I'm Expecting a Friendly Year
Written: Jan 03 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: A sturdy, weekly engagement calendar with engaging art.
Cons: Sometimes – too cute to doodle on it.
The Bottom Line: This is an enjoyable calendar that would appeal to anybody who enjoys whimsical art, creativity, and a place to doodle, while keeping track of the days going by.
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| bartzone's Full Review: |
Mary Engelbreit's The Art of Friendship 2006 Calendar
SUE'S PRE-RAMBLE
I have to start out by saying that I love calendars. And in my house, I’m not alone in this obsession with the march of time. Calendars serve at least two purposes: functionally tracking our lives and being decorative. In the decorative category, my husband enjoys the big flat Christmas present Santa always brings him—the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit calendar. Of course he also has a calendar of 1940’s pinups, and one with pipe organs. I prefer scenery of a different sort. I have a Magnetic Poetry calendar in the bathroom (where we all do our best thinking, eh?) and I used to get a Sarah Ban Breathnach Gratitude Journal as well as a Mary Engelbreit page-a-day calendar and a purse-sized date book. I’ve been trying to streamline my living space and the page-a-day calendar was not working for me. Don’t get me wrong. I love Mary Engelbreit’s cheery art, but I couldn’t just tear off each day and throw it away. It was too cute! I tried using them as bookmarks and writing shopping lists on the backs of pages, but I was eventually swimming in years of calendar pages. In 2005 I decided to forego both the Gratitude Journal and the page-a-day in exchange for a single Mary Engelbreit desk calendar. Since I enjoyed that 2005 calendar so much, I decided to get the 2006 version - Mary Engelbreit's The Art of Friendship 2006 Calendar
THE ARTIST
Mary Engelbreit lives in Kansas City, near the home of Hallmark Greetings. She has made her artful life creating her own lines of greeting cards, gift wrap, calendars, posters, books, house wares, clothing and toys. She is particularly known for her whimsical drawings of Scottie dogs, cherries, and what she calls “fried egg flowers” because they look sort of flat and not entirely round, much like a free-form fried egg. I love that her work is always positive, whimsical, showing the better side of people and she has the ability to speak to people of all ages.
PURCHASE/PRICE
I frequently shop online through a website called www.mypoints.com and then earn rewards. My favorite reward is the $25 gift card for Barnes and Noble. One of the online stores that I shop at and earn points is also Barnes and Noble. I shop there, earn points, get the reward and use the gift card to shop there for free and still get more points. Anyway, I used one of my gift cards to purchase this calendar ($12.95 minus my Barnes and Noble member discount of 10%) for myself this fall in anticipation of 2006.
CALENDAR FEATURES
The calendar is about 6” x 8 ½” with very sturdy cover pages on a double-spiral binding. The first pages show the previous year and the next year on one page and the current year on its own page. The next several pages each have a month grid and a “doodle” section. The next 100 pages are devoted to each week. On the left page is a Mary Engelbreit drawing with a box for doodling. The right side pages have: a header with the date; sections for each day with lines to list appointments, birthdays, notes and observations; a small grid showing the current month; a small graphic; and a quotation from a notable artist about living creatively or about friends. After the weekly pages are two pages with sections for each month with lines under them to list events. The next two pages list all the holidays in 2006. The next two pages are headed “Birthdays and Anniversaries” and show each moth with lines under them to list important dates. The next four pages are entitled “Names and Numbers” and have blank lines to be used as a quick address book. The next two pages are called “Online” and make a great place to write down those URLs I see on TV or hear on the radio until the next time I go online to check them out. The last couple of pages are for “Notes.” That is where I list the books I’ve read during the year (last year that’s where I listed my 20 goals, but it was quite depressing to see that I’d only accomplished a few of them: sent flowers to somebody once each month, read a book a week, was grateful, loved my husband and son, and ate two chocolates per day – I guess they were the important ones).
WHAT I LIKE
What I like most about this calendar is that it is compact, yet roomy enough to write all my notes. At the beginning of the year, I wrote in all of my birthdays and anniversaries and as the days go by I use the lines under each day to jot down happy memories, appointments and notes. I use the page opposite the calendar to jot shopping lists, doodle, write poems, and extraneous thoughts and sometimes even phone messages.
The most surprising aspects have been its durability and flexibility. This calendar lives in the pocket of an organizer that sits over the arm of my recliner. I pull it out and write on it constantly and except for a few dog-eared pages from being shoved into the pocket, it is in perfect condition. I always have it flipped to the current week and none of the pages have ripped off of the spiral binding. I like that even though there is a bit of structure with lines and boxes, there aren’t any headings—I can write whatever I want and make the book my own.
I have also really enjoyed the quotations from people like Marcus T. Cicero: “Life is nothing without friendship” and Kahlil Gibran: “Let your best be for your friend”
WHAT I DON'T LIKE
The only thing I don’t like about this calendar is that there are only 136 pages. With my page-a-day calendar I got 365 of Mary Engelbreit’s drawings and I only get about 70 with this weekly calendar. (But I have a solution that I’ll write about soon.)
FINAL RECOMMENDATION
Anybody who likes Mary Engelbreit’s art already would enjoy this calendar. It would also appeal to anybody who enjoys whimsical art, creativity, and a place to doodle while keeping track of the days going by. The year is still young, so get one of these calendars, and try it out. I think you’d like it.
COMPANY INFORMATION
Mary Engelbreit's The Art of Friendship 2006 Calendar
Mary Engelbreit
Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2005
Trade Cover, Spiral Bound 136 pages
ISBN 0-7407-4909-9
www.maryengelbreit.com
Recommended:
Yes
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bartzone
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Location: Bellevue, WA
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I have never felt certain of my writing, ...only quite certain of my opinions. Chesterton
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