craftgrrl | Printing Question + Handmade Books (Older Project)

Hello all, I was hoping that some of you with experience in producing printed products from your designs might be able to help me answer a couple of questions. I would like to design desktop calendars this year as Christmas gifts for some of my friends, using photographs that I've taken, and I'm wondering about the best methods for printing:

1) Is there a commercial source that will print jewel-case sized calendar pages (on heavy cardstock) using my design, with decent color fidelity, but for an affordable rate?

2) In terms of paper; I would like the calendar to be on a matte heavy paper, preferably stiff, with a little bit of tooth to it, but I'm wondering if this would affect the way in which the photo images printed - would I do best using a regular white cardstock or a matte photo paper?

3) Is it a safer bet to invest in (or borrow) an inkjet photo printer (not readily available to me at the moment) and print them at home?

Thank you so much!

Just so that this is not text-only, here are some handbound notebook prototypes I made almost a year ago but never got around to posting:

Perfect-bound penguin notebook, bookmark, perfect-bound and saddle-stitched mini notebooks.

Back cover of the penguin notebook (made with a recycled tissue box):

Detail of coordinating bookmark (I was pretty proud of this part):

Inside pages of penguin notebook (cut from the end pages of an unfinished school notebook):

Mini-journals (interior papers sourced from the same place as the penguin notebook; covers made from stiff kraft paper recycled from the inside of a roll of wrapping paper, and origami paper)