Every social butterfly needs a social engagement calendar to keep her hot dates straight. Yes, you could just pick up one of those freebies at the greeting card shop; but face it, nobody’s going to believe you’re a somebody if you pencil in your parties in a little dog-eared paperback calendar.

That’s where the Essentially Lilly 2005 Social Butterfly Engagement Calendar becomes useful. Created by Lilly Pulitzer, the fashion icon who invented the "preppy" look, this desktop date book combines Lilly’s inimitable sense of style with a useful "week at a glance" format.

The book itself is about 8¼ inches square with a hardback binding. This makes it small enough to easily tuck into a bookshelf or desk drawer, but it’s still large enough to have plenty of room to jot down important information. Because it has a hard cover, it will also stand up to an entire year of use and make a colorful keepsake of the year’s social events. Another handy feature is the pink satin ribbon which acts as a placeholder so you can always find the current date in a hurry when the hunky young stud from the club asks if you’re free.

Inside, on the calendar pages, the five weekday boxes run the full width of the page and about an inch high. The weekend boxes at the bottom of each page, however, are half the page width and about 2¼ inchess high, giving slightly more room to write. Presumably this is because most social butterflies need more space to list multiple cocktail parties and other events on the weekends, while weekdays are primarily reserved for simple games of tennis and getting one’s nails done. This format also makes it easy to spot the weekend dates at a glance rather than scanning a week’s worth of identically sized boxes.

Interspersed with the calendar pages are colorful watercolors showing scenes of parties, club sports like golf and tennis, beach bathing, and other leisure activities. It’s enough to make one long for a week in the Hamptons! There are also a few fun pages – about one per month – with things like recipes and shopping tips to help any current or future heiress make the most of her time.

At the start of each month a quote is listed that is apropos of the moment. January’s quote is from Lilly herself: “January is the best month of all—it gives you the chance to start all over again.” My favorite quote, though, is from October:

“There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October.”
–Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Overall, this is a lovely date planner that would be handy for any active woman, young or old. Pencil in your plans to pick one up soon…