2012 is coming. It’s calendar time!

Happy day after the day after Christmas to all! It’s hard to believe the holiday came and went so quickly. We had tons of fun celebrating the Bean’s first Christmas this year, and the fun’s not over yet! Our family keeps ringing in the holiday cheer well past New Year’s, so there’s still plenty of holly jolly ahead of us. Oh happy day!

Speaking of New Year’s, the end of December means that it’s time to broach the old how-will-I-continue-to-keep-my-life-in-order-when-January-1-comes-and-my-calendar-runs-out-of-pages dilemma. Despite my reliance on computers and love of iCal, there’s something about the old-fashioned method of day planning that I find incredibly satisfying. I like to make notes of important days, write down my to-dos and revel in the unreasonably fulfilling act of checking things off as I complete them. And now that I have the Bean occupying a good 90 percent of my brain power and energy, I’ve found that having those important days and to-dos noted on a calendar is only half the battle. If it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. And my mommy mind is a mite bit sleepy these days.

Alas! I found a solution! This handy DIY calendar is super simple to put together (seriously, just five easy peasy steps and you’re ready to roll), and it’s cute enough to hang up right there in the open. Just a frame, some fabric and a bit of open wall space. Voila!

What you’ll need:
• frame with glass front
• ½ yard of burlap, twill or other heavy, textured fabric
• thin permanent marker
• dry-erase marker
• ruler

1. Cut your fabric 1 inch longer and 1 inch wider than the size of the opening in your frame (the extra length will allow the fabric to stay taut once the frame is put back together).

2. With the fabric turned vertically and starting at least 2 inches down from the top edge, use your ruler and marker to make a calendar grid that’s seven boxes wide and six boxes tall. [Note: This might take a little bit of unwelcome math to get a uniform look. To keep things simple, I went with 1 ½-by-2-inch boxes, which meant I started by tracing one large box that was 10 ½ by 12 inches, then marked one row every 2 inches down and finally one column every 1 ½ inches across.]

3. Use the marker to write the corresponding days of the week above each column. You can also use the ruler and marker to add a larger box above the grid that will serve as a place to write the changing name of the month.

4. Put the frame back together with the grid-marked piece of fabric lined up behind the glass opening.

5. Using the dry-erase marker, write the name of the month in the space above the grid, and number the boxes to match.

And that’s all there is to it! How do you plan to keep track of your busy schedule in 2012? A write-it-all-down day planner? Totally digital? A haphazard stack of Post-its? Do tell!

Looking for more calendar fun? Check out last year’s calendar here. Yahoo, organization!