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what I wore : la luna

by Kaylah Stroup November 17, 2014

details

jean jacket – TJ Maxx

sweater – Sing Your Phase Top c/o Modcloth

shirt – thrifted

back patch – Goners

patch – Spellcaster

lapel pin – Explorer’s Press

pants – TJ Maxx

shoes – Amazon

camera bag – Somerset c/o Jo Totes

Even though the end of autumn is here, and it seems like all the leaves have already fallen I managed to find this colorful little corner. It’s funny how long I spent worrying there was nowhere to shoot outfit photos since I lived in the city now and I’m not one to shoot in front of other people. Now that I’m a little bit more comfortable venturing around on my own I’m realizing all these awesome spots I frequent with my pals to shoot photos make killer backgrounds for outfit photos.

Jo Totes just released this camera bag, Somerset. I’m always excited to get my hands on her bags. This one, although lacking the cross body strap which is how I always wear my bags, is incredible!! It’s SO roomy. Better than anything else though, it has a million pockets. I have always been a sucker for pockets. I remember that being a big deal when I picked out trapper keepers and backpacks, if they didn’t have lots of pockets I didn’t want them. Still kind of exactly the same, pockets win me over every time. This is the perfect purse/camera bag combo.
xoxo

The Spillway

by Kaylah Stroup November 16, 2014

A few weekends back Jeff and I spent the day at my parents. We hiked, got pizza, and visited a place I’ve been going since my childhood, the spillway. Located in Linesville, Pennsylvania, the spillway is kind of a strange attraction but somehow it manages to bring in tons of people every year since the 1930’s when it opened. The Spillway even claims to be Pennsylvania’s second most popular tourist attraction, after the Liberty Bell. Basically it’s just a place to go and see a whole bunch (thousands!) of carp, squirming around, and fighting to get pieces of bread tossed at them.

When I was younger my mom used to save up bread for weeks and we’d go with bags full. On this visit, since it was spur of the moment, we came unprepared. Still we found little scraps others had done a not so great job tossing and used them ourselves. It’s gross but somehow still super mesmerizing to watch the fish.

Along with carp there are lots of geese, ducks, and seagulls who are also anxious to be fed.

It’s not my normal side of the road attraction to blog about but it’s one that special to me* (plus my photos from the day turned out really well! Heh!)
xoxo

*Yep, that’s right. A place where carp squirm all over each other to fight for bread is special to me. 😛

home, sweet, abandoned home

by Kaylah Stroup November 12, 2014

Last week Jeff and I got out and explored a few abandoned homes. I do believe they were my first real homes. Earlier in the year I was able to explore a handful abandoned trailers in Bombay Beach but being as those were part of the decline of the whole area it’s kind of a different vibe. At Bombay Beach the whole area was in disrepair. The entire town was essentially in ruins. These homes, alone, surrounded by churches, and businesses are easily overlooked, partially due to the growth around them. Trees, brush, and weeds have taken over the areas surrounding both. If you blink while driving by, you’ll miss them. In the first; a spacious kitchen, large living room with gorgeous natural light and a fireplace, a small den, two bedrooms, built in cabinets. All left for mother nature to take back over.

In the second house; two bedrooms, a gorgeous retro kitchen, living room, quaint sun porch, large upstairs loft, and a brightly colored bathroom.

Houses are weird to explore, so many emotions. I like them for the same reasons I like exploring any other place, I like to document. These are places that meant something to someone, a home especially. Clothes in the closet, board games in the living room, food in the pantry. Those belonged to someone, they belonged to a family. It’s hard to convey all the different emotions when you see these things. I’ve seen thousands of photos of abandoned homes online but there’s nothing like actually being in one. I’m sure with every home I find I’ll become a bit more desensitized to it but only time will tell…
xoxo

what I wore: golden tote

by Kaylah Stroup November 11, 2014

details

jacket – Vegan Leather Moto Jacket c/o Golden Tote

shirt – c/o Golden Tote

necklace –c/o Shlomit Ofir

lapel pin – No Fun Press

jeans – H&M

socks – Romwe (a few years back)

shoes – c/o Loly in the Sky

For this outfit post I teamed up with Golden Tote, a company I’m very excited to tell you about! Golden Tote is basically the ultimate surprise grab bag! They have two different tote sizes, $49 for 2-3 items, or $149 for 5-7 clothing items. Those bags have a retail value of up to $200 and $600, respectively. What happens is you get to choose 1-2 items to go in your tote and then they surprise you with the rest based on a short quiz you fill out on the site.

New styles launch on the first Monday of every month so November’s style just recently went live. It was a tough choice for me to choose what two items I wanted in my bag since there were quite a few items I was pining over. As it turned out I ending up loving everything in my tote. But if I didn’t, they actually have a trading group on Facebook, so it would have all worked out regardless! In my tote I received the two items shown in the outfit above as well as a dress, and two more sweaters which I’m sure I’ll be showing off in outfit posts in the near future. I’m supremely picky about sweaters and somehow I ended up with three I really like. I’m pretty pumped.

Can’t finish this post off without talking about how much I love these photos! I. AM. OBSESSED. I felt so incredible in this outfit, which I’m going to blame on that jacket. I might have even wore the whole outfit two days in a row. The location just felt perfect for the whole look, definitely one of my favorite little hidden spots in Cleveland. My hair looks amazing with the graffiti. Basically, I feel reeeeal good!
xoxo

Hello, Orange!

by Kaylah Stroup November 10, 2014

orange hair, pink hair, purple hair, short colorful hair

I’ve shared photos of my new hair color already but I do like making an “official” post about it after each big change. Even if only so I can document the colors I used. I mix shades like crazy so without making note of it somewhere I have no idea for future reference. This is definitely one I’ll be keeping for a while, and coming back to time and time again.

Orange, pink, and purple aren’t necessarily three colors I would normally put together but a few weeks back I was riding my bike around downtown when I looked up at Terminal Tower. Terminal Tower is a 52 story skyscraper, essentially it’s Cleveland’s centerpiece. The building has 508 LEDs that are lit up every night, and often change colors. That night when I looked up Terminal Tower was orange, pink, and purple. It looked so beautiful. The second I saw it I knew those had to be my next set of hair colors.

Since this was a spur of the moment dye job – when is not? – I had to settle with whatever colors I could get my hands on. I really wanted to use Special Effects Hi-Octane Orange for a more vibrant shade but of course, nowhere around here sells that. Here’s the list of what I ended up using…

Manic Panic Sunshine
Manic Panic Hot Hot Pink
Manic Panic Pillarbox Red
Manic Panic Pretty Flamingo – in two different shades?
Color Jamz Yellin Yellow
Punky Colours Fuego
Punky Colours Purple

I mixed all the reds, oranges and the yellow together with equal parts conditioner for my orange shade. It ended up maybe a little bit peachier than planned but still beautiful. Pretty Flamingo was/is kind of baffling. One of the bottles was orange, the perfect color, and the other was peachy pink. Had that been something I ordered online I would have been mad. (So, beware that you may not get the color pictured if you do buy that color online!) But even with settling for colors I used, I’m pumped about the results.

This is probably my favorite dye job is a loooong time. Its always fun to try something a bit new and out of my comfort zone.
xoxo

For tips on getting hair colors to last, check out this post!

what I wore : ALIENS!

by Kaylah Stroup November 6, 2014

the dainty squid, alien sweater, orange hair, kaylah doolan

details

sweater – c/o Shredders Apparel

shirt – c/o Maiden Voyage Clothing Co.

jeans – H&M

rings – rainbow fortune teller ring c/o Demiflux, question mark ring

boots – Palladium Boots

Hey, surprise! I dyed my hair! I always try to do a post featuring just photos of my hair after every big change before showing it off in an outfit post but since I’m getting it chopped off tomorrow I figured I’d just wait to do that until after. So, “official” hair photos coming soon with dye details and photos that really show off how beautiful it really is!

In other news, how awesome is this sweater!? Last year I got their bigfoot sweater, seen here, and this year I chose aliens! I’ve been hoarding it away until it was cold enough to wear it since it’s a seriously warm sweater! I actually went to the beach without a coat, just the sweater and was comfortable. It’s finally feeling like fall is over in Ohio, which I’m not quite sure how to feel about. Mostly because I want to be on my bike and daaaaang, it’s cold. I never thought I’d be pining for those hot days of summer where it felt like I was biking on the sun, but I kind of am. It’ll be back soon enough though. Guess I’ll just enjoy sweater weather, and crunchy leaves while I can since it’ll be snowing before I know it!
xoxo

Found on the Beach

by Kaylah Stroup November 5, 2014

Last month I opened a Society6 shop. Before doing that I shot a quick little series of photos featuring some of my favorite pressed plants. What was something just for fun ended up being something I really loved and it inspired me to shoot similar photos using other objects. I was brainstorming what to shoot when I spotted a little jar I keep in my curiosity cabinet that is full of small treasures I bring home from the beach. BAM! So I present to you my new series, Found on the Beach…

I’ve been collecting beach glass for a while now. I’m not picky about shape, color or size, I pick it all up. But while searching for glass I always stumble upon other little treasures, things I can’t seem to leave behind. Shells, crawdad claws, rocks with interesting patterns, fossils, shards of pottery, and so on. I keep these things all in a few small jars, not organized or displayed in a way that shows off their beauty. This series was the perfect excuse to dig out those items and show them off.

The one of the rocks is my favorite. It’s actually a huge struggle for me not to collect rocks. I know that if I started, I wouldn’t be able to stop. These are all ones that I just couldn’t resist shoving in my pocket. They’re so beautiful.

Prints, as well as mugs, phone case, pillows and more, are available here. From now until November 9th, if you follow this link you’ll receive free worldwide shipping!
xoxo

Abandoned Church – revisited

by Kaylah Stroup November 4, 2014

This church was one of the very first abandoned places I ever shared on the blog. At the time I still only had my 40mm lens which is amazing but not quite wide enough for buildings, and on top of that I wasn’t all that experienced at shooting abandoned buildings. I still hadn’t found my footing. Now with around fifty buildings and hundreds of photos under my belt, I’ve been wanting to re-shoot the church.

It was originally built in 1913, then rebuilt in 1928. The church closed in the 80s but wasn’t completely abandoned until 2002. In those twelve years the building has essentially been gutted. The stained glass is gone, scrappers have long since taken all the metal, and most recently vandals have taken to writing dumb crap on the walls. It just makes my blood boil to see people painting obscenities on walls. STOP IT. In all reality though, for being probably one of the most popular spots to explore in Cleveland, it’s not in that bad of shape. I mean, it still has a roof! Guess they just don’t build ’em like they used to.

My first visit was fairly brief but on this one I took my time and poked around the church a little more. I ventured into the basement, and even up a very old ladder to the top of one of the steeples where I found even more ladders. The wooden one shown below took you to the very top of the steeple on the outside. I passed on that, partly because the floor wasn’t in the best condition and the last thing I want to do is fall through the floor of a big old church while climbing a ladder. But I’m still happy to have seen a view that people who have lived in the neighborhood their whole life have never seen.

xoxo

Wigwam Village #2

by Kaylah Stroup November 3, 2014

The main reason we actually took a detour to Kentucky before heading over to North Carolina? Wigwam Village! If you recall, back in June, Jeff and I actually stayed in one in Arizona. The one in Kentucky is the one I originally knew about waaaay before I even met Jeff, before I even moved to Cleveland, before I even drove! I had been wanting to stay here for so very long and now I finally get to cross it off my list.

Built in the 1930s + 40s, there were originally seven Wigwam Village locations. Now only three remain, each of which has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The first question everyone always asks when I say I stayed at Wigwam Village is “Do they have bathrooms?!” Yes, absolutely. Each wigwam has a bed, and bathroom, they even have cable tv and internet access. The base of each teepee is 14 feet in diameter, so it’s kind of close quarters but perfect for two people. The teepees are by no means luxurious but they’re still clean. I like to think of it like staying at your grandma’s house. It’s clean but it’s outdated. The beds have nice old quilts, not crisp white sheets like at a hotel. The bathroom is incredibly tiny and the shower is even smaller (but, daaaang that water pressure was great!) Basically the gist here is that they’re clean, and fairly cheap but I probably wouldn’t stay there if it wasn’t so incredibly kitschy. I am an absolute sucker for tourist traps.

It’s way out of the way to go to Cave City from Cleveland before heading to Charlotte. It’s essentially a huge triangle but when Jeff suggested we swing by I couldn’t say no, especially considering it was our six month anniversary and I’ve been begging to go to Cave City for so long. He’s super squeamish about dirty places, which is hilarious considering we’re almost always in abandoned buildings. He’s not a huge fan of Wigwam Village in that aspect, he’d rather stay at DoubleTree (and if he knew I was typing this he’d say it was all because of their cookies!), but the fact he suggested it for our anniversary is pretty darn sweet in my book!

Now with this one under my belt, I only have one remaining Wigwam Village to stay in, and you know dang well I’m chomping at the bit toget there. Like I said, they’re not luxurious places by any means but an absolutely a fun place to stay!
xoxo

Update – August 2015 – I’ve stayed at all three standing Wigwam Villages! Wooo! Check out my post about Wigwam Village #7.

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