I have a couple of pages from the planned 2017 Cutetropolis calendar to show off, and I also have a question for you (see poll in sidebar):
Today I got a sample of the 2017 Cutetropolis wall calendar. I wanted to see an example of the printing quality of the print-on-demand service I plan to use, and the results were encouraging. I still have more writing and polishing to do, but here’s a preview of two pages. Let me know what you think.
I also added a poll to the sidebar to find out how many readers would buy such a calendar. Please vote only once and be as honest as you are able; I need a reliable number so that I can know how many copies to order. Thank you.
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Mike, I’m gonna buy more than one!?
….and when the year is over, it goes on the table as a precursor and place-holder for the much-anticipated coffee table book….yes?
Oooooo…good plan! I like it!??
I too have to have one. Cute calendars are kind of my thing. And yes, I voted.
It’s quite appealing, but I don’t use paper calendars anymore for anything other than visual appeal. I receive a family one as a gift each year, so I see pix of my nieces & nephews throughout the year, and I’ve been buying the Mr. Winkle one for more than ten years (I can’t help it). I really love your site, and check it several times/day because I love to be surprised by what you present, but to only see one story for a whole month…questionable.
Thank you for the feedback. Anything more elaborate than a wall calendar is out of my reach this year, and I know that’s not a good fit for everyone.
We will be content with a wall calendar! We must temper our unbridled excitement with the realization that 365 is a LOT more than 12 for 1person to come up with. Maybe after a few more years’ of posts for using…..maybe someday a weekly like a planner!! NTMTOM, we are just so glad that you have so willingly stepped in to fill the void we will indeed appreciate all you give us!!
And to answer your question – definitely put me down for at least 2!
Ditto!
I agree with Sumo-Mermaid. I think your artistry is not best captured with a calendar. A big part of the “fun” with your blog is to read the writing first, then see the photo, because the photo is always completely unexpected (twisted in a spectacularly good way). With a calendar, the input comes with the photo first and then the writing. When the photo comes first, the surprise factor is gone. In the “attack” sample above (April 2017), because I could see the dog and destroyed stuffie first, the writing was expected.
I don’t think I would buy one. I would rather do an annual donation to the cause.
I stopped buying the Cute Overload calendar when they went from the “homegrown” daily pic format to the one stock photo a month format. The calendar in the latter years lost its charm and became, sadly, just a calendar.
As I think about how to “keep the fun” – If you allotted twice the number of pages to each month, you could have the text only first (using both the top and bottom), then when you flipped the page up, you could have the photo (on top) and calendar on bottom with the “hovertext” as the “title” for the month’s photo. It would be more expensive, but probably not double the cost. A format like this would also serve as “practice” for a book.
This is very good feedback, Julie, thank you.
I agree with Julie’s observations, but would probably buy one. I, too, was most delighted with the CO daily calendar and not the monthly. I regret that I didn’t save all the years of the daily.
I miss the CO daily calendar. I still have a number of pages around my desk at work; they have moved cubes with me several times now. I have the mini wall calendar this year, but that was a compromise, plus I didn’t see any other small wall calendars I really liked. I also have the Grumpy Cat page-a-day, but that has a lot of repeats from last year so I don’t think I’ll get that one again. Not sure what I’ll get for next year’s daily. I would certainly consider a NOMTOM calendar, but I won’t make any promises.
Agree with Julie except I will buy one calendar. The CO page a day calendar was the best EVER. I still put up and rotate favorite pages I’ve saved, and wished I’d saved more! But, I understand the commitment involved in that many pics and witty sayings! I think when the year is over I will save the calendar as April proposed above. It’s a baby step towards the coffee table book we all really want.? Usually I don’t buy a wall calendar cos I get so many from charities I support, but for NTMTOM I will make an exception!
I miss the page-o-day calendar too! I didn’t throw any of the pages out right away because I used them for notes here at work. Still have several hundred left going back to 2009 – but now I won’t use them because I know I’ll never be able to get more.
BTW, Mike, I would buy a calendar, maybe two or three as gifts but definitely one.
I’d certainly consider a calendar, but it depends on the cost and the delivery options to Canada. If you use USPS, then I’d probably buy one. If you use UPS or some other courier service, probably not. Brokerage companies/courier companies like to add outrageous “shipping and handling” costs on top of duty when delivering to a Canadian address. One would hope that a calendar would be priced appropriately, but one never knows.
I am looking into shipping costs now, and I’m making sure to factor Canada into my plans. I likely will use USPS because this will be mailed in an 8.5″ x 11″ envelope.
Mike, how are you selecting the images? I have certain stories that I dearly love – the “seal” dog, caught in a sweatshirt is an absolute fave – and would love that to be part of a calendar. You may be working on different premise, I realize.
At the moment, I am restricting my images to those that are authorized for commercial reuse under a Creative Commons licence, which means images that I find via Flickr.
Also, the images need to have sufficient resolution for printing; most of the ones that I like do, but a few are too small and I can’t use them.
I can supply thousands of high res cute animal photos – of course, they will all be of my dogs, so the subject matter will be limited to chihuahuas sleeping, chihuahuas eating, chihuahuas yawning, chihuahuas staring, chihuahuas….
I’d love to see some of your best photos, especially if they have funny situations in them. Click Send Me Stuff in the top menu for details.
What is considered “high res”? e.g., how many MB per photo?
Julie, if the width is around 2,000 pixels wide or wider, it would probably work for print purposes. For posting on the blog, the resolution can be much lower; 560 pixels or wider is plenty.
I’d buy that one… 😉
Of course you would!?
😛
If the price is in the ordinary market range, I’ll buy a couple of calendars–one to keep and one to give. I love your clever captions (or whatever you call the writing that accompanies the photos you feature).
Even though I manage my calendar electronically, I find it’s helpful to have a paper calendar hanging by my desk. Every year I get a bunch of free calendars from charities I support, but I’d rather have one that makes me and my colleagues smile.
I use my google calendar a lot, because I like that I can set it to send me an email reminder, but I also keep a fun calendar on my wall at work (right next to the boring multi-year fiscal calendar that I actually need at work).
Mostly I write my days off on it. 😉
This looks amazing, Mike! I responded to the poll with a “maybe” based on the unfortunate fact that I’m low-income and never quite sure of where I’ll be at when it comes time for buying calendars, and because I’m in Canada and always have to factor in the conversion rate & shipping cost. Hopefully I’ll be able to snag one though, it looks adorable! 🙂
I echo my fellow Canadian commenters: I voted “yes” and intend to buy, but it’s always frustrating to see a reasonably priced US item that gets doubled or tripled in price by the time I pay for shipping, handling, customs etc. to get it to me in Canada,
I’m sure whatever photos / stories you chose will be great. I can’t begin to come up with my personal favs – there’s too many! I’m thrilled to see you working on this initiative. I do have a friend with a US post office box so I can always arrange to ship it to her and she’ll bring it back to Canada for me on her next trip.
Ditto to all previous Canadian commenters: shipping is always an issue as is duty/customs. The exchange rate also has to be factored in which, let’s be honest, really sucks right now.
That said, I’ve got a US post box because we’re so close to the border so maybe I’ll get two after all! 🙂
2 please! 1 for home. 1 for office.
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! I am with April and Nancy – a precursor to the coffee table book, a daily planner? I’ll be getting one for myself and possibly two as gifts.
Wow. There are a lot of Canadians on this site. Nice!
Perhaps we Canadians have a thing for teh cute? 🙂
2 please for me, too! Will these be out in time for Christmas gifts?
That’s my plan. I’m aiming for being able to take orders in October and being ready to ship by November 1.
Oh yay!!! Have my list started. So far need 3, 1 for me and 2 for gifts.
And I practiced casting my vote by voting on your poll. 🙂 Thank you Mike for this Cutetropolis undertaking! <3
I voted that I would buy one for myself, and I would. But others here have raised good points, particularly about the lack of scroll-down factor. I don’t buy calendars for others, because I’m inundated with the darn things from charities and well-meaning friends as it is. I only use one, on my fridge, because first thing in the morning, I need something to tell me what day it is! That’s been the CO calendar for the last two years, and Cutetropolis calendar would fill the gap for me. But I rely on my digital calendar the rest of the time. If there’s no NTMTOM calendar for 2017, I’ll still come here for all the cute and all the fun, and the kindness of this community.
So this is for real. When I first read this, I was waiting for the punch line– yea! I vote to buy one– first, I’d pass the hint to my children, as a Christmas gift. For the past 5 years, I’ve gotten a CO calendar. I still use the paper kind that hangs in my kitchen and computer room. I enjoy looking at the pictures and can look at it quicker that fumbling through my iPad to find if I correctly put reminders on my google calendar.
I know it’s way too much to ask for , but I loved the CO daily calendars, with a precious animal picture everyday to enjoy.
Another Canadian here, I also voted “yes” but I also agree with the others about the problem of reasonably priced US item that gets way more expensive when you add exchange rates, shipping, handling and customs.
YES!!!!! CALENDAR……please, please, please. I’m ready to preorder, and I voted YES.
Yes. I will buy one. I use my phone calendar but will purchase for the fun and to support NOMTOM. Would love a book with story on front of page and turn page for pic on the back. That would be a surprise like a scroll down. With hovers and funny comments included. Oh and a glossary.
P. S. I voted yes but anonymous by mistake.
That’s OK, I just turned off that “Vote as WordPress user” button because I want all votes to be anonymous. So you did the correct thing.
Oh, good, because when it asked me for a password I just went for anonymous. I voted yes, too, probably just for myself. If the images are ones you posted in the past, it might be fun to have some of the best comments? Maybe in paler text on the date squares??
I want more than one calendar, for sure.
If possible, could you give us an age appropriate range for the humor? I appreciate [read: crave like caffeine] snark and whatnot, but I have a few elementary schoolers in mind who might like the animal pictures.
Please be you, uncensored. I can buy the kids some crayons and give the calendars to my of-age friends, if needed.
I’d estimate PG-13. There will be no bad words, no violence, and no overtly sexual situations. Several stories will probably go over kids’ heads, such as “We Need to Talk About Carl,” which is vaguely a satire on gender fluidity.
I’d definitely buy one if international shipping (The Netherlands) was reasonable. We used to always by the CO wall calendar. I like the images and the stories you present a lot. For the calendar, it might be nice if the image were bigger than the text (like in the second photo, or even more so), since I’d read the text once or twice but would look at the image every time I passed by it. Of course it’s a trade off, making sure the font isn’t too small, and I wouldn’t want the story to go away either, because they’re super nice. Glad you’re doing a calendar and it looks great!
Hello, great to hear from you. Thanks for the input, which will help me since I’m still working on the pages.
I also voted yes but being from Portugal, it will depend on international shipping prices. Am not really one to have wall calendars but NTMTOM surely makes for a good exception!
I voted yes and have me + seven gifts on the list (so far) I’m sure I could come up with more without too much thought…
I’ll take one. Unfortunately, my attempts to educate others around me on teh Qte have failed miserably so I have no one I can give a calendar to as a gift. I will cherish any product that contains your witty repartee. *DING* Poll vote submitted.
I would love to buy it, but as NB ut it, it would depend on international shipping and also the payment possibilities. I won’t start using paypal.
I’ve added a “Maybe, I’m not sure right now”, because for me, too, a lot swings on international shipping as well.
Reading you’re blog from Germany, I want to take the opportunity to thank you for filling the hole the end of CuteOverload has ripped into my heart, when I came back to work after an extended sick-leave (ten month) and had to realise the CO was no more…
Searching for an alternative to brighten up some of the blacker days luckily I found cutetropolis. 🙂
Thank you, Kate, and welcome. It’s great to hear from you. 🙂
Kate, that’s a long time sick – I hope things are much better for you. I, too, took the termination of CO hard – more so than I ever would have suspected, and I wasn’t even involved in the posts – didn’t understand what a blog was, truth to tell. Cutetropolis and Mike are such terrific antidotes to so much nastiness out there , aren’t they?!
Yet another “Calendar? YES!” vote from Canada. Mike, do you take requests? My all-time favourite NTMTOM post from the frabjous Cuteoverload is “Klamath Falls, 1963” which has now sadly disappeared, along with the whole site. I would so love to see that one again. Thank you!