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Vision Boards

I was first introduced to vision boards in 2009, and from that time, I have always created my own vision board and have made updates, when needed.  It has been a really helpful tool for me.  A vision board is like a creative collage where you place images and words on a poster board or cork board.  The idea behind this is that when you surround yourself with images of who you want to become, what you want to have, where you want to live, or where you want to vacation, etc. (the possibilities are endless), your life changes to match those images and those desires.

Once a particular “vision” is attained, it is nice to take down that image representing the attained “vision” and replacing it with a new image representing a new “vision.”  Thus, your vision board is always “full” of visions.  Vision boards are really fun to create and it has helped me keep my “vision” in one place to visually look at each day.  Currently, I keep my vision board on my desk at home.

There are several methods you can use for creating your vision board.  I have written about several below.  You can choose which one works best for you, depending on where you find yourself on this journey.

Supplies you will need for creating a vision board:

-cork board;

-magazines;

-internet and printer to print images off of the internet;

-scissors; and

-thumbtacks.

Before you begin creating your vision board:

Sit quietly with intent.  With a lot of openness, ask yourself what it is you want.  Maybe images will come to you.  This will give you a change to see more clearly.

Steps for creating a vision board:

Step 1: Go online and/or flip through your magazines and print/tear images from them.  Just let yourself have fun looking online and through magazines and printing/culling/tearing pictures or words or headlines that strike your fancy.  Have fun with it.

Step 2: Go through the images and begin to lay your favorites on the cork board.  Eliminate any images that no longer feel right.  This step is where your intuition comes in.  As you lay the pictures on the board, you will get a sense how the board should be laid out.  For instance, you might assign a theme to each corner of the board.  Health, Job, Spirituality, Relationships, for instance.  Or it may just be that the images want to go all over the place.

Step 3: Use a thumb tack to place everything onto the board.  You can be as creative as you would like.

Step 4: (optional, but powerful) Leave space in the very center of the vision board for a fantastic photo of yourself where you look radiant and happy.

Step 5: Hang your vision board in a place where you will see it often (preferably each day).

Some things to remember about vision boards:

Your vision board might change as you are making it.  You also might find that you have little epiphanies from making a vision board.

Another option is to use these same principles in a big sketch book.  Get a large sketch book and keep an ongoing vision journal.  This is especially effective if you are going through many transitions in your life.

I think actually making a vision board and going through the process is better than making  Pinterest vision boards.  However, some people might disagree.

Have fun making your vision board!

Happy Friday!

Happy Valentine’s Day/Generosity Day – Doug and Biscuit!

Happy Valentine’s Day/Generosity Day to my two sweethearts — you both make my life so much sweeter!

Below is a totem I had custom-made by Laura Johnson of Le Animalé.  Laura was able to create my vision — she painted our little family on a heart totem standing roughly 1.75 inches tall and she engraved our names and date on the other side of the totem!  I gave this heart totem to Doug for Valentine’s Day/Generosity Day this year!  He loved it!  We celebrated Valentine’s Day/Generosity Day early this past Saturday evening at Tersiguel’s — a nice surprise!  Since Biscuit was unable to go to dinner with us on Saturday, we stopped on the way home and picked him up some soft-serve vanilla Chick-Fil-A ice cream, which he loved!  (Biscuit loves Chick-Fil-A ice cream– reserved for special occassions!)  Doug also sent me the beautiful bouquet of flowers yesterday pictured below!

I really like the idea of Valentine’s Day being Generosity Day, a movement started by Sasha Dichter!  Generosity leads to confidence and happiness, which then leads to good health and inner peace, which then leads to world peace.  Generosity is the ultimate gesture of love.  It has no boundaries, no biases, no vanities, no material worth, no ego.  A saving grace for our age, perhaps.

A call to hearts:

“Give to people on the street.  Tip outrageously.  Help a stranger.  Write a note telling someone how much you appreciate them.  Smile.  Donate (more) to a cause that means a lot to you.  Take clothes to GoodWill.  Share your toys (grownups and kids).  Be patient with yourself and with others.  Replace the toilet paper in the bathroom.  All generous acts count!” 

“Love recognizes no barrier.  It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.”

Maya Angelou

Happy Valentine’s Day/Generosity Day to all!

 

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If you are interested in having a totem made, I highly recommend Laura Johnson of Le Animalé!  Laura previously made for us a totem of Biscuit; and she made a joined together cheetah and panda totem for our anniversary last year!

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“A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.”

Buddha

A Groomed Biscuit!

Biscuit just got groomed this past weekend and he is looking great!  Below are a few photographs of Biscuit going for another winter walk this past weekend!

Biscuit began his thyroid medicine this week to help with his under active thyroid.  We took Biscuit to the vet again for a follow-up appointment earlier this week and his ear infection is gone; however, Biscuit has an inflamed left ear with polyps.  As a result, we are trying new ear drops along with cleaning his ear daily in the hopes of reducing the inflammation in his left ear.  The vet suggested that if this course of treatment does not prove successful, we should schedule a consult with a dermatologist to seek alternatives to treat his left ear.  (Biscuit’s left ear has always had issues since we rescued him due to a ruptured ear drum in his left ear which he had when he was initially taken to the Sheltie Haven Sheltie Rescue, Inc. after being found on the streets of North Carolina.)

Otherwise, Biscuit is in great spirits — he is giving us his paw, a high-five, all the time in exchange for his prescription kibble (used as treats)!  Biscuit still enjoys his walks and, at times, he even gallops, which is the equivalent of running for Biscuit!

We think that Biscuit looks more attractive than the 2013 Best of Breed Shetland Sheepdog — I know, we are biased!

 

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Happy Wednesday!

Dog DNA Testing

Recently, my Dad had his dog Nick’s DNA tested out of curiosity to get additional information on the “mix breed” part of Nick’s genetic make-up.  Nick is a Pappillon mix rescue dog.  My dad used Wisdom Panel Insights for Nick’s DNA test.  However, we question the reliability of this DNA test.  As shown below, Wisdom Panel Insights states that Nick has the following breeds in him: Newfoundland (11.55%); Yorkshire Terrier (8.46%); Lhasa Apso (5.72%); West Highland White Terrier (3.73%); and Miniture Pinscher (2.33%).

After recently obtaining the DNA test results, my Dad was not too impressed and a bit disappointed with the DNA test results from Wisdom Panel Insights.  The DNA results list little Nick as having the Newfoundland breed in him (the largest breed listed in the DNA results) — which seems a little far-fetched.  So, before you have your dog’s DNA tested, it might be a good idea to research possible vendors and how they test for each dog’s DNA; and read others’ reviews on dog DNA testing.  (I am certainly not an expert in this area.)

Nevertheless, we still love Nick no matter what his genetic make-up — just look at those captivating eyes!  Nick love his Daddy more than anyone!

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Featured: Cheetah and Panda Totem

For our wedding anniversary this past year, as a gift for Doug, I had a custom hand-made joined together cheetah and panda totem made.  Laura Johnson of Le Animalé created this wonderful totem for us, based on my vision, which was recently featured in Artful Blogging shown below!

If you are interested in having a totem made, I highly recommend Laura Johnson of Le Animalé!  Laura also made a totem of Biscuit for us!

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Photographs courtesy of Laura Johnson, Le Animalé.

We are building a home!

After much reading, research, and reflection, we are very excited to see our home built and soon have a place of refuge to call home.  Doug, Biscuit, and I are really happy as we are building a home that we will be moving into this coming summer/fall 2013 (weather permitting).  We placed a contract on our lot this past December, soon after selling our former house.   This will be the most living space we have ever had together, including a garage for our cars — it will be so nice not to scrape off our cars during the winter months!  We are most grateful and we are looking forward to this next chapter in our lives.  Biscuit gives his new neighborhood two paws up!  We have discovered that there are many other doggie friends for Biscuit to play with, similar to our former neighborhood!

In the photograph below, Biscuit was patiently and intently waiting for some kibble from his Daddy as he got his photograph taken in front of our lot — soon to be home!

“There is no accomplishment in life better than a peace of mind and a happy home.”  ~ Blessing Onuocha

Happy Friday!

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Biscuit – Orvis Flagship Store

Biscuit is shown in the Orvis Flagship store – do you see the image of Biscuit in the Orvis Flagship store below on the right?  Biscuit is also shown on the Dog Blog at OrvisNews.com!  You can view this blog post here!  In this blog post, you can also get a sneak peek inside the dog section of the Orvis Flagship store located in Manchester, Vermont!

This spring, when the weather gets warmer, in May, we have a trip planned to take Biscuit to Vermont and, while we are in Vermont, we will take Biscuit visit the Orvis Flagship store!  Biscuit should have a great time!  Biscuit will get to try out the Orvis Canine Cantina, using his own water dish, of course!

 

Bicuit shown at Orvis Flagship Store

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How Dogs Use Skype

Dogs cannot get enough of Skype.  Humans, apparently, cannot get enough of watching dogs using Skype on YouTube.  A video uploaded to YouTube on January 11, 2013, of a dog using Skype to talk with other dogs has gone viral with many, many views.  The video, called “My Dog Can Skype!,” shows a wire-haired fox terrier “using” Skype and barking wildly at another dog.

However, dogs don’t experience technology in the same way that humans do.  For the past few years, there has been a cottage industry in iPad apps for pets.  Both dogs and cats have very different sensory toolkits than humans.  Apart from obvious differences in paws and hearing, dogs experience the world in an entirely different way.  Compared to humans, canines rely on their sense of smell for communication and interaction far, far more–and their sense of vision means they see a computer monitor or tablet screen far differently.

For many pet owners, Skype and other video conferencing services essentially serve as an interactive form of pet cameras such as the Eyenimal and the Petcam, albeit at a lower price point. Until more research is done, we will not really know what dogs are thinking when they engage with Skype.

Maybe we will try Skype soon!

 

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The Importance of Archival Digital Photo Papers

Printing your digital photos on archival paper will help to ensure that your treasured photographs do not fade or change colors over time.  You will need a printer or a quality photo lab that produces prints on acid-free archival paper using archival quality inks.  Along with archival paper, you will want to choose a quality pigment ink for your printer to get a print that will last, presuming that you are not using a quality photo lab for your photographic printing.

Matte and fine art papers typically offer the greatest archival stability compared to other papers, with image permanence often approaching — or even exceeding — 100 years with pigment inks.  In addition, I prefer matte papers because I do not care for the reflective sheen of semi-gloss and luster papers.

The term “fine art” seems to imply that only great works of art can be printed on these papers, but, of course, that is not the case.  Fine art papers are often thicker and heavier than plain matte papers, with a variety of surface textures including smooth, satin, velvet and watercolor.  As a rule, they are more expensive than regular matte papers, and sometimes considerably more.  Matte papers are the best choice when you want an economical paper with the smoothest surface and the best photographic output.  Choose fine art papers when you want the texture of the surface to lend a certain characteristic to the print, or you simply want the paper to feel more luxurious in a potential customer’s hands.

For conservation purposes, it is important that you use archival printing and archival papers to ensure the longevity of your photographs.  Additionally, it is just as important that you take great care of your photographs in order to preserve your photographs.

I really like the following archival digital photo papers: (1) Hahnemühle Photo Rag archival photo paper; (2) the Crane Museo archival photo paper; and (3) the Somerset Velvet paper.  Images printed on these archival digital photo papers literally look like ‘works of art.’

Below is a Matte Fine Art Paper Comparison Chart

Paper Surface Texture Color Color Weight
Enhanced Matte smooth soft white 192 gsm
Legion Photo Matte smooth bright white 230 gsm
Red River Polar Matte smooth bright white 225 gsm
Hahnemühle Photo Rag smooth soft white 188gsm                     308 gsm
Brightcube Eclipse Satine Bright White (also available in soft white) satin bright white 190gsm                   300 gsm
Hawk Mountain Merlin smooth soft white 255 gsm
Crane Museo/LexJet Soft Fine Art/Red River Polar Art smooth soft white 250 gsm
Hawk Mountain Osprey Smooth satin soft white 250 gsm
Somerset Photo Enhanced Velvet velvet bright white 225 gsm
Ilford Fine Art rough soft white 190 gsm

For further reading, the Wilhelm Imaging Research has a lot of information concerning archival photo papers.

You can view more archival digital photo papers at B and H Photo’s website.

 

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One Year Blogiversary!

Today is the one year Blogiversary of www.biscuitsspace.com the blog for Katherine Carver Photography!  Technically the one-year anniversary was yesterday, February 3, 2013, but since I typically do not blog over the weekends, I figured today would be a good day to commemorate one year of blogging!  It is difficult to believe that one year has already passed by!  I have accomplished  goals  that I set to accomplish in 2012, and I am looking forward to accomplishing more goals in 2013!

Thank you to all of you who read and subscribe to this blog!  I have enjoyed sharing my photography with you.  I greatly appreciate your support, and I hope that you enjoy the photography and blog posts on this blog!

Thank you so very much for your support!

Below is little Biscuit in profile showing off his sheltie furs – a photograph taken just before dusk.

 

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