biscuit's space | The blog of photographer Katherine Carver

Jan 14

Victory: Paw Art

When we went to Annapolis over Thanksgiving weekend, we purchased a Paw Posie Kit. With this kit, you first place the paint on a wet sponge and then you take your furry family member’s paw and place his/her paw in the paint and then you immediately place the paw on the paper. You repeat this process until you have roughly three to four paw prints on the paper, heavy card stock. (We purchased a red kit, which came out looking a little pink — Victory’s favorite color.)

On a weekend after Victory’s paws and nails were clipped at the vet’s office, we decided to make her paw prints because there was less fur to get in the way of her prints. It took both Doug and I to make the paw prints. As a result, I could not photograph the process of making Victory’s paw prints. Doug held the paper and I dabbed Victory’s paw in the paint and placed her paw on the paper three times! Victory was extremely cooperative, and she made beautiful paw prints — she is a Pawcasso! Then, we gave her a bath, much to Victory’s dismay, to wash off the paint, etc.

After the paint was dry containing her beautiful and dainty paw prints, shown below on the lower right, we sent the paw prints along with background information about Victory to the artist, Rosemary Williams, located in Annapolis, who uses water colors to create flowers from the paw prints. We decided we wanted red roses to be made out of Victory’s paw prints. Thus, Rosemary made wild red roses out of Victory’s paw prints and you can still even see the detail of Victory’s prints from her paw on the final watercolor, shown below! We are going to professionally frame and hang Victory’s Paw Posies in our home in order to preserve her paw prints! We think that this is a really unique keepsake; we had fun making the paw prints together; and we were pleased with the result — the final watercolor feels like our sweet Victory!

Happy Wednesday!

Jan 13

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Things I Love: Winter 2015

It is officially winter with the snow and cold temperatures, and I wanted to share some items that I love! Winter, along with the cold temperatures and short days, is not my favorite time of year, but we try to make the best of it. The cooler weather provides more time to do editing work on images for my photography project and it also provides time to catch up on things inside that I would otherwise put aside. Below are the items I am loving during the winter!

1. Sleep — Nightime Tea Body Wash – I recently discovered this body wash at Bath and Body Works, and I really love it. I use this body wash in the evenings when I take a quick shower after the gym and before bed. It has such a nice smell and it is calming at the same time.

2. Doterra Oils — Doug’s Mom introduced me to these oils. They are really soothing, especially the lavender and lemon. I use them (a dab on my body) just before bed. You can also add the oils to a warm bath.

3. Sugar Lip Polish — My lips are always dry, especially in the winter. I decided to try Sugar Lip Polish, and it works well and it really conditions and exfoliates my lips. I use it several times a week, and it does wonders!

4. Candles – We have been burning candles all over the house! The candles give such a nice smell to our home and provides pretty light. We generally burn candles in the evenings and on the weekends. I like Yankee Candles; however, I am always searching and purchasing good smelling candles to use in our home!

5. Chobani Oats Greek Yogurt — I like yogurt, and I recently saw this new product at the store, and I decided to give it a try. It is delicious, and the Apple Cinnamon flavor is my favorite!

6. Cherry Malted Milk Balls — Cherry Republic is Michigan based, and it sells everything cherry. In my stocking, I received a bag of Cherry Malted Milk Balls, and they are delicious — one of my favorites! Each time I go to Michigan, we usually visit the local Cherry Republic store and taste all of the samples!

You can view other things I love here!

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Happy Tuesday!

Jan 12

Photo Calendar

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 24

Victory: Photography Project — 44

“A dog is one of the few things that is as it seems.” ~Mark J. Asher

Beginning in January of this year, I began a weekly photography project with my muse, Victory! I will continue to share this project on the blog! I have also been documenting Victory’s milestones so to speak each month — you can read these here! I think that it is fun to document all of Victory’s changes, while preserving fleeting moments and memories.

Well, I completed forty-four installments in total comprising this weekly series entitled, “Victory’s Photography Project 2014!” Not too bad! This project helped me document and share our fur girl’s first year with us! I hope that you enjoyed this series; I have enjoyed sharing our blossoming Victory with you all! I have not decided whether I will continue this series in 2015, or whether I will devise a new idea/series featuring Victory. Rest assured that Victory, my muse, will continue to be featured on the blog regularly!

In other news, can you believe Christmas is tomorrow! I cannot believe how quickly this year has flown by! It hardly seems like it is Christmas already, especially with the warmer temperatures! Today we are listening to Christmas music as we finish getting ready for Christmas, and Victory is helping me make desserts for Christmas dinner tomorrow! Well, it is more like she is watching me make desserts, while desperately hoping that food falls onto the floor for her to gobble up!

Victory is shown below in her Christmas sweater and her cute matching red hat, while sitting in front of her first Christmas tree waiting for Santa! Victory made some eggnog cookies with sprinkles for Santa to set out tonight!

Happy Christmas Eve!

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!