Getting Inspired

Back in the early 1990s, an artist friend of ours named Gary Hamel gifted us with a handmade calendar.

I thought it was a great idea and it inspired me to start making my own family calendars for Christmas. Like Gary's, my first effort was hand drawn and hand lettered. I included the birthdays and anniversaries of everyone in my immediate family and some pithy sayings (I love pith). It was a hit.

My brother Paul once asked me how many hours it took to make one but I had no idea because I kept getting more elaborate as the technology improved, I could use color, and I learned more and more about desktop publishing.

In really busy years, the Hakalendar became just one more thing I had to do in December and then, like anything that doesn't get attention, it kinda disappeared from my list of things to do.

But my Mom's death brought the need for this sort of family connection back to me. Over the years, we've grown away from the need to get gifts which saves a lot of wear and tear and time. I downsized to what's called a mini-calendar, done on 8 1/2 x 11 sheets folded in half with color and pictures only on the front and back covers.

You can see the Hakalendar in this picture as it developed. Bottom right are folded sheets of paper with the handwriting on them. This is called the dummy. It's a guide to setting up the right months in the right places so that when I print the whole piece, it comes out the way it should.

In the top right, you can see the first print of the calendar done on copy paper. This is the point where I check to be sure that what I've created prints correctly.

Top left is a test print on photo paper of the cover to check the quality. In the middle on the right is the first finished copy printed on the paper I've chosen for this project. This year, with so many past Hakalendars for reference, I was able to fill in something for every day of the year. I also expanded my audience by including all of my first cousins and two aunts.

And I managed to make a contact info list that included everyone, a very handy reference, I think.