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Jan 20

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Around Here: January

It is a new year! Below are some items that have occurred around here in January!

-cleaning off my desktop and filing and archiving files on my computer.

-finishing up making our photo albums from the last quarter of 2014.

-finishing collecting data and coordinating photo shoots to take place shortly for my long-term photography project.

-editing images for my photography project.

-making paw art with Victory!

-listening to Hozier on repeat.

-scouting for a few more fine art prints to fame and display in our home!

-finished The Missing on Netflix.

-finished the BBC’s Broadchurch on Netflix — this show is pretty good!

-began watching Season 5 of Downton Abbey!

-making and having homemade breakfast with Doug on the weekends!

-making this soup with Doug.

-Finished reading this book.

-Began reading this book

-burning lots of candles around the house!

-having date nights with Doug!

-planning a fun trip with Doug!

-Doug (with Victory’s help) got his new Lionel train up and running!

-taking Victory on outings to get her out of the house to prevent cabin fever since it has been so cold here! Our options are limited, but we have been resourceful.

-resting. We are trying to incorporate more rest in 2015 — Victory sets a good example for us below!

-gaining many more blog subscribers again this month! Yay! Thank you to all of my blog readers!

Happy Tuesday!

Jan 12

I love photographs. For Christmas, for one of Doug’s gifts, I made Doug a calendar full of images of our little family, and our fur girl, Victory, shown below! For the first time, I used Artifact Uprising, and I was pleasantly surprised. I selected a simple calendar, with individual pages for each month, and I selected twelve images from the year and put together a calendar printed on heavy card stock, highlighting the images, which can be displayed on refrigerators and desks! Doug was quite happy and he took his calendar to work! I made another calendar for the house, shown below, which is currently on our refrigerator. My next project is making some photo books!

Happy Monday!

Jan 9

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2015 Word of the Year: Flow

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them — that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” -Lao Tzu

Many people write new year resolutions. I still write down my goals for the year, but I have found it more helpful to have a word, an intention, to focus on throughout the year.

This year, in addition to my animal spirit totem, a deer, I decided the word flow would be my word for 2015. Last year I chose the word trust and the year before that, I chose the word create.

Flow defined: flow /flō/ verb 1. move along or out steadily and continuously in a current or stream.

I am going to keep moving along steadily with my long-term photography project, which I hope to be done photographing by this spring; and I am going to practice flowing with what comes my way. My hope is that positive benefits will flow from this practice.

Are you considering selecting a word for yourself (or letting one find you)? There is no right or wrong. The main thing to remember is that this is your word.

And what do you do with this one little word? You live with it. You invite it into your life. You let it speak to you. You might even follow where it leads. There are so many possibilities.

Jan 8

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Animal Spirit Totem: Deer

On New Year’s Eve, I took Victory out for her final walk and potty that night. During this walk, a magical event happened — from out of no where, a family of deer walked in front of us. The family of deer were roughly eight feet from us; and they all stopped and looked at us very calmly for about a minute or so. It was interesting that the deer stood still for what seemed like a long time at the time just back gazing at us very calmly. The only illumination present was the lights from the houses. Victory was calm and she also gazed back at the deer. I have never in my life been so close to a deer, let alone a family of deer. I need to take note more often that there is so much beauty in nature.

As a result of this unusual experience, I decided to make the deer my animal spirit totem for the year. (Plus Victory’s face resembles a deer to some extent.) I have never had a spirit animal totem before, but I have heard and read about other people having an animal spirit totem each year or for years at a time. After doing some cursory research, I discovered the following about the deer spirit animal:

When you have the deer as spirit animal, you are highly sensitive and have a strong intuition. By affinity with this animal, you have the power to deal with challenges with grace. You master the art of being both determined and gentle in your approach. The deer totem wisdom imparts those with a special connection with this animal with the ability to be vigilant, move quickly, and trust their instincts to get out the trickiest situations. (Source).

Additionally, below is a summary of the symbolic meanings for the deer: love; grace; peace; beauty; fertility; humility; swiftness; regrowth; creativity; spirituality; abundance; benevolence; and watchfulness.

My hope is that this spirit animal totem, the deer, will be helpful to me in 2015!

Image: Favim.com.

Jan 6

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! It is difficult to believe another year has come and gone already. We had a nice Holiday! It is also nice to have a break from everything, if only for a little bit! I believe that breaks can do wonders.

Just before New Year’s we took our fur girl, Victory, to D.C. Victory is always up for an adventure! This was always something that we wanted to do with our Biscuit and, unfortunately, we never made it to D.C. with him. We took Victory to the National Tree, the Washington Monument, and the White House in Biscuit’s honor! Victory had a great time! When we took her to The Ellipse, near the White House, where Victory was a hit with the tourists who started photographing her in unison (shown below) and then they petted her one at time. However, after a couple of minutes, Victory stood up as she was a little anxious with so many people near her. Overall, Victory did well on her visit to D.C. I love the images of her exuding so much joy, especially the images at the end of this post!

We hope that you had a great New Year’s Day! I look forward to curating more content this year. I have a feeling that this is going to be a good year!

Dec 26

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Happy Pawlidays!

“Holidays are about experiences and people, and tuning into what you feel like doing at that moment. Enjoy not having to look at a watch.” -Evelyn Glennie

Thank you so much for a wonderful year! I am so grateful to have many blog readers and subscribers! I am very much looking forward to new series and exciting adventures in 2015! I believe 2015 will be a terrific year filled with so many possibilities! Thank you so very much for reading and following the blog — it means so much to me!

We are headed out of town soon, and I am taking a brief break from the blog. I hope to use some time off to reflect and to come back to you with new creativity with new things to see and read here. I will return to the blog in early January. Meanwhile, if you are in a blog-reading mood, you are warmly invited to check out the archives — a link to the archives is on the right side of the blog!

Before I sign off for a little bit, Victory is pictured below on Christmas morning with her Christmas gifts that she received from Santa; both sets of grandparents; and Auntie Kassie and Uncle Jason! Victory received a new monogrammed blanket; a monogrammed pillow; another blanket; toys; an ornament; Christmas money; and many yummy treats! To say the least, Victory is a happy pup! (Indeed, she is exhausted today from all of the festivities!)

Have a wonderful new year!

*Note: I do plan to post images regularly while we are away via Instagram (our Instagram feed is also shown on the right side of the blog!)

Happy Pawlidays!

Dec 25

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Merry Christmas!

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” ~Charles Dickens

Merry Christmas! We are home for Christmas this year, and this is our first Christmas in our new house! We hope that you are having a wonderful Christmas! We, along with Victory, are headed to our friend’s house today to celebrate Christmas! Little Victory is doing well and she is enjoying her Christmas as well as her gifts!

Below is the front of our Holiday card along with our matching envelopes using custom stamps and stickers of our beautiful little Victory! I design our Holiday cards and packaging, and Doug helps me write (and proofreads) our message shown on the back of our Pawliday card! This is my way of sharing our Pawliday card with all of our blog friends! Thank you, thank you, for reading this blog for however long or short you have been visiting! I truly love creating content for the blog to share with all of you. We hope that you have a splendid Christmas!

You can view our previous Pawliday cards here and here.

Happy Pawlidays!

Dec 23

Making A Christmas Ornament with Your Furry Family Member!

Over the weekend, we made a paw print Christmas ornament with our little Victory for our Christmas tree! I love Christmas ornaments and we thought that this would be a nice keepsake as well. I could not photograph the process of making the ornament with Victory because I had to help Doug place Victory’s paw in the putty, and I only have two hands!

It is pretty simple and easy to make a paw print ornament via a kit. Additionally, I am sure that there are recipes to make your own homemade putty/clay as well.

1. Kneed the putty for a minute.

2. Spread the putty out.

3. Smooth the putty.

4. Place your furry family member’s paw in the putty and hold for several seconds. You want to press your furry family member’s paw firm enough to make the paw print, while not pressing too firmly. It is important that the paw is thoroughly cleaned and dry before placing your furry family member’s paw in the putty.

5. Make a circular hole, where desired, for the ribbon using a straw and knife.

6. Place ornament on a cutting board and let the putty dry.

7. After the ornament has completely dried, string the ornament with ribbon.

8. Write your furry family member’s name and date on the back of the ornament. You also can purchase letters to press into the putty to create your furry family member’s name under or above his/her paw print.

9. Spray the ornament with Valspar clear semi-gloss spray (if you wish).

10. Place the ornament on your Christmas tree!

We made a rectangular shaped paw print ornament, which is now on our Christmas tree! (Victory was recently groomed, so there was less hair on her paws to obtain a better print!) We are going to try again and make a circular shaped ornament with Victory’s paw print soon!

Happy Tuesday!

Dec 16

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Around Here: December

Happy Pawlidays! It is difficult to believe that it is almost the end of the year! We can hardly believe it! Below are some items that have occurred around here in December!

-culling and editing many images with Victory at my feet keeping me warm!

-finally finished editing our vacation photos!

-coordinating photo shoots to take place early next year.

-addressing and sending out our Holiday card!

-drinking hot chocolate!

-decorating our Christmas tree! We opted for a table top tree this year even though we have plenty of room for a regular 6 foot tree! Doug and Victory decorated our Christmas tree shown below.

-made this soup with my Mom — it turned out well!

-making a Christmas ornament with Victory’s paw (I will share more soon!)

-making some art with Victory’s paws (I will share more soon!)

-driving to D.C. to see the National Tree, an annual tradition.

-framing fine art prints for display in our home!

-finished reading this book of quotes — I highly recommend if you like quotes and words of wisdom.

-started reading this book.

-watching Netflix on our new television!

-finished The Sons of Anarchy — we watched all seven seasons together with little Victory!

-saw the movie, The Theory of Everything — very good!

-burning lots of candles around the house!

-listening to Christmas music!

-getting recipes together for Christmas dessert!

-finished up Christmas shopping and wrapping gifts.

-feeling very grateful.

-gaining many more blog subscribers again this month! Yay! Thank you to all of my blog readers!

Happy Tuesday!

Dec 15

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Photographs: Vacationing in Quebec!

Oh my goodness, it is the middle of December already I am not sure where the time has gone! (It was my intention to get through all of our vacation photos weeks ago.) This year went by so incredibly quickly and the last quarter of this year has been especially busy! We went to Quebec in August and September this year, and I have finally had time to finish culling and editing the images from our vacation, our first vacation with our dear, Victory! You can view the snapshot of our vacation here, which I posted upon our return from Quebec!

We started our vacation in Manchester, Vermont. We took Victory to the Orvis Flagship Store where we took Biscuit last spring where he was the Orvis Cover Dog Winner and Centerfold and represented the Orvis Petfinder Commitment supporting and promoting dog rescue! Victory had fun trying out (picking out) the Orvis dog beds and trying on her new Orvis coat!

We stopped briefly at Lake Champlain on our way to Quebec and it was beautiful.

We made it to our lake house that we rented for several weeks in Quebec! It was located on the Lake of Two Mountains and the views were beautiful and we witnessed many lovely sunsets each night! Victory loved the beach and boating!

We walked to the beach and we had a lot of fun with Victory! She loved the beach and we captured her putting her paws in the water for the first time! She actually went into the water and she loved walking on the beach!

We went into Montreal a few times and pushed Victory around in her Hound About – which turned out to be a lifesaver as the city is very crowded and it would have been too stressful for her to walk on the sidewalks with so many people! She rode around in class! Doug and I loved going to the Orange Julep! This has the world’s best orange juice! We also visited McGill University and walked all around a good portion of the city! We went shopping in Montreal and Victory got some new gear!

One of my favorite parts of the trip was taking the route de vines! I am not a big wine person, but the views and the vineyards were really beautiful. Doug figured out the routes and drove us everywhere! Victory loved the wineries and dogs were welcome and, of course, everyone called her a “plus beau chien!” (most beautiful dog!) Of course, we agree! Victory loved the vineyards so much that she often did not want to leave!

Most of all, we enjoyed spending time together; getting away and having a break; having a change of scenery; and having days where we had no plans and were able to take each day as it came! Everyone was so nice in Quebec and the pace of everything was nice and slow! Enjoy some of our images from our vacation below!

Happy Monday!

Manchester, Vermont