Category:

reviews

things I loved in April

by Kaylah Stroup May 2, 2020

▴ Wire shelf for my memo board. Guys! Why, oh why, did I wait so long to buy any accessories for my grid memo board!? I realized the other day that I had zero plants in my office. The issue is that I don’t really have the space to put any since I need all of the surfaces to work on or store sewing supplies. Then it hit me that I could probably attach some sort of shelf or something to my grid for plants.

One quick search later and I had this cute little thing! It’s perfect. It fits my grid so nicely and will hold so many little plants!

I also put a grow light in the lamp beside it that points up toward the plants. Obviously that will be nice for the plants but holy cow, having the bright light in there is doing wonders for me too. I didn’t realize how much light it was putting off until I walked in to my living room and it was like… pitch black in comparison. It definitely helps keep me motivated having a really cute and well lit work space.

▴ Proud plant mom socks. I love cute socks & I love plants. It’s just that simple.

▴ Socially distanced hug postcard. I have sent out SO much more snail mail in the past month than I have in a really really long time. It feels good. I missed it a lot.

One of my favorite stationery purchases was a handful of these socially distanced hug postcards from E. Frances Paper. They’re super affordable and come with stamps on them already! It couldn’t be any easier to send a little love to your pals.

▴ Glass dome. I wanted a little something to bump up the humidity for one of my favorite plants. This baby has been doing the trick! Here is a photo of the same plant from April 10th and the above photo was taken on the 30th. I’m not sure how obvious it is in the two photos but yo, this thing took OFF! It grew so many new leaves. I am so happy!

I was pretty nervous about buying something so delicate online but it arrived in perfect condition. I don’t need another… but I’m tempted!

▴ Earthworm castings. Yep. I am over a month into quarantine and I’m buying worm crap on the internet. I mean, I totally would have bought this anyway but it is kind of funny to be buying poop on the internet when you know everything is so weird in the world.

ANYWAY. I bought worm castings after bingeing Planterina’s videos on YouTube. They’re supposed to be a great natural fertilzer for your plants. You just mix a bit in to the top bit of your soil and water through. Obviously it hasn’t been long enough to say that it’s making a major difference but I’m very curious to see if I can notice improvements in the coming months.

▴ Coir pole. This is my first pole for a climbing plant and I am very very happy with my purchase. I spent an excruciating amount of time reading reviews before deciding on this one.

I really like the trellis I bought for my swiss cheese plant (check that out here) but I just kept reading about how great moss or coir poles were for plants like this. Not only does it provide support but the roots but gives something for aerial roots to grow into. Better support and healthier roots means bigger leaves!

Also, can we talk about this plant?! Rhaphidophora Tetrasperma! I bought it from Urban Planting Cleveland (who are delivering right now while everything is closed! Hallelujah!) It’s so pretty. I just love those leaves. I can’t wait to watch it grow. It’s already working on popping out two new leaves since I got it a couple weeks back.

▴ Calming oil + No.1 Face Serum from Little Roamer. Missy just launched her shop on May 1st. Everything is super small batch and made from natural ingredients. She sent me her face serum and calming roller to try out early. I am in loooove.

The calming roller smells so lovely. I have it sitting on my desk. I find myself using it every time I start to stare off into space as a way to bring me back and ground me. The face serum is super moisturizing. It takes a second to really sink in but once it does it feels so nice. Definitely a nice little treat for my skin!

Also, y’all need to follow Missy on instagram. Her photos make my heart ache for the open road!

Did you try anything cool in April? Tell me all about it!

xoxo

things I loved in February

by Kaylah Stroup February 26, 2020

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

▴ Patterned sheer socks. I don’t know what it is about this style of sock but I am obsessed. Over the years I’ve owned a couple of the polka-dotted pairs but when I saw this set of five I had to order them. They are SO cute in person. I love the way they look, fit and feel.

For reference, I wear a size 8 shoe & the socks fit like a glove. If you have really tiny or really large fit these might not be for you since they don’t have much stretch.

▴ Rit Dye (purple). This was my first time dyeing an item of clothing and holy cow, I may have found a new obsession!

I had this white shirt from my favorite band, Man Man, that I had to have because I loved the silly design but when it comes right down to it – I hate white shirts. They don’t look good with my skin tone. I inevitably stain them. Also, I don’t own a white bra to wear with them. Needless to say, this shirt wasn’t getting much wear time.

I made a spur of the moment decision to toss it in some dye and wowowow it’s perfect. It took basically no time at all too. I can’t wait to find something else to dye.

PS. I posted a quick video of the process here.

▴ Dog planter. I just couldn’t resist. In order to give all my plants a more cohesive look in my home, I only use black, white or black and white planters. This fits the bill! So happy I happened to stumble across it.

It should be noted that I did have to drill a hole in the bottom of the pot which is no big deal. I use this drill bit (and totally plan on writing a post about it soon!) but if you’re not comfortable doing that and want drainage, you might wanna pass on this little cutie.

▴ Backlit mechanical keyboard. I posted about this in my Friday Favorites a little while back but I am still not over it. Jeff originally bought a similar one for himself. While he was at work it arrived, he said that I could try it out on my computer aaaand I was hooked instantly. I didn’t want to give it back.

He ended up buying me this one because I wouldn’t stop talking about his. It is PERFECT. First of all, mechanical keyboards are so much more fun to type on. Secondly, the colors! It’s so vibrant. It even has 18 different modes. My favorite is the one in the GIF above where it just kind of cycles through the colors.

I can’t tell you how much I love typing on this thing. Replacing boring things with fun ones especially ones that light up! is the best.

▴ Goodthreads High Rise Skinny Jeans. I’ve actually had these jeans for a couple of months now but gosh, I’m obsessed. They fit SO nicely. I love a good pair of skinny jeans but most of them that I already own are a thin, stretchier material. These are a bit heavier (not super hot or anything though) and just feel so much more substantial. I also feel like they make my butt look awesom – obviously a plus!

I want to grab a pair in each color, especially the ‘authentic blue‘!

A couple of other things;

▴ Cleveland related – I tried The Vegan Doughnut Company for the first time the weekend before last. Literal best doughnut I have ever eaten. We went back last weekend and bought a dozen for just the two of us. I highly highly recommend the lemon lavender. Go! Go! Go!

▴ I’ve been using Duolingo to learn Spanish and I’m hooked. With the leaderboard, there’s a bit of a competitive element to it – at least for me – which is super motivating. I’m obviously not fluent and not sure I’ll ever be but I do feel good spending my free time learning something new instead of just scrolling social media.

▴ New favorite pen. I tried these out at a craft store, bought one, then had to hop on the internet the next day and buy a whole pack of them. I just love the way these make my handwriting look. I feel like I need to write a love letter with one. (Seriously, try one! You’ll understand!)

I just love this little pup so much!

What have you discovered and been loving in February? xoxo

The Darkroom film developing review

by Kaylah Stroup January 13, 2020

Film and I have an on and off relationship. It’s been this way for years. I obsessively shoot film for months and then completely forget about it for an even longer period of time.

We’re back on now, as you probably gathered from my recent review of Psych Blue film but in the time that we were off my local film developing hook up went under. By ‘hook up’ I mean Discount Drug Mart. They were never all that knowledgeable to begin with and taking film to someone who really doesn’t know what they’re doing and doesn’t get too much practice is risky. They finally started shipping film off to be developed elsewhere instead of developing on-site and that was my cue to look for something better.

I researched for hours. Where in the world is there to get affordable film developing these days? I had a hard time choosing which mail-in service to use. It seemed like every site had at least a handful of negative reviews. People unhappy with price, scan quality, timing, etc. I finally committed to The Darkroom.

Taken with this disposable camera and then dipped into Lake Erie.

The Darkroom has a couple of different routes you can go. They offer the option to pay online or by mail and you can request a mailer if you don’t already have something to ship in on hand. They even give you a label to print out to slap on your package so you never have to step foot in a post office.

I chose to pay online because it seemed like it’d be the fastest route. I paid for my six rolls, printed the receipt & shipping label and sent it off the next morning.

My Darkroom film developing timeline looked like this –

December 16th – checkout & pay for developing online
December 17th – shipped my film
December 19th – received an email stating my film had arrived
December 21st – film was developed, scanned & uploaded for me to view in albums
December 24th – received my negatives & a disk with the images on it in the mail

BAM! So speedy!

The only two negatives I can think of are price and scan quality.

So, price… what are you gonna do you about it? The Darkroom has competitive pricing. Their prices are basically the going price for mail in film developing services. Film, whether standard or instant, isn’t cheap. Its always going to be more expensive than digital.

As for scan quality, they offer three different options. I chose ‘standard scans’. I hate to gripe about it because I honestly don’t have a need for high-quality scans. The ones included are good enough for social media and the blog but if I were planning on getting prints made at a larger size, I’d definitely want a better resolution.

If you need better scans, you definitely have options though. You can pay for one of their two better options or you can scan them yourself. The Darkroom offers a ‘developing only’ option at a cheaper price for those wanting to scan themselves.

I would absolutely use The Darkroom again. The ease of use and speedy turnaround time has thrown me into a full on film obsession. The update emails throughout the process (when the film was received, scan, shipped) made me feel like my precious photos were safe and in good hands. I can’t recommend them enough!

Photos taken with a variety of different cameras & films. Some way out of date single-use cameras found at the thrift store, as well as shot on Fuji Superia X-TRA 400 with my favorite film camera, the Pentax K1000.

Psych Blues #4 – film review!

by Kaylah Stroup December 30, 2019

Earlier in the year, a person I follow on Instagram posted some incredible film photos that they had taken with rainbows light leaks across the frame. It was so cool looking! It’d been a while since I’d played around with film that wasn’t instant but this made me want to get back into traditional film immediately. Luckily, it was pretty easy to find out what she was using based on her hashtags. That’s how I discovered Psych Blue Film.

Psych Blues Film is a pre-exposed experimental film. There are different batches that are exposed to different things that you shoot over resulting in totally unique images. It’s a regular 35mm film so you can use it in any camera (…that takes 35mm film, of course) and it can be developed anywhere the processes film.

We were just about to leave on June’s epic roadtrip so I used that as my excuse to splurge. I bought two rolls, #3 and #4. Although all their films look really neat, I was most excited about #4. This film has been pre-exposed to holographic paper resulting in a wide array of colors that fade in and out between the frames. I could not wait to use it in the desert!

I’ve attached all the images from the roll that weren’t already included in this post so you can get a better idea of how it all turned out.

Overall, I feel a bit like the dinosaur below about the results. He looks super stoked to you, right!? I feel like he looks like he just saw his two best dino pals get engaged. I think they tuned out really fun. At first, I was a little underwhelmed with them, or perhaps, I was overwhelmed with how busy it made some of the frames. Now every time I look through them I like them more and more.

That being said, I’m glad that I shot this vacation with other cameras and didn’t rely solely on this roll of film to capture my memories because of course, it is an experimental film. If I had been counting on a certain shot to look a super specific way, I’d be disappointed. Nothing really turned out exactly how I pictured but that’s what’s so fun about it. It’s all a surprise! I love how unique they all are.

Would I purchase Psych Blues film again? Absolutely! I’m super excited to shoot another roll! It’s completely renewed my interest in traditional film so expect to see lots of film on the blog in 2020!

Shot with Pentax K1000 on Psych Blue film #4. Developed + scanned by The Darkroom.

things I loved in November

by Kaylah Stroup December 4, 2019

▴ hooded sweatshirt + matching leggings. I shared about these on my Instagram account a week or so back and joked about how wearing leggings and a matching hoodie that aren’t black feels like I’m dressed for a cult. I still haven’t changed my mind on that. It’s probably not something I’d wear out of the house. At home though? I wear them constantly. Maybe like every other day. Seriously.

Comfortable! Cute! The leggings keep their shape and don’t get baggy after all-day wear. They’ve already been worn and washed a bunch of times already yet haven’t faded. And dare I say, it’s kinda nice owning leggings that aren’t black!? (These come in black plus like eight other colors if ‘merlot’ isn’t your jam but I kinda dig the culty vibe of this color…)

This has basically been my uniform for the past month.

▴ striped sweatshirt. It’s a cozy hoodie, what’s not to love!? When I’m not wearing the sweatshirt I mentioned above, I’m probably wearing this one.

▴ LaPen. I am constantly on the hunt for my favorite new writing instrument. Right now it’s LaPen! I recently used one for the first time and despite the fact it was orange and who in the heck ever needs to write in orange(??!?) I was hooked. I bought myself a handful of black ones and haven’t touched another pen since.

That being said, for me, it’s always a short term thing with pens. I’m seriously always looking for the next best thing. So tell me, what’s your favorite pen? My only requirement is that it writes smoothly. (I feel like that should be a given but if so, then how are there so many pens that skip!!)

▴ L’Oreal Paris Quick Dry Primer Spray. Not a new discovery for the month but one I ran out of and didn’t even think twice whether or not I’d repurchase. This is my favorite heat protectant spray I’ve ever tried and it’s cheap! It does its job, doesn’t make my hair greasy even when I use a bunch of it, and smells nice too.

This stuff has earned a place in the rank of products I will always have on hand and *need* to do my hair each day, like Hask Placenta.

▴ CordaRoy queen bean bag chair. This is honestly like 85% of the reason I wanted to write this specific post. I am IN LOVE with this bad boy. It’s a bean bag chair (not actually full of those little beads you’re probably imagining but shredded foam…stuff) that comes out of the cover to turn into a queen-sized bed. Super rad, right?

I was interested at first because we always need extra seating when guests come over. When we have friends crash here I always let them sleep in our bedroom and to be honest, I hate sleeping on the floor sooo it’s pretty clear how this bean bag solves both of those problems.

In the cover, the bag is super cozy. The cats love it. Basically, if I’m not in it one of them is! Out of the bag, in the form of a queen-sized mattress, is where this product truly shines for me though. Jeff and I have this thing on our floor… almost always. It’s not exactly cute taking up our floor but gosh darn it, it’s cozy. Like the coziest thing ever. Do you love the feeling of being in a nest? Yeah? You need this baby!

They are pricey, I will be the first to admit that. You probably won’t catch me spending that much on a non-essential piece of furniture very often and to be completely transparent, I received this in exchange for providing the company with some photos BUT we love this thing so much that when it needs replaced we will absolutely purchase another without hesitation!

We’ve had this for about two months now but with the cooler weather (aka cuddle weather!) we’ve been using it like crazy lately. It’s our favorite place to curl up and watch TV in the evenings. We haven’t sat on the couch in like a month.

Welp, that was way more than I ever meant to type about one product in this post but I’m very very jazzed on this bad boy. I’m literally laying in it now typing up this post. Feel free to ask any questions you may have about it!

▴ Dead Rising 4. I guess I should preface this by saying that I’ve never played any other Dead Rising Games. This was free to play with Xbox game pass (which isn’t free but totally worth it!) I figured I had nothing to lose by giving it a shot. Turns out I had like 72 hours to lose because that’s how long it took me to beat the game. I was, still am, obsessed. Like, play until 3 am obsessed.

Zombie games aren’t normally my jam and I’m extremely particular about video games in general. The list of games I truly love is minuscule but this one makes the cut. What I enjoy the most about it is that it’s not terribly challenging. It’s fun to just collect things, and rack up zombie kills. It’s a blast. There’s also so much comic relief mixed in that it’s not stressful (which is a huge turn off for me with games. I wanna relax, not be tense.)

I’ve already started playing a second time through just to collect everything!

What did you love in November? Anything I should be adding to my Christmas list? xoxo

The Dead Moms Club – a book review

by Kaylah Stroup November 21, 2019

It has been SO long since my last blog post about books. It’s one of the most popular post requests I get. The thing is, I just have not been reading very much lately... at all.

I have to be in the mood to read and on top of that one bad read will set in motion months of not reading. So, that’s how it’s been lately. Read some crummy books a while back and just haven’t picked up one since. BUT I have been feeling the urge to find a book about grief. (Please don’t stop reading, I swear this book could be beneficial even to those who haven’t lost yet!)

It was one of the first things I did once I stopped crying every second of the day – look for a book that would help me through this terrible time. I was specifically on the hunt for something secular, no mention of religion, spirituality, of my mom being in a ‘better place’, etc. I also didn’t want a self-help book that was essentially just going to tell me to do yoga and volunteer. I read tons of reviews but came up empty-handed.

I had basically given up on it when I got a DM on Instagram recommending The Dead Moms Club by Kate Spencer. The name really struck me, I looked it up immediately.

‘Kate Spencer lost her mom to cancer when she was 27. In The Dead Moms Club, she walks readers through her experience of stumbling through grief and loss, and helps them to get through it, too. This isn’t a weepy, sentimental story, but rather a frank, up-front look at what it means to go through gruesome grief and come out on the other side.’

Honestly, the name alone made me want to buy it but after seeing she lost her mom at 27, I had to buy it. I felt like maybe she could offer some nuggets of wisdom for me since we lost our mothers at a similar age.

*my mom’s plant that I rescued from near-death*

I feel like this is a really weird place in my life to lose my mom. There’s obviously no great time but as the great Britney Spears once said: “I am not a girl, not yet a woman.” (LOL) For real though, I’m married and have been out of the house for 11 years at this point but I still depended on my mom for so much. At her funeral someone said to me “Kaylah, now you have to take care of your dad.” and it completely blindsided me because I’m the baby! Who takes care of me? Grief brings up ugly selfish feelings and I just hoped that The Dead Moms Club could help me understand and deal with those. Spoiler – it didn’t solve everything but it certainly helped!

I was merely a couple of pages in before I knew it was the book for me! I want to say ‘I tore through this book’ but honestly, it was too relatable. I could barely read a chapter each night and most of the time I needed a couple of days in between each of those. I sobbed through it. There were times I had to quit midchapter because I couldn’t see. But… it felt good! I laughed. I cried (A LOT!) and most importantly, I felt understood. I realized some universal truths (wow, that sounds dramatic) and dealt with some shitty feelings.

Grief is super lonely. At some point, you’re going to lose someone important to you so these are feelings that everyone feels, perhaps in slightly different ways but still! In the depths of it though, you can’t imagine that anyone has ever felt that way too. Reading a book by someone who has gone through the same thing is so helpful.

Being able to pick up this book and put it down as I pleased was just what I needed. Talking to a real live human is obviously ideal but sometimes I don’t want to talk about it, and other times maybe I do but don’t want to unload like that on my husband. This was almost like a workbook for me. Reading it in small doses gave me time to think about and process what she had written.

I don’t know that this is the book for everyone because I recognize that we all go through and deal with grief differently. The Dead Moms Club was 100% what I needed though. I can’t recommend it highly enough!

xoxo

More posts on grief, my mom and loss in general –

▴ my mother’s plants ▴ grief & road trips ▴ I cry over four leaf clovers ▴ grieving in the digital age ▴ the greatest loss ▴ six months / things I want to tell you

#1 houseplant care must have!

by Kaylah Stroup September 26, 2019

Okay, so maybe this isn’t the “#1 houseplant care must have”. I’d say that goes to proper lighting or pots with drainage. BUT, holy cow, it’s been a major game changer for me!

The Dr. meter moisture meter! *cue angels singing in the background*

It is a small device that you poke into the soil of your plants (indoor, outdoor, potted or not) that gives you a reading of the moisture level immediately. It doesn’t need a battery and is ready to use as soon as you take it out of the packaging. The back of the box includes a list of some plants and what moisture level they like to be at.

It’s obviously way more accurate (and less messy!) than poking your finger into the dirt. Previously, that’s how I’d check if my plants needed water but I quickly realized how much more of a superior method was. Not to mention, it’s small and easily fits in places my hand wouldn’t – like into the pot of a spiky cactus!

From the day I got it, I was very into it. About a week after starting to use it though? OBSESSED.

Here’s my little success story about the moisture meter: So, I have this chenille plant. This is what it looked like when I brought it home. Gorgeous, right!? The first few weeks I had it, it started dropping it’s fuzzy pink chenilles. I wasn’t too worried, figuring that maybe I bought it during its showy season and now it was going to kind of just chill for a while before blooming again in a few months. Then my leaves started to look kind of icky. I wasn’t really sure what I was doing wrong. I felt like I was following all the stuff I’d been reading online about it but still, it wasn’t improving.

The first time I used my moisture meter I poked it into my chenille plant. It read as a “1” meaning very dry which was weird because I had watered it that morning. I watered it, waited until morning and checked again. The meter yet again said “1”! It took a few days of this cycle before I realized that that plant just LOVES to drink. I don’t water anything else in my collection that often or even close to that often but the moisture meter helped me figure out that where I had my chenille plant placed made it really, really thirsty and that it was a plant that liked to be moist all the time.

It’s a been a little under two months since I’ve had the Dr. meter moisture meter. Every single one of my plants has benefited from this silly little thing. I honestly really thought I was good at knowing when to water my plants and how much moisture they liked but this has shown me otherwise.

My chenille plant still is nowhere near as fluffy pink as it was when I brought it home but each week its producing larger and larger chenilles. It’s on the up and up all because the moisture meter helped me figure out how quickly it drank.

I use my moisture meter at least once a day on some of my more high maintenance plants. It’s a bit addicting for me to see what their moisture level is at different points in the day. It’s helped me learn a lot more about my plants which of course, helps me take better care of them.

For the price (currently under $10!) you can’t beat it! The Dr. meter moisture meter will be a staple in my plant supplies for life.

*You don’t leave the meter in the plant. This is just me showing you a thirsty plant!* 😉

hair dye diaries – bright yellow + flamingo pink

by Kaylah Stroup September 23, 2019

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably noticed my hair looking a bit more yellow than normal. It’s actually kind of been a while but I was slow to get around to editing the video. It’s here today though!

I’ve been dyeing my hair bright colors for nearly my life at this point but this has definitely been the color that gets the most attention. It’s been basically nonstop. I share some ‘fun’ little stories in the video…

Watch below + subscribe on YouTube!

Punky Colours bright yellow + flamingo pink

Products used –

Used one container of each. Both Punky Colours have approximately 1/3 left. I used every single drop of the Wella Color Charm Paints though.

Final thoughts –

Punky Colours is still number one to me. So far, with the comments from my hair dye diaries series, I’m learning that what works for one person, might not necessarily be the holy grail product for another person. I mean, obviously, right? But it really is wild to me how so many people can swear a brand is the greatest but other folks literally have the worst experience with it.

Punky Colours may not be everyone’s brand of choice but it’s definitely a solid brand and if you’re new to hair dyeing it’s what I’d recommend you start with. I’ve never had a bad experience with them.

Wella Color Charm Paints are awesome as well but the bottles are way too tiny. If they offered larger tubes I’d be all about them, especially since they smell so good.

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.

perfect display for heirloom rings!

by Kaylah Stroup September 11, 2019

When my mom passed, I inherited her wedding ring. I wore it for a month or so before determining that I felt better keeping it somewhere safe. It’s not really my style and I don’t actually enjoy wearing very much jewelry. I briefly searched for ideas on how to nicely display a special piece of jewelry but came up empty-handed. The ring eventually found a home in my desk drawer.

Fast forward to last month, my dad gave me his wedding band. I put it in the drawer with my mom’s ring and headed back to google to hopefully find a good idea for how to display them. I didn’t want to wear them or repurpose them in another piece of jewelry. It was important to me to keep the pieces as-is. My mom’s ring is missing a couple of stones and my dad’s is comically misshapen. I just needed a good way to display them that fit my style.

Then, as luck would have it, as I was working on a Friday Favorites post I stumbled upon this sweet little glass case. Seemed like exactly what I was looking for and it was under $15! I ordered it immediately, half assuming it was too good to be true.

It is PERFECT. It fits my needs exactly. It’s 100% my style, looks great with my decor and is a beautiful way to display something really precious to me.

I did end up cutting two or three links out of the chain just so the rings hung up a bit higher. I literally just used scissors! It took one minute and was totally not a big deal.

This was a super simple post but one that I think is important. I can’t be the only one out there searching for the perfect way to display an important piece of jewelry. I was honestly surprised to have not found an abundance of options.

You can find the ring display here. It’s affordable, delicate and the absolute perfect way to keep heirloom jewelry safe! It even comes in a couple of different shapes too.

Newer Posts

Older Posts