Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Calendar Fun

When I was growing up one of the things I enjoyed the most on January 1st. was sorting through our big pile of calendars to decide which ones we would be using in the new year. It took a lot of careful consideration since the pictures in those calendars were the only pretty things we could hang on our walls and none of us wanted to be stuck having to look at a picture we didn't like for an entire month.

Things seem to be changing and businesses don't hand out calendars like they used to and today when I wanted to hang a new calendar I was faced with the fact that I didn't have much of a choice. In fact we had only one calendar so the decision which one I want to hang was very easy.



It made me feel a little sad. We used to have so much fun with old used calendars. The nicest ones were saved to be turned into scrap books which would be then be given to anyone in the community who was sick or disabled.

Nice oversized ones were taken apart, covered with clear contact paper, and used for writing pads.

 
And when we were little children Mom used to take the ones we liked the least and cut the numbers apart on one page and then handed us another page and a bottle of glue and we matched all the numbers. We were always sad when all the calendars had been used up in that project.


 
Later on we would chose our favorite pictures and place them on a piece of wood. After pouring a clear acrylic coating over them one of my brothers would create puzzles with them on the jigsaw.
 
Every calendar always provided so much enjoyment that I think it's sad they don't seem to be as important as they used to be.
 

12 comments:

  1. I love that you used things and reused them over and over-everything seems to be thrown away now, sad! Your stories make me yearn for the simpler times. Thanks for sharing them.

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  2. Your nifty ideas made me think of the envelopes that I still sometimes make from old wall calenders. I think I did a post about them once.

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  3. Great ideas, wonderful memories!

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  4. I don't know that I would have ever thought to make a puzzle out of old calendar pictures. Very creative.

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  5. What a happy post--this is something that I know I would have loved doing, too...carefully choosing the very prettiest and best calendar to enjoy all year long. I love that your mom made a fun matching game out of the old catalogs. I'm curious how you turned old calendars into scrapbooks. Do you have any that you could share a few photos of?

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  6. Gosh, it's been a long time since I thought about the way businesses used to hand out calendars every year.

    Nowadays, about the only ones I get are the tiny kind realtors mail out - the ones that stick to the refrigerator. They aren't of any use, so I just throw them away.

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  7. My mother used to belong to every organization in the country, and we had calenders galore. Now I get a "free" one from Colonial Williamsburg, which has lovely photos, and I buy one from House Mouse Designs, which has simply delightful drawings! I do offer those to other moms - even framed one picture to hang over my doctor's scales - but never thought of jigzaw puzzles. Good idea!

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  8. That your brothers took the time to make a jigsaw puzzle for you is a testament to the closeness of your family. My kids are so busy on the computer or with their friends I doubt they'd ever do this for one another.
    If only we could take all the good, and none of the bad!

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  9. My mom used to get a Norman Rockwell calendar every year. I enjoyed looking at those pictures. I haven't seen one like that in a long time. Nowadays, my calendar is rather simple, since I want one with large spaces to write in I usually buy a medium sized desktop calendar and hang it on my fridge. They don't have the pretty pictures :(

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  10. I must have brought some good karma on myself - yesterday I picked up my car at the repair shop and got a free calendar with photos of antique cars and trucks. My 10-year-old had to examine every photo before I could hang it up.

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  11. Late to post, but I was in Dollar General yesterday. They had a great selection of large wall calendars with pretty photos for $1. Among the themes were Americana, Barns, Birds, Butterflies, Cats. Dogs, Horses, and Psalms. There were smaller versions of the same calendars for 50 cents. I don't know if you have a Dollar General nearby, but it might be worth the trip if you're not happy with the calendar you have.

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Thank you so much for taking time to comment. I love hearing your thoughts.