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Dinosaur World

by Kaylah Stroup October 29, 2014

One of the places in Cave City I really, really wanted to visit was Dinosaur World. I LOVE giant roadside dinosaurs and with one beckoning me from the side of the highway I couldn’t not go. Dinosaur World boasts over 150 life size dinosaurs on 20 acres of property. This place is insanely awesome. The dinosaurs are all tucked away in the woods along both sides of a beautiful little path the winds around the property. I took a total of one zillion photos, or something close to that…

Doesn’t it look incredible!? One of the reviews on the Roadside America app complained of the price, saying it wasn’t worth it for adults but I have to disagree on that one. At least five times while we were walking around I exclaimed “this place is soooo cool!” Easily the best dinosaur attraction I have ever been to. Definitely, definitely, definitely worth a stop if you’re ever anywhere near by!
xoxo

Oh, and Jeff got eaten by a dinosaur. No big deal.

As I was reading over this post before hitting publish I realized it really sounded like a sponsored post, but it is hilariously not. I literally am just that excited about this place. Although, Dinosaur World, if you wanna hook a girl up with passes or something I wouldn’t complain! Hah!

found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup October 28, 2014

Another rainbow edition of my found on the beach series. After I put this one together I realized maybe this wouldn’t be the best way to do them from now on since it looks so similar to the last one. Although, I do like this one much better without the white, black and grey section on the end. With the rainbow layout you’re looking more at the colors than the objects, at least I am anyway. It’s obviously way more visually appealing spread out like this, I’m just worried they’ll all start to look the same. Yeah, I’m definitely over thinking trash right now.

Anyway, I’m really excited about this set. I think there are so many neat little gems in there. My favorite thing to find will always be little people and animals.

Quick FAQ – things that get asked every Found on the Beach post.
Do you keep the things you pick up? No way. Once in a while I’ll keep something I really think is neat but I’m no hoarder.
What do you do with it when you’re done? I toss it in the trash where it belongs.
Was this really all from the beach in one day? For the
most part, yes. Sometimes if I find something I really think is neat on a
day I’m not collecting for a photo I’ll pick it up and hang on to it
until the next time I want to put together one of these.
Do you wear gloves? No, I don’t. These are things that
were washed up on the shore, not things simply left behind. They’re no
dirtier than the sand or water.

Prints available here.
xoxo

On the road – Kentucky to North Carolina

by Kaylah Stroup October 27, 2014

The weekend before last Jeff and I took a little road trip, definitely not as epic as our last one, but still a nice escape from daily life. I was invited to a blog conference down in North Carolina, and while that was fun enough for me, Jeff suggested we leave a day earlier and take a detour over to Kentucky before hitting NC. That’s my maaaan! I’m so pumped I found someone who likes road trips as much as I do. I excitedly agreed that adding another day, and a few more states would make it even better. I have a handful of posts from the weekend but thought I’d start with a little round up of all the roadside attractions we found.

First thing Saturday morning we hit the road for Cave City. We didn’t actually get a chance to go in any caves. Booo! The one we really wanted was sold out for the day and before we knew it everything was closed. But we did visit all kinds of silly little gift shops full of rocks, which we both enjoyed.

After leaving Kentucky the next morning we stumbled upon the most exciting little part of our trip. I was using the Roadside America app, like I always am when I’m basically anywhere outside of a twenty mile radius of Cleveland. I found an elephant and since I was tired of being in the car already I suggested we stop and find it. As we approached, right off the side of the highway, we spotted the area where it was. Not only was there an elephant, there was a giraffe, a horse, some clowns, a castle and two ferris wheels. ALL ABANDONED. We both freaked. It was such an awesome find!

Apparently there used to be a fireworks store there but in July of this year it burnt down. There aren’t really any traces of the building left, it was apparently cleaned up but they left behind all the fun stuff. One of the ferris wheels was already starting to do the mean lean, I’m not sure how long they’ve been out of use but it doesn’t seem like this one will be standing too much longer.

A quick drive away from that is a giant dragon, not quite as exciting as two ferris wheels but still pretty awesome. This guy was massive. He’s located behind an dollar store and there was actually someone camping right near his feet. I don’t know what that was all about but I tip toed up and took a photo of the big dude anyway. Can’t not photograph a massive dragon.

Like I said above, the dragon is only minutes away from the elephant, giraffe, ferris wheel place, and oddly enough he used to be in front of a fireworks place that also burned down a few years back. I saw on the app that someone mentioned the dragon has been for sale since 2013. I couldn’t find anymore information on it but I sure hope he finds a nice home! I wonder what the going price on something like that is.

In North Carolina I stopped to check out the grave of Daisy and Violet Hilton. Daisy and Violet were Siamese twins who toured the US sideshow circuit in the 1930’s. The twins were poor at the time of their death so they were buried in a donated plot and share a headstone with an acquaintance’s son. If you’re interested in reading more about them, I actually read this book not too long ago. It was pretty interesting.

Last silly little roadside attraction of the trip was a shell shaped Shell station in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It’s no longer in service but it is in excellent condition! Preservation North Carolina actually spent one year and $50,000 restoring it to it’s original condition. Eight of these were originally built in the 1930’s all around the area but this is the last remaining one. I am forever a sucker for novelty architecture.

And that’s what we saw on the trip! I have two more posts about awesome places we visited that I’ll be sharing soon.
xoxo

abandoned factory

by Kaylah Stroup October 23, 2014

A little while back, on my six month in Cleveland anniversary, I visited a new to me abandoned building. I’ve been holding on to these photos while I tried my hardest to research more about the building. I’m finally throwing in the towel. I can’t seem to find much at all. This is an abandoned factory that did metal plating, aside from that I have no dates or history. It was still an interesting building, and I’m rather pleased with my photos so here they are…

All the machinery has been removed since this place closed its doors but the upstairs offices have tons of paperwork, books, and records strewn about. That kind of stuff is always my favorite but I am always curious who was the one to make such a mess in these places. Was it a former employee trying to prove a point before he left the place for the last time? Young kids just having fun making a mess? I mean, you can’t deny it would be fun to just go nuts in place like that, let out a little steam.
xoxo

PS. If you’re as curious as I was when I first saw it, that “hot!!!” file tab literally had nothing exciting in it. I was hoping for juicy office gossip, or maybe some nudie pictures (we found some fairly graphic ones in another part of the building!) but it was just regular old paper work! Booooring.

The most wonderful time of the year!

by Kaylah Stroup October 22, 2014

Last week I spent one afternoon hiking with my pal Anthony. Fall in Ohio is so insanely beautiful. It was such a great day for a hike. Perfect weather, the colors all seem to be peaking, plus it had been raining for nearly a week straight beforehand so mushrooms were abound!

The mushrooms were great but the find of the day had to be that wood frog. I don’t think I’ve actually ever seen one, or maybe if I have it wasn’t such a vibrant color. Of course, since I didn’t know much about them Anthony, who teaches over at CSU, went into full on teacher mode and told me alllll about them. Did you know that the male wood frogs’ call sounds like a quack? Or that they’re extremely freeze tolerant? In the winter they hibernate in leaf litter or soil close to the surface. They’re able to survive freezing the whole winter then just thaw out in the spring. Isn’t that super incredible?
xoxo

Pssst. Prints available on !

nutella swirled banana bread

by Kaylah Stroup October 21, 2014

I only recently discovered my love of nutella. I had seen people rave about it online for years but never given it a second thought. Jeff made me try some on an apple and since then I’ve been wondering how I got this far in life and didn’t know how amazing it was. What else have I been missing out on!?! So, obviously, I’ve been making up for lost time. I’m trying nutella on everything and thinking of every possible way to include it in things. Then it hit me, I need to bake with this goodness! I’m not a huge muffin fan, cupcakes are meh, but I love me some banana bread! Not only does banana bread taste amazing (especially this banana bread!) but it’s quick, and easy to make.

Ingredients
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 large ripe bananas mashed
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
very generous 1/2 cup Nutella
half bag of chocolate chips

Directions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9-inch loaf pan and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium-sized bowl. Set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, granulated sugar
and brown sugar until creamy. Beat in the banana and then beat in eggs
and vanilla until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in
flour mixture until just combined. Divide 1/2 of the batter into a
separate bowl and stir in the Nutella.

Alternate layers of regular batter and Nutella batter into the
prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle chocolate chips generously on the top. Bake 1 hour or
until a toothpick inserted into bread comes out with moist crumbs
attached. Cool 10 minutes in the pan before moving to a wire rack.
Let cool completely before slicing.

Jeff and I killed this loaf in no time at all. It’s incredible delicious. I think this is only the second thing I’ve baked in my new apartment, really makes me want to get back at it. I always forget how relaxing baking is, especially in the fall.
xoxo

Recipe found on What Megan’s Making.

On making, + creating!

by Kaylah Stroup October 20, 2014

This year has been absolutely amazing for me. Obviously moving to Cleveland, getting my own apartment, taking up cycling, making new friends, and challenging myself out of my comfort zone were/are huge HUGE huge things in my life. Most recently though, I feel like I’m finally getting my creative spark back!!!

I’m not sure how many people have been reading long enough to know that a few years back sewing was my main business, blogging was just something I did on the side for fun. I made super cute zipper pouches from adorable fabrics, some of which I even screen printed myself. I sold thousands of them. My work was available in boutiques all over the world. Eventually I just got burned out. I put too much pressure on myself, and killed my drive to do any sewing at all.

Even in the months leading up to that I had gotten into this really awful mindset that if it wasn’t something I could sell, it wasn’t worth my time to do. Taking up new hobbies or learning new skills would involve a great period of time where the results wouldn’t be perfect. I didn’t have time for that. My work was in demand, I wanted to stay ahead so making something for myself just felt wrong. I couldn’t even make things for myself in my off time because there was no off time. I was always working on wholesale orders, new designs, my product photos, etc.

On top of that I wasn’t really in a great place in my life, I guess. I basically just stopped making things completely which I’m just now realizing was incredibly out of character for me. Even as a child I liked to make things. My favorite aisle in the store? The craft aisle. I was always begging my mom to buy me a new craft kit. My favorite class? Art class. I’ve just always loved doing things with my hands.

These last few months the urge to create has been gnawing at all like crazy. Finally, last month, I took up embroidery and have been having a blast just poking around at fabric. I’m not great at it. It’ll take time before my work is awesome. It doesn’t matter though, I’m having fun. I’m enjoying myself. It’s incredibly relaxing.

I’ve finally accepted that it’s okay to make things for no reason. It’s okay to make things no one else will ever see. It’s okay to make things for YOU and you alone. It’s okay to make things that aren’t perfect. It’s okay to try new things for the fun of it. It’s okay to make art that no one else understands. If it makes you happy, inspired, excited, or anything other positive emotion that is all that matters.

I’ve been having lots of fun at the beach lately. It’s where I’ve been feeling the most creative. I’ve always liked picking up the things I find for photos but I’ve been thinking of them on a larger scale these last few weeks. I want to make more permanent things with the items I find.

On another note but still related to beach trash, remember when at the
beginning of summer when I said I was going to collect all the lighters I
found on the beach to see how many I’d have at the end of the year?
Yeah, still going strong on that one. Below is how many I found in less
than an hour. It blows my mind how many there are. I’m getting pretty
pumped to count them all up

Get creating! xoxo

Beach Fort

by Kaylah Stroup October 16, 2014

I know, I’m always talking about how much I love the beach but I really just can’t get enough. It’s my absolute favorite place in the fall. Whenever I’m stressed I know that I can head to the beach and everything will be fine even if only just for the short time I’m there. Earlier this week I went to the beach but wasn’t really feeling any of my other regular beach activities, like picking up trash, reading, or looking for glass. At the same time I wasn’t ready to go home yet. I looked around and noticed an abundance of drift wood. I’ve always wanted to build a fort on the beach but was distracted by other hobbies. So I set to work! In around an hour I made a neat little fort complete with stump inside to sit on and a sign outside!

view from inside

I know the few times I’ve found drift wood structures on the beach they instantly made my face light up, I hope mine makes someone smile. After I finished, I sat back and admired my work from a bit of a distance. Someone else showed up at the beach shortly after that. As I walked up to my car I turned around to see them heading toward my fort. I like that the second I stepped away they had to check it out. I’d like to do more things in public that other people will find after I’m done, and admire.

xoxo

spiders, frogs + mushrooms, oh my!

by Kaylah Stroup October 14, 2014

Time for one of my favorite kinds of posts, one filled with nature photos! I’ve been hoarding away a nice little collection of them just for this occasion. These were all taken with my 60D + macro lens, which I certainly do not use often enough. Every few months I’ll think about selling it but as soon as I shoot with it I’m like “NOPE, NEVER!” I still think these filters are a great, super cheap alternative for a not so serious photographer who wants to get a bit closer but this lens blows me away every single time.

This is my absolute favorite time to get out and photograph nature. I feel like spring is typically regarded as the season full of life but fall brings out all my favorites things.
xoxo

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