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Friday Favorites #527

by Kaylah Stroup

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

I’m not trying to rush away summer but… um, hello, this jacket is adorable! (& would look SO cute paired with these gloves!)

This window hanging planter!

This isn’t listed as a planter. It’s technically a ceramic cup buuuut I wouldn’t stop you from propagating some stuff in it! That’s just such a cute pattern.

These overalls are precious! Perfect for taking you from summer into slightly cooler weather.

You know I love anything with a face!

The perfect dress for any fancy Halloween parties you’ve got coming up!

This sweatshirt!

Snails are so cute!

I’m digging this photo frame.

This dress! I love the color + pattern!

Link love…

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ghost town – Two Guns, AZ

by Kaylah Stroup

Throwing it back to June’s epic road trip again.

No trip to Arizona for us is complete without a stop at Two Guns. I’ve written about how important this place is to me a handful of times so there’s no need to retype that but I do want to share some photos from our latest visit.

Previous posts on Two Guns; that time I got married in a ghost town, our six month anniversary trip back to Two Guns, our wedding ‘rehearsal‘ & my first time in the Apache Death Cave.

It kind of sucks to fall in love with an abandoned place in the middle the desert because… well, it’s almost a guarantee that someday it’ll be destroyed. For as long as this place has been around though, I feel like it’s taken a heck of a beating in the last five years.

I certainly don’t mind graffiti. Generally, I am pro-graffiti but I am anti-people who can’t paint, people who paint dicks, people who paint offensive phrases, people who just make gosh darn messes on cool old buildings, etc. Two Guns is covered in spray paint. Seems like there isn’t a spot of bare building anymore so it’s pretty wild to look back at photos from my older posts and see how ‘untouched’ it looked (despite definitely being painted back then.) I’m most disappointed to see the paint making its way over to the much older ruins.

One of the most striking changes though is the collapse of the ‘Kamp’ building. It had been looking pretty rough for a long time but it was definitely a strange feeling to see it collapsed. Just a year earlier I had taken photos of my brother on the upper floor, waving from the window! Shoot, just a year earlier I had wedding photos taken in there! I’m curious if it’ll continue to fall or sit like it is now, roof on top of the rubble, for a while.

Apache Death Cave. Two Guns, Arizona
Inside the Apache Death Cave. Can’t help but feeling like that coolest cat ever knowing that I was in this cave in a wedding dress.
Two Guns, Arizona
Two Guns, Arizona
Two Guns, Arizona

Hopefully our next visit to Two Guns will be in the school bus with my family. I think I’ve got everyone on board at this point, it’s just a matter of getting the bus done and making plans. I get goosebumps thinking about being there with my family again. And to actually camp there? YES, PLEASE!

Other posts from this trip –

Check out even more road trip posts under the ‘travel‘ tag & more ghost towns here.

Until next time, Two Guns! xoxo

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Friday Favorites #526

by Kaylah Stroup

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

My mother in law got me this candle for my birthday and holy smokes, it smells SO GOOD. They even have a roll on perfume in the same scent. Gardenia and honeysuckle is seriously the best scent combo ever.

This couch is gorgeous! Just picture it surrounded with plants. So dreamy.

This vintage hand model! I already have a hand model but not one with arthritis!

Look at these awesome coasters!! The person who makes them also has these dental ones as well.

I’m just a sucker for strappy black flats.

This dress!

Digging this wild and colorful rug!

Just rediscovered this snake candle holder in a wish list I made and surprise, surprise, I still love it!

If I could afford it, I’d cover my walls in vintage anatomical charts. How pretty is this one?!

Stumbled upon this cool little glass terrarium and can’t stop thinking how cute it’d look full of beach treasures!

Link love…

Big shop news – a massive update went live this morning! 47 new listings in total including a handful of one of a kind wristlets, a brand new size of pouch that’s a little larger than our ‘standard’ sized one and a whole bunch of coin pouches.

Shop The Dainty Squid.

Happy Friday! xoxo

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hair dye diaries

by Kaylah Stroup
Arctic Fox Sunset Orange + Virgin Pink

Its been around two months since I made the big change from green to orange. In that time period, I feel like I’ve had to touch up or deal with faded hair way more than normal. This is my one last hair change with Arctic Fox then I’m off to try new brands. (I say that… but honestly, I bought some Punky Colour last night and I already know it’ll treat me well.)

I very recently dyed my hair yet again with Arctic Fox’s Sunset Orange, Cosmic Sunshine + Virgin Pink. Because I am trying to now document any and all hair changes, I have a video!

Watch below + subscribe on YouTube!

These are the colors I was really looking forward to doing the most after leaving green. I wouldn’t say it came out as expected. Maybe next time!

It feels kind of silly to continue to dye my hair with Arctic Fox when I’m so unhappy with the results. (In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have bought the 8oz bottles.) Don’t get me wrong, the initial color is GORGEOUS, although never really what the bottle shows. I still can’t believe that it covered the mess of green I was left with after bleaching but it just does not last. The fading is worse than anything I had ever tried before. Its been about a week and a half since I filmed that video and already my color is… meh.

It leaves me with such vivid color when it’s fresh that I know despite how I feel now, in a years time or so, I’ll probably convince myself to try it again. For now though, I’m excited to tuck the remainder of those bottles in the back of my cupboard and try something else.

Arctic Fox Sunset Orange + Virgin Pink
Arctic Fox Sunset Orange + Virgin Pink

Supplies used – (affiliate links)

You can find tips & guides in my hair master post – including Bleaching your hair 101, 7 tips for maintaining bright hair color, Two tips for switching hair colors easily. & so much more!

orange and pink hair
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my mother’s plants

by Kaylah Stroup
July 20th – Face planter by Kinska

Grief for me has been cycling through the polar opposites of ‘save everything!’ and ‘throw it all away!’ Sorting through her storage room in my dad’s garage a few weekends back with my sister-in-law, I found myself when asked what to do with something, more often than not, answering “Goodwill pile!”

Guess it was just the mood I was in because I’ve kept so many random things that had she’d of offered me I’d have said ‘no’ to. Recipes she printed and wrote her own notes on, her flannel shirts, her pajama pants (most of which I recognized from our shopping trips together), her fuzzy socks and so much more stuff I 100% do not need. Buuut my grieving brain insists it’s all special.

June 25th – The day I brought it home. I had already trimmed off all the dead leaves.

One Sunday, while the guys worked on the bus, I walked down to the house and did a little housework for my dad. I noticed three dead looking plants on the staircase landing. I figured I should ask before tossing them despite already knowing that my dad wouldn’t be interested in caring for houseplants. After confirming he didn’t want them, I climbed back onto the landing and got a closer look. They were definitely hurting after not being watered for 2 and a half months but two of the three were possibly salvageable…

I tossed the completely dried out one. The largest I pruned the dead leaves off and decided that it was worth trying to save. The third had completely wilted leaves but didn’t seem beyond repair. I chopped off the leaves to try and propagate and gave the root base to my niece to grow.

June 26th – One day after water. Already perking up!
June 26th – First day in water. I let the ends callous over for a day before placing them in water.
July 2nd

Five days after being placed in water, I already had the start of roots and much healthier leaves!

July 2nd
July 7th – The start of two new leaves!
July 11th – Look who is opening up!
July 20th

As much as I love growing things in water and watching the roots grow and change, I really wanted to get these leaves in soil ASAP. I planted and replanted these darn things at least four different times before finally deciding on how I wanted them arranged. I thought one super full pot would be neat but I didn’t have the right sized pot and I figured two would give me a better shot at least one surviving. (…Not that I really have any doubts but ya know!) So two pots it was. One larger for all the big cuttings, and a smaller one for the more petite cuttings – who interestingly enough had much larger roots.

July 20th – Right after being planted.
July 29th
July 29th – More new leaves coming in!
July 29th

My mom was never really a house plant type of person but anyone who had ever been over to the house would tell you how much she loved to garden. She kept such beautiful flower beds. My love of plants definitely stemmed (heh!) from her. When I moved to the city and no longer had an outdoor space, I started bringing the outside in. It was then I convinced her to try growing things inside as well.

All of that to say, it feels a little weird to be putting so much importance on these plants that I’m not sure she ever loved, at least not as much as the ones she grew outside. It’s a perfectly me way of dealing with grief though, especially since tending to my many houseplants is already so cathartic to me.

I look forward to continuing to watch these plants grow and hope that they continue to bring me at least a little bit of peace. My mom may be dead but she lives on in so many other ways.

July 29th – The start of new leaves on this tiny guy!
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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup
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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ghost town – Piedmont, WY

by Kaylah Stroup
Piedmont, Wyoming - ghost town

Heading into Wyoming I really only knew two things about the state. One – it’s beautiful. Two – there are a lot of ghost towns. As much as we love just cruising around and checking things out, sometimes it can be a bit of a gamble going on the hunt for ghost towns. You never know what you’re going to drive an hour off the main road to find is actually highly protected private property or not even standing anymore.

We decided to gamble on Piedmont. The photos online looked promising. The bumpy dirt road that led us there took us beside grazing cows and a lazily flowing stream. It felt like it took forever but it was beautiful.

We stopped at the old charcoal kilns. They had a sign and some picnic benches, making them feel a little touristy for my tastes. That plus the fact some of the ghost town itself was behind a fence immediately meant actually getting to explore wasn’t an option.

We watched as the one other group of people there, a very regular looking family, parked their massive truck right up beside one of the buildings on the top of a hill (that doesn’t have an actual road going up to it) It was then we decided it would totally be okay to walk up to the houses… because at least we weren’t driving up to it, right?*

Piedmont was settled in 1869. There was a general store, a hotel, school, post office and more. This little town flourished until around 1910 when the Aspen Tunnel was built meaning the train no longer came through. This marked the slow decline of Piedmont. The town managed to hold on until the 1940s though.

Now, what’s left is honestly one of the most impressive ghost towns I’ve ever personally visited. Places like this one are usually converted into parks and become tourist hot spots. As great as those are, I prefer things left to rot on their own. I wanna see an actual ghost town, not something protected and maintained. I don’t really know who takes care of Piedmont, if anyone, or how its managed to stay graffiti-free for all this time but I’m sure glad to have been able to see it in it’s current state.

Piedmont
Wyoming Ghost Town
Wyoming Ghost Town
Piedmont, Wyoming

Other posts from this trip –

Check out even more road trip posts under the ‘travel‘ tag & more ghost towns here.

*After researching Piedmont, it seems as though this is private property and that it is watched after pretty carefully so explore at your own risk. I recommend bringing some binoculars and just looking from the road.

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Friday Favorites #524

by Kaylah Stroup

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

Everything will be okay – the reminder we all need from a dog in sunglasses.

I am very into linen shorts this year. I basically gave up buying any new pairs of jean shorts for the comfort of these cozy things. I’m hooked. (left pair, right pair – also, super similar but way cheaper)

Light crush!! This is my third, and possibly favorite, lamp from Gantri. Gantri 3D prints these lamps in California using sustainable manufacturing practices and materials to remain an eco-friendly as possible. They’re designed by independent artists. This is Maskor in Forest (designed by @mukalab). So cute, right!?⁣ I’m obsessed. You can get $20 off your first purchase using this link.

I’m normally more of a black and white rug person as opposed to white and black (you totally get what I’m saying, right?) but I am all about this one. Even just scrolling from that photo of my living room above down to this one – it just fits my whole style!

Are you kidding me with this suitcase!?

These earrings!

Aren’t these black strappy flats so cute? I own them in pink already but I’ve been eyeing up the black pair for just as long. I don’t know what’s stopping me, they’re super cheap! (I’ve got a photo of me wearing the pink version in this post)

I feel like I’ve featured this dress before in the past but it caught my eye again now that I have a hair color that would look nice with it. I just love a good wrap dress. So cute and breezy.

These skull jammies!

A favorite sweatshirt that I actually got to wear this week when we had a rare cool morning.

Link love…

In shop news this week, I’m obsessed with these pouches. That fabric is so dreamy.

Happy Friday! xoxo

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Friday Favorites #523

by Kaylah Stroup

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

Gah. This rug! Currently on sale too!

I know I normally go for the fun prints on pillows but I can’t help but think how cute this black and white one would look paired with my face pillow.

Did you see Modcloth has a limited time outlet shop? So many major markdowns. PLUS purchase $50 or more of outlet items and get free shipping with the promo code ‘OUTLET’

Digging these cicada earrings, big time!

Its a candle with moons on it, of course I like it.

The review photos of this skirt are making me reeeeeally want it. Its just so cute.

I don’t even have curtains currently (blinds only) but these gorgeous velvet drapes are calling my name. I just think they’d look so nice with all my oddities. Strange thought? Perhaps. They just give off a sorta spooky feel to me and I like it!

How cute is this little planter trio!? Looks like the perfect size for propagating all sorts of succulents.

Yes, please, polka dot romper! Get in my closet! It’s super affordable too.

Another ‘this isn’t what I’m normally drawn too’ type of thing but how cute is this throw blanket? This all mustard one is pretty dreamy too.

Link love…

Last but not least, I’m now offering free US shipping on orders over $35 in the shop! Wooo!

Happy Friday! xoxo

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