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found on the beach

found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup July 8, 2021
beach trash arrangement

For years and years, I’ve been picking up trash on the beach and collecting interesting pieces. I never meant to start a trash collection but there was just something about all the colorful pieces I couldn’t resist. Any trash trash like wrappers, balloons, plastic bags, etc goes into a garbage can. Toy soldiers, hair clips, and fake food? That sort of stuff comes home with me.

I’d always knew I’d like to do something with it but just never really felt very motivated to do so. I have a large tote bag jam-packed full of goodies that has moved with me from apartment to apartment. When we bought our house, I briefly considered tossing it all before moving but just could bear to part with my potential art supplies.

I’ve been working hard on renovating the house since the day we moved in. Literally, the first day in the house we started kitchen demo! Over the past eight months, my focus has been more on renovations as opposed to actually decorating but recently, I’ve been bitten by the decorating bug. I’ve become super motivated to finally hang things on the walls. We had too much stuff to hang on the walls of our apartment but the house is so much larger that we are in serious need of some new art.

The main focus on the walls in my office is two large prints from my favorite graffiti artist. See a peek here. The color scheme is a little bit different than what I’m normally drawn to for things I’d decorate my own space with so needless to say, I didn’t really own anything else that fit with them. I’ve been hunting down art with similar colors but kept coming up short on something large… so I made something of my own!

beach plastic
plastic pollution from lake erie

I could not be happier with how this turned out. The colors work perfectly with the rest of the art in my office and it’s so nice to see some of my trash actually get used. The only downside here is that shadow boxes aren’t cheap and now I’m obsessed with the idea of making more.

rainbow beach trash arrangement
CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup April 8, 2020
found on the beach

Although I want to, I’m not going to list the things I’m missing right now while we’re stuck at home. I’m sure you’re missing a lot of the same things. I will tell you one thing though – I am glad I had the forethought to get a couple of good long beach trips in before the stay-at-home order went into effect. Saving myself some photos to edit was a nice little treat and definitely helped a tiny tiny bit.

beach plastic

Both of my trips had great finds and I ended up with lots of photos I really love. On the first trip, a couple weeks back, I found a small plastic trumpet, a tiny fake blow drier, a few toy soldiers, a horseshoe, a hair barrette that says “69” and… a penis straw, among many other things.

It felt like each find was better than the last. Plastic soldiers are always a favorite of mine but how could I not love that trumpet or the very very questionable children’s hair barrette. Seriously, whose idea was a ’69’ hair clip? And the penis straw. I wish you could have heard the snort I let out when I realized what it was I picked up.

It’s the little things, y’all.

…the little purple, aggressively veiny things.

found on the beach
Wendy Park, Cleveland

Can you spot the solider below? It drives me wild with excitement how many treasures could be buried in the driftwood. I normally scan the beach twice – once walking to the furthest end and then of course, on the way back. It always amazes me how much stuff I find on the walk back that seems like it was in very clear view. I can only imagine how many fun things I just miss.

Favorite finds of the day.

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

boots by Joules

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup March 11, 2020
Lake Erie beach trash

A colorful little arrangement of beach treasures from earlier in the week. Nothing more, nothing less.

beachcombing Lake Erie
Lake Erie beach trash arrangement with Joules boots
found on the beach

Sometimes I make arrangements, take a bunch of photos and then never do anything with the shots. It’s a bummer because once it goes on to an external hard drive I’m probably not going to see it again for a very long time. So, here’s my most recent arrangement. It’s nothing spectacular, not going to make this blog famous or anything but I enjoy the photos and the beach is a tiny bit cleaner.

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup January 8, 2020

30 minutes and one pass of the approximately 900ft beach. Just a quick arrangement because surprise surprise! it’s cold at the lake in January. Mostly broken shards of plastic today. Sometimes the larger, more interesting things seem to have been cleaned up but there are always tiny pieces littering the sand.

I will forever love making a colorful little arrangement against the dark moody beach!

Other fun finds from the day…

Two pieces of pottery with lettering left on them. Felt like such a treat because I most certainly wasn’t looking for them. Certain beaches have certain treasures, this isn’t a normal place for me to find pottery so when I glanced down not once but twice to have letters looking back at me, it was a surprise. A wheel. The legs of a plastic soldier. Chuckie Finster’s head. Not my largest haul but any day I find a plastic soldier is a good one in my book!

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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beachcomb with me

by Kaylah Stroup November 12, 2019

For years and years... and years and years making videos is something I’ve wanted to do. I quickly figured out that photography and videography are two very different things though. I feel confident in my photos but video? Nope! I’ve wanted to learn but its just so overwhelming.

Finally, this year I’ve begun experimenting. It’s hard and at times, super frustrating but it feels good to finally be learning a new skill. I’m already seeing improvements in my work and feeling more a tiny bit confident.

This is where I tell you – hello, I have a YouTube channel! Check it out.

Point being, the one idea that I really had in mind that I wanted to play with was a sort of treasure hunting series. Obviously the word ‘treasure’ here is subjective. It only takes a few minutes on my blog to figure out that I’m excited by some pretty silly stuff.

This is my second attempt at making a video for my ‘beachcomb with me’ series. The first video was an utter disaster. I tried making something right after getting my GoPro and I didn’t really have a vision so the video was kind of all over the place.

This final product isn’t necessarily everything I have in mind for the series but I’m actually really really excited about how it turned out. This is a great starting point. I’m excited to look back on this in a year and see how far I’ve come.

In the future, I’d definitely like to talk in these videos and maybe expand the treasure hunting methods – some dump digging, metal detecting, etc. Right now my whole family is super into ‘treasure’ hunting so it’s honestly, a big part of my life right now.

Hope you enjoy! xoxo

favorite find of the day!

More found on the beach posts can be found here.

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found on the beach

by Kaylah Stroup July 24, 2019
plastic pollution found along the shores of Lake Erie

One venti Starbucks cup full of plastic ‘treasures’ found along a short stretch of Lake Erie. Less than half an hour to fill!

Normally I carry a tote bag for all my beach finds. Lately though, the things I tend to gravitate toward picking up are much smaller. On my last visit, shortly after arriving at the beach, I spotted a Starbucks cup. Perfect! I filled it up in no time flat. Seems like it wouldn’t hold very much but after laying out an arrangement I was shocked to see how much was still left in the cup!

found on the beach
plastic pollution
plastic found on the beach
I got new Tevas! I have seriously never loved a pair of shoes this much. They’re cozy and match everything!
Lake Erie plastic pollution

A quick found on the beach FAQ

  1. You found all of these in one trip!?  Sadly, yes.
  2. What do you do with all after your done? Normally I toss it in the trash or recycle if appropriate. Sometimes I may take certain pieces with me if I think they’ll look cool in a future arrangement or if it’s something I collect. Toy soldiers & all other tiny plastic characters come home with me! I also collect plastic plants, leaves, and flowers.
  3. Do you wear gloves when you pick all this trash up? No, I don’t. These are things that are washed up from the lake, not just left on the shore. They’re no dirtier than the sand or water. That’s not to say I don’t sanitize my hands as soon as I get back in my car though…
  4. Are all of your beaches this gross? No, absolutely not. We have lots of gorgeous, clean and downright picturesque beaches along Lake Erie. This one in particular just seems to collect all the debris from the lake. I have yet to find another this bad in the area.

Below are my favorite finds of the day (& what I actually kept!) I still haven’t figured out what those yellow things with numbers and letters are. I have a pretty decent collection of them. I’ve been finding them for years and years. They’re not as common as toy soldiers or anything else that I find regularly but they still wash up quite often. Last time I asked if anyone had any idea what they were nearly everyone responded “crime scene markers!” but I’m not convinced. More than likely they something to do with shipping.

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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beach combing

by Kaylah Stroup May 8, 2019
beachcombing on Lake Erie

One beach, a half hour of wandering, twenty-eight objects to get the tangles out of your hair.

Wild, isn’t it?

I also found a handful of barrettes and a weft of braided hair that had to be at least a foot and a half in length.

beachcombing
Beachcombing in Cleveland
beach combing
found on the beach

A quick found on the beach FAQ

  1. You found all of these in one trip?  Sadly, yes.
  2. What do you do with all after your done? Normally I toss it in the trash or recycle if appropriate. Sometimes I may take certain pieces with me if I think they’ll look cool in a future arrangement or if it’s something I collect. Toy soldiers & all other tiny plastic characters come home with me! I also collect plastic plants, leaves and flowers.
  3. Do you wear gloves when you pick all this trash up? No, I don’t. These are things that are washed up from the lake, not just left on shore. They’re no dirtier than the sand or water. That’s not to say I don’t sanitize my hands as soon as I get back in my car though…
  4. Are all of your beaches this gross? No, absolutely not. We have lots of gorgeous, clean and downright picturesque beaches along Lake Erie. This one in particular just seems to collect all the debris from the lake. I have yet to find another this bad in the area.
combs found on the beach
Boots by Joules. (I highly recommend them!)
CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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found on the frozen beach

by Kaylah Stroup March 7, 2019

Only 13 days until spring!

Lake Erie is still frozen. New treasures appear each random (and 100% appreciated) day of warm weather tha allows some of the ice built up on the shore to melt.

Nothing too spectacular on my last visit. Not even a single toy soldier. I appreciate any burst of color this time of the year though.

xoxo

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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found on the frozen beach

by Kaylah Stroup February 7, 2019

Another day, another colorful little display of lighters found in the sand.
… or the snow.

We had some impossibly cold temperatures last week. (Here’s Klaus to prove it. Technically that ‘proves’ nothing but he’s really cute all bundled up.) Then right after that, the temperatures came right back up to nearly 60 degrees. Sitting in my office watching people walk by the window without their winter gear on hard to watch. I needed a piece of the action. It was one of those days I had to go to the beach. The snow in our front yard had promptly melted but the beach was still frozen. It was warm but the sand was still covered in up to a foot of iced over snow in some spots. It had apparently melted a bit though as new treasures were within view. I picked up lots of random odds and ends to be put in the trash but once again, was left wondering why in the world there are always so many lighters.

beach plastic, lake erie, wendy park, cleveland ohio lake erie, wendy park, coast guard station, beach trash

CHECK OUT MORE ‘FOUND ON THE BEACH” POSTS HERE!

If you like my ‘found on the beach’ collections – prints, phone cases, and more can be found here.

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I'm Kaylah! Renovating a 150-year-old home in Northeast Ohio. Likely found in my garden.

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Christmas came early yesterday when my husband sco Christmas came early yesterday when my husband scored a huuuuge bag of free daffodils bulbs for me! I spent the  morning planting them along the trail on our side yard and I still have half a wheelbarrow full to plant tomorrow morning.

I won’t get to see them or even know what varieties they are until next spring. I am SO excited! I can’t wait to take this same picture of me surrounded by flowers next year. 

They say you should plant spring blooming bulbs in fall but honestly, the best time to do it is whenever you get your dirt covered fingies on them. 💁🏼‍♀️✨

Oh! And by all means, if you ever have outside plants you no longer want and you live in NEOhio - consider me a *~plant sanctuary*~ 😛

#kaylahgardens
Still over the moon about my new curio cabinet. ✨😍
two cool things found in my garden. ✨✨✨ two cool things found in my garden. ✨✨✨
End of May garden view! ✨✨✨ I can’t believ End of May garden view! ✨✨✨ I can’t believe we didn’t think to brick the inside before this year. It’s SO pretty! 😭❤️ Plus I don’t have to mow the inside anymore and I gained a lot more room for new flowers. Win/win/win!!!!
(Color difference between the outer ring and inside circle is because the outside is mulched. Going to wait to get a few more plants in the center before bothering to mulch.👍🏻)

#kaylahgardens
Probably woulda cried if you told me it’d take T Probably woulda cried if you told me it’d take TWO WHOLE YEARS to finish this “little project” but we’re finally done! 🎉🎉🎉 

All I wanted to do was replace the ugly plywood that was surrounding our front porch. (Scroll to the very end for a picture!) BUT old house rules means every project has to be ten thousand times more complicated than expected. The porch wasn’t supported by anything. So I dug and dug and dug so we could add concrete blocks to support it. Then my dad and I covered those in rocks to match the rest of the house. We also rebuilt the stairs!

It’s still a work a progress but gosh darn it, I can’t tell you how good it feels to finally have this big thing done! Can’t wait until the mortar cures and the color matches. 

(Also! Had to try to recreate that picture from my childhood! Some things never change. ❤️)
🐸✨ 🐸✨
2023 vs 2021 ✨ At the risk of sounding cliche, t 2023 vs 2021 ✨ At the risk of sounding cliche, this is truly my happy place. I spend so much time out here walking around, absorbing all the tiny details and changes. Every tiny bud brings me immense joy. In my garden, I feel peace. My noisy anxious brain finally settles. 😌

Also, dude, it’s only May! Look how big everything is already. What this bed gonna look like in August?!? It’s going to be INCREDIBLE!!! ✨✨✨
#ad21+ A busy day making the yard look good called #ad21+ A busy day making the yard look good called for a glass of whisky neat afterward! #MakersMark46 & some reading time! We really enjoy @MakersMark to begin with but Makers Mark 46 is something else! Easy-to-sip! Notes of caramel, vanilla + baking spice! It is DELICIOUS. 

Here’s your friendly reminder that Father’s Day is coming up & this would make an excellent gift if any father figures in your life are into tasty beverages! Click the link in my bio to purchase! 
@makersmark #MakersMark
added a little extension to the rose garden today added a little extension to the rose garden today because this rose was ✨irresistible✨ but now I’m thinking how I could extend the bed further and add even more roses! 🤗
Being working on this for a little while now and f Being working on this for a little while now and figured it was finally time to share here! I still have a boatload of work left to do on the stairs but I’m so excited to have these seventeen spindles done. Adding a handmade element like this to the house just feels incredible. 🎉✨

PS Subscribers saw it first! ✨I don’t share a ton to my subscription thing but they definitely see a few extra lil (or big like this!) projects before I’m ready to share with everyone.

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THE DAINTY SQUID
  • blog
    • all the posts!
    • stroup mansion
    • some of my favorite posts
    • plants + gardening
    • beauty, fashion + hair
    • reviews
    • window shopping
    • explore everywhere
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  • contact