Goodness, I can’t believe August is here! We’ve had a fun and adventurous summer around the Pond with lots of togetherness, lazy days, and wanderings through favorite places and backroads. Now, we’re in our final week of summer vacation, and I’m admittedly not quite on board with starting a new school year yet. As I was putting together this month’s downloadable calendar with all the illustrations of school supplies, I realized again… It’s time, and I’m not sure I’m really ready.
July is here, and my crew and I made it home from our annual beach trip just in time to celebrate! It’s sweltering outside, but this month is such a sweet time to celebrate liberty and the second half of our summer vacation with new adventures. We’re intent on making the most of these last few weeks before school cranks up again. Outdoor fun, flowers in season, fresh eats, and remembering the freedoms we are so fortunate to call our own… I hope this month’s printable calendar reminds you of all those blessings.
Hello, June! It’s a new month, and that means a new printable calendar…. I’m sort of congratulating myself for being more regular with these printables this year. The school year finished up last week, so we are about a week and a half into our summer vacation – excitedly! We’ve spent this week getting lazy at Busy Bee for our annual summer kick-off trip to the farm. The weather seems unseasonably hot for May, but it hasn’t stopped us from enjoying these first days of summer slowness and freedom – early morning quiet time on the deck, pasture walks, pancakes for breakfast, a few wanders through county roads, water fun, bonfires for hot dogs and s’mores, and searching for ripe blackberries and wildflowers. It’s not quite time for wild blackberries yet. They are mostly green and red right now, but we’re spotting them everywhere and hoping to come back in a few weeks when more will be ready for picking.
May is here with all its celebration and anticipation of summer! It’s a month when we get to celebrate the joys of motherhood in all its varieties and stages. For us, it’s a month when we celebrate my oldest son’s birthday. We’re entering the teens this year, and I willingly admit I’m a little teary about it. May also brings the end of the school year, which usually means a milestone of one kind or another. Leaving a grade, leaving a school, sometimes graduating from one goal to the next. We’re in full anticipation mode for a summer of fun and time together – “Mommy Camp,” we’ve started calling it. We’re looking forward to renewing our “Summer Jar” activities, and traveling to some of our favorite places with no particular schedules to meet. I’m always thankful in May for the blessing of owning my own business and the ability to orchestrate my own routine as I look forward to spending concentrated time with my crew. But, I guess this month seems to bring bittersweet changes, too, as we shift gears and prepare ourselves for new stages. This is the month we make some of our decisions about the next school year and its activities. It’s a month when I invariably begin to think more acutely about how quickly my kids are growing up, how precious these fleeting days are.
Today, as I was thinking about the beginning of a new month and what I wanted to practice paint for my daily “letters to my daughter” post, I settled on the word “May” and how it’s often the first word of blessings and special requests… May the Lord cause His face to shine upon you, May I have this dance, May the road rise up to meet you, May I help you…. With all the changes and anticipations and endings and beginnings of the month of May, there are a lot of blessing starters there. What a great pursuit for each day of this lovely month… what blessings can I start today? I added one to my monthly printable calendar for the month…May you dream big dreams and chase them. A letter to my daughter and to myself as I continue to fine-tune what it means to create, to be a business, to be a mom, to stick to a dream. I hope you’ll click to download the freebie, and find inspiration to share with its little cut-away art.
I’m back in the studio today after a wonderful Easter holiday with my family. The long weekend also ushered in the start of April with some great spring weather! This month promises to be a busy one for us with school activities, a local conference on storytelling I’ll be attending, and fun community events. This weekend, I took a little time to set some priorities for new products I’ll be working on over the next few months, and make plans for refreshing a few of the ways I communicate with customers. Beginning a new month in celebration of the renewal and redemption of Easter has helped my heart embrace the hope and possibility of spring.
I took the old “April showers” adage as my inspiration for this month’s printable calendar, along with a childhood favorite song from Bambi. Rainy days have no end of inspiration when you hear every raindrop as the refrain of a beautiful tune. Click to download the calendar, and I hope you enjoy sharing the cut-away artwork when the month is over. This month, I’ve also included a free download of a larger version of the printable art. Enjoy!
Hello & welcome! I’m Haley Montgomery, and I’m the designer and owner of Small Pond Graphics. I sometimes fancy myself a frog kisser— a documentarian coaxing poignant moments from unexpected places. This blog has evolved from those moments.
The small Pond FIELD GUIDE is part diary, part sketchbook, and part wish list – an archive of ordinary wonders. For years, this space has housed my stories – creative ideas, vintage inspiration, our forays into curious places, and the simple artifacts of quiet of conscious living. Through watercolor, photography, and illustrated tales, these pages uncover the blessing of ordinary days and the wonder found in authentic places and pursuits.
I invite you to open the boxes.
Peek into the drawers.
Rustle through the pages.
I’m honored to have you here.
NEED A FROG KISSER?
Phone: 662.312.4001
Contact Haley to dive in
