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10 things making me smile

by Kaylah Stroup

Finding little creatures around my neighborhood. For a while it’s just been dinosaurs and other animals but recently there was an alien invasion!

Bending down to pick up a kind of boring piece of clear beach glass only to spot what is easily the nicest red piece I’ve ever seen.

Family time. Working on the bus, dump digging, and metal detecting at abandoned houses. I feel so close to my people right now and its the best.

Even more exciting than plastic aliens – real ones!! More photos of this little model here.

My favorite idiot and his unconditional love.

Mushroom season!

Bikes, pals & friendly strangers. This is from the end of August (Critical Mass is the last Friday of the month) but I can’t not share. I really enjoy this video. Nights like this one make me never wanna leave the city.

This determined plant that went from not being watered in months, to just some leaves with roots to two healthy plants (and this is the small one! Those leaves on the right yielded two pots worth of plant!)

Watching cicadas emerge! I’ve got a play by play here!

Tiny kitties, giant bean bag. Will I ever be that cozy? Probably not.

Other nice things; ▴ this GIF from what feels like a million years ago ▴ when Spotify makes you a “time capsule” playlist and it’s full of bangers you can sing along to while you burn the midnight oil ▴ seeing my favorite band twice in one week ▴ fresh baked pumpkin muffins ▴ when you forget about a food you like to make and when you make it again its better than ever (sausage gravy & biscuits!) ▴ this recent dumb and dumber inspired purchase ▴ this photo of Professor ▴ decorating the apartment for Halloween (today’s agenda!) ▴ tiny turtles! ▴

What’s making you smile today?
xoxo

PS. Can’t recommend this gratitude journal enough!

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Vincent Baptist Church Cemetery – Chester Springs, Pennsylvania

by Kaylah Stroup

I feel like recently a lot of my posts have mentioned how ridiculously cool I think my family is. This is another one of those posts. Back in January, my sixteen-year-old nephew texted me about our many greats great grandfather. He’s super into genealogy which is something that interests me but basically only in the sense that I’d like the information handed to me and then I wanna go see where those folks are buried*. So, when he told me a bit of information about this random family member and mentioned he found the cemetery he was buried at, I was definitely interested!

*That really makes it sound like I’m not interested but I am! It’s just that I have a lot of other hobbies and spending time/money on genealogy sites just doesn’t make the cut at this time. There’s only so much time in a day, ya know?

Nearly a whole year has passed but as I was getting ready to hit the road and head to Philadelphia last weekend for a concert I happened to remember those texts. My nephew had mentioned it was ‘somewhat close to Philadelphia’. As luck would have it, it was only 20 minutes or so off our route. Of course I wanted to take a little pit-stop!

The route there from the highway was beautiful. Hilly, wooded, and speckled with beautiful old homes. I exclaimed more than once “this is where I wanna live!” The cemetery itself sits next to an old church. There are close to 900 memorials listed on FindAGrave but somehow I managed to essentially walk straight up to what I was looking for…

There he is, Daniel Evans. My great great great great great grandfather! Born in 1743 in Caernarfonshire, Wales, he emigrated to the United States in 1752. Daniel is thought to have been a soldier in the Revolutionary War and was a schoolmate of General “Mad Anthony” Wayne. He fathered eight (possibly nine) children. He died at age 76, in 1820.

I’ve never heard of this man. I know no stories of him, aside from what I read on his FindAGrave page but the excitement of finding a relative was immense! I don’t even have any relatives that I know of with the surname ‘Evans’ but suddenly every Evans in this cemetery was cause for squeals of excitement. Let me tell you, I just kept stumbling upon them too! Most were so old it was hard to make out dates and inscriptions. Still, SO exciting!!!

I kind of thought I’d just be sharing some photos from my little adventure and telling you just that it was a relative but gosh darn it, I’ve been cruising ancestry sites for the last oh… four hours. I’m excited to learn more and visit other cemeteries with the excuse of looking for relatives. I have a feeling that’s going to be my new obsession for a bit. While browsing the internet, I found my nephew’s records of our family tree, that’ll definitely make it a lot easier to start finding where folks are buried.

One of Daniel’s sons. So… an uncle of mine?

Here’s to finding more long lost relatives! xoxo

Check out more of my cemetery posts here.

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Friday Favorites #534

by Kaylah Stroup

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

I love Sophia Rapata’s work so so so much! How terrifying is this spider!? Love it!

Creepy Candles makes some wonderfully… wait for it… creepy candles. Seriously, how rad it this coffin shaped one that burns to reveal a human skeleton!?

Stay Creepy!

I bought these pants earlier in the week. (They’re out for delivery today!) I’m super excited because they’re a little bit out of my comfort zone but I just thought they’d be so cute for fall. I’m planning on pairing them with a striped top, of course!

This pennant! Love Halloween decor that could totally be left up all year long (which is like most of it to me!)

Precious little ghost kitty!

Loving this spiderweb sweatshirt.

This mug with a hidden skull in the bottom!

The color of this scarf is perfect.

This is the most out of place thing in this list, it isn’t spooky or fall-themed at all but Forrest Gump is my all-time favorite movie and I just about screamed when I saw this pin!

I don’t know anything about Fantastic Beasts but Pottery Barn’s Fantastic Beasts line has some incredible stuff. These jewelry holders are right up my alley! Also, if you like those I’d jump on them fast. I spotted a rad snake mirror from the same collection earlier in the week and when I went to put this post together it was gone. Booo!

Link love…

Happy Friday! xoxo

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#1 houseplant care must have!

by Kaylah Stroup
Dr. meter moisture meter review

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!

Dr. meter moisture meter review

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! 😉
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hair dye diaries – bright yellow + flamingo pink

by Kaylah Stroup
yellow and pink hair

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!

pink and yellow hair punky colours
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.

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perfect display for heirloom rings!

by Kaylah Stroup

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.

Glass case for heirloom ring

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.

Glass case for mother's wedding ring.

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Friday Favorites #530

by Kaylah Stroup

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

This sweater is…THE best!

OMG! This chair is incredible.

Oh! Hello!

This table lamp!

How cute are these air plant necklaces?

I found this ring display box last night and just about squealed. I’ve been trying to think of some nice way to display my parent’s wedding rings but couldn’t come up with anything. This is perfect! It totally fits in with my decor.

I’m just over here crushing on corduroy jackets. Also, this one thats a bit more orange and this one without the wool trim!

I have a big time crush on this polka dot apple watch band! I found this one too – white with black polka dots + much cheaper.

In case you missed the big news yesterday, wristlets are back in the shop! (ALSO! Labor day weekend – almost everything else in the shop is marked down 20%!)

I definitely link to this at least once per year and as the weather starts to cool down, it’s time to link it again! This future ghost sweatshirt is just too good.

This candle sounds perfect for fall!

Link love…

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The Dainty Squid shop update

by Kaylah Stroup

Since re-opening The Dainty Squid shop back in January, I have not been blogging about it like I had planned. I really hoped to document what I was making better, and share more about each big shop update I did. As you can see, that never happened.

BUT! I’m here today to talk shop because it’s launch day for a new product that I am very excited about. Cork wristlets!!

Back in… 2010? 2011? I made wristlets. Basically just a larger than normal pouch with a strap on the side. They’re perfect for just tossing your essentials in and running out the door. The ones I made all those years ago were super popular but I never really kept up with demand. Honestly, I hated making the straps.

Last month I had a bit of an epiphany and figured out exactly how I could eliminate the steps I didn’t like and do things a bit differently. I am over the moon with how they turned out!

One of a kind wristlets!
One of my absolute favorites from today’s update.

Today 31 wristlets hit the shop! I’ve been working my butt off on these so to finally get them photographed and listed is very exciting. Right now there is only one of each in stock and with some of those fabrics it’s the last bits of them. Definitely do not hesitate if you see something you like.

On top of that, five of them are absolutely one of a kind. Those ones are bit larger too. They were all created using bits from my scrap basket – which was overflowing because I save everything. Making stuff like this is so time-consuming but honestly, so much fun. My process is to dump out the whole basket on the floor and start digging for pieces I like. Then I try to match them with others. If you buy one of these from me, its basically a guarantee no one else will have anything like it!

That’s all! Just wanted to come tell y’all about my latest little sewing project. I really need to try harder to document this stuff. I love being able to look back at the things I’ve made. xoxo

Shop The Dainty Squid.

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my first time dump diggin’

by Kaylah Stroup
dump digging
Sprite bottle.

Shortly after moving to Cleveland, on one of my found on beach posts, an anonymous commenter said something along the lines of “Is trash all you blog about anymore!?” In that moment, it hurt my feelings. I couldn’t see how someone would look at my colorful photos and not think they were even the tiniest bit interesting. Over time it became something I laughed about nearly every single time I took photos of my beach treasures though.

Truth be told, I really love trash. I truly enjoy picking it up on the beach, not only to help clean up our lovely beaches but because I’m interested in seeing the types of things that wash up. It’s relaxing and exciting! I’m well aware, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but it’s easily one of my favorite things.

Right now the biggest thing on my travel bucket list is visiting London. Not for the normal things folks go there for though, I want to visit the Thames and try my eyes and luck at mudlarking. I follow many mudlarks and beachcombers on instagram. I’m more likely to feel jealous of a tiny old baby doll dug out of the mud than say, a fancy new whatever someone is showing off. I just love the excitement of it all. You never really know what you’re going to get. Best of all, it’s free!

All that to say, this weekend I spent some time digging in an old dump with my nieces and nephew and I had the most fun ever.

Etch A Sketch!
bottle dump
Some of our favorite finds.

This small dump isn’t too far of a walk from my childhood home but somehow I’ve only been there a handful of times, and this was my first time actually digging around in it. I don’t have much information on it at the moment. I’ll have to ask my dad if he knows whose it was or how old it might be.

Sunday morning, at my dad’s suggestion, after a cozy night spent in hammocks and a campfire cooked breakfast, we took a hike to go check out the dump. Poking out from the leaf litter we could see bottles. It didn’t take much effort at all to move the dirt away and reveal more treasures. With only our hands and sticks as digging tools, we managed to discover a fun little variety of items. Bottles of all sizes, a football, some shoes, teacups, an Etch A Sketch, and even a razor blade dispenser! We each returned to the house with at least one small treasure and an ache for more time at the dump!

glass Pepsi bottle from dump
My nephew checking the bottom of the bottle for details.
One of the three shoes found by my niece.
digging a bottle dump
Full bottles we dug up, all less than a foot deep.
Glass Pepsi bottle from bottle dump
Glass Pepsi bottle.
A football!
One of the finds I kept.
On a wild goose chase looking for another dump. Hiked through weeds twice as tall as me.

I am so excited to get back to the dump as soon as possible, this time armed with gloves and some digging tools. I really really have my fingers crossed for a baby doll! BUT no matter what I find, I’ll be totally happy just sitting on a log next to my favorite teenagers digging through the mud.

I seriously cannot express enough how much I love my family and the ways we bond. I would absolutely have fun at the dump alone but sitting there with these guys made my heart feel so big and full.

One of my new bottles. Cleaned out & holding flowers picked by my husband.

To Noah, Lola & Lainy: I love you guys so much. Y’all are the absolute coolest kids ever. Can’t wait to look for more treasures with you soon! ❤️

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