2023 Calendar Thing

Several years ago, Lucy Bellwood introduced me to the Unravel Your Year journal-type-thing project. It’s this thick-ass workbook you print out at home that prompts you to think in depth about the year that just concluded, your thoughts on the year approaching, and then provides a space for you to track the months as they actually unfold.

I’ve adapted it to suit me. The sheets that I find valuable, I fill out. The ones that aren’t quite my jam, I skip. The default monthly calendar and writing prompts I now scrap entirely for ones I make myself.

The calendar I designed specifically to fit in one of the decorative picture frames that’s part of a set that I bought on sale. (The only thing I love more than decorative picture frames is scoring them on sale.) In those lined boxes I make one-word notes about anything noteworthy that day: who I saw/called, where I went, period tracking, etc.

In the other frame goes my monthly Accomplishments/Challenges list, which is where I deviate from the Unravel packet the most. That’s the place where I can elaborate a bit more on noteworthy instances, sort of like a sentence-long journal entry. A bullet point list of the events of the month.

Each month I swap in the fresh calendar and Accomplishments/Challenges list and lean them on the shelf behind my desk in my home studio (with a not-quite-life-size photo-cut-out of the aforementioned Lucy cheering me on from beneath them). The picture frame provides a nice hard backing so I can rest my wrist against it while I write my notes.

At the end of the year I go through all my sheets, compiling one massive summary that I lock into a card I give my husband, commemorating another year we’ve experienced together.

The year-end review card is a tradition I started eight years ago, long before Unravel. I’m in the process of compiling 2022 for this year’s card, and I’m up to March so far! I haven’t picked out a card yet for this year. I usually go for something with gold foil because I’m a fool for shiny.

I conclude this post by letting you know that I'm sitting on my couch, typing away, and I looked to my right and there was this:

- just a flag pole of a cat paw, with no other sign of body, jutting out into my sight line.

Happy New Year.