A Joyful Riot

If you love the Stendig calendar, you’ll love this free printable version that comes in color! Every month is a new fun color, instead of just black and white but features the minimal style you love.

You know I’m a sucker for the Stendig. As I explain in my last two posts about it (2017 and 2016) though, I can never seem to purchase it in time. So, I usually DIY my own (see linked posts for the how to!). This year, though I decided to do it in color!

I felt like this choice would serve two purposes: firstly, I’d feel less like I was ripping off the amazing original Stendig. Which I only felt okay doing to begin with because they always sell out and I didn’t provide it until after they did. And secondly, it really does match my office/craft room better. And I have to say, I just LOVE how it turned out!

I actually made this calendar last year, at the beginning of 2017. But, 2017 was CRAZY. That’s all I can say. Having my second baby was way more out of control than I had anticipated. My son was sick all. the. time. We’re talking a new sickness every other week and they would last for 7-10 days each. I am not exaggerating when I’d say he goes maybe 4 days of being healthy before he’s slammed with something new. (This trend is still ongoing. He’s sick as I write this and we had three different things through the month of December). There are times when I don’t even get to stop using the Nose Frida on him before I have to start using it again :( It truly is the saddest thing.

In the beginning, he was hospitalized with RSV/bronchiolitis. After already spending a week in the NICU for jaundice. Of course my heart always ached for parents who had to spend time in the hospital with their kids. But having experienced it…it truly is terrible. Words can’t really describe how awful going through that is. Hospitals and worry and sicknesses and the loneliness…it’s an honest nightmare.

Anyway, without going too much into that ordeal, let me just say that yes the year got much better but was still very hard. Otto never slept because he was always sick. And I was always sick with him, I caught everything he did. 2017 was literally the year I was awake and sick. All the time. That’s almost all I did last year!

Haha, no of course I got a lot of other stuff done. But beyond the sickness and tiredness, Otto is very attached to me and has only become more so. My daughter, who is 3, also has become less independent as she sees him cling to me. So all of this added up to make my year very overwhelming, a lot of work, and basically no time left over for myself or my projects. It was hard to get anything done. Hard is an understatement. I had about a dozen posts done and photographed before he was born and still none of them made it to the blog. I honestly felt like I didn’t have a spare few hours to write a freaking blog post.

I’m sure you noticed. The blog took a big hit, post-wise. We just couldn’t get the content up. Malissa had a really busy, trying year at work and we both struggled in other ways. We appreciate your patience with us as we navigated our year! We love A Joyful Riot, and we love sharing our projects and ideas here. We have no plans to stop and we’re thankful you’re here with us!

So anyway, back to my calendar! LOL! I used this all last year and decided that since I never shared it here, I would just update it with the correct dates and finally post it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. I used engineer prints through Staples to get the large size (yes you can do them in color too!) and you could go much bigger! The actual Stendig is 4 feet long and these have good enough resolution to do it that big if you so desire. I just might go that big this year :D

Grab the file of all the months below (sorry January is almost gone!), print them via whatever method you want (even small on your home printer!) and then glue them together along the top and I like to glue a thick ribbon along the top too. Then I pin it into my wall. I cut away each month as they end and save them for wrapping paper! They make super adorable wrapping paper! Get detailed instructions on how to make it in this post. Happy 2018 everyone! Can’t wait to see what this year brings, basically just hoping for sleep though haha.