Young House Love

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Our Free Annual Calendar Download

This time of year we tend to feel behind on just about everything: projects, emails, present wrapping, cleaning, proper hygiene… but by some miracle, we’re actually ahead in one department: making our homemade family calendar.

As many of you know, for the last five years we’ve whipped up a simple-yet-colorful calendar in Photoshop. A few of you (like Lauren and Alexandra) have even asked if we had this year’s ready yet (since we like to share the customizable template, in case you need a last minute gift). So I’m relieved to exclaim “the deed is done!”

Calendar Just January

It doesn’t usually serve as our note-riddled family calendar (that’s what Sherry’s desktop planner is for) but it’s more of warm & fuzzy overview of the month that we can glance at and smile while quickly checking dates or counting down to certain events. Each year we inject some meaningful elements – inside jokes in 2010, family stats in 2011, Clara pics in 2012, and sort of a hybrid of those in 2013.

Calendar Past Years

We loved 2013’s pairing of Instagram photos with funny Clara quotes so much that we decided to go that route again – just with a new design. And for the first time we designed around a standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper to eliminate any need to cut off excess, and to allow for a bit more space/function for the actual date part of the calendar.

Calendar The Breakdown3

The bigger size also made room for a bigger picture size: 4 x 4″ – which just so happens to be a standard print size for sites like Snapstagram or PicPlum. So if you don’t trust your home printer to do your photos justice, you can spend $6 on real prints and stick them right on to each page. That’s what we’re planning to do, so we’ve printed all of ours with just a gray placeholder box while we wait for our prints to arrive (we ordered from Snapstagram this time).

CalendarSpreadOut

And as usual, we’re sharing our template so you guys can download the calendar and tailor it to your own photos/quotes/worldly desires. I’ve tried to make it less complicated this year (i.e. fewer layers to mess with), so…

    1. If you can edit .PSD files, you can just download the Photoshop version (click that link to do so) with ready-to-edit text in the quote area (you may need to download both fonts used: Adamas and Multicolore).
    2. If Photoshop isn’t your jam, you can download a PDF version (click that link to do so) where the quote area is left blank (that way you can hand-write in your own text).

In both versions, you’ll need to add your own photo either digitally or by attaching a real 4 x 4″ print like we plan to do with ours.

Calendar Download Options

And just for kicks, here’s a look at the quotes and photos that we chose for each of our 12 months this year. Kinda makes us wish there were more months in the year, cuz Clara can be pretty quotable. That and it’d probably give me more time to squeeze in a shower.

Calendar All Months

What are your calendar plans for 2014? Do you have a go to source every year? Do you prefer a purely functional planner or wall calendar with lots of space to scribble? Do you go for something sweet and decorative, just for checking dates at a glance? Are you one of those 100% electronic folks with everything on your phone? Or do you fall somewhere in between? One more question. Who knew there were so many questions to ask about calendars?

Comments

  3. Brenda says

    I’ve moved to keeping everything on my Google calendar now that I have a smart phone, but I like having a wall calendar, too. When I’m on top of things I write out five weeks at a time on my big whiteboard calendar. I work at a dentist office, so I stare at calendars and schedules all day long, but I would love it so much more if my work calendars were as fun as yours!

    Reply

  5. Kathleen says

    Thanks so much for the calendar template. I had a calendar printed for my mom for Christmas but I forgot to get one for myself ! I use a paper calendar and my husband and I share a google calendar…It works for us ! I too have a notebook that I write down funny quotes from my kids. My son is now 8 years old and it is fun to go back and read with him….he can’t believe some of the things he said as a toddler. My 3 year old daughter provides me with funny stuff everyday ! Merry Christmas to you and your family !

    Reply

  6. Cheryl says

    This is Adorbs.com/hilarious.amazing

    These moments are the stuff being a parent are all about, aside from the quotes. What a fantastic thing to see today when I’m having a tired-burned-out Mommy morning. Clara is such a gift and so is motherhood. Thanks for the beautiful reminder.
    Merry Christmas to one of my favorite families!
    Xo

    Reply

  8. danielle says

    i’m usually a phone-synced-to-desktop-synced-to-ipad kind of girl, but this is just so cute i’d love to play on photoshop to make one of our new little monkey. monkey CHILD. not monkey.

    do you end up binding it somehow or just using each page as needed?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We just keep each page separate and flip the front one to the back of the stack (we punch holes and hang them all on the hook, and then flip/rotate them).

      xo
      s

  12. Jen says

    These are HILARIOUS! So clever of you to keep track of these.
    Off topic from this post – but I totally think you guys should do a post about where certain items from your last house have ended up in this house!

    Merry Christmas Petersiks!

    Reply

  14. lesismore says

    i saw this post, and went right to work ordering prints and printing out the calendar. cannot wait to have an amazing calendar with pictures of my family all year long. we’ve got a couple crazy kids at our house too, so the kid quotes are endless. i love that idea. something to make you smile every time you see it. ;)

    Reply

  15. amyks says

    Dying…the pictures are so adorable and the quotes are just the best. I would smile every time I got to turn the page. Clara seems like such an awesome kid! Merry, Merry to all of you.

    Reply

  16. Kayla says

    The January picture with Clara, John and the chopsticks cracks me up every time I see it! That is such a hilarious face! Paired with the quote is just perfection.

    Reply

  18. Lynnski says

    My daughter used to attend a cooperative preschool called Sunnyside. One of my favorite quotes from when she was about three:

    “Sometimes we go to Sunnyside, and sometimes we go to Home Depot.”

    Thanks for the Claraisms and the memories!

    Reply

  20. Tracy K says

    August=awesome! It’s a tie with December for my favorite. Who thinks like that? She must keep you constantly entertained! I love it & thank you for sharing!

    Reply

  21. Fara says

    Thanks for sharing! I’ve been slacking on finding a calendar for next year because I wanted something a little different. This is perfect!!

    Reply

  24. Janet Ferrari says

    Thanks for the great calendar! Such a fun present to make for the grandparents-and it was the last one that I did. We had some good one liners from our daughter Morgan (4.5 years old)! {I tried to a upload a pic of the calendar, but I’m not that savvy}.
    Thanks again!
    Janet Ferrari

    Reply

  26. Heather S says

    I loved reading Clara quotes. It’s always so adorable to hear what little ones have to say. I had to read them out loud for my husband to hear. I knew as a dad he could appreciate them. His favorite was skipping. I can’t pick a favorite! :)

    Reply

  27. Peggy De Leeuw says

    I love your calendar templates AND your blog !
    It’s an amazing place to learn al sorts of things.
    Thank you so much for all of that.

    Have a nice holiday and I wish you and your (growing) family all the best !

    Reply

  28. Hannah says

    Oh my goodness, I melt! Clara says the cutest things. The feet clapping one is so sweet. Great calendar Petersiks! Love the designs.

    Reply

  29. DeNacho says

    love the calendar templates! i would be very interested if you guys posted a how-to on doing one from scratch. i’m versed enough in PS to edit the one you provide, but would love to create my own but can’t seem to figure out all the details. any chance of that in the future?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Sure, that could be fun to do sometime. Generally speaking we just use the line tool to make the squares or crosses for the day boxes and then we use the type tool to add the numbers and try a bunch of fun fonts for the titles and drag in the image (sized consistently on each page) for the visual at the top.

      -John

    • DeNacho says

      thanks John! i would absolutely be interested in seeing that. i was able to get the basics of making one but i bet i’m making it waaaay harder than it has to be since i’m guessing mhy way around! mine is looking pretty good but it took me over 6 hours just to get a “template” down that i can use for each month. and even then it takes me a couple of hours to modify each month with the correct dates on the correct days. so i’m definitely doing something here the hard way!

  31. Retrosmith Design Co. says

    My goodness Clara makes me laugh so hard! I have now read her quotes out loud to all in my house and everyone thinks she’s the most hilariously cute bean in the world. How does she come up with this stuff?

    Reply

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