Lucy’s Farm Calendar, Diary and Christmas Card Review

Reviewed by Deborah Banasko

Now this was a bit of an unexpected treat-of-a-review for me and one that I cannot recommend enough as it ticks so many boxes; beautiful unique art work incorporated onto everyday useful products, an independent British artist and business-woman.. and photo-bombing cows! I have three children aged 9, 6 and 2 and we are on constant farm animal spot in the car so for me to have a diary, calendar and Christmas cards featuring cows, sheep and pigs seems like the next natural step of motherhood. We love animals!

The artist, Lucy Tidbury, has an online business as well as a shop based in Dorset selling her range of artwork, cards, gifts and kitchen-wear. Many of her paintings depict cows photo-bombing local Dorset landmarks, referred to as Moo selfies or the Moo range. She paints other animals, and you can even commission a pet portrait with her. In fact as I am researching this I have noticed that she sells placemats in the Moo range and donkey beach towels! These will more than likely get added to my Christmas list, they’re gorgeous. It is very easy to get giddy over her products.

So the pack that I received contained the A5 sized Lucy’s Farm 2021 diary, the co-ordinating 2021 A4 landscape style calendar and 10 square Christmas cards all tied up with beautiful hessian ribbons and wrapped in tissue paper. My instant reaction to opening this set was excitement at the whole presentation of the package and at the actual cute factor of such a gorgeous yet practical gift.

Starting with the Christmas cards, there were 5 cards for each of the two designs printed on quality card. The inside of the cards is blank for your own greeting. The first, “Christmas Moo”, shows a hairy brown cow (forgive my ignorance on cow breeds) photo-bombing a winter scene, whilst “Santa Moo” shows a black and white cow wearing a Santa hat in a close up selfie. They’re fun, original and will put a smile on anyone’s face. I genuinely love these, the artwork is just delightful.

The diary has a clear plastic protective cover and wire-spiral binding. Each week is spread over two pages with six entry lines per day, leaving plenty of space to keep life organised. The top section of each week alternates between a “notes” box and a different nosey animal selfie, so you basically see a new piece of art every fortnight. You can easily flick to the week you want using the month markers at the right hand edge of the diary.
There are a lot of very cheeky looking cows in the selfies, but it’s nice to see the odd donkey, sheep and pig in there too. The art work is just lovely and makes you smile; I think it’s the cows nostrils that does it for me, they are brilliant! I have shown my children and they actually make me create voices for each of the selfies, so the animals have come alive a bit in our house too.

The calendar has the same front-page artwork as the diary, “Blossom Moo”, opening up to be hung as an A3 sized calendar (A4 sized when closed). As expected the animal selfies are on the top portion of the calendar with the days of the month in the bottom half. The art is striking but not garish; the colours are natural and would blend in with most home decor. The font used is modern and it really is a beautiful calendar. In November you have the bonus of a cow selfie in front of a train at the Corfe Railway, which is my personal favourite (I’m a mum, so animals and trains are our life).

You can purchase the diary and calendar seperately for £12.50 each, or as a package for £20.00 which is a great price-point for a gift and amazing value. The Christmas cards are £10.00 for a pack of 10 which is a typical price for your “special” cards, and I would be happy to pay that for cards to send to family and close friends as they are totally unique.

What I love most about these products is the quality, humour and design, but also their versatility as a gift. I could buy these items for my 25 year old friend and receive a positive reaction, as I could equally my 70 year old Mum. The website is worth a browse as I am certain that you could tick off a few people on your Christmas list. You can buy a lovely t-towel for £9.95 and a mug for £12 or a framed print for £48 so there’s plenty of choice regardless of the price-point you are looking at.

The reason that I love doing these reviews is that it introduces me to businesses that I would never before have come across. This year being as crazy as it is I think most of my Christmas present shopping is going to be online, and it is nice to be able to expand my buying options and support small businesses. As a side note the Devon-based shop looks amazing and I really wish I could visit!

I would award these products 5 stars out of 5, for originality, beautiful artwork and value for money.

Rating: 5/5.

RRP: £20 for the calendar and diary, and £10 for 10 Christmas cards.

You can purchase these product from Lucy’s Farm here