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November Bounty

· November 3, 2011

Happy November! It seems almost impossible that 2011 is almost over, but here we are. Last weekend my kids and I visited our family farm and enjoyed some time exploring outdoors. As we were gathering leaves and rocks and other treasures, I was observing the light and the colors. Fall is a random time in the South. It’s random in that you never know exactly when it’s going to hit and what response Nature might make. The typical Fall colors and signature blue sky spread themselves along the landscape from late September well into January sometimes. For this trip, I was noticing the clarity of the colors. The blue sky was astonishingly blue at times. The greens were still quite vibrant in places. The yellows and reds and oranges were popping out in their appropriate tree species with a punch. I sometimes assume November will offer only the most sluggish of colors that are soon muddied out by an overwelming gray/brown neutral. Not so, as we begin the month this year! Even my own yard is ablaze with deep hues. Clear hues.

Clarity. It can be hard to come by sometimes — in colors and in living. As November has brought it’s clear hues this year, I’m also wondering what I’m willing to let it bring for my clarity of spirit. This month, we celebrate Thanksgiving. We focus on the blessings we find in the privilege of living. The bounty.

Bounty is clarifying. Taking the time to recognize the bounty around me pushes aside muddy thinking and muddy priorities. It focuses my attention on what matters. It keeps the main things (and people) in clearer focus. Bounty refuses to allow itself to be governed by regrets or have-nots. It requires that I see a full plate. It flies in the face of all the distractions that come with that battle in my mind. Am I really making progress? Am I really speaking? Am I really moving? Am I really living? Moving my attention to the bounty of each day and each experience helps me live that day and that experience will a full focus and a full heart. That’s my goal this November, and that’s the inspiration for this month’s wallpaper art. Enjoy for your desktop, iphone or ipad!

Categories : beautiful ordinary, free art + printables

Trumping Digital

Posted by haley montgomery

· October 21, 2011

I hope you’ll allow me a little personal indulgence this Friday morning. I’ve vacated the Pond taking my kids to the Memphis Zoo during our Fall school break. We’re having a blast so far, and I’ve been watching (and shaking my head a little) at how much the digital sphere has meshed with all our lives.

When I say I’ve vacated the Pond, I’m sure you understand that I haven’t abandoned it for three days by any means. I’m tethered to it through all kinds of digital media. I’m pretty mobile during a normal week anyway, with the technology to do my job at a client’s office, my fave local coffee shop, my office couch or the back patio.

So, during our drive to Memphis yesterday and our first night here, I checked and responded to email, browsed some favorite websites for possible Plop! post highlights, managed some client social media accounts, and now I’m writing a blog post on my iPad 2. I let my kids pass the driving time with Leapster and Nintendo games. I presented them with a newly kid-outfitted iPad 1 (my old one) complete with movie shorts, digital storybooks, and apps for games, music, math, reading and all the fun they could handle. As you can see, it took them all of five minutes to master the iPad system and become engrossed in it — even the three-year-old in the mix. I even used my iPhone google app to locate the original Corky’s for dinner last night and give us moving directions from somewhere on Perkins Road. Whoa. It’s a digital world! And, yes it’s great to be so connected to the world at large.

But, last night at bedtime with my boys piled up in a hotel bed with their favorite items, it hit me. Their bedtime companions were the old-fashioned kind… bears and lambs and dark-haired dolls. And at the end of the day, it’s still the people stuff that really moves my heart. It’s the opportunity to hear the voice of someone who matters, even if that voice comes on the phone. It’s the opportunity to inconspicuously stare at them while they fall asleep. Trumps Google every time.

This weekend, I hope you’re enjoying your digital life and making it count. And I hope you take some time to stare. I’m sure enjoying that opportunity!

Happy weekend!

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Categories : mother's heart

Tags : well-designed life

Monday Thoughts

Posted by haley montgomery

· October 17, 2011

At the end of every day.

At the end of every day I live my life alone. Regardless of who may be within these walls, I face myself alone.

Alone with my joy. Alone with my sorrow. Alone with my triumphs. Alone with my mistakes. At the end of every day I only have myself to sleep with. Peacefully or restlessly. When all the people and things that have filled my day are lost in sleep, I am left with myself. When I’ve laid aside their hopes and dreams, I’m left looking at my own. Squarely in the face. With no interruption. No masking. No distraction.

At the end of every day, what do I see? How do I cope with myself once all the other coping is finally tucked into bed? Am I proud? Am I content? Am I filled with joy and peace? At the end of every day I live my life alone. I face the realities my own life alone. I can’t live squandering it. And still know I’ve lived.

Categories : essays

Nimble

Posted by haley montgomery

· October 6, 2011

“Jack jumped over the candle stick!” Bug came home singing it a week ago. They had finished up nursery rhyme week and he could recite the poem in full laughter mode complete with a demonstration of the famous leap. There is pumpkin fever around my house! Little Drummer Boy, Bug and Baby Girl have all had a hankering for Fall fun, and I have to admit that it’s taken me by surprise. Yes, October arrives every year on the day after September 30th, but for some reason I’ve felt a step or two behind the process this year. Fall IS my favorite time of year, and I suppose I’ve spread that little joy to my children enough in the past to help them catch the autumn bug as well. That’s probably why they’ve been asking non-stop about carving pumpkins, pulling pumpkins from the attic, painting pumpkins, decorating with pumpkins, icing pumpkins, etc. Are you catching the theme?

As I’ve watched their excitement grow over the last week about silly things like pulling down the attic stairs and fetching the Halloween box. About finding the best “horse apples”, those green seed-y balls from the Bodock tree they’ve decided we need to decorate aptly. About picking out just the right pumpkins from the produce bin. About all the things we’ve planned to do and enjoy once “Fall” arrives.

Well, now it’s here.

I couldn’t help but use the word “nimble” in this month’s desktop wallpaper. It’s a different kind of “Jack” of course, but naturally, “nimble” seemed to fit. It also fits my feelings this month. It seems October has arrived with more quickness than it usually does. Where has 2011 gone? And, I have no doubt that Jack’s month will usher the rest of the year through our lives with even more agility. In the same way, I see my sweethearts all full of giggles and smiles and questions, and I can’t help but recognize how nimble the passage of their days is as well. I’m barely caught up with one stage or one skill before they’ve moved on to the next. I’ve barely wrung out one tender moment or one amazing conversation before they’re on to the next profundity. As this October begins, I find myself gripping to slow the process down, to halt the furious race toward the next accomplishment in their lives. But, try as I might to resist it, I’m certain Jack will be nimble. And quick. So, I’m determined to be utterly captured in the gaze of his fiery grin for as long as possible. Before the flicker is blown by leaping. As their feet rush on to new journeys.

Click and enjoy.

Categories : beautiful ordinary

oh happy day . Hula Hoop Edition

Posted by haley montgomery

· September 16, 2011

It’s Friday! Oh Happy Day! It has been quite a while since I’ve written for my Oh Happy Day gratitude project. You may recall that I started as a way of making the TGIF statement my own — as a way of consciously incorporating gratitude in my life so that the TG wasn’t just a silly acronym. In my experience, there is no better cure for stress, worries or a case of the down-in-the-dumps than heaping dose of gratitude. The joy that comes from taking stock of the blessings you have right in front of you is powerful.

I learned that lesson from my 6-year-old this morning. Again.

We were walking into school and discussing the day. I couldn’t remember what extra activities he had on Friday. Was it art or music? Little Drummer Boy was quick to confirm art with this commentary…

“I love art. And PE. Because we get to play with hula hoops.”
[insert Mommy smile here]
“I can do magic with the hula hoop. Do you want to hear about it?”

Who in the world could resist hearing about magic with a hula hoop. From MY spectacular first grader. So, of course, I gave him a resounding “yes!”

Little Drummer Boy proceeded to explain. [You’ll be happy to learn that his first grade teacher confirms he is indeed a drummer boy. In math.] He told me how he could roll the hula hoop and make it come back to him. I asked in amazement if he had a magic command to make this happen. He said “no,” that he could just do it. There’s my little magician, all happy and full of expectation about the possibilities of hula hoops and magic on Friday.

I couldn’t help but compare his enthusiasm to my own begrudging thoughts when I first woke up this morning… Ugh. It’s time to get up. I’m so tired today. I’m just not excited about anything today. Sigh. And a plethora of other dumpster attitudes.

Today is Friday. When I think of LDB and his PE tricks, I’m reminded of the magic to be found in each day. In THIS day. This day is another gift with the privilege of three little hearts in my house. Baby Girl dressed in pigtails and her brother’s torn jeans and plaid shirt for “farm day.” Bug all aglow with jets flying toward “vegetable soup” day with saltines in hand. And Little Drummer Boy. With the hula hoops. This day is another gift with the privilege of doing something I really enjoy. And getting paid for it. It’s a day with the privilege of choosing my steps, big and small. Of setting my own schedule from my own little office in my own blessed world. It’s another day with the opportunity to let my best self shine. To do my own bit of magic. To live according to what matters to me. For Friday is TODAY. And at this moment, TODAY is the only day I have to live. The only day.

So, I think I’ll search down a hula hoop. And it’s magic.
Oh Happy Day!

Categories : oh happy day!

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.