A calendar, at its stripped-down essence, is little more than grid with numbers, one grid piled on another till at last a year zips by.
Ah, but there are endless ways to tick through that year. We’ve herded a flock of calendars for the year that’s now upon us. So pick your personality profile and find a grid to match.
The Kid Who Won’t Grow Up
Who doesn’t want to doodle on the chalkboard? The Doodle, a Chalkboard Calendar, from Workman Publishing, comes with four sticks of colored chalk, an eraser, and fold-down pocket to keep things tidy. You can scribble a message to passersby, or make like Monet and delight yourself 365 days a year with your doodles.
$13.99
workman.com
The Hectic Mama
We’ve not met a mama who is not tied in knots trying to keep her household from dissolving into mayhem. This BusyBodyBook Personal & Family GRID Organizer might be the holy grail of grids. It’s a week at a glance, but the trick is that it’s got five columns, side by side, so you can keep five lives organized at once. It’s spiral-bound and includes a book mark/ruler, pockets for tucking in odd bits, perforated to-do lists (we love these), and a weekly doodle page for scribbles. No wonder the BusyBodyBook won awards from a slew of folks — Parenting magazine and iparenting media, among them — who understand the pitfalls of keeping a family afloat.
$17.95
busybodybook.com
The Creative Wonder in the Corner Office
Who says you’re too old to play with stick-together stacking blocks all day long? From made by humans, a Canadian award-winning design firm, this Puzzle Calendar releases your inner builder. (Do you think the folks at Stonehenge had this much fun?) You can build a new calendar every month, and, for red-letter days, you can employ the little icon blocks to flag the special occasions. The instruction sheet shows you seven different ways to build your calendar. Oh, and it’ll last forever.
$12.50
mcachicagostore.org
The Aesthete
So you take your beauty with a dash of practicality? Then this good-looker from Snow & Graham might be the one for you. Beloved for their signature letterpress illustrations, Snow & Graham tacked on a tidy write-on grid for 2011 to assist you in keeping track of your life. By the end of the year, you’ll have 12 gorgeous pages, each one suitable for framing. And if all goes according to grid, you’ll have known where to be and when till the year comes gliding to an oh-so-lovely end.
$27
snowandgraham.com
The Elegant Gentleperson
It’s a classic, to be sure, and one of the best sellers from Moleskine, the legendary notebook folk. One of the classiest gents we know says this is his must-have. “So nice to hold in one’s hands; plenty of room to write inside,” says he. The Large Soft Cover Weekly Notebook Diary/Planner is his No. 1 choice, and Moleskin’s biggest seller. The Moleskine has been around for two centuries, used by artists and intellectuals who defined 20th Century culture, including Hemingway, Van Gogh, and Matisse. It’s elegant and minimalist, and we think it makes sublime art of keeping life in order. Week at a glance on the left, ruled page for notemaking on the right.
$15.95
moleskineus.com
