(image from Amazon.com)
Chalk It Up. I dislike inspirational sayings. I very much DO like warped inspirational sayings. “If at first you don’t succeed…skydiving is not for you.” “The early bird gets the worm…but the second mouse gets the cheese.”
(image from Amazon.com)
Color Your Year. Coloring books for grown-ups are everywhere. This is the calendar version. I like that you can FORCE it to match your kitchen. It appeals to me to think of having a can of colored pencils near the calendar, and coloring it a bit at a time, maybe as a family effort.
(image from Amazon.com)
Faerie Houses. Uber-twee!
(image from Amazon.com)
Chihuly. Blown-glass sculptures. But the cover image is by far my favorite one.
(image from Amazon.com)
Charley Harper. I enjoyed the Charley Harper calendar I had a number of years ago, and this one looks so colorful it tempts me to repeat. I appreciate the deer-butt on the cover.
(image from Amazon.com)
Lotta Jansdotter. It was down to this or 1950s Patterns last year for the calendar next to my computer, and I went with the latter. Maybe this year is Lotta’s turn.
(image from Amazon.com)
Kilty Pleasures. Perhaps someone on your list is a big fan of Jamie Fraser of the Outlander series and would like to…explore that subject further.
(image from Amazon.com)
Roald Dahl. Ohhhhh, I’m so tempted. I was very taken with Quentin Blake’s illustrations as a child, and still am. (You can see pictures of the back here.) [Update: sadly now sold out on Amazon. But the second link still has it in stock, if you don’t mind ordering from the UK.]
(image from Amazon.com)
Cats in Hats. I bought Elizabeth the Cats in Sweaters calendar last year, and it was a big success. This seems like a good sequel. I’m hoping for Cats in Pants in 2017.
(image from Amazon.com)
Super Mario Bros. In my cart for one of the kids’ rooms.
(image from Amazon.com)
Peanuts. This taps right into some strong childhood nostalgia.
(image from Amazon.com)
Little Golden Books. Speaking of childhood nostalgia.
(image from Amazon.com)
Pusheen the Cat. We had a Pusheen calendar for our kitchen last year. Normally I would be very disinclined to repeat the same type of calendar two years in a row, but it was fun having a calendar all seven of us liked.
(image from Amazon.com)
The New Yorker Covers. Always the bridesmaid, never the bride: every year it’s a finalist, but I’ve never bought one.
(image from Amazon.com)
Shepard Fairey. I like the look of this. I think what will take it off my list is that there are some months I really don’t like the picture for.
(image from Amazon.com)
Bike Art. My parents have gotten into biking this year. If they still used a wall calendar, this would be a good gift idea for them.
(image from Amazon.com)
Birds in Art. What I like about this is you’d get an assortment of styles: not just Sibley birds, not just Audubon birds, but a mix of a lot of different artists.
(image from Amazon.com)
See America! I love the style, I love the pictures, but I don’t like that they squished down the calendar grid to make the pictures bigger. I need space, SPACE!
(image from Amazon.com)
Every Day’s a Holiday. I think the children would enjoy this, but that I would get weary of the children enjoying it.
(image from Amazon.com)
Farmer’s Market. I had this one a couple of years ago, and it was one of my very favorite kitchen calendars. Paul bought me a couple of prints by the same artist for my birthday.
(image from Amazon.com)
Downton Abbey. I have just recently started watching this show, and I love it so much.
(image from Amazon.com)
Masha D’yans. I’ve had this one as a finalist for several years—and it sells out before I can order. This year I am going to try to make up my mind earlier.
(image from Amazon.com)
Rube Goldberg Inventions. In my cart, probably for one of the kids’ rooms, or maybe for the kitchen since that’s a good place to stand around and look carefully at something while Mother is trying to cook.
(image from Amazon.com)
Animal Portraits. So fancy.
(image from Amazon.com)
The Little World of Liz Climo. I am so charmed by this, I nearly bought it on the spot, mid-post. Fortunately I noticed in time that this is the kind of calendar that has no place to write. I do use a calendar for art, but USEFUL art: I can check the date on my phone, but I want a place on the kitchen wall to write the doctor appointments.
(image from Amazon.com)
Dr. Who. In my cart as a candidate for one of the children’s rooms.
(image from Amazon.com)
SuperGraphic. In the cart for the kids or Paul.
(image from Amazon.com)
Crap Taxidermy. It’s funny to think that some of us will know JUST the person to give this to.
(image from Amazon.com)
Mathematics. I get this for Paul every single year. He uses it as an office calendar, and he and his officemates stand around the whiteboard trying to figure out each day’s problem.
(image from Amazon.com)
Vintage Patent Blueprints. I think one of my two older boys would really like this. It doesn’t have space to write appointments, but they only use calendars as wall art. I am finding too many candidates for their calendars this year.
(image from Amazon.com)
Forest Feast. This makes me think of Catherine Newman and how she and her kids have been doing some fun foraging. No top picture, though: it’s a half-size wall calendar.
(image from Amazon.com)
Beer Labels. It pleases me to think how much my late mother-in-law would have hated this.
(image from Amazon.com)
This is Paris. I suspect a lot of us are feeling more sentimental about Paris than usual this year.
(image from Amazon.com)
Kitchen Happiness. I LOVE THIS ONE. Strong finalist for my kitchen.
(image from Amazon.com)
Things Come Apart. One of the older boys had this one last year, and it was a very satisfying one.
(image from Amazon.com)
Floral X-ray. Strong finalist.
(image from Amazon.com)
The Writers’ House. I love this concept: pictures of authors’ houses.
(image from Amazon.com)
William Morris. I have a mug in the pattern on this calendar’s cover, so it was startling to see it!
(image from Amazon.com)
Flying Mouse. I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking at.
(image from Amazon.com)
Wassily Kandinsky. I like Kandinsky, but I am not sure I want a whole year of Kandinsky.
(image from Amazon.com)
The Book Lover’s Calendar. I don’t generally like The Classics, so this is not the calendar for me. But it immediately grabs my attention as the right calendar for MANY, MANY PEOPLE. I love that the cover shows all twelve books that will be featured.
********
Those are the 2016 calendar candidates! And as usual, I hope you will tell me what calendar you are choosing for the upcoming year, if you ARE choosing a calendar.
I’m not a calendar person (I’d like to be, but I always forget to turn the page until several days into the month and I’m not consistent about writing down appointments and then what is even the POINT?) but I love the animal portraits one! And the Charley Harper one. And the coloring book one is such a great idea! Hmm, this year might be the year I become a calendar person (she says every single December when looking at calendars).
I love your annual calendar post, Swistle. And I don’t have anything to sway you toward or against any of them, I just wanted to share a nice (?) story slightly related to Liz Climo.
As you can see, my name is Lobster, and she has a book called Lobster is the Best Medicine. One day, a few weeks ago, I had almost the worst day of my life. It was awful. All I wanted to do was go home and cry. No one in my life, including my husband, knew about it. The only problem was that I had volunteered to help out at a local roller derby bout, and they were low on volunteers, so I felt like I couldn’t back out.
I called my husband when I left work and asked if he’d go with me to the bout – normally he would sigh and pout a little, but he didn’t that night. We got to the bout and everyone there was so happy to see me. I had so many people come up out of the blue and hug me and say nice things to me. Even better, I had a friend who I hadn’t seen in a while come up and give me a present – it was the Lobster is the Best Medicine book! Signed by Liz Climo! And it was cuter and sweeter than I could have imagined!
I think the universe knew that I was on that brink and took care of me. It was really a huge reminder that My People are the most important thing.
A side note about the book – there is a gentleman I know with my same name (Lobster) who recently passed due to brain cancer. When my friend was ordering the book for me, Liz Climo told her that she had recently signed another book to another Lobster – and it was him! It just made the present more special.
Apropos of nothing, I guess… I just wanted to share. Thanks for listening!
I love this Kate Libby calendar extravagantly. The art isn’t even my style but it’s so cheerful. I keep 3 months at a time up in my cube and it always makes me happy. I think it would be a good teacher gift too.
It was this post last year that made me realize there was a Pusheen calendar, and I bought it for a friend. She LOVED it, but now I am in the same boat as you. I keep wondering should I get it for her again, because she loved it so much? Or is it lame to repeat? We love Pusheen so much (SO MUCH — why is she so charming and perfect?) but I don’t want it to feel like “oh, this again”.
Oops here is the link
https://m.artforeverydayonline.com/kate_libby/
My father-in-law is an extremely talented watercolorist, so we hang up one of his calendars in our kitchen every year. A cheap way to have expensive art in your house (which I’m sure is why you love calendars as well). It’s available here if you want to check it out: http://www.bisskyart.com/shop/sketchbook-2016-monthly-calendar
(Especially good if you love Canadian landscapes, heh.)
Oh, yay! I *just today* started putting calendars in my amazon cart for work. I laughed so hard at Crap taxidermy that I’m buying it. I don’t know who I’m giving it to yet, but it’s definitely right for someone in my life. Maybe me. I was going to get Things Come Apart for our kitchen at work this year but I like rube Goldberg so much, I might get that one instead. Thank you for the timely posting!
You had me at kilty pleasures. :)
I got to Kilty Pleasures and honestly thought it was an Amazon “this is related we swear” ad. And then I looked around guiltily when I realized it wasn’t.
Ooohhh, I love this! I usually just buy whatever Costco has in stock when I’m picking up a cartload of “stuff” but this inspires me…thank you Swistle!
I like to have a calendar at work, mainly to enjoy the pictures. But! Earlier this year all the partitions around our desks were lowered, to encourage teamwork or whatever. So now I don’t have enough wallspace to hang a fullsize calendar. I can only fit either a small calendar or the spiral bound sort, which seriously restricts my choices. Woe!
This is the one I got in the end
http://calendars.com.au/beautiful-gardens-2016-slimline-calendar.html
I’m going on year 3 of the Farmers Market calendar! I’ll have to check out the prints!
This is kind of strange, but I’m absolutely terrified of most taxidermy. I can’t open that link for fear of nightmares.
I get a Paper Source art calendar every year, and I also just got a Rifle Paper travel calendar for my sister-in-law.
I’m liking the Flying Mouse one!
I love this post every year! Thank you Swistle!
Excuse me while I go and buy sixteen calendars now.
I wish I’d seen the Roald Dahl one for my daughter earlier – she read his entire oeuvre and then did her speech on him in grade four and got picked to go to the gym (very big deal, apparently). She’s now in grade seven and they’re reading some of his scary adult stories.
I have a calendar in my kitchen that I use religiously. I usually get an art calendar from Redbubble. Feeling very torn now.
I always love this annual post! Your picks are so eclectic. I do a calendar swap with my cousin who lives in the UK. He usually sends me an awesome calendar from an amazing museum he’s visited. This year I am sending him this one: http://www.amazon.com/Ernst-Haeckel-Art-Forms-Nature-CL53160/dp/9462234361/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1449633948&sr=8-12&keywords=Ernst+Haeckel since he is an art lover and a biology teacher.
You inspired me to order a Pusheen calendar for my sister, which is perfect because she got me the Pusheen book for my birthday! PERFECT! Thanks a bunch! :)
I really love the Pusheen calendar. It comes with STICKERS!
I love the calendar roundup post every year!! I bought four calendars, in addition to the astronomy and farmer’s almanac ones I had already picked up at Walmart. So, 7 total- for perspective, we have 5 rooms in our house including the bathroom (no kids, so just my husband and I in a one bedroom house). ANYWAY, I bought the Super Mario one (the nostalgia!), the Flying Mouse one (because I like things a little weird), and the Liz Chimo one (because hilarious). The coloring one was out of stock, but I found a Secret Garden calendar from the same person who drew the book, which I adore so win-win. I already had ordered a Nikki McClure calendar (I love paper cutting art plus same first name), and the aforementioned Walmart impulse buys. What can I say? I love calendars :)
So irritated with those squished grids. There are so many options I love in that style (cities, national parks, vintage ads) and they all have squished grids this year!
So I went with the “Farm to Table” calendar. Makes me feel pleasantly old-fashioned and rural/farm-y even though I live in the suburbs.
http://www.calendars.com/Farm-to-Table-Wall-Calendar/prod201600004960/
Thank you for this! I got the Liz Climo calendar for my 17-year-old niece and it was perfect. She was delighted!