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jungle of succulents

by Kaylah Stroup November 5, 2015

Its been a little over a month since my last post on my plants (see here) which in my mind is more than enough time to not feel super crazy about sharing a bunch of photos of them again. I really enjoy photographing them so I can keep tabs on how they’re growing… plus they’re super pretty, duh! Everything grows so slowly that I may think nothing is happening at all but a photo from a month ago will prove me wrong.

In mid-October it started to get chilly outside so I dragged everything in off my porch. The first few days of alllll the plants being in my office it felt a little bit crowded, especially considering the fact my two largest plants doubled in size over the summer. They’ve been inside for enough time now that the cluttered look of everything squished onto a few tables in front my windows is starting to grow on me. I’m liking my little jungle. Earlier in the year I shared photos of my vanity area and mentioned how I felt like a goddess everyday while putting on my make-up surrounded by plants. I still feel the same way. Someday I want to live somewhere with enough natural light that I can permanently have plants both indoors and out. I enjoy being surrounded by them. Really, I just need my own greenhouse.

Look at that Christmas cactus blooming!!!

It hasn’t been all that long since they’ve been inside and I can already see definite changes. Some of my favorites have lost their color since they aren’t getting as much sun and others are getting a tiny bit leggy. Needle + Leaves actually just posted about growing succulents in artificial light. (read here) Part of me wants to just let the plants do whatever they want with the light they get since getting leggy just means more things for me to eventually propagate. The other half of me wants to experiment with grow lights. We’ll see…

The ones below are my pups, everything I’m working on propagating. The large pot was actually super organized. I had laid everything out meticulously but before I brought it in for the winter a squirrel looking for the perfect place to bury some treasures completely tore it up. It made me so mad I just wanted to trash everything. Since things we already starting to grow I decided to keep them but not worry about rearranging. Laying out tiny leaf after tiny leaf in a neat row or pattern is kind of boring but it does look so much nicer. Maybe some time in the middle of winter I’ll get bored enough to do it.

The only really good thing about having all my plants squished inside, other than the fact I get to see them while I work, is that it makes me realize how many I have and that is keeping me away from all my favorite garden centers. I’m not sure how long that will actually last. I’m sure I’ll end up convincing myself that one more won’t hurt anything. Hah!
xoxo

For tips on propagating succulents, read here.
You can find more plant related posts here.

Toronto’s Graffiti Alley

by Kaylah Stroup November 4, 2015

As I mentioned yesterday, over the weekend Jeff and I made the five hour drive up to Toronto. I was completely enamored almost instantly. Without a doubt, one of my favorite things about Toronto was how colorful it was. Tucked away in alleys along Queen Street West is this insanely colorful world of graffiti. It doesn’t matter what your opinions are on graffiti, I guarantee you’ll find something that just blows you away. The sheer skill needed to create some of these pieces left me speechless. I’ve literally never seen anything close to this in person before.

Back in March Jeff and I made in brief stop in Baltimore to have dinner with a friend since we were passing through. While wasting time we stumbled upon their graffiti alley (see my post here!) and I was super impressed. It was a legal spot where artist could paint! That’s really awesome but Toronto’s graffiti alley and that place are on totally different levels. The fact I thought that was soo awesome was almost laughable after visiting Toronto. There is so much to see here, and I’m gonna say it fifty more times in this post – the caliber of artistry in these pieces is insane. I guess you could say Toronto has an outdoor art museum. The piece below even has a stinken frame around it! How awesome is that!?

Perhaps the title of this post is a bit misleading, technically not all of these photos are from “graffiti alley”. Like I mentioned in my first post about Toronto we spent a lot of time walking around the city. Toronto is just this graffiti mecca. You can’t walk too far at all before stumbling upon something incredible. Nearly every alley we peeked down had something to see. More than half of my photos from this short trip were of pieces I admired. We didn’t get to explore very much of the city so I know there is SO much more to see. I wish Cleveland was even a fraction as colorful!

Until next time, Toronto!
xoxo

Friday Favorites #336

by Kaylah Stroup October 30, 2015

How great is this shelf?! It’d look so great in an apartment with brick walls, wouldn’t it?!

(Don’t mind me, I’m just dreaming of brick walls.)

(via: Dot & Bo)

I’d love to learn calligraphy. This starter kit sounds pretty awesome.

(via: Printable Wisdom)

Uh, yeah… I’m gonna need this!

(via: Moorea Seal)

SNACKS!

(via: Yardsale Press)

This hedgehog flash drive is too cute.

(via: Mink Is Love)

Black thumb? Here ya go!

(via: Tierra Sol Studio)

Ooooh! This necklace is pretty. I can’t get enough opal.

(via: Moorea Seal)

Love these simple glass catch-all trays.

(via: Meg A. Myers Designs)

This dress is covered in foxes, deer, and flowers!

(via: Modcloth)

I know I already have lockers but would you just look at these beauties!!?

(via: Rehab Vintage LA)

Is it close enough to the new year that I can start talking about how excited I am about getting a new calendar? Eh, I don’t care. Look at this one!!!

(via: Brit + Co)

Link Love…
▴ Georgia in Dublin makes the snazziest rain gear for cyclists. I’m particularly fond of this jacket.
▴ Are you stupid in love with novelty bags? Okay, well, here’s a bat shaped bag!
▴ You know those little ceramic Christmas trees that you put the tiny lights in? Well, there is a cactus version!!!!
▴ I discovered Silvia’s blog, Heart My Backpack, a week or so back when she bought ad space. I spent SO long digging around her blog and reading posts. I highly recommend grabbing a cup of tea and sitting down to read a while (…or not because you’re going to be aching to travel after getting like three posts deep)
▴ Shark plugs! Ahhh!
▴ This ring is soooo pretty!

Happy Friday!
xoxo

Ps. Don’t forget to browse my Everyday Favorites if you want to see more fun finds!

Post Apocalyptic Columbus

by Kaylah Stroup October 19, 2015

I’ve never been someone who though the idea of an apocalypse was cool. That kind of sounds silly because I’m sure that most people don’t think the idea of an apocalypse is “cool” but what I mean is that post apocalyptic movies and books don’t necessarily spark my interest. They aren’t something I search out. Obviously I have a love for all things abandoned. I love to see what things look like after humans have left them behind. So I guess in a way I am totally enthralled with “post apocalyptic” stuff.

Over the weekend Jeff had to run to Columbus for some business. He invited me to tag along. I agreed to go on the promise that we would find something to shoot down there. It can be kind of hard to find abandoned things to explore in a city that you’re not familiar with and we didn’t have all day to search for spots. I knew that so I was trying to keep an open mind about whatever we did stumble upon.

After driving around a little bit Jeff remembered a spot he had recently seen a photo of. We did a bit of research on our phones and as luck would have it we were actually less than five minutes away. It’s a small stretch of abandoned highway that has a perfect view of Columbus. The only way to describe this spot was post apocalyptic. It’s impossible to see the skyline peeking out from behind the over grown highway and not feel like you’re in the Walking Dead.

This was my second stretch of abandoned highway (the first being the abandoned PA turnpike) and the one thing I cannot get enough of is that center line. I don’t what it is. Maybe because those lines just prove what this used to be. It’s not just a hunk of concrete with cracks in it where plants have begun to sprout, it’s a road!

After leaving that spot we hit Thurman’s Cafe for lunch. My burger was pretty awesome but dude, those onion straws were what really won my heart. I could really go for some right now… From there were headed to some abandoned trains cars we found online while researching.

Not our most exciting adventure but an awesome one nonetheless! These two spots were way cool. It’s always fun to find weird little forgotten spots that are just barely off the beaten path.
xoxo

It’s the little things…

by Kaylah Stroup October 14, 2015

like playing in the leaves!

Over the weekend Jeff and I went out to my parents house to celebrate my niece’s golden birthday. (Seven on the seventh!) It’s always nice to escape the city, and visit with my family but this particular visit just felt extra special. My eldest brother hasn’t lived in Ohio for a while, so my other brother’s children and his have never been able to celebrate fall together. The whole family pitched in raking leaves and then the six kids had at it! They eventually ended up arguing over whose turn it was to jump in the pile but it was so satisfying to get to watch them all experience the joy of playing in the leaves together. You can’t help but feel a little bit warm and fuzzy seeing them have SO much fun.

This is why fall is my favorite time of the year. The colors are beautiful. The weather is absolutely perfect, not too warm, not too cool! The fallen leaves make the ground crunchy and when the wind blows just right it smells so great. Best of all? It doesn’t matter how old you are, playing in the leaves is always fun.

Fall could last all year and I wouldn’t be mad. I seriously can’t express it clearly enough how much I love this season. I hope everyone gets to experience a true fall season at least once in their life, there’s nothing like playing in a huge pile of leaves!
xoxo

The little things is an on-going series celebrating the little things that make life special… and look, for once it’s not a sunset! Haha!

Skull Pouch Update

by Kaylah Stroup October 12, 2015

Hey, hey! I have a little Halloween treat for y’all today!

The photos I took for my skull cleaning post ended being something I unexpectedly LOVED…a lot. Those photos are the backgrounds on both my laptop and desktop computers, and on my phone. I don’t know why exactly I love them so much but I do.

With Halloween approaching I thought it’d be the perfect time to actually get those photos printed on some fabric. I like skulls all year long but I know a lot of people don’t. The thing is I go by the thought that anything goes in October! October 1st I actually went out and bought skeleton leggings because if anyone questions me I can just say they’re for Halloween. So whether or not you feel you need an excuse to have your odds and ends stored in a cute little skull pouch I’ve got ya covered!

A bit of good news for everyone – I’ve lowered shipping costs for all destinations, including international. It seriously blows my mind how expensive shipping packages overseas, and even to Canada has become. Even with such small items it’s a nice chunk of change. I want everyone to be able to enjoy my things, not just those who live in the US so even if that means eating a little bit of the costs myself, I lowered the price!

The pouches are available for purchase here! Just
like the past collections, these are limited edition. There is a very
small number of the larger pouches since they use up so much fabric. I
wouldn’t hesitate if you’re interested in grabbing one. Once
these ones are gone, they won’t be restocked and the fabric won’t be
reprinted.
xoxo

PS. If you purchase one of these or one from any previous collection – I wanna see pictures! Tag me on instagram or even shoot me an email.

on the cutting room floor – pt. 1

by Kaylah Stroup October 8, 2015

I took these photos the other day at the beach. I had a horrible, horrible headache and hoped some fresh air would help. (It didn’t. I couldn’t get back to the couch soon enough…) While
I strolled the beach I picked up glass, which isn’t something I really
do anymore. Despite not feeling well I took a handful of photos of my
finds, and I ended up really loving them. I tried so hard to think of something to write along side these
photos and was kind of just stumped…

One way that blogging has effected the way I take photos is that if I know that I’m planning on sharing something I will shoot more photos than needed. I’ll take the extra effort to search for angles I may not usually go for, and find as many ways as possible to visually represent whatever the post is about. It’s great because it pushes me out of my creative comfort zone sometimes, and it encourages me to take more photos which is always a good thing. But upon looking back through my folders I realized that this leaves me with a lot of photos that never make it blog posts. Sometimes because I don’t think they’re good enough but more often than not it’s because I don’t know what to say about them.

When I look back through some of my older posts something that bothers me is that I didn’t write much. Things seemed to apparent at the time why would I take the effort to write more? But I see now that I should have typed more to go along with photos. Lately I’ve been trying my hardest to write more in posts when I can. I hope that it shows, I know that I’m a lot happier with my posts. The bad thing about that is that are so many photos I don’t share and just end up forgetting about.

As a way to get those photos up on the blog I’m starting a new little series called “on the cutting room floor”. In this series I’ll just be sharing photos that I’ve taken recently but haven’t blogged about for one reason or another. Unlike the ones in this post the photos I share most likely won’t have a theme but I’m not really giving this series any rules! It’ll just be a fun little way to mix things up and share more of my photos.

xoxo

Ps that’s the first bottle neck I’ve found washed up on the beach! I don’t know how it took like four years for me to finally find one but WAHOOO!

list making for productivity

by Kaylah Stroup October 7, 2015

Fairly often I get emails asking how I’m so productive and I always kind of feel stumped – I don’t necessarily feel more productive than other people but I guess being my own boss and being the sole person who keeps this ship up and running has taught me a few things about getting stuff done.

Jeff and I were sitting at the train station the other day and he was telling me about how he read list of things that successful people did and one of the items that really stuck with him was making lists. He told me what he’d read and my response was “Well, yeah! That’s how I make lists!” Most people make lists daily but it’s how you write those lists that really matters.

So your typical list might be:
▴ clean house
▴ buy groceries
▴ laundry
▴ do social media stuff
▴ blog

It looks simple enough but those tasks aren’t very specific. I’ve found that when I break my lists down as simply as possible I am SO much more productive. My lists look more like this:
▴ wash dishes
▴ vacuum house
▴ make bed
▴ clean kitty litter
▴ write grocery list
▴ get groceries
▴ wash clothes
▴ fold clothes
▴ queue Friday Favorites
▴ edit project 365 photos
▴ draft Monday’s post
▴ share post on FB
…etc, etc

The things on the second list are easier to cross off. They get right to the point. There’s no questioning whether or not you completed the task. Being able to cross of items more quickly will make you feel more productive. I wish there was a prettier way to write this but nothing is better for productivity than feeling productive. Looking at a massive list that you’ve already half crossed off by noon feels like you’re majorly kicking some butt which makes you want to keep on chugging!

For larger tasks that can’t be completed in a day I usually set a time limit so that I can cross it off and move on to the next. For example instead of “design media kit”, I might write “work on media kit for one hour”. This means instead of avoiding it and deciding “oh, I don’t really have time today. I’ll do that tomorrow…” I can tackle it knowing that I don’t have to finish and that’s okay.

notebooks from Moorea Seal, who seriously has one of the greatest “office” categories. So many beautiful paper things!

This very simple little tip drastically improved my productivity when I figured it out. Hopefully it does the same for you. Do you guys have any easy tips to boost productivity? I’d love to hear them.
xoxo

ONA Camps Bay Review

by Kaylah Stroup October 5, 2015

I’ve been a big fan of ONA for a while now. If you haven’t heard of them before, ONA makes insanely beautiful, high quality camera bags. This whole love affair of mine started back in 2012 when I first spotted their bag, Brooklyn. I eventually got my hands on one which I subsequently blogged about often. here, here + here. That bag and I have been through thick and thin together, and it’s still holding up beautifully. I know their bags are of great quality so I was more than excited when they reached out to see if I’d like to give one of their newest bags a spin.

A few weeks back, ONA released their new Black Collection, three beautiful designs featuring premium nylon, Italian leather accents, and gunmetal hardware. I chose the Camps Bay backpack. I actually really liked Brixton but I have a tendency to carry way more equipment than I need and my shoulders can’t handle that anymore. Anyway now that I’ve had a little while to tote this backpack around I wanted to share a little review.

First things first, this is a solid bag. Not so much in terms of weight, I’m talking about how safe I feel my equipment is inside. When I think backpack I think something soft, malleable, made from a light fabric, etc. This bag, on the other hand, essentially has a shell. The material is stiff but still manages to be comfortable to wear. I’m sure given some more time it will begin to break-in and not be so stiff but I rather enjoy the feel of the bag now.

ONA claims this bag will hold your camera with lens attached as well as seven (!!!) extra lenses. I unfortunately don’t own seven lenses to test that but I’m sure it would. This baby can hold A LOT. I’ve found that by rearranging the dividers I am very comfortably able to hold everything I use regularly, including a polaroid camera which is something I’m never quite sure how to bring along. I love that anything I could want to bring along I can most likely find a way to safely pack it in this bag since all of the interior dividers are removable and adjustable.

Under the flap, and above the main camera area, there is another zipper compartment that I’ve found to be the perfect size for a light lunch or snacks. Along the backside of that compartment is an area for your laptop. The camera bag also has two side pockets. They are a little bit tight but I’m still able fit a water bottle inside. They’re a great size for my shutter release! Basically just about anything you could want to bring along this bag has room for it.

One main downfall I find with this bag is that to get anything out you need to take the bag off, set it down, unbuckle it, and unzip. It’s a bit of a process and there are certain situations where that just doesn’t cut it for me. I might need to get my camera out or switch lenses quickly sometimes and this bag would hinder that. There are other times though when I feel like that this bag is exactly what I want, specifically when I’m on my bike. I don’t need my camera right away and I enjoy the added security this bag provides.

A second setback is the price, currently $409. The bag is obviously beautiful. ONA’s craftsmanship is impeccable. It’s certainly an investment. Out of all the camera bags I own I feel that my equipment is the most safe in this bag. Is it necessary to spend that much to get an awesome camera bag? No but I’m doubting you’ll find something as nice as this one. Ultimately it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it.

All in all, color me impressed by the Camps Bay. It’s beautiful, it’s comfortable, and it can hold a heck of a lot of equipment, which for an over-packer extraordinaire is the best!
xoxo

Thanks to ONA for providing me with the camera bag! All opinions are my own.

PS. I own a handful of other camera bags. If you’d like to see reviews on some of the others in my collection let me know!

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