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"found on the beach"

found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup July 8, 2021
beach trash arrangement

For years and years, I’ve been picking up trash on the beach and collecting interesting pieces. I never meant to start a trash collection but there was just something about all the colorful pieces I couldn’t resist. Any trash trash like wrappers, balloons, plastic bags, etc goes into a garbage can. Toy soldiers, hair clips, and fake food? That sort of stuff comes home with me.

I’d always knew I’d like to do something with it but just never really felt very motivated to do so. I have a large tote bag jam-packed full of goodies that has moved with me from apartment to apartment. When we bought our house, I briefly considered tossing it all before moving but just could bear to part with my potential art supplies.

I’ve been working hard on renovating the house since the day we moved in. Literally, the first day in the house we started kitchen demo! Over the past eight months, my focus has been more on renovations as opposed to actually decorating but recently, I’ve been bitten by the decorating bug. I’ve become super motivated to finally hang things on the walls. We had too much stuff to hang on the walls of our apartment but the house is so much larger that we are in serious need of some new art.

The main focus on the walls in my office is two large prints from my favorite graffiti artist. See a peek here. The color scheme is a little bit different than what I’m normally drawn to for things I’d decorate my own space with so needless to say, I didn’t really own anything else that fit with them. I’ve been hunting down art with similar colors but kept coming up short on something large… so I made something of my own!

beach plastic
plastic pollution from lake erie

I could not be happier with how this turned out. The colors work perfectly with the rest of the art in my office and it’s so nice to see some of my trash actually get used. The only downside here is that shadow boxes aren’t cheap and now I’m obsessed with the idea of making more.

rainbow beach trash arrangement
CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup April 8, 2020
found on the beach

Although I want to, I’m not going to list the things I’m missing right now while we’re stuck at home. I’m sure you’re missing a lot of the same things. I will tell you one thing though – I am glad I had the forethought to get a couple of good long beach trips in before the stay-at-home order went into effect. Saving myself some photos to edit was a nice little treat and definitely helped a tiny tiny bit.

beach plastic

Both of my trips had great finds and I ended up with lots of photos I really love. On the first trip, a couple weeks back, I found a small plastic trumpet, a tiny fake blow drier, a few toy soldiers, a horseshoe, a hair barrette that says “69” and… a penis straw, among many other things.

It felt like each find was better than the last. Plastic soldiers are always a favorite of mine but how could I not love that trumpet or the very very questionable children’s hair barrette. Seriously, whose idea was a ’69’ hair clip? And the penis straw. I wish you could have heard the snort I let out when I realized what it was I picked up.

It’s the little things, y’all.

…the little purple, aggressively veiny things.

found on the beach
Wendy Park, Cleveland

Can you spot the solider below? It drives me wild with excitement how many treasures could be buried in the driftwood. I normally scan the beach twice – once walking to the furthest end and then of course, on the way back. It always amazes me how much stuff I find on the walk back that seems like it was in very clear view. I can only imagine how many fun things I just miss.

Favorite finds of the day.

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

boots by Joules

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup March 11, 2020
Lake Erie beach trash

A colorful little arrangement of beach treasures from earlier in the week. Nothing more, nothing less.

beachcombing Lake Erie
Lake Erie beach trash arrangement with Joules boots
found on the beach

Sometimes I make arrangements, take a bunch of photos and then never do anything with the shots. It’s a bummer because once it goes on to an external hard drive I’m probably not going to see it again for a very long time. So, here’s my most recent arrangement. It’s nothing spectacular, not going to make this blog famous or anything but I enjoy the photos and the beach is a tiny bit cleaner.

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup January 8, 2020

30 minutes and one pass of the approximately 900ft beach. Just a quick arrangement because surprise surprise! it’s cold at the lake in January. Mostly broken shards of plastic today. Sometimes the larger, more interesting things seem to have been cleaned up but there are always tiny pieces littering the sand.

I will forever love making a colorful little arrangement against the dark moody beach!

Other fun finds from the day…

Two pieces of pottery with lettering left on them. Felt like such a treat because I most certainly wasn’t looking for them. Certain beaches have certain treasures, this isn’t a normal place for me to find pottery so when I glanced down not once but twice to have letters looking back at me, it was a surprise. A wheel. The legs of a plastic soldier. Chuckie Finster’s head. Not my largest haul but any day I find a plastic soldier is a good one in my book!

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup July 24, 2019
plastic pollution found along the shores of Lake Erie

One venti Starbucks cup full of plastic ‘treasures’ found along a short stretch of Lake Erie. Less than half an hour to fill!

Normally I carry a tote bag for all my beach finds. Lately though, the things I tend to gravitate toward picking up are much smaller. On my last visit, shortly after arriving at the beach, I spotted a Starbucks cup. Perfect! I filled it up in no time flat. Seems like it wouldn’t hold very much but after laying out an arrangement I was shocked to see how much was still left in the cup!

found on the beach
plastic pollution
plastic found on the beach
I got new Tevas! I have seriously never loved a pair of shoes this much. They’re cozy and match everything!
Lake Erie plastic pollution

A quick found on the beach FAQ

  1. You found all of these in one trip!?  Sadly, yes.
  2. What do you do with all after your done? Normally I toss it in the trash or recycle if appropriate. Sometimes I may take certain pieces with me if I think they’ll look cool in a future arrangement or if it’s something I collect. Toy soldiers & all other tiny plastic characters come home with me! I also collect plastic plants, leaves, and flowers.
  3. Do you wear gloves when you pick all this trash up? No, I don’t. These are things that are washed up from the lake, not just left on the shore. They’re no dirtier than the sand or water. That’s not to say I don’t sanitize my hands as soon as I get back in my car though…
  4. Are all of your beaches this gross? No, absolutely not. We have lots of gorgeous, clean and downright picturesque beaches along Lake Erie. This one in particular just seems to collect all the debris from the lake. I have yet to find another this bad in the area.

Below are my favorite finds of the day (& what I actually kept!) I still haven’t figured out what those yellow things with numbers and letters are. I have a pretty decent collection of them. I’ve been finding them for years and years. They’re not as common as toy soldiers or anything else that I find regularly but they still wash up quite often. Last time I asked if anyone had any idea what they were nearly everyone responded “crime scene markers!” but I’m not convinced. More than likely they something to do with shipping.

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup January 3, 2019

found on the beach

A colorful little something that brightened my cold, dreary winter day. Nothing more, nothing less.

Wendy Park found on the beach found on the beach

I lol-ed hard at that butt. It’s a G.I. Joe butt.

A quick found on the beach FAQ

  1. You found all of these in one trip?  Sadly, yes.
  2. What do you do with all after your done? Normally I toss it in the trash or recycle if appropriate. Sometimes I may take certain pieces with me if I think they’ll look cool in a future arrangement or if it’s something I collect. Toy soldiers & all other tiny plastic characters come home with me! I also collect plastic plants, leaves and flowers.
  3. Do you wear gloves when you pick all this trash up? No, I don’t. These are things that are washed up from the lake, not just left on shore. They’re no dirtier than the sand or water. That’s not to say I don’t sanitize my hands as soon as I get back in my car though…
  4. Are all of your beaches this gross? No, absolutely not. We have lots of gorgeous, clean and downright picturesque beaches along Lake Erie. This one in particular just seems to collect all the debris from the lake. I have yet to find another this bad in the area.

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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found on the beach – 56 lighters

by Kaylah Stroup November 8, 2018

For years I’ve been intriqued by the number of lighters that wash up on the beach. I find a wide variety of things in the sand, as seen in my arrangements, but the lighters! There are always just so dang many of them.

The first time it really stuck out to me was 2014, I noticed there seemed to be a lot of them and ended up picking up 50 lighters in one pass of the beach. Earlier this year, I decided to do another lighter exclusive photo and ended up finding 52 lighters total. This trip? 63 of them total! 56 in these photos and another seven on the way back to the car.

There would be times when I’d bend down to pick up one and spot another one or two that I could reach from my squat. It just blows my mind.

bee boots by Joules

A quick found on the beach FAQ

  1. You found all of these in one trip?  Sadly, yes. This isn’t even half of it either. I also picked up a full tote bag of trash on this visit.
  2. What do you do with all after your done? Normally I toss it in the trash or recycle if appropriate. Sometimes I may take certain pieces with me if I think they’ll look cool in a future arrangement or if it’s something I collect. Toy soldiers & all other tiny plastic characters come home with me! I also collect plastic plants, leaves and flowers.
  3. Do you wear gloves when you pick all this trash up? No, I don’t. These are things that are washed up from the lake, not just left on shore. They’re no dirtier than the sand or water. That’s not to say I don’t sanitize my hands as soon as I get back in my car though…
  4. Are all of your beaches this gross? No, absolutely not. We have lots of gorgeous, clean and downright picturesque beaches along Lake Erie. This one in particular just seems to collect all the debris from the lake. I have yet to find another this bad in the area.

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup June 4, 2018

beach plastic, plastic pollution, lake erie, the dainty squid

Back in the beginning of May, my best friend who lives in Canada and her family came up to visit. We had a busy weekend of eating and watching her kids play at the park. Ya know, super important stuff! We also made it a point to head to the beach.  Obviously, it’s one of my favorite spots in the city but her son, Milo, had brought me some beach glass from Croatia so we needed to find him some from Lake Erie.

I hadn’t planned on making an arrangement since they do take a bit of time and I didn’t want to make anyone wait around on me. Buuuut then I noticed Elycia was picking up random colorful bits and bobs. On top of that, I overheard her say something to Milo about laying things out in color order. It was on!

PS. For anyone interested, my sandals are Teva and I LOVE them. They’re like walking on clouds.

I guess that makes this my first collaborative beach trash arrangement. Half picked by Elycia, half picked by me plus a few bonus pieces Milo handed to us that he thought were neat. I think it turned out pretty darn awesome. I’m very happy with how the photos turned out as well, especially the one below. I love that you can see Cleveland in the background.

great lakes plastic pollution, cleveland beach

Before we left Elycia mentioned to me how she starting picking things up when we arrived originally because she just wanted to help clean up. She quickly realized that there’s just too much of it.

It sounds so pessimistic to say that it doesn’t matter but there really is so much that picking up even 49 lighters doesn’t make a dent. More will wash up tomorrow, or even later the same day. The issue isn’t that people are leaving things on the beach (although I’m sure lots of people leave litter there after seeing the condition.) These are all things that get washed ashore from the lake. According to this article I found, 22 million pounds of plastic enters the Great Lakes each year. Lake Erie receives 5.5 million of those! Picking up trash on the beach is great but the only real solution is prevention. It seems like an overwhelming task but even something as simple as using a reusable straw helps! Check out these two sites for more info on just how huge of a problem plastic straws actually are – strawless ocean + the last plastic straw.

Also, if you’d like a better idea of what the trash on the beach actually looks like outside the frame of my pretty little arrangements, I recommend checking out this post + this one too.

Favorite finds of the day! I apparently hit the toy cowboy jackpot. I’ve never seen a single one on the beach so finding two was a treat. My collection of plastic figures is getting pretty large. I’ll have to show y’all sometime soon…
xoxo

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here. Handmade zipper pouches + postcards can be found here.

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found on the beach – 49 lighters

by Kaylah Stroup April 23, 2018

found on the beach

I think this just may be my favorite found on the beach arrangement!

When I first started doing these arrangements five or six years ago I always made them in the sand. It was super important to me that I found a clear little section of sand with no other debris. I was really nitpicky about finding the *perfect* spot. A lot of the time I would even use a piece of drift wood as a rake to clear an area and smooth out the surface. After a while those felt kind of boring but it really took until last year for me to realize how much I enjoyed placing them on other natural surfaces. This arrangement on the rocks of the breakwall set the tone for my recent work. I just loved the way my colorful finds looked against the dark rocks, and the juxtaposition of something natural paired with the trash.

Since the weather has started to just barely warm up, they’ve been taking better care of the beach, or at least making it look like they are. They plow all the trash, driftwood, miscellaneous debris, and sand to one end and then scoop that all up into a dumpster. It doesn’t actually clean the beach because I’m willing to be at least a portion of that ends right back up in the lake since it isn’t being recycled.  Even freshly plowed, I still managed to find 49 lighters in one walking pass of the beach. Plus three more on my walk back to the car. I don’t think I’ll ever get over how many there are to find!!

lighters found along the shores of Lake Erie

bee boots by Joules

Let’s end this with a quick shot of what one little section of the lake looks like. Fun to pick through for me but honestly, so sad. Could you imagine being a fish in that? Earth Day was yesterday but this is something we need to be thinking about everyday if we ever want it to get better.

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here. Handmade zipper pouches + postcards can be found here.

 

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About Me

About Me

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I'm Kaylah! Renovating a 150-year-old home in Northeast Ohio. Likely found in my garden.

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THE DAINTY SQUID
  • blog
    • all the posts!
    • stroup mansion
    • some of my favorite posts
    • plants + gardening
    • beauty, fashion + hair
    • reviews
    • window shopping
    • explore everywhere
  • about me
  • contact