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abandoned factory

by Kaylah Stroup
Recently we explored an abandoned factory. This Cleveland subsidiary of two larger companies was formed in 1968. By 1980 it was one of the largest machine-tool manufacturers in the United States. Three short years passed before the company began to suffer due to Japanese competition, the recession, and corporate inefficiencies. They restructured, cut the workforce in half and continued to have lots of ups and downs for the remainder of its years. Eventually in 2002 the factory was completely abandoned after a few years of only a portion of the building being utilized.

 What these photos aren’t showing you is all the trash in the building. Actually, you can kind of see it off in the distance in the reflection photo! The majority of these photos were taken on the outside edges of the building, as well as on the second floor. In the middle of this place, on the bottom floor, it’s just all trash. Trash piled higher than your head. More trash than I’ve ever seen anywhere other than a dump. Surprisingly it didn’t really smell all that bad. Although I imagine on a hot summer day it would be intolerable.

xoxo

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bedroom tour

by Kaylah Stroup
My bedroom always seems to be the last room I put together. I don’t know why. I wouldn’t even consider this 100% done, although I never consider any room “done”. I enjoy constantly moving things around and changing it up often, as if you couldn’t tell by hair color. Hah. Anyway, my bedroom is finally at a point that I’m pretty happy with, and any changes from here will probably be small ones. So without further ado, I present to you my bedroom (and a whole bunch of pictures of Klaus because there’s no kicking that cutie out of bed!)

It’s a fairly small room but it’s easily the favorite room I’ve ever called “my bedroom”. I have two large windows opposite my bed from which on a clear night I can see the moon perfectly while in bed. It’s pretty incredible, and high up there on things I love most about this apartment.
xoxo

source list //
eye pillow
all other bedding c/o Christy Linens
lamp c/o Lamps.com
jackalope jewelry holder
jewelry holder hands

mushroom calender
arrow
Medical models are all vintage. Mirror, maps and periodic table picked up second hand. Stool, vanity and gold turtle shell from Target. Palmistry hand and phrenology head from Home Goods.
If you’re curious about anything else, just ask! 

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Abandoned Observatory

by Kaylah Stroup
The observatory is another building that was on my radar long before I moved to Cleveland. I actually ended up there once by accident when I got lost on my way back from Cleveland. Sometimes the MapQuest app gets me allllll mixed around, and that was one of the times it actually turned out okay. I parked my car, got out and snapped a few photos. Once again, never thought that some day I’d be inside of it with my best friends (check out our super cute group shot here!)

The observatory is probably one of the coolest buildings in Cleveland, in my opinion. Its size is deceiving from the outside. It doesn’t look that large but once inside you realize, it’s quite large and it’s a maze!

In the 1950s Cleveland’s light pollution began to make research impossible from this location. Eventually the building was sold in 1983, abandoned, and remained neglected until 2005 when a couple who planned on turning it into their residence bought the property for a mere 115k. Those plans were soon thwarted when the new owner was convicted of mortgage fraud. Since then the building has just been sitting and rotting.

xoxo

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a home full of curiosities

by Kaylah Stroup
Shortly after I first moved into my apartment I shared some photos of my curiosity cabinets. Six months have passed since then and of course, my collection has grown. My dining room, which lacks a table but houses my collection as well as Klaus’ crate, is pretty darn awesome if you ask me. Since it’s changed quite a bit since my first photos of it I thought it would be fun to share some updated photos. (Same with my living room, I’ll be photographing that again soon since it’s evolved since first sharing photos!)

A super quick Q+A of things that always get asked:
Where do you get all those things? Here and there! Estate sales, ebay, the trash (seriously…), and sometimes folks are even nice enough to send me things that would fit in my collection perfectly. Yes, I am totally interested in any dentures, or teeth you may find!
Did you kill all those butterflies? No way. I found all of them dead on the beach a few years back. Monarch butterflies migrate and sometimes they just don’t make it. No idea what caused so many to die there that day but there were tons.
Do you clean your own skulls? I do.
What is in that jar? The jar in the second photos has Professor’s testicles. I simply asked the vet when he was neutered if I could keep them. She happily handed them to me after his surgery. I also have Klaus’.

Below is a mold of my teeth after braces. I asked the orthodontist if I could get the original mold of my crooked teeth that they took right before I got my braces put on. He said he wasn’t sure but would try. At my next appointment he excitedly told me he had the mold for me, I looked and it was of my new straight teeth. I’m still a little bummed I don’t have a mold of my super crooked teeth but I guess having any mold of my teeth, straight or not is pretty cool. I also got to keep my braces, which you can see two pictures up.

I also have a handful of strange things that could definitely fit in this room scattered around the apartment. There is a shelf full of medical models in my bedroom that I’ll tell you more about as soon as I get that room photographed for a little tour.

My apartment is pretty darn cute!
xoxo

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abandoned auto parts + apartments

by Kaylah Stroup
One of many buildings we explored on our grand adventure day was formerly an auto parts store on the lower level with apartments upstairs. We’ve actually all been itching to hit small buildings as opposed to the big factory buildings. Factories are interesting, but normally they’re pretty gutted. Scrappers have stolen anything and everything worth money, equipment is gone, and they’re just big empty buildings. Small buildings are normally less ravaged in that sense. They have more things left in them, including personal items that help tell a story about the building’s former life.

This place was FULL of stuff. The only other thing I had seen like it was at the Salton Sea. The floor was absolutely covered in the downstairs. You couldn’t see the actual flooring at all. There were tons of stuffed animals, clothes, boxes, as well as miscellaneous papers. Surprisingly, it somehow didn’t smell.

xoxo

Ps. Did you spot the GIF?

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On The Road

by Kaylah Stroup
I finally finished going through and editing the last of the photos from June’s roadtrip out west. It’s so strange to me that this trip was so long ago, and on the same hand, it’s also crazy that it even happened. It was seriously probably the best week of my life.

This is just a collection of landscapes, and a few other random photos from the trip that didn’t really fit into the other posts. Since we went through six different states, we got to see a little bit of everything geography-wise. Even in a single state it was incredible how rapidly the land changed from dry, barren desert to lush mountains.

So those wild horses are amazing, right?! We had seen wild horses a day or so prior but since we were rushing to get to Wigwam Motel to check in we didn’t have time to stop. I wasn’t too bummed about it because just seeing wild horses totally made my day. While we were on our way up to Mesa Verde we spotted another group of them! I wanted to take pictures but was feeling frustrated after a crappy night’s sleep, and not knowing exactly how close I could get to them. As much as I like horses, I’m still just a little bit afraid of them. I felt rushed and just snapped some crappy shots. On the way back down the mountain they were still there. I took it as a sign I needed to shoot them again. I borrowed one of Jeff‘s lenses and took the photo above. I love that the one is looking right at the camera. SO AWESOME. I’m pretty darn proud of that shot.

I’m dying to hit the road again, even somewhere closer to home would be okay with me. I’m so glad to have found a partner who has the same priorities as I do. If it were possible, we’d probably travel nonstop. Fingers crossed we make it out again before winter hits.
xoxo

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Six months in Cleveland – the celebration!

by Kaylah Stroup
Last Thursday I celebrated six months living in Cleveland, and boy oh boy did I celebrate! Jeff, , and I set out around in 8am to do some exploring. We were on a roll so after each building we’d all be saying “just one more…” Just one more ended up being the three of us exploring eleven abandoned buildings, nearly half of which were new ones to all of us, in fourteen hours with one short lunch break. It was one of the most fun days ever.

I have so many photos from the day to share over the next few weeks, I’ll be breaking them up by location. First I’m going to start with our last stop of the day. It’s actually kind of sweet, this building is a little bit special to me for a few reasons. I had seen it from the freeway the day I bought my car. It stuck out to me because of a piece of graffiti on the side that I really liked. I wanted to photograph it so bad but couldn’t imagine getting off getting off the freeway, venturing into the city, and getting close enough to the building to shoot it. Remember I’m from the country, cities were absolutely foreign and terrifying to me a little over a year ago. I never would have thought that months later I would inside that building taking pictures, exploring with friends, and watching the sunset from the rooftop. It’s neat how things come full circle like that.  Funny thing is, I still haven’t photographed the outside like I wanted to so long ago. Haha!

While we were up on the roof I practiced my night photography skills. I’m still trying to get the hang of it. I mean, I understand the basics of how to take great photos at night, but I’m still trying to master it. The first photo is my favorite. The sky and clouds were so perfect that night, it was almost like it never got completely dark outside. Had we not all been absolutely beat from running around all day I’m sure we could have stayed up there for hours.

Can’t wait to share more photos from this day!
xoxo

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup

It’s been since April that I posted a new “found on the beach” photoset. For the most part they’ve been keeping the beach fairly clean. The last few weeks though, it’s been a wreck. Shards of broken plastic, tons of bottles, and of course, the normal tampon applicator. Ugh. While looking for a place to lay out the days findings I was only able to spot one area that had sand and was mostly clear. After I dumped out my bag and started sorting the pieces I looked up and spotted toilet paper right beside me. I don’t know if it was clean or not but I guess I found the one thing that I cannot handle finding on the beach. It grossed me out so much. I pushed it away as best I could with some driftwood, and crossed my fingers I wouldn’t find any “treasures” while putting together my photo.

I guess the one positive of the current state of the beach that I’m finding really neat things for my photosets. My favorite things to find are always little people, like army men. Basically tiny versions of anything are cool in my book. I was more than pleased to find two little plastic cars on this trip.

As you can see I’m still finding tons of lighters for my little project. It blows my mind that there are SO many of them on the beach. I know lighters are easy to lose, but geez!

Quick FAQ – things that get asked every Found on the Beach post.
Do you keep the things you pick up? No way. Once in a while I’ll keep something I really think is neat but I’m no hoarder.
What do you do with it when you’re done? I toss it in the trash where it belongs.
Was this really all from the beach in one day? For the most part, yes. Sometimes if I find something I really think is neat on a day I’m not collecting for a photo I’ll pick it up and hang on to it until the next time I want to put together one of these.

I recently made a Found on the Beach
tag. I try to keep the tags for things I post about regularly except in
cases when I really really love the series, and I think this finally
deserves a tag!
xoxo

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take me to your leader

by Kaylah Stroup
A while back I visited this UFO shaped building very briefly, really just long enough to snap the two pictures I have of it. Recently we took a quick little trip down to check it out again. My last visit I suspected it was abandoned but like I said, I didn’t really look around. I was a nervous new driver who didn’t want to cause any trouble at all. This trip it only took a matter of seconds before we confirmed it was abandoned. Sadly, it’s closed up tight so there was no snooping around the inside. It’s still an absolutely incredibly building, in my opinion. I seriously can’t think of a cooler building I have ever seen in person.

I searched and searched but couldn’t really come up with much more info other than it was built in 1976 and was used as office spaces for a variety of companies. It seems it’s been abandoned for a few years now. I peeked in all the windows in doors that I could only to see empty rooms and fallen ceiling tiles. It’s rare that I find myself thinking “wow, what a shame to see this place rot”*, but this is one of the few that made me feel that way. If I won the lottery, this is the place I’d be purchasing to make into my home!
xoxo

* I feel like I should clarify myself on that one – it’s not that I don’t think abandoned buildings all have an air of sadness about them for one reason or another. For the most part I’m pretty matter of fact about stuff like this, abandonment happens, buildings are left to rot. But geeez, I really hate seeing amazing architecture in a state of disrepair. I guess “amazing architecture” is a matter of opinion on this one because it is totally tacky, but I’m all about it! Novelty architecture is my jam!

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