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some of my favorite posts

raiding my scrap basket

by Kaylah Stroup December 19, 2019

I had definitely planned to blog about The Dainty Squid shop and my sewing projects A LOT more this year. Obviously I did not do that. I managed to squeeze in a few posts about it here and there but it wasn’t even a fraction of as much as I had imagined. My sewing machine and I have definitely been busy though, especially this holiday season.

When I first re-opened back in January, the one thing I promised myself is that I would allow myself to play. When I had a sewing business before I burned myself out by just concentrating on making stock, making stock and…making more stock! I felt like it was a waste of time to experiment because I already knew what made money so I should just keep doing that. That eventually led to a period of about three years or so where I didn’t touch my machine at all.

This time around, I wanted to make sure that I had fun. I enjoy making regular pouches, they’re satisfying but without a break, it can definitely get repetitive.

baby basket king

November and December have been wild! I had a goal – which I crushed. I made a stretch goal and somehow squashed that too! I thought I was stocked up and prepared for the holiday season but I completely underestimated how quickly the things I had made would sell. (Seriously, thank you!) There was obviously a part of my brain that was like “SEW. NOW. MORE STOCK!” I even cut out a ton of fabric to do another big update before the holiday rush was done but came to my senses that if I were to actually tackle it, I’d probably hate myself.

Still wanting to sew but wanting to give myself a bit of a break, this week I pulled out my scrap basket and sorted out some fabrics I might want to play with. I realized almost everything I pulled fit into a nice little color palate so I narrowed it down a bit more and decided to give myself a little challenge – make as many bags as possible from the small amount of fabric I had in there.

making the straps. (& in true Kaylah fashion “If I’m making them in this fabric, I should just go ahead and whip up some others…”)

The result was a collection of seven one of a kind bags. I managed to squeeze a pencil pouch, three wristlets and three clutches out of the scraps. I am so pleased with how they turned out!

I love anytime I can just piece together different fabrics then play around with decorative stitches. I also really enjoy making things that are bigger than my normal bags. The clutches are my favorite because they hold so much! I made one for myself a while back from other scraps and it holds all my stamp carving supplies. You can spot it in this post. I just think it’s a really useful size!

The seven one of a kind bags are live in the shop today if you want to get your hands on one! xoxo

silver lining

by Kaylah Stroup December 16, 2019

I go back and forth on what I want The Dainty Squid to be these days. There’s a big part of me that wants to back away from sharing personal things on the internet. It’s not always the friendliest place. There’s also a huge part of me that misses when my blog was just a mish-mash of anything and everything that was going on. I could talk for days about this and it’s definitely something I’ve wanted to address for a while. Maybe another day.

I started writing this in an Instagram caption then decided nope, I want this on my blog. So, here we are! Let’s get personal!

2019 has sucked. I mean royally sucked. My mom died. I say it to myself about a million times a day because it still doesn’t seem real. How can you start to heal when you still feel like maybe someday she might come home? First time I’ve said that aloud. It kind of feels like whatever nice thing happens theres always a black cloud over it because deep down (or maybe not so deep down) I’m really struggling with the loss of my mom.

I was trying to explain to Jeff yesterday evening that although the year has sucked and I really just want my mom back, some positive things have come out of the whole experience. I’ve become better in the kitchen, my dad (aka most picky eater in the entire world) has opened himself up to new foods, and most importantly – putting those other two things on the list to shame – is that we spend way more time together as a family.

At least once per week we get together, eat food and just hang out. Sometimes it’s working on the bus, ziplining or dump digging. Other times it’s just sitting around watching old home movies or helping straighten up the house. It doesn’t matter what we’re doing, it just feels good to be together.

Yesterday my family came to Cleveland for the day. We watched fail videos (something you’ll inevitably end up doing at some point if you come to our house!), ate chili, went to the beach, got hot chocolate, went downtown to see the Christmas lights and took lots of photos together. It was a blast. It felt so… refreshing? I don’t know. I can’t find the perfect words for how I feel but I just feel good.

I think that in the past I may have rushed experiences like these ones or just been ready to call it a day after only a couple hours together but these last few months, I can’t get enough family time! Even this morning I feel so tickled about what a nice time yesterday was.

Sharing the places I love with the people I love is so wonderful. Spending time with my nieces and talking in valley girl accents fills my heart with joy. These past few months have been hard as hell on all of us but together we’re building bonds that make us so much stronger. In the beginning, it kind of felt like we were doing this for my dad, to really show support for him, but now getting together every week is something I look forward to big time.

Oh gosh, this is so cheesy. For real, I can totally see it. Buuuut, it’s true and being able to look at it, acknowledge it and write about it makes me feel so thankful. I love this group of gassy weirdos.

I’m already looking forward to seeing my family again even though it just yesterday we were together. I’m also very much looking forward to lots more silly family photos but with the bus in them!!!

I guess every cloud does have a silver lining.

abandoned route 66 trading post

by Kaylah Stroup November 26, 2019

It’s blowing my mind that I still have photos from June’s roadtrip that I haven’t sorted or edited yet. We stopped so many places and saw so many things that trying to tackle the photos in one chunk, or even a couple, was just too overwhelming. Admittedly, five months is a really long time for me to sit on photos no matter how many there were. The upside is that its been a really fun way to relive the post and it satisfies a little bit of my travel urge. Jeff and I are currently trying to save for a house so I’m not quite sure when the next time we’ll be doing something like this will be. I mean, I never quite know since we’ve been known to plan trips like this in less than a week soooo…

We spotted this abandoned structure from the freeway not too long after getting into New Mexico. If you recall, we were driving from Phoenix, Arizona back home to Cleveland, OH. A thirty-hour drive – not including any stops! New Mexico and Arizona are neighboring states which means we had not been on the road too long at all. Although we were both excited to check out all sorts of things on the drive home, I guess I had thought maybe those stops would happen a little bit further into the thirty-hour drive to break up the time.

BUT the building looked too good to pass up even from a distance. We hopped off the freeway and went to go check it out. It was well worth the stop! Although fairly small, it had lots of different things that grabbed my attention. The safari wallpaper, the nearly completely collapsed ceiling, the murals on the exterior! It was fantastic.

Be sure to check out the video near the end of the post for a tour!

Perhaps just as exciting as stumbling upon this excellent stop by accident was realizing that it actually has some pretty cool history. The building that is standing here today was finished in the spring of 1954. Claude Bowlin, who owned and operated Bowlin’s Old Crater Trading Post, was not only a well-respected merchant but operated such a successful business that he expanded, opening five more stores along Route 66. Although he catered to a lot of tourists, he made it his mission to educate those passing through about local tribal cultures.

In 1973, the trading post suffered the same fate as many other buildings along Route 66 and was closed shortly after the interstate opened. The owner enjoyed a few years of retirement before passing away. His widow sold the property with a stipulation in the deed stating it only be used for religious purposes. That’s how in the 1980s & 90s this building was used as a bible school and church. In 2006 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Spots like this are my absolute favorite. I don’t know why or what the big draw is for me but waking up early in the morning, grabbing a coffee and stumbling upon gems like this with my favorite person in the world is my perfect day!

More posts from this trip;

Check out even more road trip posts under the ‘travel‘ tag.

beachcomb with me

by Kaylah Stroup November 12, 2019

For years and years... and years and years making videos is something I’ve wanted to do. I quickly figured out that photography and videography are two very different things though. I feel confident in my photos but video? Nope! I’ve wanted to learn but its just so overwhelming.

Finally, this year I’ve begun experimenting. It’s hard and at times, super frustrating but it feels good to finally be learning a new skill. I’m already seeing improvements in my work and feeling more a tiny bit confident.

This is where I tell you – hello, I have a YouTube channel! Check it out.

Point being, the one idea that I really had in mind that I wanted to play with was a sort of treasure hunting series. Obviously the word ‘treasure’ here is subjective. It only takes a few minutes on my blog to figure out that I’m excited by some pretty silly stuff.

This is my second attempt at making a video for my ‘beachcomb with me’ series. The first video was an utter disaster. I tried making something right after getting my GoPro and I didn’t really have a vision so the video was kind of all over the place.

This final product isn’t necessarily everything I have in mind for the series but I’m actually really really excited about how it turned out. This is a great starting point. I’m excited to look back on this in a year and see how far I’ve come.

In the future, I’d definitely like to talk in these videos and maybe expand the treasure hunting methods – some dump digging, metal detecting, etc. Right now my whole family is super into ‘treasure’ hunting so it’s honestly, a big part of my life right now.

Hope you enjoy! xoxo

More found on the beach posts can be found here.

hair dye diaries – two tone blue

by Kaylah Stroup November 7, 2019

Ooof. This was an accident. A happy accident but an accident nonetheless! Originally I had half blue / half purple hair in mind. I bought the colors, dyed my hair, and yikes – you’ll just have to watch and see.

Watch below + subscribe on YouTube!

It turned out gorgeous in the end though, right?! It’s not what I had in mind when I started the process but I’m jazzed on the results!

Products 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! I also have a handful of hair videos on my YouTube channel.

Slug Bug Ranch

by Kaylah Stroup October 30, 2019

One of the very last stops on June’s road trip was Slug Bug Ranch… and what a grand last stop it was!

Slug Bug Ranch is a mere 35 minutes from Cadillac Ranch which I had the opportunity to visit with my parents last summer. Picture last summer’s route as the letter ‘T’. We drove up the center of the letter. Cadillac Ranch is to the left side of the top of the T, and Slug Bug Ranch to the right side. Although not too far out of the way, it would have been starting the main haul of our trip in the wrong direction so we decided to only hit Cadillac Ranch. To be honest, I assumed Cadillac Ranch would be the better choice anyway since it’s definitely the more popular choice.

Wrong. I mean no shade to Cadillac Ranch. We had a great time there and I wouldn’t trade those memories for a thing but wow, Slug Bug Ranch was AWESOME.

Slug Bug Ranch’s main attraction is five Volkswagen Beetles, buried hood-down in the ground. Just like Cadillac Ranch, they’re covered in layers and layers of paint. Even the ground, plants and spiderwebs nearby are covered in paint.

The Crutchfield family who owned the Longhorn Trading Post and Rattlesnake Ranch (pictured a handful of photos below) built Slug Bug Ranch as a way to gain a bit of attention when a huge corporate Travel Plaza popped up on the opposite side of the interstate. They figured with something this fun and eye-catching they’d be able to stay in business. Sadly, their plan didn’t work and only a year later they were forced to close. Judging by the amount of paint, travelers still find their way here all this time later.

We arrived right as the sun was beginning to set. There wasn’t a soul around except us. It was perfect.

More than that, I had no idea there were other abandoned structures there. Two small homes, the trading post, and a gas station plus a handful of other cars are on the property. We went there expecting to spend ten or fifteen minutes shooting some cars but ended up staying until we could no longer handle the ravenous mosquitoes. We explored every nearly every inch and had a blast doing so. This road trip had a ton of amazing stops but this might have been one of my favorites.

Longhorn Trading Post and Rattlesnake Ranch. Check out this shot from 2006!

Sunset behind an abandoned truck in Texas

More posts from this trip;

Check out even more road trip posts under the ‘travel‘ tag. If cars half-buried in the dirt are your thing, check out International Car Forest of the Last Church.

doolan family school bus – part 6

by Kaylah Stroup October 22, 2019

Its been four whole months since my last bus update aaaand holy cow, a lot has changed since then! I really don’t even know where to start.

I kind of got out of the habit of shooting photos and video because it felt like not too much was happening. The work that was getting done wasn’t as big and epic as say, laying down the flooring or building benches. But wow, looking back at my older bus posts and videos (all linked at the end of this post) I realize now that I definitely goofed up by not shooting more. So much has gotten done. As of right now, the bus is even painted a pretty new color BUT because there’s so much else to catch up on, I’m going to save that for another day.

Prepping, priming, and painting has been a huge undertaking. When you only have one day per week to work on something like this, it’s gonna take forever. I think I can speak for the whole family when I say we’re very excited that it’s finally done.

We decided on a two-tone paint job. The top is white, and the bottom… my mom’s favorite color. Like I said, I’ll share more next post. Before any painting could be done though we had to clean the exterior of the bus really well, rough up the old paint a bit, remove all the stickers, and give it a good wipe down. All that before two coats of primer, and then finally paint. It took a lot of work but was truly satisfying. Watching the yellow disappear was niiiiice. I don’t even recognize the bus in these photos.

The inside of the bus has been getting lots of love too! The dividing wall between the main part of the bus and the bathroom/storage room was finished. The sliding door installed. Countertop laid down. Sink and stovetop installed! Wooo. It looks good!

More than that, it’s now painted as well. We chose a nice, bright grey based white to brighten up the interior. I absolutely love how it turned out.

We picked out a simple gray fabric for the cushions which I am definitely procrastinating on making. The parts of the benches where you can still see wood will be getting covered with dark wood trim. We got a bit of it done already, though it’s obviously not shown in these photos. I’ll tell you what, it’s looking slick. The cushions are really going to tie the whole space together though and make it seem so much closer to being finished.

*Ellie really loved carrying paint brushes around. Such a good little helper pup.*

Priming the schoolie — *Priming the outside.*

Here is the accompanying video. I feel like my previous videos were very similar to the blog posts they went with but since it’s been so long there’s stuff in the video that isn’t in the pictures. The video also gives you a way better feel so the layout and what the back room looks like.

I CANNOT wait to hit the road.

Check out previous bus conversion posts here – 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5.

Friday Favorites #537

by Kaylah Stroup October 18, 2019

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

This trinket tray!

If you ever need recommendations for cozy cardigans, I’m your gal! I recently got this one and I basically never want to take it off. So snuggly!

This mirror / jewelry holder! Its under $20 too!

The most perfect Halloween sweater!

Very very into these corduroy shoes!

Didn’t know that a doorstopper could be very my style! Also, on the subject of cute doorstoppers, look at this mouse.

Still crushing on my shower curtain from RedBubble! (PS. You can check out more of my favorites from them here!)

Oh hello! Love me a good piece of statement furniture.

Spotted this and had to share! I actually bought the same vintage nutcracker while on our wedding roadtrip.

I have gotten so many great new fabrics lately. I’m batty about this one though… heh!

Continuing on the hand theme that I apparently chose this week, look at this shelf! Ugh, so good!

Link love…

This cheetah rug!
Loving this opalite ring.
I found THE best bralette and it’s under $10. I wish that sharing a photo of me in a bra was more my style because I want everyone to see just how gosh darn cute this thing is. I feel like a lot of bralettes aren’t that great for folks with bigger boobs but this bad boy makes them look phenomenal! I feel so sexy in it!
Eye am every into this wallpaper!
I’m obsessed with this cheetah sweater.
You ever see an item of clothing and you’re like “yeah, that’s terribly ugly but I love it!”? That’s me with this colorblock shirt.
This incense holder!
These are the world’s coziest pajama pants, just so ya know!

Happy Friday! xoxo

Pssst. If you still want more, I have tons and tons of Halloween finds here.

abandoned Fort Courage, AZ

by Kaylah Stroup October 8, 2019

Throwing it back to June’s massive road trip again today. Check out the bottom of this post for links to previous posts.

After relaxing at The Wigwam (aka heaven on earth!) Jeff and I started our long drive home from Arizona. Just over 2,000 miles. 30 hours without factoring in any stops! Our friend, Jake, who we had taken the first half of the trip with had a business trip that he’d be flying off to from Phoenix so it was just the two of us heading back to Ohio.

The idea of that drive home seemed a bit daunting but I was excited to cover some new ground. If you haven’t gathered the fact that the journey is just as/ if not more important than the destination to us then uh, you must be new here! Hello! Nice to meet you!

The first eleven or so hours would all be fairly familiar territory. The route is one we’ve driven a handful of times but that’s totally cool by me because we always seem to find a new place or two to stop each time.

Like this place! This is a spot that has caught my attention every single time we’ve driven past it but we were always too late to get off at the exit. The first time we drove by it, it caught my attention but I don’t think I fully realized it was abandoned. It just looked like another huge business off the highway, probably selling dusty old trinkets. The next year, when we went by it again, I knew it was abandoned but of course, we didn’t have time to get off at the exit.

This year though? It was a priority. I had a pretty good idea of what we’d be getting into and I was determined to actually make it there. I marked it on the map and let Jeff know far in advance where the exit was.

Fort Courage was far beyond my expectations!

Fort Courage was built in the 1970’s to replicate the fort from the TV show “F-Troop”. Reviews left on their page reveal that they really didn’t have very much in way of F-Troop merchandise (probably because they weren’t officially affiliated!) But thanks to the sales of miscellaneous travel souvenirs and the ever needed snack, they managed to stay in business for quite a while.

On the property, there was a gas station, large gift shop, Pancake House (dude, it was awesome. I have photos for another day!) and a whole bunch of buildings that would later become apartments.

We were unable to get into all of the buildings but still had a heck of a fun time wandering around what was open. Approaching the buildings behind the main gift shop, I wasn’t sure what to expect. At the time I didn’t know that those were abandoned apartments. It didn’t take long to figure it out though. They were packed full of things. It’s like one day everyone just up and left!

More posts from this trip;

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

Fort Courage is for sale! $995,000. 57 acres and boasts “no competition on an 8 mile radius” Buy it and be just a short trip from me over at Two Guns!

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