Happy Hump Day, friends! Here’s to believing in the beauty today 🙂
Archive for morning letters
Today I’m beginning my first work week of the new year! Yesterday capped off our two-week holiday vacation with family and togetherness, and the children’s first day back to school is definitely bittersweet. We’ve enjoyed a wonderful and sometimes challenging holiday season with many moments of joy with my babies, as well as a few moments of grief and melancholy. I don’t know where that comes from or why I still experience it, but I’ve learned to accept the feelings my spirit seems to need and allow  myself the grace to live in each moment as part of our on-going process.
My lettering practice is the start of a Ralph Waldo Emerson poem I read today. It’s serving as a great reminder to savor each moment and each day. To embrace it for whatever it brings and to leave it fully spent. A very apt goal as I start 2016.
Write it on your heart
that every day is the best day in the year.
He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day
who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.
Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can, tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely, with too high a spirit
to be cumbered with your old nonsense.
This new day is too dear,
with its hopes and invitations,
to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
ralph waldo emerson
We heard this song today (Silver Bells) during carpool! I can’t believe how very soon it will be Christmas Day.
I’ve been using Christmas carols as my sketch starters lately, and I think this one is my favorite stanza of all time. We need to recognize its truth more than ever.
I’m trying to get back into the routine of drawing or painting each day — at least each work day. I guess the holidays aren’t necessarily the best time to begin or renew habits because our days tend to be prone to extra craziness this time of year. But, early decorating escapades around our house, the excitement of my children’s smiles, and some great wisdom I read during the Thanksgiving break from The Artisan Soul by Erwin McManus have me unusually motivated this week. ‘Tis the season to be jolly!
[My 11×14 sketchbook gives me a little room to work more on composition with some of my lettering practice — an area I think I needs work!]
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.
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