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Free Rough Draft SAJ Calendar
Get Your Red Pens Out! Here it is. The FREE pdf rough draft version of my printable calendar. Free for you if you help me catch all my errors. Then I fix my many typos and put the calendar in my shop for a dollar. What a deal!
FREE ROUGH DRAFT CALENDAR CLICK HERE
This year I’ve added some new holiday confusion. Actually, I’ve been confused about this every year. My google calendar no longer includes a bunch of holidays I used to always include. So I’ve been googling when is Spring Equinox? and puzzling over whether I should include the first day of Hannukkah and the last, and then if I do that, should I include Ramadan and how long that lasts? Purim? Kwanza? I don’t know anymore! Minor Jewish Holidays, Orthodox Catholic Holidays? What do I include, and what do I not? I don’t know. I want to be as PC as possible, but I just got lazy and included the minimum. If your favorite holiday is not on there (and I’m not talking about National Pizza Day or Puppy day, that’s a whole OTHER calendar), then message me, and I’ll consider putting it on.
There you go! Long live the old-school paper calendars that can go on the fridge! Do you guys still use these? I actually do. I have so many calendars. I use google calendar on my phone, I have a day planner at my desk, I have a journal and I still forget where to be on what day because I’m a completely distracted creative undiagnosed-but-very-much-like-ADHD sort of person. Paper calendars help! I like the paper version because it’s in my face and obvious on the kitchen refrigerator. I can’t get my milk for my coffee without looking at it. I can put my big appointments and my shift schedule down for Bug because she’s almost a grown-up now, and we rarely see each other anymore. She has a life outside of her mother’s radius of existence, aka her boyfriend got his driver’s license. We are ships passing in the night these days, so a calendar is helpful! (Just teasing. She’s still around. But you know teenagers can be.)
Since we’re talking about calendars, should we talk about the other holiday elephant in the room?
Holiday cards! I’m not going to send one this year. I know. It’s hard. You know how much I love making my own holiday card. I just don’t know how to tell people with a mass mailing that they aren’t going to get the picturesque family shot of the Ponnays this year. It’s too much to explain, and do people even like those cards? They’re so posed and perfectly lit with the fall glow of sunset and cute outfits etc. Do we even like that? I mean, I love making them, and if you need a photographer and graphic designer for your holiday card, please hire me! But for me, it’s just not right this year. It’s too soon. Too much tea.
Bug and I thought up a few parody ideas, but I decided I’d rather save the money for my expensive rent instead. Another reason you should hire me to illustrate your holiday card this year! I can illustrate you in Star Wars costumes, I can illustrate your kids hanging from the chandeliers, and I can illustrate your pets. How hard is it to get a pet portrait for the holidays? Terribly hard! Save yourself the headache and hire me instead. My illustrations also make great gifts. You can get them printed on fancy paper and frame them. I’m up for custom orders! I’ve even dropped my prices. Shhhhh, don’t tell anybody. (I’m faster and better at illustrating than I used to be. One perk of being older.)
Since we’re here in my shop I might as well tell you about my box of books. Not cheap but packed with love. Six books in a cute box that won’t show up weathered by the mail system because I end up putting it in another flat rate box because it’s cheaper. Weird, I know.
There are also SueBea cards! I almost have enough SueBea illustrations to create a calendar. I’m starting a Redbubble shop with Sue Bea products, but I might not have it up in time for Christmas. Does anyone use Redbubble? I’m still clunking around in it and haven’t quite figured it out.
For now, we have Etsy! Look, Little Hoo Christmas Cards! A set of four.
Of course, I can’t talk about the holidays without mentioning my Little Hoo Christmas book. It’s like giving a mouse a cookie…
I didn’t mean to make this into a Christmas Wish list or to push SAJ products down your throat but it is a good time to do a holiday round-up.
For the older kids (7-10ish) who like to repeat
dumbjokes over and over, you might want to pick up Knock Knock Jingle Jingle.I also have a new book out: Goodnight Little Hoo.
If you have littles, you can always use another goodnight book. If you have friends and relatives with littles they’ll like it too.
I’m done selling! So sorry about that. It’s part of keeping afloat in this internet world unfortunately. I’m supposed to promote my work at least once a week, but I hate doing it.
I’ll leave you with a picture of my apartment complex from the golfcourse. Can you guess which window is mine?
Go print out your free calendar!
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Sunrises with Cody
The thing about routines for me is that as soon as I find a good one, life throws me a curveball and I have to work and work at finding a new one. It takes forever. But then I find it and life is at its sweet spot until another curveball comes my way.
Right now Cody and I are at our sweet spot of walking to the sunrise.
We get up before dawn and leash up.
Cody is acting like he’s afraid of the stairs right now. I’m not sure if it’s a mind game he’s playing on me because we did it once when I went down and called to him or if he really dreads going down them. Is he afraid of heights? Do his joints hurt with all that weight he’s carrying around? He stands at the top and requires quite a bit of coaxing from me to get him down. But then when he comes barreling down he seems perfectly fine. I’m not sure. I’m actually really worried about this because it’s not like I can move to a downstairs apartment anytime soon and I don’t know if dog elevators have been invented or if I could even afford such a thing. Maybe a sling? I don’t know. He’s going to the vet on the first of December so I’ll have his joints looked at and see if maybe living upstairs is really bad for him. Cross your fingers it’s a mind game. He’s been known to develop such tics before.
Anyway, we get down and we walk to the park. It’s a bit of a walk. When I first got him I only walked a quarter of the way. He was really overweight and panted a lot and I was worried I might give him a heart attack from too much new activity. We gradually added a bit more distance to our walks every day until now we are clocking about two miles with no trouble. We stop a lot along the way to sniff things and make sure he’s not too tired.
The best stop is a little wooden ledge at the edge of the lake. I think it’s a filter cover or something. It’s the perfect spot to sit and watch the sunrise. (Not counting that it’s usually covered with dew and I desperately need to remember to bring a towel to sit on.) The sun only shines on half of the lake so this is the spot for the best view. When the sun creeps over the mountains and shines up into the clouds it reflects onto the lake in the most amazing ways. I don’t know what it is about symmetry but when I see the reflection of a really pretty sky it just makes me want to take a million pictures.
And I do. Cody takes a rest and I snap away. I love it.
Remember when I lived at the beach and I took a walk to the ocean every day to take pictures? Well, now this is my ocean. It’s a lake! Or a pond…on Golden Pond. I feel so lucky to live within walking distance of it. I don’t even care about the exercise (actually I do). I’m here for the pictures! I schedule my walks so we can be at that spot at the perfect time.
Sometimes I make it. Sometimes I don’t. Sometimes the sky is filled with dynamic clouds that make spectacular pictures and sometimes it’s not.
But we don’t care. We love the view. We love the way the sun warms us up from the cold twilight of pre-dawn. Cody is the best at warming up my feet. He’s like a walking furry heater.
And that’s how I start my day.
I’m giving tours if anyone wants to come along. These are the perks of being a morning person.
I love having a dog. He’s a pain. He has a ton of hair. He slobbers. He’s ruined my white carpet even though I wipe his paws every time we come in from the outdoors. He’s loud and smelly but you know what? He’s my best bud. He loves going on walks with me (after he gets over the scary stairs). He never complains about being bored. He’ll sit with me for hours watching the ducks and the sun changing the colors of the water. Of course, I don’t stay there for hours. I’ve got places to be and things to do but we do sit and enjoy the calm for quite a bit.
I love it. It’s good for my mental health.
We’ll see how long this lasts and try to appreciate it as long as we can. I might get my job back at Ralphs, sunrise times shift as the seasons change, Cody might not be up for so many walks. Who knows! But for right now, it’s sweet.
