Letterboxing Calendars!

I hold in my hands, or rather, I was holding in my hands (I'm typing now), a copy of the Official Atlas Quest 2009 Letterboxing Calendar. It's a beautiful thing, but as always, there's room for improvement. It was hard to read where the photo was taken and who took it on two of the months, so I tweaked that a bit. And I didn't like how the background color in one of the months turned out on paper, so I tweaked that too.

But despite those minor irritations, I like the calendar. =)

I've put in an order for another copy of the calendar--just one--to make sure the changes look good on the final product. I doubt I'll have any issue with it, so I'm going to open up the AQ Marketplace and officially put the calendars up for sale. I still need to tweak and test a couple of things and make sure nothing has broken since last year, but it should be ready by morning tomorrow when most of you read this message. =)

You can also order the 2009 Thru-Hiking Calendar. All photos taken while on my thru-hike from Key West to Springer Mountain. I don't actually expect to sell enough of these to get a bulk discount, but I don't have to pay for and give out 13 calendars for free either so it kind of evens out. =)

You can also order AQ patches at the same time you order calendars, but please note that I do not intend to ship the patches until the calendars that go with them arrive. (If you order just patches, I'll ship those immediately since I have those right now, but in that case, you're better off using the patch page to order them. Shipping is cheaper there since the shopping cart assumes I'll have to ship a calendar which would be more expensive.)

A couple of things to note: The calendars won't be in your hands until mid-October at best. Hopefully by the end of the October at worst. Seems like every year people put in orders and a couple of people later contact me asking what happened to them. I collect the orders up front ahead of time so I can buy them all in bulk. The calendars must then be printed and shipped to me--a process that typically takes two or three weeks. Once I get the calendars in my own hands, I mail them out as quickly as possible to you. The advantage for you--by buying the calendars in bulk, it's cheaper than being able to buy it directly off of Lulu.com (which is where I have them printed). And it's good for me since I have to give away 13 calendars for free, I end up saving money myself since those free calendars are included in the order and also get the bulk discount. (To be perfectly honest, that's the main reason I even handle the calendars myself--it ultimately saves me money in the long run too!)

So when you put in your order, keep in mind that the calendars likely won't reach you until mid to late October. And that's just an estimate--if the calendars take unusually long to reach me, it could even be later.

For those of you who had a photo used in the calendar--JBBK, Funhog, Music Woman, Ukusa, Benetti's Defense, firefighterfamily, Sandibox, Eye Wanitt, TulsaGal, Cabin Clan, ArtGekko, roseislandfans, and yachtygirl--congrats! =) The photos are beautiful! If you want more than the free calendar you'll be receiving, go ahead and put in an order just like anyone else. Do NOT include your free calendar in that order, however. AQ isn't smart enough to know who is getting a free calendar and will charge you for anything you run through the ordering process. I'll handle the free calendars separately.

And.... if you missed out on submitting photos for this year, I'm already accepting submissions for the 2010 letterboxing calendar. Keep your camera and your eyes ready!

For all things about the calendar, check out the Project X link under the Toolbox menubar option.