During the spring and summer, I dreamed up ideas for two 2012 letterpress calendars. My goal was to design and print a small run of each calendar before Elsie arrived. I made these goals during the second trimester of my pregnancy when I had lots of energy and relatively little pain. I took full advantage of that comfort and filled my evenings and weekends with outings and to-do lists. Then, I started to grow much faster, sleep was difficult, I experienced more discomfort and I fought unexpected and sudden bouts of exhaustion.
Still determined to print the calendars, I scheduled myself in the studio and started designing. I went to the coffee shop after work to sketch and brainstorm. Late night hours found me at my home office, plugging all these ideas into Illustrator. In the end, I listened to my friends, my body, and my husband and revised the goal to one calendar. I finished printing it, with help from my friends and my husband (and much resistance from my body) just two and a half weeks before my due date and spent as much time as possible recovering in the bathtub for the next two weeks.
The calendar that came from these efforts is part of my Etiquette in a Post-Emily World line. Each month features a different etiquette note similar to those on my bookmarks and coasters (some are the same; a few are new to the calendar). It's a whole year of living thoughtfully!
I'll put a few in my etsy shop and will have a few on hand at Crafty Bastards next Saturday and the Monster Craft Mash on October 29th.
