Who am I and how it all started;

I am Saskia Kroon - van der Kamp, owner of Kalenderwinkel.nl now 39 years young and born in Zuidhorn (near Groningen), live together with my partner Robin, son Jurre & daughter Bente, 3 cats and our Welsh Corgi.

In short
In 2003 I started selling dog stickers on marketplace. There appeared to be a lot of interest in this and as a result in 2004 I put the website live dierenartikel.nl
In the following years it expanded to a webshop with over 10,000 pet gift items. During this period I took a veterinary assistant course, received my diploma in 2006 and immediately started working as a paraveterinarian. After this I opened another Kalenderwebwinkel.nl, Dierenkalenders.nl & Shirtwebwinkel.nl . As of 2015, business was going so well that I chose to throw myself fully into online shopping and quit my employer. As of 2018, I have merged these into 2; kalenderwinkel.nl and Shopcalenders.com

Future
My future dream for our webshops is to be able to offer the biggest, best and most unique assortment with all the personalized services you are used to from us. Therefore, I will continue to actively search for new unique products worldwide to expand our webshops.

2024
We exist 20 years this year!
Since 2024 I have taken over an existing webshop; The Lang Store.
Also, in addition to the help of my dear parents and partner, I have employed an employee, Natasja, as of May 1.

Natasja is 35 years young and she lives with her Partner Peter and her daughter Jasmine.
After a great working career within Tourism and Building Materials, I asked her at the beginning of 2024 to support me with kalenderwinkel.nl
With full enthusiasm, I hope to work with Natasja to make Kalenderwinkel.nl an even greater success and get more name recognition.
You can see us more often on the Socials.

I am also proud to announce that I am the new sponsor of a women's indoor soccer team starting in the new soccer season. In addition, I am also sponsoring Peter with his running activities. So you can see us everywhere. I look forward to supporting these sports initiatives and contributing to their success.

2023
The year 2023 has arrived and it is time for an internal rebuild! The puzzles all need to move upstairs to the mezzanine, so the calendars and diaries will be back downstairs. This is a lot safer, because in the past two years we have had to lift many bins and boxes down the stairs. We are not standing still with the store either. Recently we added two more stores: Shopcalendars.com and Hondenkalenders.nl. There is relatively much demand from outside the Netherlands and we hope to make many more people happy with our calendars through Shopcalendars.

2022
In 2022 we finally got a little air to catch our breath from actually two very strange years. The move and Corona have taken quite a toll on each of us. We are fortunate that there have been no serious illnesses or deaths in either of our families. 2022 was a relatively quiet year, the crowds stabilized again.

2021
The puzzles were flying around our ears and the first lockdown was a fact! The orders went like crazy and the kids were home too! So hup, to the office as well. Fortunately, we had the space here and there was a furnished playroom, but it was not ideal. In this year we also briefly took over a webshop from a then competitor who wanted to quit. This caused additional orders in addition to Corona.
The first quarter of 2021 the train was still thundering along, but our space was already too small due to the enormous puzzle growth. So an extra floor had to be added to our building to provide a place for the calendars and diaries. So to work: sorting out and arranging everything. In the summer we had a mezzanine floor with about 140 square meters of extra storage space. By the end of 2021, Corona was thankfully back in business.

2020
It really had to happen: busy looking for a property with space to grow with our webshop. That was a tough job! In Amersfoort, Hoogland, Ede and towards Arnhem we could not find anything suitable and affordable. In addition, Corona knocked everyone around! Viewing houses didn't make it any easier either. In the end we bought a house in Zeewolde in the middle of Corona's start and were able to rent a large shed from an acquaintance, just under 10 minutes cycling distance.
The rush in 2020 and the first half of 2021 was enormous!

2019
Let's start 2019 in February with the birth of our daughter Bente! A happy little girl who with her mostly pink clothes put a smile on everyone's face. So yes, then we had two kids! Hands full, and with the store and space we were becoming increasingly limited in the current situation. It was necessary to look for another house with business space, plans for the coming year.

2018
After just recovering a little bit from all the hustle and bustle in the last three months of 2017, in early February we received the question and opportunity to take over the webshop Kalenderwinkel.com from Comello, in addition to our current store Qwebwinkel.nl.
Comello is one of our suppliers with whom we have had very good contact for years. Talks followed and finally in early April we tied the knot: we are doing it and embarking on a new adventure! There was still some work to be done, but we succeeded. On May 1, the revamped Kalenderwinkel site went live.
For the new year 2019, we have a lot of new calendar and diary titles planned. We are still busy adding all the new items, but expect to go over 2000 different titles this year.
Since the arrival of Jurre in 2016, we can no longer be found at fairs in the Amersfoort region. However, like all years, we are present again in December at the Winterfair in Garderen, completely in Dickens-style.

2017
In the meantime we are already busy preparing for the sale of 2018 calendars. Every year it is a treat for me to see which calendars are coming for the new year. With great enthusiasm we pick out the most beautiful and fun ones for our customers!
With much love, care and passion every order is packed for you. Jurre even got his own taper roller after he was born.

2016
In January 2016 I turned out to be expecting our first son Jurre. Because of this, we decided to make things a little easier going forward by merging the four stores into two: Kalenderwebwinkel.nl and Qwebwinkel.nl. The result is that we offer fewer products, can keep more stock and can deliver much faster.
On October 10, our son Jurre was born in the middle of the busiest time of the year! With helpers, it was a bit of a push through the last few months of 2016 with the hustle and bustle of the store, a trade show and a baby.

2015
After my resignation from the veterinary practice and saying goodbye to all the dear clients and pets in April, I was able to fully focus on the web stores from May 2015. The result was more orders, faster shipments and even happier customers, and that's what we do it for!

2004-2014
In the years after 2004 we opened three more webshops: Kalenderwebwinkel.nl, Dierenkalenders.nl and Shirtwebwinkel.nl. It became increasingly busy, but therefore also increasingly difficult to combine the stores with the work in the veterinary practice, to which I devoted myself passionately for many years. This made me decide, after a good discussion with our accountant, to choose completely for the stores.

2003
In 2003 I came into contact with several suppliers at the Dibevo Dagen (fair for pet stores). At that time I had no experience with selling via the Internet, but I started selling dog stickers via Marktplaats. There appeared to be a lot of interest in this. In 2004 the website dierenartikel.nl went live and over the following years it expanded to an online store with over 10,000 pet gift items. During this time I was still taking the paraveterinary (veterinary assistant) course and got my diploma in 2006. Immediately after that I started working as a paraveterinarian.

Heartfelt greetings,
Saskia, Robin, Natasja
And especially don't forget, my parents Fred & Marga, our gift wrappers!