biscuit's space | The blog of photographer Katherine Carver

May 19

Daily Practice: The Timer

I learned this daily practice from writer, Elizabeth Gilbert. Do you ever feel that you do not have time to do your art or be creative? Well, it takes is 30 minutes a day with the use of a timer and you can begin to make some progress. During the day (or evening), you sit down and set the timer for 30 minutes. You work on your project or craft for 30 minutes without distraction or interruption. During this time, you just focus on your work, and you do not get up until the timer has gone off. Then, you continue this daily practice each day moving forward.

Do you have any idea how much you can get done when you focus your attention on something for 30 minutes a day if honored consistently? Over the long-term, taking daily action and practice, you can make huge progress that otherwise may seem overwhelming. This practice is not very glamorous, but it is effective. This practice has helped move my photography project forward (there is still much work to be done), and it really can be applied to any aspect of your life.

So, don’t wait for the world to clear out time and space for your dreams and your art. It doesn’t happen that way. Things will never be ‘perfect.’ Thus, get a timer and clear out your own little space for your art. You will be amazed what happens — over time, a daily practice soon renders significant results. Thus far, this practice has been very beneficial to me.

“If you work on something a little bit everyday, you end up with something that is massive.” ~Kenneth Goldsmith

Happy practicing and creating!

May 16

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Giveaway: The Honest Kitchen

It is a happy day on the blog today! Today is a Giveaway for one lucky doggie and/or kitty! Please read below for further information.

The Honest Kitchen is based in San Deigo, California, and offers a mixture of human grade, minimally processed, organic, and grain free dog and cat food. You can watch a short video from the Huff Post containing a video interview of Lucy Postins, the CEO of The Honest Kitchen.

Furthermore and very importantly, a The Honest Kitchen gives back – it has a Charity of the Month. For many years, The Honest Kitchen selects a noble charitable cause each month to receive a portion of its sales profit.

Victory tried Force Dog Food, which is a gluten-free recipe, made with free-range chicken and fresh produce like potatoes, celery, and green beans. Force Dog Food is crafted with the human grade ingredients, and it is moderate in protein and fat so it works well for adult maintenance, senior dogs, and dogs who need a lower calorie diet. Force is also ideal for dogs who need a gluten free diet and for dogs who do better without eggs, beef, or fish.

Per the instructions, I mixed the dry Force Dog Food with warm water and mixed it together in Victory’s bowl and let it sit for a few minutes. Victory then sniffed around and began eating and she gobbled up the Force Dog Food in no time! I think that Victory gives this dog food two paws up, especially because she loves chicken! Victory is pictured below with the Force Dog Food from The Honest Kitchen! As such, we have begun to change Victory over to Force Dog Food. You can try a 2 pound trial size here.

[Disclosure: The Honest Kitchen sent me a sample for review. All views and opinions are my own.]

*The Honest Kitchen Giveaway Details and Rules:

*Just leave a comment saying hello!

*Please leave a valid email address (which is kept private), as this is my only point of contact. (The winner will be contacted via e-mail in order for the winner to select his/her 2 pound trial size dog or cat food from The Honest Kitchen and to obtain the winner’s mailing address to enable The Honest Kitchen to mail the food directly to the winner!)

*Deadline to submit a comment is this Monday, May 26, 2014 at 11:00 p.m. EST… and the winner will be announced later in the week next week!

(Stay tuned — there will be more blog giveaways!)

Happy Friday!

May 15

Custom Dog Birth Certificate Posters

I recently discovered custom dog ‘birth certificate’ posters from My Happy Park! These custom ‘birth certificate’ posters allow you to commemorate your dog’s ‘birth!’ My Happy Park’s birth certificate designs can be customized with your furry family member’s name, birth date, place of birth, gender, and breed. (See examples below). The ‘birth certificate’ posters are available in three sizes, which you can then frame, if you wish!

It would be fun to have a ‘birth certificate’ made for our little Victory! This would be a nice little memento!

The above images are courtesy of My Happy Park.

May 14

Victory: Photography Project — 18

“No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does.” ~Chritopher Morley

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.

As I have mentioned before, our little Victory loves larger dogs! Below she is pictured at the dog park in the “Large Dog” section trying to get closer to sniff the a larger dog, a mastiff dalmatian mix breed. So far, the “Large Dog” section of the dog park is working out well, less incidents of ‘humping,’ which occurred frequently with the smaller dogs!

Happy Wednesday!

May 13

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Victory: Mother’s Day

I had a nice Mother’s Day with little Victory and Doug! We spent the day together and Doug made us breakfast, malted waffles, and Victory had some vanilla yogurt along with a few pieces of waffle! She gave me a really cute card and a pair of Toms, which are extremely light-weight and comfortable slip-ons, which are great for summer! (Victory told me that she wanted to get me Toms with doggie friends printed on them, but so far Toms does not have any available so she is keeping her eyes out!) We also went to dinner together at one of my favorites places, the Iron Hill Brewery, located in Delaware! We also managed to go to the dog park, one of Victory’s favorite places! We found some great light on Sunday and decided to take some impromptu photos of us together shown below to commemorate our first Mother’s Day together! I love our little Victory so much and we are very grateful that she is a part of our family and I am so happy to be her Mama! I know that Biscuit is always with us.

May 12

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Victory: Seven Months In

“We dream of a day when humans take responsibility for their actions and realize that dogs are a privilege, not a right.” ~Unknown

Today marks seven months since we adopted our little Victory! You can read more about the previous months’ milestones here. The time is just flying by and Victory is blossoming!

Below are some things that we learned about Victory this month:

She completed her Level I dog training (and we think that we will enroll in another training class soon)!
She went out to eat with us a few times this month and she had a great time, although she is still a little scared walking in parking lots, so we carry her!
She went with us to get ice cream for the first time at Ritas! She did a great job and she loved the vanilla custard (we gave her a few licks)!
She had another bath, and she is doing better and tolerating her bath time a little more each time. She looks so fluffy and feels so soft after a bath!
She still loves to chew, and she chewed my scarf to pieces last week that I sat on the bed while I took a shower! (Now, I know not to set my clothes on the bed in the morning for fear she will chew them! During these times, I tell her “no chew chew,” (except for when she chews the daylights out of her toys) and then her ears go down and she skirts away, and then I feel badly!)
She still loves going to the dog park and since the weather has been so much nicer, we go to the park a couple of times a week with Victory. She still loves the ‘big dogs’ and she looks so dainty and small in comparison — imagine little Victory looking up and sniffing a Great Dane, which happens often!
She loves to put her front paws on the armrest and her back paws on the back seat while in the car when we are driving — she loves going for rides in the car! (Don’t worry, I hold onto her and she then comes into my lap, and I wish there was a way that I could capture this in the car — she is so, so happy!)
She still loves evening walks in her Hound About, which she inherited from her brother, Biscuit! Everyone in the new neighborhood just smiles when they soon discover a little golden sheltie, Victory, in the Hound About, while we are out for a walk!
She recently started to put her head and snout next to my head and face during the night. Now, I wake up to her little head leaning up against my face each morning!
We celebrated our first Mother’s Day together — more on that tomorrow!
Her sheltie furs keep coming in and she if filling out well! (We can’t wait to do a before and after photo at the one year mark, in October!)
She still has not barked as of yet!
She is still waking us up for her nightly drink of water, despite our efforts — we are still working on this!
Most of all, we love her so very much!

If you have not already, be sure to check out the six month video, and our most recent video of our little Victory! We hope that you have a great day!

Happy Monday!

May 9

Victory: Video 2

In addition to photographing Victory on a regular basis, I also want to make videos of Victory, and my goal is to make one video a month to preserve memories with our beloved Victory! This video of Victory was taken at the dog park! She is beaming and smiling ear to ear as she walks around the dog park! Victory absolutely loves going to the dog park (including the car ride to the dog park), and she loves to sniff and she especially likes the large dogs! You can also watch the first video of Victory here.

Happy Friday!

May 8

Victory: Photography Project — 17

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil … or jealousy … or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring … it was peace. ~Milan Kundera

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.

On Sundays, Doug makes us a nice breakfast/brunch. Usually, he makes us malted waffles, pancakes, crepes, or scones with fresh fruit and homemade whip cream! (Then, we all have to go to the gym and take Victory for a walk outside!) Victory also likes to be a part of our Sunday breakfast/brunch. As such, she gets some vanilla yogurt in a bowl! She loves vanilla yogurt! We sometimes mix in fruit baby food with her yogurt. After she is done eating her yogurt, she comes over to each of us looking for us to give her small pieces of waffle, pancakes, and crepes! We know that we spoil our little Victory, but we would not have it any other way!

Happy Thursday!

May 7

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Honoring Biscuit: Our Last Trip Together

“The journey of life is sweeter when traveled with a dog.” ~Unknown

Today marks ten months since our precious Biscuit passed away. May was a very special month last year because we took Biscuit on our last trip together (although, at the time, we did not know it was going to be our last trip together) to Vermont to visit the Orvis Flagship store where he was the Orvis Cover Dog Winner and represented the Orvis Petfinder Commitment, supporting dog rescue. We had a wonderful time together on this trip, and we are so happy and grateful that we were able to Vermont together before Biscuit got too sick to travel. I remember how happy Biscuit was going to Orvis, King Arthur Flour, the Vermont County Store, going atop Mount Equinox together, and going shopping together in downtown Manchester (Biscuit went in all the stores with us)! Biscuit was so happy and so were we! It rained during our trip, but we extended our trip and we therefore had a few days of gorgeous weather, and we were able to have a few dinners at restaurants, sitting on outdoor patios together, as Manchester is very dog friendly! On the rainy evenings, we ordered food from restaurants to bring back to the hotel so that we could eat with Biscuit and so that he would not be left alone. I also remember on this trip each night in the hotel, Biscuit wanted to sleep with us in the bed, which was not like Biscuit who typically always slept on his bed on the floor on my side of the bed. Maybe Biscuit knew that was going to be his last trip together. Biscuit came so far, and he made great strides, in a short amount of time. He was so handsome and he was full of life. We are truly grateful for our precious little Biscuit who changed and enriched our lives forever.

You can view photos from our trip to Vermont here, here, and here.

May 6

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Victory: ‘Graduation’

Last week, our little Victory ‘graduated’ from Level I dog training! Below, Victory is pictured with her training ‘diploma!’ We are so proud of her! Victory really grew and gained confidence during her training and she was the first dog to pass the final test in dog training! Doug and I are considering what type of training to do with Victory next, as we think she is going to miss her training class, which was accompanied by lots of chicken — one of her favorite foods! We had a lot of fun together!

Happy Tuesday!