The Color Dot Calendar is Published!

A six year journey of persisting. Plus, I need your help creating a farmers market index, quotes that inspired me this week, and exciting updates on the summer reading challenge.

Happy Monday to you! Today, I bring exceedingly exciting news that I have had to keep to myself for way too long.

I am officially published! After six laborious years of producing my own calendar annually, I’m thrilled to share that a publisher has picked up the 2027 Color Dot Calendar!

It is now available for preorder at Bookshop, Amazon, Hudson Booksellers, Wal-Mart, and soon to be at Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, and Target.

Meet The Joy of Color, the most colorful calendar on the market, with a story of hope behind it:

The Joy of Color, a 2027 calendar | Photos by Maxfield Media

At the end of 2019, I sold my first “Color Dot Calendar” in my stationery store with no idea that the world's landscape would shift at the start of 2020. The lockdown hit, and in its wake, my little store was shut down before it barely had a chance. I purged most of my inventory and decided to close up shop, but a rallying cry from customers came forth. They wanted another color dot calendar.

I guess in the midst of collective hardship, the monthly color palette flip brought a lot of people a lot of joy, and they didn’t want a year without it on their wall. The fact that anything I make could be a comfort to someone in their own space is the highest honor I could think of, so I figured out a way to keep it up.

The calendar is the sole tradition I maintained from my storefront, and the only physical product I have made for years. Despite no longer having a warehouse or a team to help, I’ve self-published calendars annually for 6 years to maintain the beloved “calendar club.”

I’ve bribed many a friend with pizza to pack orders. When I was a teacher, a group of high schoolers helped me ship them all after school for a week. I’ve filled every inch of my apartment with hundreds of prints, packing tape, and boxes until it was unlivable. My grandparents even packed and shipped orders with me last year. It’s been a great time, but also a costly one. Printing prices skyrocketed, and I had to raise prices steadily over the years just to break even. Last year, they were $40 plus shipping because I was a solo producer.

I am THRILLED to share that the price is now $16.99, because I have a group of publishers behind the product. I am so relieved to have reduced the price, and am more proud than ever about the quality of the product itself.

This year, the design is a more traditional square calendar with a smooth and durable print finish. Each month features a palette, a seasonal bucket list, and a full spread of dates with space to write within. It’s the best one I’ve ever made.

In addition, they will be available globally in stores! The calendar releases on July 21st, and then they will be out in the wild on store shelves.

I will need your help spotting them! I have no idea which stores and which regions they will appear in, but maybe we can make some sort of map together if you catch a glimpse of one on your indie bookstore run or local Barnes & Noble.

This is my first published work, so I am new to all the ins and outs, but I have learned one significant thing about the publication process. Although it feels a bit strange to preorder a calendar so far in advance, preorders are the most significant determining factor for booksellers to place an order. Basically, if a book (or calendar) has a good number of preorders, booksellers feel more confident about carrying it in their store.

So if you’d like to help my grand scheme of a mass color dot takeover, preordering is the best way to support! Plus, you’ll likely forget about your order and be delighted by your past self when it arrives at your doorstep in July.

How it started, How it's going

I found a photo of myself and the first edition of the calendar, when I was 21 years old. I got a little emotional when I realized she and I still pick the same nail color. I wish I could tell her that things would get so much better.

A Note On Sticking It Out:

While it appears cute and colorful, the calendar process often felt like the farthest thing from cute and colorful. Six years of losses and few gains, late nights packing after a full-time job, deciding each year if I could swing it again, and navigating the annual emotional reminder that I no longer had the store I had started with.

I think much of the language on the internet, especially in the creative entrepreneurship space, makes frictionless, instantaneous growth seem like the dream path forward. So much so that when things were not easy, I thought I must have failed.

But I don’t think efficiency and creativity are all that compatible.

I guess I wonder if it were that simple, is it even worth doing? Going faster always appeals to me, and yet always produces something I’m not that proud of.

If it takes six years, is it worth it to me? What if it takes ten? Or twenty? Or more? And if I answer a resounding, brave, “yes,” then I have likely found the very thing I should keep doing

And in that case, I can feel that freedom. I have time. If work is challenging me, if it feels difficult sometimes, that is an indication that I am growing. And growth is supposed to feel like friction. Creativity is supposed to stretch you, embrace you, and challenge you once more.

At some point, probably in a puddle of tears, it finally clicked that the work had to be about the joy of doing it, not the results. (It’s still clicking, honestly. Working on not measuring myself in the metrics I make up for myself.) I love the act of writing this newsletter so much that if it disappeared overnight, I’d hope I’d pick it right back up because I love writing and designing.

Note to younger me: you don’t need to go faster, you only need to work. Be so absorbed in learning, trying, testing, and developing actual excellence in your skills that you don’t have time to compare yourself or your work to anyone else. Just make, and have peace about it. You have more time than you think.

Cheers to things that take time. Meals that aren’t instant taste a lot better.

And thank you to those who have diligently supported so many iterations of this colorful reminder of joy, my little calendar. Your delight compounds mine. There really isn’t anything more significant to me about work than knowing it is living with you and making you feel a sense of joy. That some color, some words, something I made gave you a moment of hope.

Celebrating a new chapter for the project with you, because of you!

✸ The Summer Reading Challenge is going STRONG! Over 950 readers have signed up to read 15 fiction books before the end of July in order to be entered to win a very spectacular prize. A new hint: the prize includes a very generous gift from Book of the Month. Join the challenge and learn more here. Readers, how are you doing on your goal? I’ve only finished one book so far, but it seems some of you are chugging through much quicker! Be sure to check the Feeling! chat for lots of reader recommendations and motivation. *You can enter the challenge for 15 books, and also enter your kids for 30! Hope it makes summer even better!

✸ If you are longing for summer, start in the kitchen. Here are some of my favorite recipes for making your home feel like a beach bodega (including a playist to really bring it all together).

✸ If you need some more encouragement about good things taking time, read this.

✸ When home feels a bit stagnant, or the summer heat is keeping you indoors, I wrote a guide for making your space feel more creative to help you set up your space for more imagination.

This week, I am taking you on a “7 Things We Love” adventure in my camera roll! A slice of life lately.

1. Birthstone Necklace: I found Joiana Jewelry online and was immediately enamored with the birthstone collection from their small business. I think the oval framing of the gem, with a beautifully vibrant color hugging it, felt so different than anything I’ve seen before! I have the ruby stone with the silver cuff. The package arrived with an adorable “make a wish” birthday candle. The whole experience would make a spectacular birthday gift.

2. Dual Colored Pencils: Why have one color when you can have two? The new Caran d’Ache x Paul Smith pencils glide like butter on the page. I’ve been taking the little tin of pencils, my sketchbook, and an iced chai to the roof to work on greeting card designs.

3. My first-ever press-ons: I keep my nails pretty short, so I didn’t think press-ons were for me. My friend Maddy took me to Chillhouse, and as we browsed beautiful designs, she said a sentence that changed my life: “You know you can just cut and file them?” No, I actually did not know that for some reason. That very obvious thought had never occurred to me in all my years. So here I am with a homemade $16 Chillhouse manicure that I can’t stop looking at.

4. Tortoise Shell Sunglasses: This is my friend Naz and I, waiting on the train on the hottest day of the summer so far. Unbeknownst to us leisurely folk, this was the day of the Coney Island Marathon. We couldn’t fit on a train because every square inch was packed with runners. So we let one pass, and were determined to sardine in the next. We survived smells we shouldn’t have had to. But I did get to sport the best pair of sunglasses in this unfortunate series of events. I absolutely love these frames from Krewe because they are timeless, durable, and I like seeing through the color of the lens (something I am picky about).

5. Bag of the Summer: The Joyn Bowler Bag is my favorite for toting around for a quick errand. It enhances every outfit I have! I also love Joyn’s brand story and learning about their making process. The interior of the bag is block-printed by hand on fabric in their workshop at the base of the Himalayas.

6. Chunky Shell Ring: I keep wearing this statement ring because, despite the NY rainy days, I am declaring it summer. Shells, salt air, and sunshine, please. It’s maybe the most compliments I’ve ever received on a piece of jewelry — and it’s only $28!

7. Breezy White Summer Top: This top has a big color, ruffles, and bows, so it’s very worth having in your rotation. I love pairing it with denim or flowy linen pants.

The Farmers Market Index

I need your expertise! Summer is almost here, and I am creating an index of farmers’ markets globally, with your best recommendations. You have good taste, so I need your help here.

I want to highlight and uplift small businesses that make incredible food you love. Please, briefly think of your very favorite market vendors, and then refer to the comments to contribute your entry.

Include: The city/location of the market, the name of the market if you know it, the name of the vendor, and what we should order from them. (The more entries you have, the better! The more details, the better!)

I am going to turn your assistance into a beautiful guide for easy reference in an upcoming publication.

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Thank you all for your thoughtful words. My favorite part of making this newsletter is talking to you directly. It means a lot to me when you leave a comment, thought, or feeling. Truly, the best place on the internet!

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Thank you, Hailey Howe, for your lovely work on Feeling! Magazine Graphics! You made this Monday Letter magical! We will all miss you on your maternity leave!

P.S. Telling my Substack friends before anyone else…new secret Instagram for the upcoming greeting card business is here. I would love to have you join the journey and see some familiar names!

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JOY-SCROLLING:

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Working with brands and businesses helps me make this magazine dream come true! If I do work directly with a brand, I am very picky about it, and I disclose the partnership to you, my readers. A few of the links I included in this article are from ShopMy, which gives a small payment if someone buys a product from a recommendation. This helps fund future creative projects for this publication — thank you!