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my office…

by Kaylah Stroup
I’m kind of overdue on sharing photos of my office. I moved into this room quite a while ago but there just kept being small things I’d remember needed done every time I’d go to take photos. The Mutter museum print needed framed, bulletin board needed cleaned off, shelves just didn’t seem to look right with what was on them, etc. It finally feels “complete” in here. Not that any room in my home is ever actually complete, this one is just at a really great point right now.

 

a few sources:
desk
jackalope jewelry holder
tooth planters
giant mushroom 
stay home banner
blue cart, mirror, wall pockets, & glass plant house are from Ikea.
shark trash can, owl pencil holder & ice cream lamp are vintage.
If you’re curious about anything else, just ask!

xoxo

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Another pupdate…

by Kaylah Stroup
I certainly don’t blog about Klaus enough. Some of my favorite posts to look back on are the ones from right after I adopted Professor Stingray. Watching him grow in photos and reading all about his little quirks (almost all of which he still has!) is the best. I want to have posts like that to look back on about Klaus.

I’m an extremely visual person. It’s more than likely that photos inspire me to write a post as opposed to writing a post and taking pictures specifically for it. Klaus is a ball of energy so pictures of him taken with something other than my iPhone are few and far between. But I’m now making it my mission to take more pictures of this pup and write more about him.

Where shall we start? Perhaps with the fact that he’s tripled in size since the day he came home. At the emergency clinic on the first day he weighed a whopping 7lbs. As of the 13th of September he weighed 21.8lbs. I can tell he’s gained since then too. In the last few weeks especially I’ve realized how large he’s getting. It was like one day I woke up and he wasn’t a puppy anymore. It’s harder to pick him up now and forget carrying him around, that’s definitely a thing of the past. That dog is solid!

Klaus facts :

• He’s lost most of his baby teeth, which I’m sad to report I didn’t find any of!
• He’s gotten into the habit of rolling over on his back to show off his belly when you approach his crate to let him out. It’s the funniest because he maintains eye contact and does it in super slow motion.
• He still doesn’t bark regularly which I couldn’t be happier about. He’s barked maybe a total of ten times.
• He loves to be under things. When he was smaller it was all about being under the coffee table but now that he’s way too big for that he’s finding new things to be under. If you’re sitting on the ground with your legs bent, you best believe he’ll be under your legs. Every morning when I do my stretches he loves to run under me and lie down.
• I recently got him his first tennis ball and that boy LOVES to run after it. Actually, he really just loves running. At least once a day he gets the zoomies, where he just goes nuts and races around the backyard.
• He went to the beach for the first time this month. He was afraid of the waves but loved the abundance of sticks. I’m excited to take him back soon.
• He finally outgrew his first harness. I’m actually heading to the store to get him a new collar today. He’s not wearing one right now and he looks hilariously naked. Hah!

There still haven’t been any huge breakthroughs with the cats. They tolerate him a lot more than when he first came home but still no direct playing and definitely no cuddling yet. The cats no longer leave the room when Klaus comes trotting in. A few days ago I had Klaus out and was playing with him when I walked into the kitchen to spot Doctor Octopus laying down in Klaus’ crate. Even if Klaus wasn’t around, that still feels like a great step! Klaus normally thinks that Doctor Octopus is trying to play with him when he’s swatting and hissing which is equal parts hilarious and sad. Poor guy just doesn’t understand the cats are grumpy and don’t want to wrestle with him.

It’s been a blast so far. Having a puppy is great but I’d be lying if I said I was excited for him to grow up and calm down a bit. He can be a bit of a pain in the butt sometimes but I think we’re making decent progress together. Soon I’d like to start him in some obedience classes.

On another note, does anyone have an recommendations for dog shampoo that actually leaves your dog smelling good? The biggest shock of having a dog is realizing they kind of smell horrible. Haha! Seriously though, I’ve tried a handful of shampoos already and within a day or two he’s back to being a stinky dog. Having Klaus makes having four cats seem like super low maintenance, at least they can bathe themselves.
xoxo

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Klaus + Crum : pt.2

by Kaylah Stroup
Back in the end of August I shared some photos of Klaus and Crum playing together. Since then I’ve gotten more comfortable and more comfortable letting them play together. Klaus isn’t quite as tiny and he certainly can hold his own, not that Crum would ever purposely hurt him but I swear, that dog has no idea how huge he is. They’re quite the duo! I wish they could get together more often.

Action shots of dogs playing are so funny to me. That last one reminds me of synchronized swimming. Please tell me you’ve seen pictures of synchronized swimming, they’re equal parts hilarious and terrifying, if you haven’t…
xoxo

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Klaus + Crum

by Kaylah Stroup
My two all time favorite puppies together! Klaus has met Crum, my parent’s Great Dane, a few times but each time he spent most of the time in his crate just to be safe (and because, my goodness, he is a sleepy little pup!) But the last time I went over to my parents Klaus got to really meet Crum. Crum was an absolute angel letting Klaus crawl all over him and nibble on his face. I think it goes without saying Klaus loved meeting someone who would actually put up with his crazy puppy antics since the cats are still trying to show him who runs the house.

 

I think that first photo really shows the crazy size difference between the two of them. I can’t wait to see how Klaus compares to Crum in size when he’s full grown. I love those puppies!
xoxo

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a small office update…

by Kaylah Stroup
I’m still working on getting my new office sorted out. It’s (very) slowly but surely coming along. I’m tackling it area by area. First my closet, then my book/oddities shelf and now this wall. I saved the hutch off my old desk because I figured it might make a neat little shelf to keep some of my knick knacks on since I planned on getting a much smaller desk. Turns out it’s not only sturdy, it looks perfect!

The mirror is what really does it for me! I’m really bad at hanging things on the wall, I just hate to commit. But the second I saw this mirror at Ikea I knew it was perfect for that space. It really opens the room up and since it’s opposite the windows in the room it reflects the light wonderfully.

Next up is my desk area! It took forever to find the perfect desk for this room. I had a hard time finding something simple enough. I wanted something that looked lighter and neater than my previous one. I feel like waiting to get a desk really delayed the progress in this room but I’m happy I waited. I think the one I ordered will be perfect. I can’t wait to for it to get here and get it set up!

Sources:
tooth planters by Hello Sweetie
tooth candle was a gift.
jackalope jewelry holder from Modcloth.
mirror, striped box & plant house from Ikea.
vase & fly are vintage.

xoxo

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just a pupdate…

by Kaylah Stroup

I think I’m overdue for a puppy update! Klaus came home 26 days ago and
since then things have slowly but surely fallen into a routine. The first week was scary, for sure. Even though I’ve only had my license for a short time I’d already become accustomed to being able to leave the house whenever I wanted for as long as I wanted. But having a puppy threw a wrench in that. I was back to being stuck at home since I wasn’t quite ready to take him anywhere (plus I’m pretty sure you can’t take dogs to Ikea or any of the silly museums I was planning on visiting. Haha!) After our second week together things got a lot easier. He’s finally on pretty consistent sleep, eat, potty, play schedule so I’m able to sneak out for longer periods of time without worrying which is great for both of us since I’m a lot less crazy when I haven’t been stuck at home for a few days straight. Hah! 

I’m not sure if you can tell much he’s grown from these pictures but I certainly can tell, especially when he’s near the cats. He used to be smaller than them but he’s very quickly getting taller and taller. I can also see some changes in his face as well. He looks a little bit less like a baby pup everyday which makes me equal parts sad and happy. His ears are perkier than when I first got him. They used to go up only occasionally but now they almost always look like they do in these pictures. I hope they stay like this forever, it makes him look so inquisitive. He’s getting heavier and heavier everyday too. I can’t wait to see how much weight he’s gained at his next vet appointment. He was a mere seven pounds at his first appointment! He’s not quite as easy to pick up anymore.

There haven’t been any huge breakthroughs on the puppy/kitty relations front. Although there definitely have been some improvements. Squid now comes out of hiding while Klaus is playing and none of the boys have any issues with coming to get pet while Klaus is playing beside me. Doctor Octopus is still swatting and hissing at him only after Klaus does his little play bow thing that puppies do instead of immediately when he sees him. I can’t wait to see how they’re doing together in another month.

Potty training is going very well, like I mentioned above we’re on a pretty consistent schedule. He hasn’t had any accidents in his crate at all. He’s even very polite about pooping. My mom and I took my nephew to the playground last week. We were sitting in the grass playing with Klaus when I noticed he wasn’t so interested in playing anymore. I got up and took him on a very brief walk where he immediately squatted down. He didn’t want to poop by us because he knew that’s where we were playing. Maybe that’s not that special, maybe I think puppies are more rude than they really are but I thought that was pretty awesome of him.

He’s starting to get the hang on “come” but can still be quite easily distracted. He still awesome at walking on a leash but sometimes is a bit of a tugger.  He’s basically a pro at “leave it” and I’m happy to say he’s fiiiiinally starting to like treats! I picked up this book about training a puppy because, like I’ve said before, I’m clueless about dogs. I mean I understand basically how to do things but raising my perfect companion is scary and it makes me feel a lot better to have some sort of reference. The internet just seemed like too overwhelming of a place to look for puppy info. There are so many different ways to raise a dog and so many varied opinions! But I think Klaus and I are doing pretty dang well together so far.

How stinken’ cute does he look in the bow tie?! It’s actually from the kitty department and isn’t a real collar so he can’t wear it all the time. When he finally stops growing like a weed I’d like to get him a real bow tie collar because he really does wear it well.
xoxo

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What’s my age again?

by Kaylah Stroup

Guess who is another year older today!! Meeee! I love my birthday, I always have and I hope I always will. It’s a fun day to do everything I’ve deemed not acceptable for any other day. A donut for breakfast? Check! Massive consumption of root beer? Check! (I’ve even been saving a bottle of my favorite kind for today.) Getting prettied up all pretty just to spend the day sitting around watching Jim Carrey movies? Check!

Of course my birthday dress this year is a striped one because I can never have enough striped dresses. This one from Dear Creatures has been calling my name since I first saw it. I finally splurged on it with the excuse that I always allow myself one special dress each year as a “birthday dress”. (I might have even bought a second birthday dress because I couldn’t resist. Eeep! I can’t wait for it to arrive!)

Well, I’m off to enjoy my special day and finish packing for the adventure my weekend holds.
xoxo

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Newest member of the TDS crew…

by Kaylah Stroup
I’ve been seriously considering adopting a dog for some time now. A month or so back I even did… for a day. I brought home a dog who was “great with cats”, we bonded on the hour drive home and I was so happy. I thought she was the one. She even had her toenails painted! I introduced her to the cats after we had spent some time together outside. She was nicely sniffing them and they were sniffing back. Everything and everyone was cool, calm and collected then out of the blue she tried to attack, not play. She just freaked out. I may not know very much about dogs but I do know the difference between play mode and attack mode. My stomach dropped, the look on this dogs face just made me sick. Luckily she was still on her leash. The decision was immediate, she had to go back to her foster mom. Of course, her foster mom wasn’t happy but neither was I. I didn’t want to give up on the dog so quickly. I felt really guilty but my gut told me it wasn’t a good situation. My four cats will always be the apple of my eye and my absolute top priority. I would never do anything to put them in danger and having this dog (even under intense supervision) would likely be bad news. I could never be comfortable with her again. My dreams of having a dog went to the back burner for a while.

After I spent the fourth of July weekend at my parents I fell even deeper in love with Crum, their Great Dane. Crum’s favorite person is definitely me (Sorry Mom, you know it!) He followed me around all weekend, we had such great bonding time. It made those doggy dreams come back full force. I see Crum once a week or so depending how often I go over to my parents and they’ve had him for a little over a year. If he’s this attached, that great of a companion and doesn’t even spend that much time with me, I can’t even imagine how incredible it would to have a dog of my own. So I started browsing PetFinder again. This time no adult dogs.

I didn’t want a puppy. I know they can be a pain in the butt and honestly, I didn’t want to have to train one. But for my cat’s safety and my peace of mind, a puppy was the only way to go. An animal with a clean slate, no previous problems with any other animals. One who could be raised beside my cats whose personalities it would come to understand before he got too big. I bookmarked and emailed a bunch of shelters with pups I wanted to visit. One of the last little guys I found said that from 12-5pm you could just come up and meet him. You don’t have to ask me twice to go meet some puppies!

It was love at first sight. I scanned over all the other dogs there but I kept coming back to this same one. He was all curled up and snoozing with one of his siblings. After a quick snuggle session my mind was made up. I was his.

So that’s how I came home with this little guy…
This is Klaus and he’s already my new best friend.
We had a bit of weird start. On his first full day home he got sick. So sick he had to go to the animal ER. It was really scary. After less than twenty four hours with him, I was already in love. Long story short the vet said it was stress. Moving to a new house, leaving his siblings, etc. Poor guy made himself sick over it all. He got some shots, some special food and when he woke up the next day it was like nothing was ever wrong. He was back to being a crazy little puppy.

Aside from that everything has been so great. He’s a dream! Not only is he absolutely precious, he’s so smart. He’s learning so quickly. Each day is getting a little easier and a little easier. Puppy mom life is hectic but it’s a lot less scary then I thought it would be. When things get rough I just remind myself that I’m raising my best friend. This is the little guy that I’m going to take on adventures and spend my days exploring with as soon as he’s old enough.

The cats aren’t too sure what to think of him. If I had to make any guesses I’m going to say Leaf will be the first to warm up to him. He even tried playing with one of Klaus’s toys! I’ve also caught him sitting outside of the crate while Klaus was inside, just staring at him. Doctor Octopus is very curious and often comes over to Klaus but most of the time hisses and walks away shortly after. Professor and Squid are curious as well but haven’t yet ventured over to him. They’re keeping their distance.

All in all, the cats aren’t taking it too hard which is so great. Everything is normal other than Squid hiding when Klaus is out of his crate (which isn’t too crazy since she hides whenever company comes over. She’s very shy.) This is actually even going easier than when I brought home each cat and introduced them to each other. After each new addition they’d always fight. There’s been no fights at all.

Klaus really isn’t interested in the cats either. He’s tried playing with Leaf’s tail and a few times he’s playfully chased after Doc but most of the time he minds his own business when they’re around. I’m curious to see how things progress on this front. I look forward to them playing and cuddling but I understand that comes with time.

 

Klaus is a plott hound mix. He’s around two months old and came from a litter of seven pups. He has one white toenail and another that’s currently half black and half white. He doesn’t like to get his paws wet or to walk in tall grass but we’ll work on those things. He loves to eat, sniff everything and play with a toy fox that has a really loud squeaker in it. He’s afraid of other dogs barking but oddly enough, showed no fear at all when put beside my parent’s giant Great Dane. He’s doing awesome with crate training and seems to pick up things really quickly. The two commands he’s understanding the best right now are “leave it” and “down”. Sometimes when he’s in his crate and feeling lonely he makes noises that sound like a dying seal, it’s truly awful. He’s eager to please and is already walking on a leash like he’s been doing it for months. He likes crawling around under the coffee table (which is 4.5 inches high) and I’m pretty sure there’s no place he’d rather be than my lap. I’m a proud momma.

This is surely the start of a very great friendship. 
xoxo

PS. If you’d like to see more pictures of this handsome pup, I’ve been sharing photos since I got him on instagram. My page might have even turned into “pupstagram”…

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my two year journey with braces…

by Kaylah Stroup
I’ve been meaning to blog about my braces since I first got them two years ago. It was something I was going to talk about often, photograph weekly and just generally journal about. But I ended up not doing that…at all. I barely have any pictures of my braces at all, but I have even less before pictures of my teeth.

My dentist was kind enough to email me 3D files of my teeth both before and after (dude, they’re really neat!) I converted them to flat files so I could share them here because they’re just about all I have. Here are my teeth before I got braces…

 (And here’s the before picture from the orthodontist – if you really must see. It’s not cute.)

I used to say they were the only thing about me I’d change. I was uncomfortable with my smile and would basically delete any picture showing them. Hence the fact I don’t really have any. My smile was fairly straight until I was 14 or 15 and lost one of my last baby teeth. It was my left canine tooth (the right one in the above image) and when my adult one came in that sucker was so crooked. Something about it made me realize what a mess the rest of my teeth were. I asked my parents on multiple occasions for braces but they always declined. I tried to forget about it and just learn to love them but it never worked.

Finally two years ago I had had enough. I needed them fixed. I made an appointment with my dentist so I could get a recommendation to an orthodontist. My dentist said my problem was I had “too many cars in the garage”. My mouth was too small for all my teeth to fit properly and I would most likely need some teeth pulled but ultimately that would be up to the orthodontist.

I visited two orthodontists before choosing the one I’d have help me with my teeth. It was important to me to feel comfortable with who was in charge of making my smile beautiful. The first guy I visited had a bad attitude, smelly gloves and some dirty looking tools. The second orthodontist I met with was perfect. My consultation went super smoothly, and we’d be able to get my braces on the next week which was important to me. I’m a get it done yesterday person. When I decide I want something done I want it as soon as possible so there couldn’t have been a better scenario. He also agreed I’d need some teeth pulled. Eeep!

A week later I had braces…

(March 2011, Isn’t it strange how much different I look!?)

I hated them. I cried and cried and cried when I saw myself in the mirror at home. They felt huge. I regretted getting them. I cried about how I really loved my teeth and that this was my biggest mistake ever. But I already had a hefty down payment on them and it would be so stupid to have to go back and ask for them off so I sucked it up. It definitely took time to get used to how they looked and felt but eventually I did.

The next month, in April 2011, it was time to get some teeth pulled to make room for the rest of my teeth to straighten out. I got four teeth pulled as well as getting my wisdom teeth removed at the same time. It was probably one of the worst experiences ever. The gas they had me hooked up to just made me ultra aware of what was going on, basically like an out of body experience. I couldn’t feel any pain but I could feel pressure. It totally freaked me out how easy it seemed the dentist was able to pull out my teeth (which might have given me a bit of a complex about my teeth falling out…) It felt like it lasted for ever. Of course, getting your teeth pulled isn’t going to be a pleasant experience but it was really horrible for me. The only plus side was I got to take my teeth home which was maybe a little too important to me. (You wouldn’t believe what a hassle it was to find a dentist who’d let me take them home. There were a few mishaps and maybe some tears shed about the whole thing. I ended up getting my teeth pulled by my regular dentist even though he doesn’t accept my insurance just so I could keep my teeth)

Like I said, braces were kind of hard to get used to at first. I didn’t know how to hold my mouth. I had trouble eating a lot of things because my mouth was so sore. The back corners of my mouth were constantly raw from the wires cutting into them each time my teeth would shift just so slightly. Luckily this stage only lasted a month or so. After that the next two years flew by. It really was done in a flash.

Only after looking back do I realize how funny mouth looked and how many little changes my face made. For a long time it looked like I had a big wad of dip in my lip because of my lower braces. (Luckily, I never noticed until I started looking back at pictures or else I would have been super self conscious about it. Haha!)

 (After braces model)

Even with all the pain (I swear it’s not that bad!), silly instances of my lip getting caught on my braces, food stuck in my braces and other not so great things they were 100% worth it. Of course, at times I felt funny being the only person in the orthodontists office over the age of 20 that wasn’t there with a child*. But I have the teeth I’ve always dreamed of having now. I’m confident when I smile. I might even be smiling a little too obnoxiously now. I mean, when you spend a great deal of your life trying not to smile with your teeth and now they’re super pretty it’s kind of hard to keep them in your mouth! I catch myself staring at them in the mirror quite often and have actually gotten into the habit of taking better care of them Hello floss, nice to meet you again! I hope this feeling lasts forever. It’s been two months and it only seems to be getting stronger.

Aaaand that’s that!
xoxo

*Just last week when I went for one of my check ups at the orthodontist I saw the father of a child my nephew goes to school with who recognized me from plays, baseball games, etc and said “Oh, are you here with your child?” Yeah….no. I awkwardly responded by pointing at my teeth and saying “I had braces, they’re off now” Ugh, I fail at interacting with strangers. Haha!

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