biscuit's space | The blog of photographer Katherine Carver

Aug 14

Victory: Photography Project — 69

Beginning in January 2014, I started a weekly photography project with my muse, Victory! I will continue to share this project on the blog this year! My goal is to document all of Victory’s changes, while preserving fleeting moments and memories, while capturing moments of our everyday.

My parents came to visit recently and we had a really nice time together and we also celebrated three birthdays — all within four days of each other! We went to the Eastern Shore together, and we took Nick and Victory to the dog beach. It was very crowded as compared to the last time we recently visited the beach on the Eastern Shore. Victory still dipped her paws in the water; however, Nick really did not care for the water! As you can see below, he is running from the waves! After the beach, we celebrated our birthdays by going to pick crabs! The weather was beautiful all weekend! We spent evenings on the deck together; and I baked a cake and Doug cooked a special birthday dinner for my Dad’s birthday, and it was delicious!

Victory was even nice enough to share her Hound About with Nick so we could take some long walks in the neighborhood together! They got along well, and Nick is getting his own Hound About, the red one, later this month, as his little legs tire easily on longer walks. Victory had a great time and she got lots of treats and love from her Grandma and Grandpa!

Below are some images from my parents’ recent visit!

We hope that you have a great weekend. The weather is supposed to be beautiful here this weekend and we plan to go to Delaware with our fur girl as we soak up the last weekends of the summer!

Happy Friday!

Aug 12

Sparing One Hour A Day

Sometimes it feels like life gets in the way of what you really want to be doing. We get so caught up in maintaining things in our every day, that sometimes it makes it difficult to build your dream. Taking care of and maintaining work and life is important. But in especially busy times, it is easy for months to go by without being any closer to doing the work you are passionate about. So today, no matter how lengthy your to do list may be, just set aside one hour to work on the items that bring your closer to your dream. Even if it does not feel like you can spare an hour a day, you can. Take this hour a day and start doing the work to make your dream a reality — and one day at a time you can start to see progress…

Aug 11

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What Does Your Future Look Like In Five Years?

I was intrigued when my friend told me about a Ted Talk about drawing your dreams. In the Ted Talk, shown below, Pat Dobrowolski explains that your ideal future begins with a drawing. Dobrowolski’s theory is that once you draw your ideal reality, your brain finds a way to bring your ideal reality/dreams to fruition.

How does this work? You draw exactly what you want your future to look like, and then you color your drawing with vibrant colors. Then, your brain works away to help you make your vision a reality. Dobrowolski says, “see it, believe it, and then act on it.”

I am going to draw my ideal future, and hopefully, my brain makes some connections!

In addition to the above, Elizabeth Gilbert recently posted the quote, “If you don’t know where you want to be in 5 years…You are already there.” I found this quote profound. Similar to Dobrowolski theory, taking pen and color to paper, explained above, Gilbert states that your dreams only come to be by writing them down. Gilbert states, “Writing down your goals and dreams creates a disturbance in the universe — calls down the attention of your guiding spirits. Writing down your goals also causes a disturbance in your own soul — wakes you up, and makes you take notice of your own desires.”

Gilbert set forth the following questions for one to answer to help guide one to his/her dreams! So, take a moment and write down where you want to be in five years, in addition to drawing out your idea future! Be sure to be honest, brave, and ambitious!

I completed this exercise and it was really helpful, and these questions will also help you to draw your future!

1. Who do you want to be spending your time with (romantically, or otherwise) five years from now?

2. Where do you want to be living?

3. What do you want your health to look like?

4. What do you want your creativity to look like?

5. Where do you want to be working?

6. What do you want to have put behind you by then?

7. If you are dreaming of an escape plan, what might that escape plan look like?

8. How much money will it take to make that dream come true — REALLY?

9. What are you willing to give up, in order to have what you really want?

10. Do you honestly need all the things (and people) that you think you need, or might there be a smoother, simpler way?

11. And what steps can you imagine beginning to take right now…to transport you from HERE to THERE.

Either way, five years is going to pass; and you will either be standing exactly where you are right now, or you will be standing somewhere completely new.

Aug 7

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Happy Birthday, Sweet Dear Biscuit!

Tomorrow is Biscuit’s birthday. He would have been twelve-years-old presuming his age was accurate when we rescued him. However, it is very likely he was older. We made August 8th Biscuit’s birthday as it was the day Biscuit was rescued off the streets in North Carolina where he was then taken to the Sheltie Haven Sheltie Rescue, Inc. We rescued Biscuit from this rescue organization on January 7, 2011.

We celebrated Biscuit’s birthday in Nova Scotia during the summers of 2011 and 2012; and in 2013, we spent our last vacation together in Manchester, Vermont. We had a wonderful time together. Doug and I have many wonderful memories of our summer vacations together with Biscuit. We know that Biscuit will be with us in spirit during our vacation this year with Victory.

Whenever I see a rainbow, I think of Biscuit. Earlier this week after a good rain, the most beautiful and grand rainbow appeared over the geographic area where we previously lived with Biscuit. We immediately thought of Biscuit.

Below is one of our favorite images of our beloved Biscuit taken in Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia. He was so happy and he looked so handsome.

Biscuit, we hope that you have a wonderful birthday! We hope that you are running on the beach with your sheltie furs blowing in the wind — a lovely and lasting image and memory that I will always cherish! You are always and forever in our hearts, our sweet dear Biscuit. Thank you for the many gifts you gave to us. We love you and miss you very much. Happy Birthday!

Aug 5

Sashi is Back…

Sashi is back! Earlier this year, I wrote about the book entitled, Sashi, the Scared Little Sheltie! The author, Linda Greiner, recently contacted me to let me know her new book with illustrator, Morgan Spicer, entitled, Sahsi Adopts a Brother, a continuation in the Sashi Series, is available for pre-order! A portion of the sales are donated to help Shetland Sheepdogs in the New Jersey area. We love shelties and we are strong proponents of dog rescue, and we have already ordered ourselves a signed copy of this new book!

Here is an excerpt from the author:

“Sashi knows what it’s like to be unwanted. She was a rescue sheltie when Anna and her mother adopted her. After a few years, Sashi’s humans decide to foster rescues until they find permanent homes. Well-trained and confident in her place among her humans, Sashi makes sure the fosters know that she’s the princess of the house. Some of the fosters teach her fun tricks, like climbing snowdrifts. Others—like the one who chases a laser light toy—just seem strange. But none challenges her ability to rule her home as much as one oversized and rambunctious sheltie who had to leave his original home due to his bad behavior.”

The above image is courtesy of Linda Greiner.

You can view a trailer of the book, Sahsi Adopts a Brother, here.

Aug 4

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Victory: Photography Project — 68

Beginning in January 2014, I started a weekly photography project with my muse, Victory! I will continue to share this project on the blog this year! My goal is to document all of Victory’s changes, while preserving fleeting moments and memories, while capturing moments of our everyday.

Over the weekend we went back to the Eastern Shore! We had a great time and the weather was fantastic! Doug had some crabs and he picked them very thoroughly, and I had shrimp! Later on, we went to the beach, the portion that permits furry family members, and we made it just in time to watch the sun set! We plan to head back to the Eastern Shore this coming weekend with my parents (and Nick) while they are here visiting!

Below are a few images from this past weekend!

Happy Tuesday!

Jul 31

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A Family Reunion?

When we adopted Victory in the fall of 2013, Victory was one of many shelties living in a horrible hoarding house on the western side of Michigan. Soon after, we discovered Chrissy, a sheltie who was also a victim of the horrible hoarding situation. You can read and view further information about the hoarding situation here, here, here, and here.

After we adopted Victory, we saw that Chrissy was up for adoption through the Michigan Sheltie Rescue, and Doug and I believe that Victory and Chrissy are related as they have a striking resemblance — just look at the unique coloring with a hint of Blue Merle; the snout shape; and the similar nose and ears! Perhaps Chrissy is Victory’s sister, auntie, or cousin? What do you think?

In the photos below, Chrissy is shown on the left, which was taken on her first night in her furever home; and Victory is shown on the right while she was in her foster home taken shortly before we met and adopted Victory. (Both images were taken approximately at the time of adoption).

I recently contacted the Michigan Sheltie Rescue who put me in contact with Chrissy’s parents. We discovered that Chrissy lives in Ohio, not too far from my parents who live in Michigan. Our plan is to coordinate a reunion for the two fur girls the next time we travel to Michigan to visit family! At that time, I will take some photographs of the two girls together, and it will be wonderful to witness both of their wonderful transformations! We can’t wait to meet Chrissy!

We hope that you have a great weekend! We are headed back to the Eastern Shore this weekend with Victory! It should be a fun and beautiful weekend!

The above images are courtesy of Chrissy’s parents; and Victory’s foster family.

Jul 28

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Snapshot: 2011 Nova Scotia Vacation

I recently finished making eight photo books, and I realized that I had not shared our trip to Nova Scotia that we took with Biscuit in 2011, which predates this blog. (We also took Biscuit with us on vacation to Nova Scotia in 2012; and we took him to Manchester, Vermont in the spring of 2013.) We love Nova Scotia and we had a wonderful time together. We rented a cottage on the water in Hubbards, a quaint and charming town. My parents also joined us for a portion of this trip. We enjoyed several day trips to Halifax; Lunenburg; Mahone Bay; and Peggy’s Cove, to name a few.

Biscuit absolutely loved visiting Nova Scotia, and he especially enjoyed the beach and the boat ride around Peggy’s Cove. The temperatures were perfect and it was lovely being on the water. It was an added bonus to be surrounded by nice people — the Canadians are very friendly. We rented the same cottage again in 2012, and each time we celebrated Biscuit’s birthday along with our birthdays! We hope to someday return to Nova Scotia. We have many wonderful memories together with our beloved Biscuit.

We are looking forward to returning to Canada later this summer for our vacation with our fur girl, Victory! We also look forward to my parents coming to visit soon along with Nick!

Below is a snapshot from our trip to Nova Scotia in 2011.

Jul 27

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Victory: Photography Project — 67

Beginning in January 2014, I started a weekly photography project with my muse, Victory! I will continue to share this project on the blog this year! My goal is to document all of Victory’s changes, while preserving fleeting moments and memories, while capturing moments of our everyday.

This past weekend we went to Newark, Delaware. We had a great time and the weather was gorgeous! While in Delaware, I also photographed a sheltie for my long-term photo project. Below are three shelties together — Blu, Coco, and Victory taken at the University of Delaware! Victory did really well and she liked meeting other sheltie gals! Victory was not as outgoing as Coco and Blu who enjoy playing fetch, but she enjoyed watching and observing! Maybe Victory is more of an introvert, if there is such a term in dog land! After the photo shoot, we all had dinner together along with the three shelties and all the shelties did really well at the restaurant!

Additionally, here is a link to view three other shelties together!

Jul 24

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Around Here: July

Well, the year is already half way over. I can hardly believe it — the time is flying by! Below are some items that have occurred around here in July!

-received positive feedback on the first portion of my project from another reviewer. I have begun working on the images for the second portion of the project. The photographing portion is nearly complete after nearly three years of photographing for this project!

-preparing filings with the U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress; and getting test prints made for my project.

-finished reading this book — a good read!

-started reading this book — so far a good read.

-making dinner together with Doug — enjoying lots of yummy food on the Big Green Egg!

-finished watching the third season of Orange is the New Black, which was a bit disappointing this season.

-started watching the new seasons of Masters of Sex.

-enjoying evenings together on the deck with our fur girl, Victory — we have been enjoying the recent cooler temperatures in the mornings and evenings.

-Loving this new podcast!

-enjoying weekends at the pool, catching up on all of my reading — I still have many books sitting on my nightstand!

-finally finished selecting images (and sizes), which go to print next week, to frame and put up in our home.

-finished making eight different photo books via Artifact Uprising, which we can’t wait to receive! It was quite time intensive to make these books, but they will be really nice to have and look back on for years to come. I also finally finished making our wedding photo book. Our photographer made us an album at the time of our wedding, but I wanted to make a photo book, creating a narrative of our wedding day, nearly seven years ago — better late than never!

-still enjoying my yoga class (and the gym)!

-gradually getting the items on our to do list this summer — we are slowly getting there!

-Doug purchased tickets for Pups in the Park in late September — it should be fun and hopefully Victory will like it, too!

-having date nights with Doug! We are heading to Delaware with Victory this weekend! The weather looks really nice!

-Lastly, Victory finished her antibiotics, which she was on for three consecutive weeks to treat her infection. We have also been giving her a supplement and we have been wiping and clipping the fur around her ‘lady parts’ to keep this area clean. We recently went back to the vet for a follow-up appointment, and the vet took another sterile urine sample, which was very concentrated. Fortunately, the recent urine culture showed no bacteria indicating no infection! The vet recommended that we change Victory to a human-grade wet food diet, two feedings a day, making a soup/chowder to get more water into her system in order to flush out her system more frequently. Victory loves her new diet! The vet thinks that perhaps the lack of water consumption may be contributing to these infections, which we have been battling for over two months. We will recheck her urine in about a month, prior to leaving for vacation, to make sure she is still infection free. Our fingers are double crossed!

Happy Friday and have a great weekend!