all year. Why you ask? Because each year for Christmas she makes her sisters and brother a calendar with birthdays and anniversaries (for the whole family) already marked! (And we have a big family!) For this wonderful gift, she is allowed to pick out my calendar each year - and NO I am not being sarcastic!
This year our calendar is from Hallmark with photos by Kim Anderson. The photos are of little kids.
Elizabeth | December 31st, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I got this one,
http://www.amazon.com/Birds-Poster-Calendar-Cavallini-Papers/dp/1574896237/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230741478&sr=8-3
although I didn’t know I should be buying it half off at Barnes and Noble until it was too late. I’ve wanted this calendar for years and my Christmas hints have gone unheeded, so this year I just bought the darn thing for myself, which is my new avoid the christmas blues plan - come home and spend a hundred bucks on myself buying myself all the stuff I wanted and no one got me.
Elizabeth | December 31st, 2008 at 4:27 pm
I usually get planners, not a wall calendar, and my favorite was a Klimt one I had in 2005. But since then, I’ve been buying a boring but useful planner — the same one every year — from B&N. Of course, I can’t find it now online to link to it. It’s a book, really, bound in different colors of leather. I’ve had basic brown, a Swistle-blue for 2008 and, for 2009, a classy burgundy. No pretty pictures to look at but LOTS of extra space to write notes, lists and phone numbers. They’re almost like diaries, really, and I save them every year.
Hillary | December 31st, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I work in the aviation industry and just usually go for one of the calendars my vendors send. Airplanes are cool! But, this year I found a calendar that a local vendor gave out. It has Local scenes (with Captions of where it was taken!), ad I forgot how PRETTY my area is when I just take the time to LOOK.
Stacie | December 31st, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Well, I have had this one in the past, so I ordered it again this year. (Yes, I have to order a calendar online because the BFE place where I live only offers Wal-Mart as a shopping option. And I don’t do kittens.) But then Pomegranate called me this morning (the day before I need it!!!!) to tell me it was out of stock and did I want a replacement or a refund. No, I need a calendar! STAT! So I just told them to send me the Shaman one, which I fear will be tacky and make my head hurt, unlike the Goddess one which is beautiful and makes me wish I were eternal and had a name with an X in it.
So I’m off to look for another calendar on DECEMBER 31st. Ridiculous. I would love a <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/World-Michael-Parkes-2007-Calendar/dp/1416211934/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230745739&sr=8-2″<Michael Parkes calendar again, but apparently they aren’t making them anymore, as evidenced that the USED ones are $150! Whoa, wait, I had that 2007 one. I’m gonna profit off this endeavor! I can buy 10 calendars! Woohoo!
clarabella | December 31st, 2008 at 5:39 pm
(I screwed up the href in my last comment. Please to ignore. Here it is again, without all the long-link nonsense.)
Well, I have had this one in the past, so I ordered it again this year. (Yes, I have to order a calendar online because the BFE place where I live only offers Wal-Mart as a shopping option. And I don’t do kittens.) But then Pomegranate called me this morning (the day before I need it!!!!) to tell me it was out of stock and did I want a replacement or a refund. No, I need a calendar! STAT! So I just told them to send me the Shaman one, which I fear will be tacky and make my head hurt, unlike the Goddess one which is beautiful and makes me wish I were eternal and had a name with an X in it.
So I’m off to look for another calendar on DECEMBER 31st. Ridiculous. I would love a <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/World-Michael-Parkes-2007-Calendar/dp/1416211934/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230745739&sr=8-2″ calendar again, but apparently they aren’t making them anymore, as evidenced that the USED ones are $150! Whoa, wait, I had that 2007 one. I’m gonna profit off this endeavor! I can buy 10 calendars! Woohoo!
clarabella | December 31st, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I got a great shoe one from my grandmother. I love it, of course.
shoeaddict | December 31st, 2008 at 6:41 pm
I make a family calendar with pictures of the kids and birthdays/Anniv. on it for my husband’s side of the family. That gets our “centeral spot”. Then I’ll buy a cheap one to write appointments on–this year I grabbed one in the $1 Spot at Target. It’s a landscape and has a picture of Africa on the cover and in Jan, and since we’re going to Africa in Jan, that seemed to be perfect!
I used to just take the free one my parents got from their local funeral home–it had nice landscapes on it. But they stopped giving them out, so I was glad I grabbe my Target one.
When I worked I loved fun desk calendars, but now at home, I find I forget to tear off the pages for a week at a time so I’ve stopped getting them.
Tina | December 31st, 2008 at 8:02 pm
As a knitter, I loved the one my brother gave me: Guys With Yarn.
I’m looking for a Boston Bruins one, too. I tend to wait for the markdowns, which makes the hunt a little more challenging.
I did get some page-a-days, too: Rubes for the office, Stupidest Things Ever Said for home, plus I got the Yarn Harlot’s Never Not Knitting for my birthday. Finally time to open it!
ccr in MA | December 31st, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I got a really cute one at michaels.. its babys dressed in costume, its the cutest thing Ive seen in a long time!
katie | December 31st, 2008 at 8:47 pm
I LOVE calendars- almost as much as post offices and libraries and museums. In the past, I’ve done the custom-family one, and had castkes (seemed like a good idea but got boring after a few months), horses, islands, landscapes, and various cartoony ones.
We always score a free one from church- not ours, which uses scary looking old religious art, but a nearby one that has nice bible quotes and nature pics. That’s the kitchen/whole family one. My husband gets a page-a-day one (dilbert or jeopardy) and a wall one for his office (deer or golf). I get at least one wall one for my office- this year it’s antique maps, which looks SO cool even if I don’t understand where the heck it is. If I’m really lucky, I’ll get another fave, like Florida nature OR a page a day on suduko.
And that porn for women one I’d love, but then I’d have to a) explain it my hubby and b) embarrass my mom!
Kris | December 31st, 2008 at 11:17 pm
my calendar is that ‘Mom’ calendar that has the names on the top and the days down the side. It’s my first year having it and I am not sure if I like it yet. I’ve used it for about 2 weeks so far.
I usually get a NJ calendar with beautiful snapshots of places in NJ that make you realize that we really don’t live in a stinky dirty state…but unfortunately I missed Costco having it for $5. Now I may be stuck with the ‘Mom’ one.
beach mama | December 31st, 2008 at 11:40 pm
I bought this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Moms-Plan-2009-Plan-Calendar/dp/B001GDGMZW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=office-products&qid=1230774511&sr=8-1
It’s got a pocket for invitations and appointment cards and kind of serves as a hang up family planner with spaces that are actually big enough to write details on. Heaven sent if ya ask me! YAY!
amber s | January 1st, 2009 at 1:39 am
I got a Hawaii calendar. I usually get a new calendar for Christmas every year and it is ALWAYS tropical themed. The person who drew my name this year got me a day by day (which I don’t use) so I had to settle with what was left at Borders. Hawaii was the only Tropical they had left. Which is totally fine because Hawaii is one of my most favorite places on earth and if it weren’t so darn expensive to live there we would be living there.
I love the porn for women calendar.
Trina | January 1st, 2009 at 5:46 am
I chose a “Note Nook” calendar. They didn’t have the design I wanted (can’t be too choosy at 50% off!), but I love the little pocket to store invitations and schedules. After I bought two (one for home, one for work) we went to Sam’s Club and found the exact one I wanted. Good sales can be a gamble like that.
Happy New Year!
Jeanne | January 1st, 2009 at 1:54 pm
I keep a Lions’ Camp calendar in my classroom. The Lions Club sends it out free each year, and the pictures are great. This year my son is actually in the group picture for September!
Daisy | January 2nd, 2009 at 12:35 am
Dang, just this morning I realized “I don’t have a 2009 calendar” and I’m completely lost. I keep looking over at my December 2008 page, and squinting at the teeny tiny “next month” box just to see what days of the week things are on in January. (Now I’ve also got the January computer calendar sitting up so I can make appointments.)
In the past I’ve gotten the World Wildlife Fund “photos of animals” calendar because the photos are nice and the daily boxes are big enough to write in lots of appointments. I haven’t gone to look for anything yet, maybe I’ll look for some deals today. I hope they’ll all be 75% off by now!
Jennifer | January 2nd, 2009 at 6:28 pm
I chose the same calendar I chose every year: Mom’s Plan It
It has everything you could want. I even have the engagement calendar that goes with me everywhere.
http://www.familieswithpurpose.com/moms-plan-it-calendar.html
Erica | January 3rd, 2009 at 5:20 am
I got “Islands” for the bedroom. I can see it while I’m blow drying my hair in and morning and it makes me wish I lived the life where I never had to blow dry my hair. I call it motivation. My husband calls it torture.
I also got “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Quality, Taste and Style” a 365 day calendar for my desk at work.
Stephanie | January 5th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
i need to start using a calendar, what with being diagnosed with s4ibc and not remembering crapola these days. trouble is i need a planner - but want one of the usual pretty ones. i ordered one - handmade in israel - but it got sent back when the nice postal guy (feel the sarcasm falling from my mouth here) deemed me dead (you think you have problems???) - and he took it upon himself to write me a terribly nasty note about the whole thing (like i should die to make his life easier - bullshit). regardess—the only thing more annoying is paula deen or guy fieri. and regardless - i need to get a calendar. ‘think amazon would mind my getting something that’s not only cheap but, ummm…useful?
ellie | January 30th, 2009 at 11:11 pm