Nov 22
Happy Thanksgiving from Biscuit!
The weather is so nice here today and the light was wonderful this morning. In the image below, Biscuit is walking in our neighborhood dog park earlier this morning! Biscuit is all bathed and groomed and ready for some turkey!
I made a sweet potato casserole to take for Thanksgiving dinner today!
Gratitude. It turns what we have into enough.
~Unknown
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Nov 20
This week I ordered Biscuit some holiday antlers – hopefully, they fit him and he will like to wear them long enough for me to get a few photographs of him! I ordered him a size small, as he has a tiny head!
Doug and I were talking and trying to decide what to get Biscuit for Christmas this year, and we have settled on another large Orvis Dream Lounger bed with orthopedic memory foam for our bedroom. He likes his large sage color Orvis bed in our living room so much, that we are going to get him a matching one in beige/ivory color to use in our bedroom! We want to make sure Biscuit is comfortable, especially with his arthritis.
Below is a photograph of Biscuit taken last December sitting near our Christmas tree! I think that Biscuit knows when he is being photographed!
Happy Tuesday!
Nov 15
My friend, Kelsang Menla, wrote this very interesting guest blog post about dogs and meditation! Based on Menla’s blog post, shown below, we have a lot to learn from our furry family members!
Menla is the Administrative Director at the Kadampa Meditation Center Maryland. Menla has been practicing Kadampa Buddhism for 12 years and took ordination in 2001. You can contact Menla at the following e-mail address, Director@meditationmd.org.
Dogs Teach Meditation!
Sometimes life is really stressful and there is so much to deal with. In contending with all of the things we have to do our thoughts can get scattered and our mind can become tense. To bring back a greater sense of well-being, a peaceful state of mind, and inner balance meditation is an excellent tool. It’s so simple to learn to meditate that even dogs can do it (well sort of… more on this later!). Just try sitting down in a quiet place, scanning through your body to relax your muscles and areas of tension, and then turn your mind to your breath. Find the sensation of the breath at the opening of your nostrils, and lightly focus your attention there. Experience the breath as you breath in and out, allowing mental and physical stress to gradually dissipate and melt away. Thoughts may run through your mind, but simply choose to go back to your breath and leave behind whatever thoughts may be consuming you mind. Try to remain with your breath allowing yourself to relax and gradually a refreshing feeling begins to fill your body and mind.
But you might say, “I can’t do that! There is too much going on in my head! I’ve got so much to do. And anyway, I can’t stop my mind from thinking. It’s impossible. I can’t meditate. I’ll have to try that when I have fewer things to deal with.”
Hold it right there. It’s not impossible. It isn’t too difficult, and if you wait until you have less to do…well let’s be honest, there’s never less to do for very long! Your dog is teaching you to meditate all the time. If you just watch your trusty friend in action, you’ll see how you can be an expert meditator before too long.
When you get home from work and it’s time to take doggers out for a walk, this is the perfect time to watch for his cues…
When you say, “It’s time for a WALK!” What happens??? Your little friend get’s all excited. All he can think about is W-A-L-K. You might be dilly-dallying, talking on the phone, looking for your phone, looking for your keys, getting distracted with opening the mail. But, doggers won’t let you forget or get distracted for too long. All he’s thinking about is W-A-L-Ks! He has single pointed focus on that and will remind you of it if you forget for too long.
So, you get out of the house and go down to the park. You’ve brought his favorite ball and you start playing catch. When you pick up that ball, his eyes are on it like a white on rice! As you move your arm back to throw the ball, doggers is watching your hand and the motion of that ball without distraction. With single-mindedness he chases after that ball and then brings it back to you and…repeat again, again, and again! If you get distracted with a text message, he’s still watching that ball. And when you stop texting the ritual of catch is restored. It’s like meditation, you go back to your breath again, again, and again. Leaving distractions of the mind behind, you allow your mind to become absorbed into the experience of the breath. When playing catch, you’ll probably get tired before your little friend does, which is a good lesson in itself — time flies when you’re having fun. If you could get absorbed into meditation with the same joyful enthusiasm as doggers playing catch, you’d be able to meditate for a lot more than 10 or 15 minutes!
Then when you get home and it’s time for a little doggie treat, you decide to have a little fun. You pull out a treat from the bag and holding it in you hand you wave it from left to right. And doggers head goes from left to right at the same exact speed as your hand. Then you toss it to him and yum yum it’s gone. Then repeat! Doggers wants that treat, he knows how yummy it is, and he’s patient enough to wait for it. He doesn’t give up. He’s showing us how to approach meditation. The treat of meditation is feeling a purer form of happiness, a bliss and peace of the mind. Having a little bit of patience with ourselves and developing that single-minded focus we will enjoy our meditation time just as much as doggers enjoys his treat. Then you both have your dinner and relax for the evening.
The thing our little friend is trying to show us is that we can become absorbed in any activity if we enjoy doing it. And if we enjoy it, it becomes a habit. For your pet it is walks, catch, bones, and treats. He loves those things and can become absorbed into them. For us it’s other things. Maybe work, good books, favorite movies, a conversation, or a hobby. We can enjoy and develop the positive habit of meditation too. If we learn how to meditate properly and get the taste of peace that comes from meditation, then we’ll feel relaxed, calm, and uplifted! We’ll learn how to become absorbed into a peaceful experience just like doggers gets absorbed into his game and before too long we’ll notice that we’re meditating. So who says meditation is impossible or that you can’t do it? If you ask your pet he’ll say, “Ruff Ruff? It’s not ruff is easy!”
If you’d like to learn more about meditation and have a few tools to start, I recommend guided meditation CDs in the series Living Meditation. You can download them as MP3 files or you can purchase theCDs here.
The dog photographs shown in this blog post are of little Biscuit!
Nov 9
Yesterday was Nick’s birthday — he turned 6 (we think)! Nick is my parents’ rescue papillon mix dog! Pictured below on his birthday, he is wearing the embroidered sweater we gave to him to keep him warm during the cold winter months in Michigan!
Nick does not always look so serious – below is a photograph of Nick that was used to make the painting of Nick that we gave to my parents last year.
Happy Friday!
Nov 8
Below are few photographs of the Le Biscuit Totem! Laura Johnson of Le Animalé made the Le Biscuit totem from photographs that I sent her showing multiple perspectives of Biscuit so that she could create the three-dimensional Le Biscuit Totem!
For those of you who have met Biscuit, he loves to raise and give his paw in exchange for his prescription kibble, which he loves! Biscuit is on a prescription diet due to health reasons. It seemed fitting to show Biscuit smiling and raising his paw — his trademark! Each night after we go to the gym, Biscuit loves to sit with us on the sofa and give us his paw for his kibble! We think Biscuit thinks it is Halloween 365 days a year!
The stats for the Le Biscuit totem are:
Handsome
Head Strong
Hungry
Happy
Laura also made the Le Cheetah and Panda Totem that I gave to Doug for our wedding anniversary gift this past October. You can read more about Laura here, and you can visit her website as well!
Happy Thursday!
The light was so nice this morning that I decided to take some photographs of Biscuit! Biscuit is doing well and he is looking very handsome!
Happy Tuesday!
Biscuit is featured in the Orvis Gift Book as a centerfold promoting dog rescue via the Orvis Petfinder.com Commitment. Please see the photographs of little Biscuit below!
Happy Monday!
Nov 2
I cannot believe that the Holidays are already upon us! This is the time of year when I usually start thinking about making our Holiday card. I take pride in making our Holiday card, even though the paper card has become more obsolete with the use of electronic transmission and electronic devices. However, people, including myself, enjoy receiving actual cards in the mail, which brightens one’s day! It also provides an opportunity to use some of my photographs while highlighting the year. I think people are visual, and enjoy seeing photographs on Holiday cards, which also makes a nice keepsake. I try to complete and order our Holiday cards prior to Thanksgiving, which allows for additional time if needed. Usually, I put something together and revise and continue to revise until I get the card just right! Then, Doug reviews and gives his feedback. Then, I make the final changes based on his feedback and he proof reads one last time! I, of course, address all of the envelopes!
Even though it takes me quite a bit of time culling through and selecting photographs and designing these Holiday cards, I enjoy making our Holiday card highlighting the year. Hopefully, people enjoy receiving them as much as I enjoy making them! Last year’s highlight and theme of our card was the introduction of Biscuit into our lives. I like to coordinate our Holiday card so everything flows together and is cohesive. I like cards that are simple, elegant, and tasteful and printed on good quality matte heavy card stock. Below is an outline of what I made last year, as I keep this in mind while I am working on this year’s Holiday card!
Card: Last year, we sent out this flat card printed on matte heavy card stock from Minted shown below. (We also wrote a message and included a family photograph with Biscuit on the back of our Holiday card, which is not shown below). I was quite pleased with the way our Holiday card turned out, and the Minted customer service people were quite helpful with answering questions. I am already working on this year’s Holiday card and I will use Minted again.
Stamp: Last year I made a custom stamp featuring the above photograph of little Biscuit! I plan on using a custom stamp for this year’s Holiday card as well! It really adds an unexpected fun and personal touch to the Holiday cards – at least I think so!
Seal: Last year I made a custom sticker to use as seals for the envelopes on our Holiday cards using the above photograph of Biscuit! I also plan on making a custom seal for this year’s Holiday card! The seals are helpful and it is a great alternative and time saver to using a wet sponge and/or licking the envelopes! The seal also adds a nice personal touch.
Return Address Label: I use a simple return address label using black text on a clear/transparent label for my Holiday cards.
I hope that this was helpful for those of you who savor photographs and cards. Have fun making your photo Holiday cards this year!
Happy Friday!
Happy Halloween! During the hurricane, Doug spent many hours carving our pumpkin below of a sheltie in honor of Biscuit! He did a very nice job! Next year, we plan to get a custom stencil of Biscuit made for Doug to carve onto our pumpkin! Check out Masterpiece Pumpkins!
Below are the pumpkins that Doug carved last year – a panda and a sheltie!
Biscuit was a panda for Halloween, hence the name ‘sheltanda!’ — a sheltie-panda! We were unable to locate a cheetah dog costume for Biscuit this year! Some photos of Biscuit in his costume are shown below!
Happy Halloween!
Well, we made it through the hurricane with power. We saw on the news that there were so many places without power and major flooding. Luckily, our sump pump worked well and it is continuing to run continuously today.
Biscuit did a good job during the hurricane. Doug took him outside multiple times yesterday during the storm. However, the very strong winds nearly blew little Biscuit over. These were not good weather conditions conducive for our little Biscuit or anyone for that matter.
On a good note, the hurricane provided time for me to update my website, which is something I have wanted to complete. As a result, new portfolios are now shown on my website! I hope to continually update my website with new material moving forward.
Doug also worked on an art project during the hurricane – more on that in tomorrow’s blog post!
Also, I recently received my new business cards with my new logo/brand, shown immediately below!
Front.
Back.
biscuit's space | The blog of photographer Katherine Carver 