Just put to bed: this little baby . . . the Mothering 2011 calendar.
Once again, we’ve found some really stunning photos by many of our favorite photographers. Keep an eye out for it, or preorder yours here.
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Calendar cover photo of photographer Stephenie Dame (yes, I said “of”), whose work you may have seen in our pages recently (and whose mom was operating the camera this time).
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Tags: calendar, mothering 2011 calendar, stephenie dame
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PANIC!
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According to Mel’s possibly-nonexistent-but-who-cares-because-it’s-great-entertainment Daily Calendar of Interesting Days, today is Panic Day, a day on which, I”m told, everything is worth making a fuss over, and everyone speaks loudly and urgently, in all caps and with a lot of exclamation points.
Which was a huge relief for me, having just last night ACCIDENTALLY KILLED MY LAPTOP!!!!
NOOOOO! UNDO, UNDO, UNDO!!
It was nice to know that not only was I allowed to panic, I was encouraged to do so—and had good company in the panicking. Mel and Melissa were admirably supportive, launching into histrionics as I told my woeful tale of getting up off the couch (NO, not the COUCH!) and tripping on the cord (ANYTHING but THAT!!) and pulling the laptop onto the hard floor (THE FLOOR! OMG!). Needless to say, we laughed a lot throughout the day, which went a long way toward helping me deal with the loss of my five-year-old electronic sidekick.
And meanwhile, Associate Publisher Lally O’Mara McMahon restored my will to live by ordering a new trip-proof Mac for me.
OMG! OMG!! A NEW COMPUTER!! I CAN’T STAND IT!!!
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Photo of the cheery production department white board
Tags: calendar, computer, laptop, melissa chianta, melyssa holik, panic, white board, whiteboard
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So there’s this thing we say at our house first thing on the first day of a new month.”Rabbit!”
Not sure why, but it has to do with good luck. Also not sure where I heard this, or even when I started doing it. Hadn’t really wondered where it came from til today, so I looked it up. Good old Wikipedia.
Apparently, we’re not the only ones with this tradition.
Nick, my nephew who is in the Peace Corps in Mali, is particularly good at remembering to Rabbit. It’s been a little surreal to get Rabbit emails from him on those occasions when he’s been able to get to an internet cafe on some dirt road in some sleepy village in west Africa. These emails don’t necessarily arrive on the first of the month, but we’ll not get picky, considering the circumstances.
OK. Must get back to the March-April issue. Almost done.
So, rabbit, everybody! And happy February . . .
Photo is of our kitchen calendar, featuring art by Rodney White, an illustrator whose positive outlook and dry sense of humor (in addition to the style of his work—love those textures!) I particularly enjoy. His tongue-in-cheek sayings, painted into each work, often cause me to do a double-take. This one: “I’d rather be. . .”
There’s some gorgeous stuff on his site. Check it out.
Tags: calendar, february, first of month, illustrator, mali, new month, nick, rabbit, rodney white
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Today is Popcorn Day.*
It is also, around these parts, a snow day.
Which makes it very, very difficult to focus on the tasks at hand (i.e. the March–April issue of the magazine, should, say, we might want to have one this year). Gulp.
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*This, according to Mel’s very entertaining calendar, which none of the rest of us in the office have seen and might doubt the existence of except that it makes work much more fun if we believe.
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Photos of the in-honor-of-the-occasion Especially Buttery Popcorn Mel brought in today. And a chair in our back yard this morning.
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You know how there’s this voice in your head that sometimes says things like “GO back into the house right now and put on a slip!” or “SMILE at the grouchy waiter—he’s having a bad day”. . .? That voice of instruction/barometer of appropriateness, your own internal dialogue of “thou shalts” . . . your mom’s voice?*
Well, I hear the mom voice, too, of course. Who doesn’t? But when it comes to design, I hear an altogether different voice: that of Robin Williams. (Yes, THE Robin Williams,** and, no, not the actor!)
I had the good fortune to take a class on typography from Robin in 1997 and have not been the same since. (For lots of reasons, which I’d love to talk about, including the fact that she’s now a very dear friend, but because I’m under deadline and not really supposed to be doing anything but layout, I’ll have to elaborate later.)
One of Robin’s better known maxims regarding design—one that has appeared in her design books—is “Don’t be a wimp.” I hear that one quite often.
But the phrase I hear at least once a day is something Robin said repeatedly in class: “Trust your eyes . . . . You know what you’re doing. Just look!” Many, many times over the past 12 years, that reassuring call to be present and trust myself has helped me over a creative hurdle and on to the next challenge.
OK. As Robin often says, “Anon!” Back to layout!
More about Robin later. . .
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*We included one of Mothering publisher and editor-in-chief Peggy O’Mara’s bits of wisdom along these lines in our 2009 calendar: “The way we talk to our children becomes the inner voice they hear.” (Kind of makes you think twice, doesn’t it?)
**Macintosh computer users around the world practically worship Robin for her witty, easy-to-understand tomes on all things Mac, but she’s also written brilliant books on design, typography, font management, podcasting, web design, and . . . and an in-depth look at a surprising candidate for the authorship of the works of William Shakespeare.
Image scanned from one of Robin’s 50+ books, Beyond the Mac Is Not a Typewriter (1996). Part of what I love about Robin’s books—besides the fun, sassy tone—is the wackiness of the examples she uses. Who knew learning could be such silly fun?
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Tags: apple, calendar, design, mac, macintosh, maxims, Peggy O'Mara, quotation, robin williams, wimp
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Woo-hoo! Just shipped the Mothering 2009 calendar to the printer! Huge relief. High-fives, cartwheels, and the riotous honking of horns!
Ahem.
We now return to the regularly scheduled issue already in progress.
Tags: calendar
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