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Pacific Coast Highway : Part 2

by Kaylah Stroup July 9, 2015

Remember how I said at first I wasn’t super impressed by the coast? That’s because the whole time I was waiting on stuff like this. This what I pictured the Pacific Coast Highway to be. Cliffs, bridges, tight winding roads and fog that just wouldn’t quit. I guess I’d only really seen photos of this stuff but I can understand why. It’s nearly impossible to take a bad photo of something so beautiful.

I’m not even sure what to say about these photos or this point in our trip other than I know for a fact we did not spend enough time here. I mean we definitely spent our fair share of time soaking in the sights, both completely in awe. We didn’t do much poking around or driving off the main highway, which I definitely regret now. I’ve been hearing all sorts of recommendations and seeing photos from places we were so close to but didn’t see. It hurtssss!

Before the trip I decided to not do much research on the Pacific Coast Highway. To be honest, it was insanely overwhelming. The majority of the time the things other people consider a priority aren’t the same as mine, and I figured it’d be a lot like the desert where we could just drive and find things. Clearly we found a fair share of spots to stop and take photos but I know we missed so many amazing little beaches, and hidden gems. In retrospect it would have been better for us to have planned more time to spend on the coast, and to have done more research on must see spots. Regardless, I still had an amazing time. It’s so crazy to think that just a day’s drive away is Death Valley where I experienced the hottest temperatures of my life (more on this another day!) The PCH feels like another world. The fog only added to the mysteriousness of this place. I’ve never been anywhere so beautiful.

After traveling it I can see why the Pacific Coast Highway is such a popular road trip for people to take. I definitely want to do it again someday, there’s still so much left to discover!
xoxo

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

Independence Day 2015

by Kaylah Stroup July 8, 2015

Every year for the fourth of July my parents throw a big party. It always easily one of the best weekends of the summer. Food, family, fireworks! We played in the pond, rode four wheelers, had a massive fire, and caught toads but the highlight for me is usually always fireworks. Okay, and eclair cake. My mom makes the best eclair cake.

Around dusk we all carry chairs over to the hill and play with sparklers. It’s basically become tradition by now that that is how we wait for it to get dark enough for the the real fireworks. My dad is always too excited to wait for it to become completely dark before blowing off at least a few big ones. We all yell “not yetttt!”, and the kids whine “what’s grandpa doing?”

Sparklers are one of my favorite parts of the day though. I bribe the kids that I can be their personal sparkler lighter, no waiting on the other kids to have their turn, if they’ll let me take their picture. No one really falls for it. They’re all at the age that there really isn’t anything worse than getting their picture taken. While they’re entranced, I sneak a few anyway.

That night Jeff and I slept in our hammocks. I had been dreading it all evening because I had a chill. I felt damp after sitting in the grass to watch the show. After fireworks I was just ready to call it a night. When I put Klaus in my parents house for the night I wanted so badly to just curl up on their couch. I decided to give my hammock a shot just because Jeff was so excited about finally sleeping in his. I got in my sleeping bag, maneuvered my way into my hammock, and was asleep in no time at all. I don’t think I have ever been SO cozy. I’ve always liked making little nests to sleep in, and my hammock and sleeping bag were the perfect little cocoon. I’m so excited to sleep in it again! I kind of wish there was somewhere in my apartment I could set this thing up.

(We each own one of these hammocks. They’re under $20, come in a bunch of different colors, and are insanely cozy!)

the aftermath

I ate til my stomach hurt, got lots of pictures I was pleased with, slept cozier than ever, and come home with lots of left overs! I’d call it a successful weekend.
xoxo

Pressed Plant Pouch Update!

by Kaylah Stroup July 7, 2015

Today is the day! The third round of limited edition pouches are available.

I decided to go with a full set of made from photos I took of pressed plants in my personal collection. The very first set of limited edition pouches I made were basically a test to see how my photos would look printed on fabric. I had two pouches with pressed plants and they were just gorgeous. I had to make more. Not to mention it’s so satisfying to finally do something with even a tiny portion of the plants I’m always gathering.

There are six different prints total, and two different sizes. Three of the prints are on my standard size pouches (6×3.5 inches) and the other three prints are a new, much larger size -10 inches wide and 5.5 inches deep so you fit a whole lot of stuff inside. That was a request I heard over and over with the last two sets so hopefully that’s exactly the size everyone was dreaming of.

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.

As
always, if you have any suggestions for what you’d like to see in a
future collection just let me know!
xoxo

Pacific Coast Highway : Part 1

by Kaylah Stroup July 6, 2015

After Morro Bay we continued up the Pacific Coast Highway. The further we got, the more I fell in love. Is it okay to admit that I wasn’t impressed with the coast until this point? Because I wasn’t. Maybe we just weren’t hitting the right spots, or maybe it just differed so much from my expectations that I wasn’t into it. This stop though, at William Randolph Hearst Memorial Beach, won my heart. The temperature was cool, it was foggy out, and the water was the most beautiful color. I could have stayed here for days.

A short drive up the road from there is Piedras Blancas Elephant Seal Rookery. We saw signs for it, and it was on Roadside America but I was not prepared. I assumed there was a chance we might see some elephant seals there. I didn’t realize the beach would just be covered in them. I have never seen in elephant seal in person so needless to say I was captivated. These puppies are maaaaassive. Males can grow 14-16 feet in length and be 3000-5000 pounds. They’re also very loud, and very smelly. Totally worth the stank to see these beasts cuddled up on the beach together. I loved watching them. I ooooh-ed and awww-ed as they played and just about lost my mind over how cute they were when they used their silly little flippers to flip sand on themselves. (You can spot one doing that in the second photo down. Right in front of the flowers.)

The elephant seals were really awesome but the squirrels at this stop stole my heart. I noticed them as soon as we got out of the car. I was excited to get a nice close shot of one of them with my 100mm lens. Then all of a sudden one of these little cuties runs right up to me. There were signs not to feed the wildlife but I figured picking something off the ground that someone else had already tried giving them as a way to lure them in was a nice little loophole I could use and not feel guilty.

As I’m squatting there, trying to photograph and love on squirrels, an older couple comes up to me inquiring where the elephant seals were. In the middle of their sentence a squirrel just jumps into my lap. I immediately started looking at the squirrel, looking at them, looking at the squirrel, looking at them – trying to get these people to notice. They either noticed and didn’t think it was interesting or they somehow did not see this incredible thing happen. As soon as they walked away I managed to get Jeff’s attention and he snapped a really cute shot of this squirrel sitting on my lap. I got one too, you can see it here! As soon as the squirrel hopped down I burst into tears. Yes, literally. I’m an emotional person, whatever. It made my day. Shoot, it made my month. I’m still over the moon. My sister-in-law was asking me about the trip and what my favorite part was. Without even thinking I blurted out “SQUIRRELS!” Haha. California, I love your squirrels. Even if I didn’t fall stupid in love with the state I would come back just for the squirrels.

We made a stop just down the road from the elephant seal rookery to shoot the fog on the road. I feel like the above photo of our rental car might be a little out of place in the post of cute animals, and the ocean but you gotta admit, it’s a pretty sweet shot. I’m not sure why but I was so fond of that little car.
xoxo

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

adventures in propagation

by Kaylah Stroup July 2, 2015

For the past few months I’ve been working on propagating some succulents from the leaves of a plant I owned that got a little bit too leggy. (See the previous two posts on them here + here.) When I went on vacation for a week I just closed my blinds so that nothing got too much sunlight and hoped for the best. I came home and my babies had shot up! Perhaps shutting the blinds was a bad idea since some of them look a bit leggy now but I’m not fretting if worse come to worst I just propagate again (and become a grandma! Awwww!) That aside – they’re doing so well! I’m still having a hard time believing I grew these!

A few days after coming home from vacation my “my cats never bother my plants” speech came back to bite me. I’m positive it was an accident, although I didn’t witness it. It happened over night. Jeff spotted it first and said “Someone made a mess!” My first though was “Oh, someone puked. Couldn’t they do that when Jeff isn’t around?” But the closer I got I realized Jeff’s face wasn’t an I found cat puke face, something was worse. My next though was “Aw man, someone pooped on the floor. They’ve literally never had an accident. Why now?!” Then I saw it. My plants – nearly all of them knocked over. All the succulents I was propagating and had meticulously arranged were scattered. Planters upside down. Broken succulents. Dirt covering the floor. It was a war zone. At least it looked like it to me. My reaction was embarrassing, to say the least. I let out a whole string of cuss words, and plopped down on the floor to cry.

I spent a good portion of the morning cleaning up the mess. I came to the conclusion that Professor had to have been chasing a bug (the mayflies are crazy here since I live so close to the lake!), got a little too carried away and knocked over my smaller pan of succulents that was on the edge of my vanity. That falling most likely scared him into the rest of the plants, where he just Scooby Doo-ed his way out of my little forest of plants. The little guy was probably just as upset as I was. It had to be loud, I have no idea how it didn’t wake us up.

I’m over it now. The mess broke a ton of plants which just gave me that much more to try propagating and helped me clean out my collection of plants which admittedly was getting a bit crazy. You best believe my office door is now closed every time I leave the room though!

As well as all the things from the great plant disaster of 2015, I’ve been collecting pieces from all my other plants to see how well they’d do. So far, so good! I snagged some lil cactus babies from another one of my plants just because I felt it looked like it was growing funny, plopped them in here, and a few weeks later they’re got some nice little roots growing.

Below you can see the stems from the original plant. The three stems are growing six new, super healthy plants. I mean, those are some dang good looking babies, right?! They’re actually living outside on my deck right now. They’re in a big planter along with two large cactuses and a few other assorted plants none of which were looking so hot. I figured I’d put them outside to see how they’d do and whatever happened happened – no big deal. Well they’re LOVING all the sun, and rain. Everything in that planter is thriving, stems of my old plants included.

Propagating plants is seriously just so much fun. Growing things is incredibly satisfying. I never really thought I’d get this into it. It’s neat to think that I grew these things from nothing, from something that in the past I would have just thrown away. Now I save every little thing that is wiggly or falls off a plant in hopes I can grow from it.
xoxo

what I wore : my most “revealing” dress

by Kaylah Stroup July 1, 2015

details

dress – Solstice c/o Apricity

jean jacket – thrifted

belt – Foxie Moxie Belt c/o Modcloth

sunglasses – c/o

lapel pins – cactus + teepee by Valley Cruise Press, Psychic by Explorer’s Press

sandals – c/o

phone case – c/o

Hey there. Long time, no see… or at least it feels like it. First there was the road trip which despite my best intentions didn’t produce any outfit photos. Then I came back to Ohio, which is obviously considerably cooler (literally over 40 degrees cooler) but the humidity this last week has been stifling. The kind of humidity where you’re sticky and just gross feeling no matter what you’re up to. My days have been me sitting in front of a three fan system I rigged up without pants on at my computer desk. Even like that the humidity was still awful. Craigslist apartment browsing in other cities awful – West not South because I’m pretty sure y’all got it even worse down there.

Luckily the weather gave me a break so I could wear this beautiful new dress from Apricity! I’ve done a really good job the last few months ridding my closet of things that aren’t easy to wear. Dresses that are a bit too short, are hard to style, don’t feel casual enough or need ironed. Call it lazy, but I’m just being practical. This dress is a perfect addition to my “new” wardrobe. It’s incredibly cozy, doesn’t need ironed, and makes it look like I put in more effort than I really did.

It’s kind of funny because this dress was actually a little bit out of my comfort zone at first. It’s the v-neck! I don’t what it is but I have always felt funny showing off cleavage. Looking at these photos I realize it wasn’t as revealing as it felt the first time I put it on – like at all. It actually looks so normal in these photos that I’m wondering why I’m even telling you this. Every time I looked down though, it was like “WOAH, BOOBS!”* I felt good in the dress, maybe a bit like I was showing off the girls too much, but being able to see myself gives me the confidence to wear other things I might consider too “revealing”. That’s one reason I love taking outfit photos.

Hope you’re having a lovely, not too humid, week!
xoxo

*It’s the view looking down, it always looks so much more dramatic. Right?!

Morro Bay

by Kaylah Stroup June 30, 2015

After Salvation Mountain, day two of our road trip wasn’t shaping up to be too great with both Jeff and I super tired. He’s a bear when he’s tired, and I’m the actual worst when I’m hungry. Basically we were a dream team on day two. Not! A hotel wasn’t in the plans for a few more days but we needed it. We sat down at Starbucks after scarfing down In-N-Out (because duh!) and decided to head to Morro Bay for the night. It was only a few hours away, and we figured it would be a great place to rest up.

Aaaand we were totally correct! Our hotel was right by the beach, I could even see Morro rock from the window. We ordered a pizza and relaxed while waiting for the sun to get a little bit lower in the sky. While we ate I browsed instagram photos tagged “morro bay”, “morro rock”, and anything else I could think of that would show me photos of nearby things. I found a few photos featuring jellyfish (which I later learned are velella). I was super excited. I was hoping to find one on the beach. We really don’t have anything interesting living in Lake Erie, unless you believe in Bessie, so even dead finding something like a jellyfish is so neat to me.

We walked to the beach a little bit later and there they were. Hundreds (thousands?!) of velella! Jeff’s comment was “Well, here you go!” The first thing out of my mouth was “Grosssss!” But I’m not going to lie, it was pretty cool and I was darn excited. They were impossible not to step on. I tried avoiding them the longest time but eventually gave up after seeing barefoot surfers, and joggers just walking on them like it was no big deal.

Even more exciting than tons of velella? Sand dollars! I have never actually found one myself. I own a few but I have no idea where they came from. I was walking the beach when I spotted one. It was whole but broken on the underside. I was pumped though! A few more feet and I found another. This one was perfect. Then it was just one after another, they were everywhere. I even found a live one complete with a barnacle buddy.

We watched the sun set for what felt like days. Sunsets here, I swear, only last a few minutes. The sky is beautiful but only for a very short amount of time. I feel like we watched the sunset on this beach for so much longer than I’ve ever experienced in my life – and it just kept getting prettier. Then it got foggy. Are you kidding me!? Y’all know how much I love fog.

So quick recap here – velella, sand dollars, prettiest sunset I’ve ever seen, surfers, mountains, and fog. Basically, it was heaven. Have you ever seen one of those silly commercials for California with Arnold Schwarzenegger saying how fun the state is? This should be in one.

Morro Bay, you are pure magic. One night was not enough. I definitely would love to go back and explore the area again someday. If it were possible, I would seriously fly out there RIGHT NOW.
xoxo

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

Salvation Mountain

by Kaylah Stroup June 29, 2015

The first night of the trip was rough. We had planned to sleep in the car the majority of the nights like we did without any problems on the last trip. Our first night it got late quick. All of a sudden we’re both incredibly exhausted with nowhere to pull over and sleep. We ended up sleeping half the night in the car outside of a gas station then in the middle of the night we drove an hour away to a rest stop where we finished off the night.

We awoke before the sun came up, and headed to Salvation Mountain, everyone’s favorite spot in the desert, to catch it at sun rise. I had seen so many photos of Salvation Mountain. It’s been featured in a few movies, numerous places across the internet, and of course everyone and their mother has instagrammed it. On our last trip we were actually extremely close but I didn’t really consider it a priority because of the popularity of the spot. This trip I really wanted to see it.

We arrived just as the first morning light was beginning to show in the sky. My first impression was that it was much smaller than I had pictured but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a sight to behold. It was awesome to basically watch this colorful mountain appear right in front of us as it got brighter and brighter outside.

One of my favorite things about Salvation Mountain, other than the fact it’s a giant colorful thing in the desert, is that there were cats. Lots of cats. Okay, not tons of them or anything but I saw at least four. The photo above is on the inside and all along the branches in there the cats we jumping around, cleaning themselves, and observing us. As much as I don’t love seeing cats outside, especially in this heat I was ecstatic to see them. What an awesome playground for them!

We were the only people there for a little while until a group of rowdy teenage boys pulled up and decided they needed to climb all over everything. It was a great way to start the day. I’m really glad we stopped.
xoxo

You can find more posts from our road trip under the “travel” tag.

Saguaro National Park

by Kaylah Stroup June 24, 2015

Saguaro National Park was our very first real stop of the road trip. I very clearly have a thing for cactuses so this was obviously somewhere I’ve wanted to go since the second I realized there was actually a national park filled with them. It did not disappoint. If I didn’t love cactuses before this park, I 100% do now.

Actually as soon as we got out of the airport in Phoenix and onto the shuttle to the rental car place I was losing my mind over the all the incredible things growing in Arizona. As we were pulling out with our rental car the guy had to check Jeff’s license, saw we were from Ohio, and said something along the lines of “Oh, I went there last year. You guys have a lot of green stuff…” Being in Arizona is like being in a totally different world.

It’s a blast to see so many different things I can’t identify or that I’ve never seen in person before. Speaking of, in the park we had so many encounters with wildlife! Tons and tons of lizards, jackrabbits (which are WAY cuter than the bunnies we have in Ohio!), and even a coyote who I did not take a picture of. He was casually crossing the road. Jeff and I just stared in awe. Eventually Jeff said “Aren’t you going to get out your camera!?” to which my response was “No, I kind of just want to enjoy this…” I didn’t want to ruin the moment shuffling for my camera. It was so awesome just to watch this beautiful thing sauntering along through the massive cactuses.

In hindsight I wish we would have spent more time there. It was hot, and we were definitely not used to the high temperatures yet. I actually had to change into shorts beside the car in the middle of the park because I was roasting. I was also having a hard time photographing what I saw. Like no picture I took could seem to capture the beauty that was surrounding me. It’s certainly an amazing place, perhaps my favorite national park I’ve visited so far!
xoxo

You can find more travel related posts under the “travel” tag.

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