Feb 14
We celebrated Valentine’s Day a little early, this weekend with Alex and Victory! They are quite the pair! I am so grateful for our little family.
Happy Heart Day! I hope you have a great day celebrating with the ones you love.
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.” — Helen Keller
I love this passage from Elizabeth Gilbert’s book entitled, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. It really boils down to how one handles herself during a creative endeavor where there is always much uncertainty, while simultaneously there is great possibility. These words really resonated with me.
“Back in my early twenties, I had a good friend who was an aspiring writer, just like me. I remember how he used to descend into dark funks of depression about his lack of success, about his inability to get published. He would sulk and rage.
‘I don’t just want to be sitting around,’ he would moan. ‘I want this to all add up to something. I want this to become my job!’
Even back then, I thought there was something off about his attitude.
Mind you, I wasn’t being published, either, and I was hungry, too. I would’ve loved to have all the same stuff he wanted — success, reward, affirmation. I was no stranger to disappointment and frustration. But I remember thinking that learning how to endure your disappointment and frustration is part of the job of a creative person. If you want to be an artist of any sort, it seemed to me, then handling your frustration is a fundamental aspect of the work — perhaps the single most fundamental aspect of the work. Frustration is not an interruption of your process; frustration is the process. The fun part (the part where it doesn’t feel like work at all) is when you’re actually creating something wonderful, and everything’s going great, and everyone loves it, and you’re flying high. But such instances are rare. You don’t just get to leap from bright moment to bright moment. How you manage yourself between those bright moments, when things aren’t going so great, is a measure of how devoted you are to your vocation, and how equipped you are for the weird demands of creative living. Holding yourself together though all the phases of creation is where the real work lies.”
Today is the ten-year Blogiversary of the blog! I can’t hardly believe it! It is extremely difficult to believe that ten years, a full decade, has already passed by so quickly! The time moves so quickly, these days, and I often wonder where the time goes? Many things have changed, but some things remain the same, fortunately. I am grateful for this little space here.
If it were not for our beloved Biscuit, I am not sure I would have ever started blogging and I know that I would not have started my long-term photography project, for which Biscuit and Victory are my inspiration. Biscuit was such a blessing and gift to us. Biscuit permanently changed our lives in so many positive ways and he sent us our precious little rescue sheltie, Victory, who we adore and love, shown below! We have savored our time together with Victory during the pandemic. And, coincidentally, Victory is the same age (we suspect as she is a rescue dog) as the blog!
Thank you for reading this blog for however long or short you have been visiting! I truly enjoy creating content for the blog to share with all of you, and I hope that you continue to enjoy visiting and reading the blog!
Thank you so very much!
Jan 24
This post is a little late, as we are already fully into the new year. However, I have been fervently working to catch up on editing our family photos along with making family year books via Blurb to document and archive our family year, by year. However, somehow, I always seem to be catching up on my photo editing, a never ending process.
During this past fall, we picked apples; took a trip to the pumpkin patch; took Alex to horse riding lessons and she is currently riding on her own now, which has been so wonderful to watch her progress; celebrated our thirteenth year of marriage (along with celebrating seventeen years of being together); celebrated Victory’s tenth birthday; spent time with my parents who came to visit; celebrated Halloween with our two little peacocks; and Alex met Santa outside! (We do miss our regular Santa visits with the girls due to COVID.) Overall, we had a fun fall together! Below are a few images from this past fall!
Here is Alex riding Edge!
Jan 18
The Pet Show exhibition at Fotographiska, located in Stockholm, Sweden, showcases photographers and artists, including Martin Usborne, Robin Schwartz, Sophie Gamand, Tim Flach, William Wegman, and Elliot Erwitt, as well as new and emerging artists.
The exhibition is a tribute to pets and their place in our hearts and our history, and their significance in art and culture through the centuries. Twenty-seven artists and more than 140 works blending documentary photography, portraits and everything in between infusing what we love best about dogs: their present moment nature; endlessly entertaining quirks and pure expressions of unconditional love; and joy. The Pet Show celebrates animals for what they are: beloved works of art.
Images are courtesy of fotografiska.com.
I hope you had a nice Holiday. We visited with family, we had some down time with our girls, and we got some sleep and rest, which was so nice. And, I cannot believe our little girl is turning three-and-a-half-years-old this week! She is growing in every way and she loves learning and she is curious about everything, which I hope never goes away!
It is a new year, which means there has been much talk about fresh beginnings. For me, I keep things simple and I select a word, an intention, for the year.
I have reflected on my word for this year: present. Last year I chose grace; in 2020 the word bliss; in 2019 the word embrace; in 2018 the word peace; in 2017 I chose relax; in 2016 I chose present; in 2015 I chose flow; in 2014 I chose trust; and in 2013 I chose the word create. The idea of picking an intention has worked well over the past few years.
I have nothing against resolutions (or goals, or plans, or to-do lists), but for me, I have found the most impactful way to embrace a new year is to pick a word — just one word, intention — to keep in mind.
As 2021 came to an end, I know that things were really hectic and busy in 2021, for a number of reasons. I could feel the tiredness and exhaustion throughout my entire body. I realized, that there were times that I was not present in the moment, and I want to work on this this year — to truly embrace the moment. “The secret of health for both mind and body is not to mourn for the past, nor to worry about the future, but to live the present moment wisely and earnestly.” —Buddha
For me, it is an easy reminder to take whatever small steps I can to create clarity and feel better. For anyone similarly overwhelmed by resolutions, I recommend the practice of a New Year’s Word. Plus, since it is so simple, and you can change it at any time.
Happy New Year!
Dec 21
“All his life he tried to be a good person. Many times, however, he failed. For after all, he was only human. He wasn’t a dog.” — Charles M. Schulz
Happy Pawlidays! I wanted to thank you so very much for checking in over the past year — I am very grateful. I know it has been another strange year with a few more normalcies in place.
Below is the front of our Pawliday card (the back of our card containing text is not pictured), along with our matching envelopes using little photo seals of our beautiful girls, Alex and Victory! Unfortunately, custom stamps are no longer permitted by the Post Office. (You can view our previous Pawliday cards here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here). Sending our Pawliday card is one of my favorite parts of the Holiday season! This is my way of sharing our Pawliday card with you. Thank you for reading this blog for however long or short you have been reading. I sincerely enjoy creating content for the blog to share with you.
I will be taking a break from the blog to enjoy some down time with our little family, and I plan to be back to the blog sometime early next year. Meanwhile, if you are in a blog-reading mood, you are warmly invited to visit the archives — the links are shown below. Warmest wishes to you for a safe and Happy Holidays!
It is a busy time of year for most people, and I have been trying to work on being more present and totally all in the moment, so that I do not miss anything. Our minds tend to vacillate between the past and the future, and we consequently miss these important, ordinary, fleeting moments. What I love about animals is how present they always are, regardless of their circumstances. These words really resonated with me by Lisa Congdon, shown below.
Given the fast pace and hectic schedules of our lives, we have grown used to living with anxiety, stress, and general unhappiness, as if all of those things are a necessary condition of life. Our tendency to ruminate over the past or trip on the future can leave us exhausted and drained. Sometimes just being in our own skin can feel uncomfortable. When we pay attention we realize that we spend a lot of time avoiding and distracting ourselves from uncomfortable feelings — like not knowing what’s going to happen next, or whether someone is going to text us back, or feeling lonely or disconnected. But the antidote to anxiety and distraction is a conscious awareness and a commitment to staying ‘in the now.’ When we focus on our feelings and whatever is happening in the present moment, instead of distracting ourselves from them, we begin to eventually feel a sense of ease and calm. We can practice this habit intentionally through meditation, which strengthens our ability to be present in the rest of our days. And we can also practice it at any moment in the day when we feel ourselves tensing up with annoying thoughts or worry.
Dec 7
What are your holiday traditions? Alex is getting older and she is getting more into the holiday spirit, each year! This year we are doing the following:
-Each evening after dinner, we do the advent calendar with both of our girls; and Alex never lets me forget, with her great memory and attention to detail! We found the chocolate (human) and dog advent calendars at Trader Joe’s, and they are a hit with the girls, including Victory!
-We are making Christmas eggnog sugar cookies, and they are simply the best! Alex loves to creatively decorate them; and then we all consume them! We especially like these sugar cookies, and Alex always loves to eat her cookies with eggnog!
-We love looking at Christmas lights. We have enjoyed Enchant and the Symphony of Lights! We also like to drive through neighborhoods and look at residential lights and decorations with our girls.
-We love watching Christmas themed shows with Alex, which are always a hit! We especially love A Charlie Brown Christmas.
-We love reading Christmas stories together, which is always fun!
-We love listening to Christmas music as well!
-I always get the girls matching Hanna Andersson pjs for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, which Alex enjoys, and Victory fortunately tolerates wearing them!
-We make a photo Holiday card each year!
-I also get the girls an ornament each year; I also get a few photo ornaments made from the year; and we also pick up ornaments from the places we visited, creating a Christmas memory tree!
-We decorate our Christmas tree together, and Alex loves to put on decorations! I especially love and cherish her hand made Christmas ornaments!
-I get Alex a Christmas dress each year!
-We usually go and see Santa with the girls, but we skipped last year and we are skipping this year, again, due to COVID. Alex has not asked for any specific gifts from Santa, this year, just that she hopes Santa wraps her gifts in orange wrapping paper, her favorite color! She is curious, though, about what Santa is going to bring her, which she is looking forward to with great anticipation!
-We will also likely leave a note and cookies for Santa this year, for the first time!
-We love spending time together, and Christmas morning is always so much fun! I am sure that our traditions will expand as Alex gets older, adopting some of her ideas, which she has many!
Happy Fall! Below are a few things I have been loving this fall!
1. Patagonia Nono Puff Jacket — I love this jacket. It is the perfect weight for fall weather, without feeling too heavy on your body! I highly recommend.
2. Native Body Wash — I love this body wash! I especially like the lavender and rose scent, it smells so nice!
3. Chick-Fil-A Peppermint Milkshake — It is that time of year, again, that we look forward to, when we can get a Chick-Fil-A peppermint milkshake, for a limited period of time! (I usually do not go for milkshakes, but this one is excellent.) Both Alex and I love them, a special treat!
4. Work Life Podcast with Adam Grant — I just came across this podcast with Adam Grant, and I really enjoy the wide range of topics, and the guests are very interesting to listen to, especially on a long walk outside!
5. You will Leave A Trail of Stars — I really like this book by Lisa Congdon. It offers interesting thoughts, insights, and wisdom.
6. The Serpent — Doug and I enjoyed this British crime drama, which was based on a true story.
You can view other things I love here!
biscuit's space | The blog of photographer Katherine Carver 