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10 things making me smile

by Kaylah Stroup March 26, 2020

▴ spotting all three animals laying in one ray of sunshine & then capturing it on film

▴ painting my toe nails for the first time in… five years(!?) and feeling like I have brand new adorable feet

polish is ‘Jawbreaker‘ by Palate Polish

▴ this prism that looks like I’m holding a little piece of magic

bonus – it makes a really cool ‘filter’ for your photos if you hold it up to your camera lens while shooting.

▴ getting film developed & reliving past trips

▴ this demon kitten

▴ this hilarious Frank Reynolds bumper sticker because everyone needs an egg for this trying time

▴ neighborhood aliens, babies, and animals – as always

more photos of my recent finds here

▴ mail from my niece (who I miss dearly because I’ve gotten used to seeing her at least once a week for the past year!)

▴ shadows from my swiss cheese plant

▴ being interrupted while playing video games to give pets

A short list of more positive things I’ve enjoyed on the internet lately –

What’s making you smile today? xoxo

Friday Favorites #555

by Kaylah Stroup March 14, 2020

this post contains affiliate links.

Okay but just imagine this cabinet filled with skulls, medical models and all the other wonderfully weird stuff I have! Gah, it’d be amazing.

This Frank Reynolds pin is perfect.

This mug!

Love love love this dress. Looks perfect for a breezy summer day.

This desk is ca-yoooot!

Love this pouf!

I’m hooked on ‘dalmatian’ style polka dots right now.

I saw this turtle terrarium in person the other day at a garden center and I cannot stop thinking about it.

This own sconce is so rad!

I don’t know what it is about them but I LOVE flatforms. I guess it’s the 90’s child in me. Also, that color is perfect. From the same brand, I spotted this light green pair as well. Dreamy!

This dress!

Link love…

I bought this dress earlier in the week. It fits so freaking well!!! I am so excited to wear it (& for the weather to warm up.)
I’m really enjoying all of Coconut Studio Pottery’s work.
Ah, I just love these boob planters. Best part is they’re custom so you could get them however you’d like!
Loving this nail color.
A DIY concrete planter kit! I spotted planter molds earlier this week and I can’t stop thinking about making my own planters now.
How cute is this black shirt dress!?
This smiling terra cotta lidded pot is so cute.

xoxo

how’s it growing!

by Kaylah Stroup March 12, 2020

this post contains affiliate links

check out this instagram post for a timeline of this beautiful plant!

Back again with another edition of how’s it growing!

then & now –

I constantly give updates on this plant over on Instagram. Rescued from my parent’s house a few months after my mom passed away, it was very much on it’s last leg. The photo on the left is from June 26th. The one on the right is from March 5th. Less than 9 months and approximately ten leaves turned into three beautiful plants.

The two larger ones are my established ones that I’ve been growing since the beginning. The smaller one (in the center) was planted the same day I took the photo. Instead of rooting in water, I just plopped it in the soil. Fingers crossed it roots well and grows into a lush beautiful plant like the others.

I’m positively obsessed with this thing. My plan is just to keep propagating over and over until I have too many of this darn plant and have to start giving it away.

My mystery yard find! I still don’t know what this little baby is (and still haven’t tried looking it up) but will you just look at that growth from February 12th to March 8th?! More impressive than how much its grown is the fact it’s flowering! Ah!

I don’t really know how this thing will do in the long run but it has me looking at all the random plants growing in my very very tiny yard differently.

new arrivals –

Help. I can’t stop.

I popped into Lowe’s and realized they had one dollar clearance plants. Lowe’s and Home Depot used to be my go-to for plants many moons again but once I found garden centers I loved I was more than happy to support small businesses that actually specialized in plants. BUT that definitely doesn’t mean I can’t take advantage of great deals at big box stores. I MEAN A GOSH DARN DOLLAR!!! How could I resist?!

So, below are my dollar plants. They’re not bad at all but I did tidy them up after I got them home. Removed dead leaves, trimmed off anything not super pretty and replanted them in pots more to my liking.

My most recent online plant purchase – Begonia ‘Flamingo Queen’. I did a dumb thing, I bought a plant online during the coldest weather we’d been having all season. I thought that purchasing a heat pack with them would save my butt… USPS had other plans though. My package took a two-day detour around different parts of Ohio before making it to Cleveland. Although the plants I purchased were packaged spectacularly, they definitely didn’t appreciate the cold.

It’s hard to tell from this photo but the three leaves on this plant are not great. They got a little soggy around the edges from frost damage. I am SO bummed about it.

The good news is, nearly a month after getting it I’ve got a new leaf working it’s way out. It’d probably grow faster if I stopped checking on it every five minutes.

purchased from Botanicaz. It was packaged beautifully but absolutely buy a heat pack from them if the weather isn’t warm in your state!

Zebra plant! I couldn’t resist the leaves. On top of that, it’s a great specimen with promising growth. Just check out those four sets of leaves coming in!

not so great news –

Gotta keep it real, right?

My Madagascar Palm (that’s what this gal is, correct?) lived in my bathroom and barely got watered for nearly two years but still survived. I eventually moved it into the dining room with the rest of my plants. It took off! It looked so so so healthy and even pushed out a pup. Since it was doing so well, I thought it’d be a good idea to remove the pup and grow it as it’s own plant.

Nope. Apparently not the right move. She’s mad. Within a few days all the leaves on both pieces yellowed so I removed them. Ugh. I’ve got my fingers crossed for a full recovery.

above left – before // above right – right after splitting the two // below – a couple of days later after removing the leaves. so sad!

This is more good news than bad news… maybe? Another plant from my Botanicaz order – Begonia ‘Wightii’. I bought two stem cuttings. One was just absolutely toast when it got here because of the cold. The other is this one. The leaf suffered a bit but I decided to pop it in water anyway. It did nothing for a couple of weeks until I placed a plastic baggie over the top to beef up the humidity. Now we’ve got some tiny baby roots making their way out.

This plant definitely has a long way to go before it’s the beautiful specimen I was dreaming of but I guess it’ll just be all the more satisfying when it’s grown up.

Begonia ‘Wightii’ - Begonia maculata variegata

grow little roots, GROW!

fun stuff –

I thrifted this silly popcorn container and it ended up being the perfect size for this big guy. More than that, it’s still flowering! A whole month after starting, new flowers are continuing to pop up and open.

I knocked my Sansevieria Starfish off the table earlier in the week. Luckily it somehow landed safely between the chair leg and the wall so there was no breakage but it made me realize how tiny the planter I had it in was.

This happened the same day I got this funny little moon(?) planter in the mail so it actually worked out for the best. Aren’t they a precious combo?!

Okay, so I actually found a lot of really great planters in the last month. Just look at this silly little kitty one. It doesn’t fit my rule of ‘only black, white or black and white’ planters but I definitely had to make an exception – also grey is neutral anyway. (I did have to drill a hole in it but here’s how!)

Ah, well, I think that’s it for now. Better go stare at my plants so more. xoxo

Check out my instagram hashtag for more photos of my plant collection – #kaylahheartsplants.

found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup March 11, 2020

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

Lake Erie beach trash arrangement with Joules boots

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.

Friday Favorites #554

by Kaylah Stroup March 6, 2020

This post contains affiliate links. Check out our disclosure policy for more details.

This mushroom pin!

These loafers! Ah! There are also ones with foxes on them.

I am positively hand chair obsessed right now. Wouldn’t this one look so slick in a room filled with plants!? I don’t currently have the room but the second we move, I’m buying this black hand chair.

I’m a sucker for a backpack purse with a lot of pockets! That color is great too.

This striped sweater is everything!

It’s a sign!

Isn’t this bedding gorgeous!?

I discovered Potey recently and can’t stop looking at all their planters. They’re super affordable too. How stinking cute is this one!?

This porcelain hand brooch!

Loving this dress. That color is so good. There’s also a skirt in the same print.

This shirt!

Link love…

It’s taking all my will power to not buy this plant. I own a different variation but… pink?! Gimme.
These faux cross stitch sandals are so neat!
This black and white striped dress is adorable and so affordable. I own the black version and use it as a nightgown.
Palate Polish released some new nail colors this week. I am dying over Sage. Ps. I almost exclusively wear Palate Polish. Can’t recommend them highly enough.
Oh boy, I have a major mug crush!
This velvet pink cat collar is THE cutest. I love Professor in his little bow tie but gosh, he’d look precious in this.

Happy Friday! xoxo

the beetle + the mourning ring

by Kaylah Stroup March 5, 2020

You know how I have science-based beliefs regarding life and death, how I know that my mom is gone. Dead. Cremated. Mixed with the dirt and the earth. Currently sitting on a shelf, growing into a tree and now swirled into a piece of jewelry I wear.

You know how I don’t really believe in signs from the dead.

…except when it comes to four-leaf clovers.

…and now June Beetles.

This story starts 46 weeks ago. The day after my mom died or maybe a couple of days after – Honestly, that whole week was an absolute blur – some larva I had been keeping finally hatched into big beautiful beetles. I definitely didn’t think it was a sign at the time. Just a little coincidence that felt nice. A bright spot in an otherwise dismal period.

Now fast forward to August of last year, I found someone to make me a piece of mourning jewelry. It was a super important decision. I had searched high and low all across the internet for the perfect maker. I finally discovered someone who worked with both hair and ashes and offered a solid gold option. I envisioned a beautiful, timeless, elegant piece that would bring me a bit of comfort.

I waited nearly four months to receive my ring. When it finally showed up, I cried. Not because I loved it so much but because it was hideous. Nothing at all like I had imagined or like I had ordered. There were massive chunks of cremains, which even to me, felt so morbid. The hair, which was to be featured inside, looked more like scratches on the ring. There was no way I could wear it.

Since it’s something so important (and honestly, expensive) I felt like it was worth going way out of my comfort zone and telling the person who made it how I really felt about it. She understood my concerns and offered to remake it.

Two months later, it showed up in my mailbox again. I felt absolutely awful when I opened the box. It’s still nothing like I had in mind. I can get over the money because it’s already long gone but this was a piece of jewelry that I had wanted so badly.

Opening up that package, seeing that the ring was still not what I had been hoping for made me feel a lot of emotions. The thing about grief is that it’ll hit you out of the blue and it’ll hit you hard. Brand new feelings are always weaseling their way in. This piece of jewelry was so important but instead of bringing comfort, it made me feel worse.

It had been such a nice day leading up to that. I didn’t want to let the grief spiral take hold so I busied myself with cleaning. It’s my favorite way to distract and redirect my energy. While cleaning my living room, I ended up throwing away the small plastic container full of dirt that my beetle larva had been housed in. It had been a few months since there was any activity inside. I went through the dirt thoroughly before tossing it just to confirm there was nobody living inside then it went into our lidded trash can.

A couple of hours passed, I walked into the kitchen and making its way across the floor was a massive june bug! Of course, the obvious answer here is that I somehow missed this little dude when I was sifting through the dirt but my first thought upon seeing this beetle was “Mom!”

I picked up the beetle and plopped down on the floor to admire it. Then I remembered that the very first beetles I grew hatched the day after she died. Maybe they were a sign. Maybe THIS was a sign. I cried. I Facetimed my husband and sobbed some more while holding the beetle up to my phone. Gosh, what a saint he is to deal with me.

It was just a beetle crawling across my floor but the timing felt like it was my mom letting me know the ring was fine and I was just being typical overly picky Kaylah. This random beetle gave me more comfort than the expensive ring that actually has pieces of my mom inside of it.

I still don’t love the ring. It’s nothing like I had imagined. I do wear it every day though and I think the beetle has a lot to do with it.

I don’t know, y’all. There’s a massive part of me that knows signs from the dead can’t be real. This one obviously has an explanation, I just missed the beetle while sorting through the dirt. Then there’s this tiny tiny tiny part of me that believes (because FYI – it was a very small container so where was he hiding!?) I guess there’s no harm in believing, especially if it brings even a little bit of peace.

So, now, not only are four-leaf clovers something that bring me comfort, June bugs do too.

More posts on grief, my mom and loss in general –

▴ my mother’s plants ▴ grief & road trips ▴ I cry over four leaf clovers ▴ grieving in the digital age ▴ the greatest loss ▴ six months / things I want to tell you ▴ the dead moms club – a book review

how to drill holes in planters

by Kaylah Stroup March 4, 2020

this post contains affiliate links

face planter

I will only plant things in containers with holes in the bottom. Period. No exceptions. You can try to tell me that rocks in the bottom provide proper drainage but I’m not buying it. A way for excess water to escape is the only way to go. Otherwise, even with rocks in the bottom, if you’re thoroughly watering your roots will eventually be sitting in water which can lead to root rot.

For the longest time, I avoided pots without holes because I didn’t realize how easy it was to drill my own. Years and years ago, I had asked my dad to drill a hole for me but he refused after I tried to make him promise wouldn’t break my pot. I felt like if my dad couldn’t do it, it can’t be done buuut that thinking is clearly flawed because I’ve started drilling my own holes and knock on wood I’ve had zero breaks!

Doing this is literally so easy you probably don’t even need a post to tell you how but I wish I had found a post like this years and years ago just to give me the confidence to try it out for myself. I think once you’ve done it once or twice you really get the feel for it and will start to even hunt down pots without holes – I have!

Supplies needed –

a drill
glass + tile bit (I’m using 5/16 inch)
ceramic pot that needs a hole
rag to catch dust
occasionally, a water bottle.

All you do is turn the pot upside down and start drilling. The key is to take it easy though. Apply pressure but not too much. I’ve found that some are super easy and go through like butter and others take a bit more elbow work.

On tougher pots, the bit might start to get a bit hot in which case I like to spritz a bit of water on it. That keeps your bit from prematurely wearing out, it also keeps the dust down. Spritzing every pot isn’t a necessity though. I’ve also found that coming in at a bit of an angle after already getting the hole started helps open it up more quickly.

That’s all! Super easy. All it takes is the correct drill bit and a bit of patience. For your first one, practice on a pot you wouldn’t be totally upset if it broke and that should give you all the confidence you need to go through and make holes in your whole collection!

hand planter

dog planter / for planters with uneven tops like this one I hold them between my legs while I drill. (be careful, please.)

Seriously, this is stupid easy. Buy this drill bit, charge up that drill and get to making holes. Your plants will thank you!

Friday Favorites #553

by Kaylah Stroup February 28, 2020

This post contains affiliate links. Check out our disclosure policy for more details.

This shirt made me giggle. There are only a couple left in limited sizes so hop on it if you want one.

This blanket!

These planters are 100% my style. It’s taking all my self control not to grab one.

I can’t be-leaf how cute this rug is. Sorry.

This dress!

Just loving the hardware holding this shelf up.

This dress! If short dresses aren’t your jam – here’s a similar one that’s a lot longer.

I’m really digging this bedding.

How rad are these containers!? Each one is two pieces so you can change out your water without disturbing your plant. I also found this one. I kind of really want them both.

Absolutely loving this polka dot dress. It also comes in other colors and patterns if these wild polka dots aren’t your thing.

These shoes!

Link love…

This constellation wallpaper (which is removable!) is so cute!
Love love love this bra! It’s super affordable too.
This striped rug!! Soooo beautiful!
Kind of random recommendation but have y’all ever eaten this brand of gummy bears? They are THE BEST. Jeff and I got them once on a flight in a random snack box and immediately had to hunt them down. We’ve since eaten three of those bags I linked to. That’s 15 lbs of gummy bears.
This polka dot dress is so cute!
This sweater says the pattern is chevron but I just see a giant mouth – and I like it!
I bought this lithops grow kit earlier in the week. I am SO excited to get started.

Fitting with the color theme for this week – I’ve got one of these cat face boxy bags left!

Happy Friday! xoxo

things I loved in February

by Kaylah Stroup February 26, 2020

This post contains affiliate links. Check out our disclosure policy for more details.

▴ Patterned sheer socks. I don’t know what it is about this style of sock but I am obsessed. Over the years I’ve owned a couple of the polka-dotted pairs but when I saw this set of five I had to order them. They are SO cute in person. I love the way they look, fit and feel.

For reference, I wear a size 8 shoe & the socks fit like a glove. If you have really tiny or really large fit these might not be for you since they don’t have much stretch.

▴ Rit Dye (purple). This was my first time dyeing an item of clothing and holy cow, I may have found a new obsession!

I had this white shirt from my favorite band, Man Man, that I had to have because I loved the silly design but when it comes right down to it – I hate white shirts. They don’t look good with my skin tone. I inevitably stain them. Also, I don’t own a white bra to wear with them. Needless to say, this shirt wasn’t getting much wear time.

I made a spur of the moment decision to toss it in some dye and wowowow it’s perfect. It took basically no time at all too. I can’t wait to find something else to dye.

PS. I posted a quick video of the process here.

▴ Dog planter. I just couldn’t resist. In order to give all my plants a more cohesive look in my home, I only use black, white or black and white planters. This fits the bill! So happy I happened to stumble across it.

It should be noted that I did have to drill a hole in the bottom of the pot which is no big deal. I use this drill bit (and totally plan on writing a post about it soon!) but if you’re not comfortable doing that and want drainage, you might wanna pass on this little cutie.

▴ Backlit mechanical keyboard. I posted about this in my Friday Favorites a little while back but I am still not over it. Jeff originally bought a similar one for himself. While he was at work it arrived, he said that I could try it out on my computer aaaand I was hooked instantly. I didn’t want to give it back.

He ended up buying me this one because I wouldn’t stop talking about his. It is PERFECT. First of all, mechanical keyboards are so much more fun to type on. Secondly, the colors! It’s so vibrant. It even has 18 different modes. My favorite is the one in the GIF above where it just kind of cycles through the colors.

I can’t tell you how much I love typing on this thing. Replacing boring things with fun ones especially ones that light up! is the best.

▴ Goodthreads High Rise Skinny Jeans. I’ve actually had these jeans for a couple of months now but gosh, I’m obsessed. They fit SO nicely. I love a good pair of skinny jeans but most of them that I already own are a thin, stretchier material. These are a bit heavier (not super hot or anything though) and just feel so much more substantial. I also feel like they make my butt look awesom – obviously a plus!

I want to grab a pair in each color, especially the ‘authentic blue‘!

A couple of other things;

▴ Cleveland related – I tried The Vegan Doughnut Company for the first time the weekend before last. Literal best doughnut I have ever eaten. We went back last weekend and bought a dozen for just the two of us. I highly highly recommend the lemon lavender. Go! Go! Go!

▴ I’ve been using Duolingo to learn Spanish and I’m hooked. With the leaderboard, there’s a bit of a competitive element to it – at least for me – which is super motivating. I’m obviously not fluent and not sure I’ll ever be but I do feel good spending my free time learning something new instead of just scrolling social media.

▴ New favorite pen. I tried these out at a craft store, bought one, then had to hop on the internet the next day and buy a whole pack of them. I just love the way these make my handwriting look. I feel like I need to write a love letter with one. (Seriously, try one! You’ll understand!)

I just love this little pup so much!

What have you discovered and been loving in February? xoxo

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