Nikon D700 and Then Some!

A "mere" week after our friendly UPS guy delivered two large boxes to our doorstep, Dad and I finally found the time to sit down together and open up our new toys. And despite being down with a spring cold, I could not resist posting my test run pics!

The newest edition to my photography family. :) (Taken with my beloved D200)

Along with a new D700 body, I also am the new happy owner of Nikon's 70-200mm 2.8 lens. Dad was the lucky first subject. 

Mom then snuck in for a quick cuddle shot. 

I have always said I wish I was a cat and this picture just confirms my desires: sleep sleep sleep.

I am so excited about this new gem! As I name everything, I will have to think of a name for this new camera. (The D200 was called Nick) Suggestions welcome! 

Spring is Upon Us! Summer is Near.

Happy Monday! It is a gray spring day here in Vermont with an 80% chance of showers. My bulbs are finally poking through the ground and there is a possibility that they might bloom in time for Easter! ::fingers crossed:: I truly love Spring because even though everything is gray and dead looking, new life is just around the corner! Before I know it baby birds will be chirping, trees budding, flowers blooming and grass just waiting to be cut. (I really enjoy mowing the lawn. It’s a wonderful feeling of accomplishment!) So, though it might be gray and flat, I hope you have a wonderful day! Spring is upon us and summer is near.

Legendary Strafford Blues Band

This past Thursday I had the pleasure of heading out to beautiful Strafford, Vermont and photographing the Legendary Strafford Blues Band. Now, if you have not heard these guys and gal before, fo' shame! But no blame. They are working hard to carve a niche for themselves in the performance world and recently added Kat Murphy to the line-up as lead vocals. (Fabulous!) After photos the band let me sit in on their practice for a few songs and WHOA! Amazing! I can just picture them on stage with fabulous bluesy lighting and a man in the audience puffing on a fancy cigar. Smooooth. 

I definitely recommend you check them out. Their next performance is April 25 at Gusanoz in Lebanon. Go, eat some awesome food, and hear some great music! Admission is free. If you want to be added to their e-mail list for other concert updates (no spam!!), email Corey at: coreyumt@yahoo.com 

Van; Drums, Corey; Electric Guitar, Kat; lead vocals, Paul; bass, Mark; harmonica

Puddles and Jane

When I was a camp counselor, one of our favorite activities with our campers was Puddle Stomping. Now that my counselor days are just a good story and fond memory, I truly miss the fun that was had with a muddy puddle and a good jump. Now that it is once again Spring, I was not going to let the moment slip by. My little charge, Jane, lives on a driveway that is FULL of puddles that are perfect for such an activity. She did not need much direction since even at the young age of two "stomp" is an easy word to understand and remember. And seeing as getting dirty is never a bad thing, our afternoon walks always end up at the best puddles. 

Enjoy some pictures from a recent afternoon and then go find some puddles!


Jane has these beautiful blue eyes that are so endearing! I simply love them (like I love her!).

Run to the puddles!

Wahoo!



Not required, but definitely useful: Bee Boots.

In the neighbor's yard is a ceramic stool that Jane likes to play like a drum. 

Be happy! And have a great weekend. ~K

Ruby Ruby Ruby Ruuubaay!

If you have ever visited my website prior to today, you will notice that “Ruby” is missing and in her place are two beautiful little girls: “The Girls”. (More on them later!) My main motivation for removing “Ruby” was that I did not want people to think I have an unhealthy interest in rodents and vermin. Truly, I only have a Ruby fetish. She is my favorite little albino mouse whose humongous personality is hardly contained in her 10 gallon Modular Mouse Penthouse.

It all began about one year ago. In the paper there was an Ad for Bella’s House (rabbit rescue group in S. Royalton) “Adopt A Rabbit!” and below all the listings for lop-ears, cashmeres, and mini’s was “Free to Good Home: Rescued Pet Mouse”. Something clicked! In college my roommate and I had a rescued white mouse, fondly called Phat Maus. She was such a great pet! Hours of entertainment as she flew around her wheel and did acrobatics off the mesh ceiling of her cage. She would scurry about my roommate’s desk when she wrote papers, eventually falling asleep in a pile of tissues. Needless to say, my fond memories (and established box of mouse care essentials) provoked me to contact Bella’s House.

Ruby has been a part of my family for nearly a year now. Although she came to us a little ragged and thin, she has certainly plumped up to a nice pear shape (thanks to apple and peanut butter and yumsy yogurt bites!) and made the North Family Farm her home. As she is albino, we believe that she is partially blind. That being said, her hearing works fabulously! Whenever she hears a friendly voice come within feet of her home, she stands up and does her adorable pear-bellied Ruby dance, looking for a treat. She particularly loves it when someone sings a song with "Ruby" in it! With an abundance of food and fluffy tissues, Ruby certainly never minds a few moments in front of the camera. So, from now on, Ruby’s portraits will reside on my blog for all to enjoy! (And understand my Ruby fetish).


"Ruby"



"Ruby and Wine"

Keeping Up With Kaht and Devin: Paper Making!

Devin and I are both very DIY kind of people. When we see something, we think, ‘Oh, we could do that!’ Even when our initial attempts go wayward, we chalk it up to experience and do it again! So when it came time to decide on our wedding invitations, we of course said, “We can do that!” and thus began our paper making endeavor. We still have yet to settle on the actual invite design, but we know that it will include handmade paper. Working with recycled materials is so satisfying and there is certainly a surplus of recycled paper just waiting to be re-born as natural, beautiful, unique handmade paper. Check out our process below and give it a try yourself! It is messy, requires a good chunk of the day to accomplish, and a good size workspace, but the end product is so lovely!

Use a blender that you will never want to make smoothies in again as it will forever have bits of paper stuck to it! We found ours in the Re-Use Zone at our Recycle Center.
We wanted exactly 5x7 size paper so we made our own frames out of cardboard and duct tape. They held up pretty well! (Thanks to the Duct Tape)

Be ready to get messy! We took over the whole kitchen for most of the day.

Our final product drying on the living room floor. The colorful bits are dried flowers that we ground up and added to the pulp mixture. It added a nice hint of color that was subtle.
Want to try your hand at paper making? Check out this great site.

Some tips we can offer are;
-a paper shredder worked really well to shred the paper into small bits. Save your hands! -don’t bother soaking the paper overnight unless it is really heavy duty cardboard. We just soaked what we needed for ten minutes in hot water and it was good to go! -soak small batches at a time. We found that we also soaked more paper than we actually needed and ended up with wet soggy paper that we needed to use up or dispose of. -we put our freshly made pieces of paper onto 8x10 pieces of felt and then stacked and pressed those between two boards using 4 ‘C’ clamps. It worked really well to get a lot of the water out. Then we laid the paper onto a sheet on the floor to dry overnight.

Have fun! -k

Spring Days, Winter Nights

The daytime might feel like spring, but the nighttime still calls for fire-side lounging. 

Maggie certainly has the right idea!