Overdue Book Calendar from Aunt June & Etsy

I admit it... I have an Etsy.com addiction. Last week I bought 3 big over the top gorgeous sem-precious stone rings from DazzleFinger and 2000 year old Roman/Bactrian Glass sterling necklace & earring set from HARDWEARART.

Being on VaCa brings out the interweb shopper in me! I also admit, I have a bling and jewelry addiction problem. Admitting it is the first step. ANYway.....

....Seeing that Aunt June was a Featured artist on the Etsy front page, I discovered & immediately LOVED this Overdue Book Calendar for Institutions & Schools! It's so graphic cool! Cute but not TOO Elementary for my Middle School kids!
The super talented AuntJune has hand drawn illustrations and pages that once you buy it - you'll get a .PDF to download and print for your ENTIRE SCHOOL! Only $30.00! You can print these out and give them to your kids so they can keep track of their due dates VISUALLY! (my kids rarely consult our little printed receipts) I can also see printing a blank one out, laminating it and letting the kids use a dry erase marker ......OR! IF you're really strapped for $$$$ Print out a colour one, laminate it, and put it on your circ desk so kids can see when their book is due!

Here's the amusing description:

"This version of the calendar is intended for institutional use, which is defined as printing and distribution to entire school, business, or library. Books are great, but they cost money, and that is bad. Fortunately, there are libraries, which are great because they let you read books for free! Unless you forget to take them back, and then it costs money again. So, I have designed this handy calendar to help you remember when to take your library books back. Take that, money-grubbing public libraries! (I am kidding, libraries are the best. You should keep books out too long just as an EXCUSE to give them money! Or, just actually donate money. That would probably make more sense.) Every month of this 2011 calendar has space for you to write in 13-15 library books you have checked out along with their due dates. Circle those due dates on the calendar and give yourself an extra reminder! And you can save it, to prove to people that you can read. This year I have also included an "extension" page for months when you may read more than the allotted number of books, as well as a completely customizable page that just has books with a single large space for you to fill in- perfect for recording your favorite (or least favorite) books you read during the year! This printable calendar is emailed to you as a PDF, which you can then print on standard 8.5x11" paper, or take to your local copy shop for printing. Make sure that you have software for opening PDF files (such as Adobe Acrobat Reader,) before you buy this item. Printing instructions are included in the email. Print it out as many times as you want, it is a great gift to give to all of the readers on your gift list! Perfect for classroom use or to teach kids to be responsible for their books. Instructions for calendar download will be emailed to you within 24 hours of purchase. File is 55.6 MB, and may take some time to download. This year, I am also including a version of the calendar without the words "Due By" so that you can write in your own text, if you want to make the calendar a record of what you have read! Download information for BOTH calendars are included in this listing, so it's two for the price of one! Note: Because the calendar is sent as a PDF, which you can reproduce as many times as you want, there is no need to order more than one. If you do, the transaction will be refunded Aunt June/ lauren hunt Copyright 2010 All rights reserved. Buyer is granted permission to use this design for institutional use, which is defined as printing and distribution to entire school, business, or library. "

So, I wrote her and asked if I could use her text & images to blog this out to you, dear readers and also if she ever thought of creating a greyscale blank version (for those of us who can't afford THAT many colour copies!) and she was SO gracious!

"Hi Gwyneth! I would LOVE it if you wanted to blog about the calendar, thank you so much, your blog looks fabulous! Actually, I had meant to include a "colorable" b/w version of the calendar along with the School Year Editions, and the generic one page is an excellent idea too! Having worked in schools, I know that it's not really in the budget of most schools to print a ton of color pages. Anyway, thank you SO much for reminding me, I will get the colorable version included with the files this weekend! Thanks so much for your interest! Lauren"

You may wish to visit the My Aunt June Blog & Flickr feed, too! They're great! She's a talented graphic & fiber artist and photographer, too!

I was SO glad to see the School/Institutional price so that we Teacher-Librarians could respect the copyright and feel virtuous if we made multiple copies! LOVE THAT!

What do you think? What would you do with it? Do you think $30 is a good price? (I do!)


I've always had such good experiences ordering from Etsy.com - it's like the Ebay for artists and hand crafted one of a kind goods. As Martha would say, "It's a good thing!" They even have a whole category called GEEKERY! Where I found this EtchASketch iPad cover from yummypocket ! OMG!


© photos & text used with permission by the artist Aunt June/ Lauren Hunt