Girl in Blue

For as long as I can remember I've been interested in cemeteries, ghosts and all things macabre. In middle school I remember pouring over Haunted Ohio books, and day dreaming about visiting all the spooky places Ohio has. Many years later I'm still interested in these types things except with a little (okay, a lot) less emphasis on the haunted, I'm a big fraidy cat. But I still love cemeteries. I love looking at all the old headstones, figuring out how old people were and pondering what they were like.

I found Heather's blog Mortuary Report a little while ago when she commented on a photo of my mine on instagram. I was instantly smitten with her blog and read through a lot of it. While browsing I found a post about the girl in blue.

"For sixty years, the young lady who had been hit by a train near a boarding house in Willoughby was simply known as "The Girl in Blue." No one knew who she was, where she was going or who to contact about her death on Christmas Eve 1933. She carried no identification, only 90 cents and a ticket to Corry, Pennsylvania. She wore a blue dress and blue shoes.

McMahon Funeral Home adopted this young lady's funeral arrangements. Local donations paid for a headstone and flowers. More than 3,000 local residents went to McMahon Funeral Home to bid farewell to a girl they never knew.

Her identity remained a mystery of national interest until a local newspaper story commemorating the sixtieth anniversary of her death sparked a reader to contact a title agency that researched records from the sale of properties in Warren County, Pennsylvania. State authorities determined that Josephine Klimczak was The Girl in Blue. Lake County records, however, have not changed the death certificate; she is still listed as The Girl in Blue"
-from findagrave.com

When I read where this headstone was - I had to visit! Willoughby, Ohio is only a short jaunt away from our house! Kevin and I set out that week to find the girl in blue. It was so stinken hot that day! I had read on some review site (yep, people review cemeteries!) that the headstone was in one of the far corners of the cemetery. We hunted and hunted for it until finally realizing we couldn't spend all day out in that heat looking. I got on my phone and found a photo of the headstone and picked some identifying features around it so we could try and spot those. After a few minutes we found a tree with three trunks and sure enough right under it - there she was!

Judging by the pennies, and mint I'd say she's well visited! I see in other pictures of her headstone that there used to be flowers but when we visited there were none. I'd like to go plant some soon!

I wonder how I went so long without knowing how close I was to something so neat! Kevin and I went to the book store afterwards and grabbed a big stack of books about strange things in Ohio to plot some trips to make in the future. I'm so excited to visit all the other awesome things I didn't even know that my state housed. 
xoxo

It's the little things...

like going to the beach to watch the sunset...

 chasing the seagulls...

realizing that chasing the seagulls in front of the sunset will create a pretty picture...

and meeting new friends...

Kevin and I went to the beach to watch the sun set at the beach one night last week. We normally go to bed pretty early since we get up so early in the morning but we were feeling wild and decided to head to the beach instead of going to bed. (I swear, we're old people. Pretty sure we got to sleep before my grandpa!) It was a BLAST. It was so wonderful to go out and not have it be sickeningly hot. The temperature that night was absolutely perfect, as was the water. I'm thinking this is going to have to become a normal occurrence this summer. A late dinner on the beach sounds pretty awesome too...
xoxo

The little things is a series here on The Dainty Squid featuring the little things in life that make it special. The series went under a brief (accidental) hiatus but is now coming back into rotation.

Bicycle Makeover

Last month with the help of my parents I gave my bicycle a makeover. I've had this bike for a few years now. It's in great shape but I wasn't crazy about the color and the stickers on it. I didn't like the big logo on it and definitely would prefer if it were a little bit more me. Here is a before shot...

I had two ideas in my head for what I wanted to do. One was to paint it a ton of different colors, and buy mismatched tires and the other was all white with brown accents. After a trip to the store to check out my options I ended up chosing Krylon paints in Celery and Ivory for my bike, which is pretty close to my all white option. The colors looked completely different on the cans but when it came right down to it, the are fairly similar on my bike. So I picked up a bright blue color (Rust-Oleum Satin Lagoon) for my wheels. It was the perfect pop of color, even though I had no plans to add one. Here are some in progress photos, we hung all the pieces from the ceiling of my dad's garage. 

A few days and a bunch of coats later it was ready to be put back together. I bought myself a new brown saddle, some handle bar grips and a pretty little basket. I was in love at this point but knew I had to find some brown tires. I was even so obsessed with having brown tires I completely forgot about getting matching pedals.

A week or so later I bought brown pedals and finally found some brown tires on ebay. It was quite a hunt, I had a hard time finding brown tires in the right size that didn't cost a pretty penny. At one point I kind of gave up and just figured I'd put the black seat and grips back on instead of the new brown ones. Luckily one last search of the internet left me with "rust" colored tires and I figured that was close enough.

Here she is all done! I am just absolutely smitten. It's such a great improvement from that blue bike with logo stickers covering the body. All the brown is just perfect. I'm really glad I finally found brown tires because I feel like those are what really seal the deal.

Isn't she pretty? Every time I walk into the garage and see it I smile. I have yet to do more than ride around the yard on her. It's been disgustingly hot the last week or two and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little out of shape so I'd rather not go on a super hot day. I look forward to cruising around the neighborhood and exploring all the local bike trails.
xoxo

A day at the beach

A few weekends ago my parents, my brother and his family and Kevin and I headed to the beach for a day of swimming and fun in the sun. My dad isn't a real beach-y guy, he'd rather be in the woods but he was convinced upon hearing he could bring along his metal detector. He only used it for a little while but the screen he uses to sift through the dirt came in handy at the beach. We spent most of our time that wasn't taken up by swimming with digging a giant pit to play in, sifting through the sand for sea glass and shells and relaxing in the sun.

I shot with solely my T2 that day. I'm far too careful with my digital camera to be using it while I'm on the beach getting all sandy and wet. It's not that I don't care about my film cameras, I just trust that they'll be able to withstand a little bit more of a beating than my 60D. I am so very happy with the photos. They have such a nice feel summery, beachy feel to me. I also really love that shooting with film is forcing me to appreciate the moments that I would probably have just deleted off my memory card if they'd been taken with a digital camera.

I love the beach, obviously, I talk about it all the time.  But most of the time we're not swimming while we were there, just looking for things in the sand and at most going in knee deep. This was so much fun. It certainly made me realize I need to spend more time at the beach swimming and relaxing in the the water, especially with the whole family!
xoxo

10 things making me smile...

1 // Colorful stationery.  

(and I'm still pretty stoked Target is carrying fancy, colorful tape)

2 // This jar full of rocks, sea glass and shells from a day spent at the beach with the whole family.

3 // Silly planters and pretty flowers.

4 // Crazy kitties in tiny t-shirts relaxing in the window.

5 // Making pretty messes in the kitchen.

6 // Finding amazing bugs!

7 // Sleepy kitties who make pillows from bumps in the rug.

8 // Finding neat little structures on the beach.

9 // Beautiful bouquets of wild flowers.

10 // This GIF my dad requested I make of him doing a backward somersault.

What's making you smile today?
xoxo

what I wore: summer daze

the details 

hat - vintage

sunglasses - target

shirt - c/o Romwe

necklace - gift from Kyla and LA

skirt - c/o Modcloth

shoes - Salt Water Sandals

I've kind of been wearing this same outfit for a week or so now. Just to clarify, by same outfit I mean same basic thing, not exact thing. It would probably really smell by now if that were the case. Sleeveless shirts, skirts and sandals are about the only thing I can stand to wear. It has been so incredibly hot. The kind of hot where you just give up trying to wear cute clothes and want to just spend all day sitting in the air conditioning in a baggy shirt and your underwear.

One good thing about this weather is that we've been spending lots of time at the beach. Our normal beach (the one I usually collect trash on) has been crazy busy. So we found a new one that is fairly quiet. The only other people there are doing the same thing as us - looking for things, just walking along the beach and trying to avoid the crowds.  I search for sea glass and lost treasures (and of course, occasionally splish-splash around) while Kevin looks for fossils.

On the day these pictures were taken a woman was walking directly in front of where I was sitting on a log and beside where Kevin was searching. She reached down, picked up something and her eyes lit up. She ran over to me saying she was sorry but had to show someone what she had just found. She found the most beautiful fossil! Fossils normally aren't that impressive to me, at least not ones of small shells, but this sucker was gorgeous. (Hindsight is 20/20 but man, I should have taken a picture!) I felt so bad because it was literally right beside where Kevin was looking. He was pretty heartbroken. Only a few moments later I found a nice piece of sea glass. I guess some of her luck rubbed off on me.

Today's plans include making some ice cream, eating said ice cream, tidying the house, doing some blog planning for July and other computer work. All in all, just taking it easy because it's too hot to do much else! Hope you're having a fabulous day!

xoxo

PS. Did you spot Kevin jumping in my sunglasses reflection?

2012 Midyear Goal Updates

It's already over half way through the year which is absolutely crazy! At the very beginning of the year I posted some goals for the year (which you can find here) so I thought it would be appropriate to post a midyear update.

 ♥ Read 15 new books. I am well on my way to accomplishing this goal. I have a post coming very soon talking about the books I've read so far this year. 

♥ Try 7 new recipes. I'd say I'm around halfway done with this goal, I just need to go back through all my photos and find pictures of the things I've baked so I can add them up. I'll certainly be doing a recap at the end of the year about all of the new recipes I tried. I've already found two that I just adore and continue to make regularly.

♥ Get my drivers license...finally. Oh goodness, I'm so anxious about this goal. I haven't done much so far to put this goal into action other than talking it up to myself (which may just be half the battle). I still really want to get my license.

♥ Go bowling more! Maaaan, we've only gone bowling once so far this year. I'd like to join a couples league. I'm just nervous about joining one, everyone else already knowing each other and feeling left out. This is obviously something I should get over, because I'm sure everyone else feels the same way when starting something new. Anyways - bowling! I need to go more.

♥ Hang things in the bedroom. Haven't done this yet, but I'm actually thinking of repainting the bedroom before hanging things first. My decorating style has matured over the last three years, even if ever so slightly, and I've been feeling like the bright blue color isn't working so well anymore. Painting and decorating are more a fall/winter thing for me though so I have no plans of working on this in the next few months. It'll definitely get done before the end of the year.

♥ Take a photo an hour once a month. Yeah buddy, I've been keeping up on this one! You can see all my photo an hour posts right here.

♥ Make new friends. Eeep. I am not doing so hot at this. I actually even saw someone at the beach that I could have possibly made friends with buuut I chickened out and didn't talk to her. (she had a split-cam and looked interesting. I live in a fairly small town and rarely ever even see people who I feel like I could mesh well with so I feel like I really lost out. Fingers crossed I see her again.)  Perhaps this goal should more aptly be titled "Be less awkward around people".

♥ Send more snail mail. I wouldn't say I'm doing much better at this goal than last year but I have been sending out quite a few post cards. I'd like to start up some sort of little pen pal thing - but without long letters, more just along the lines of post cards, birthday cards, etc.

♥ Save a little month each month. Another goal I'm proud to have been keeping up on! I've got a nice little chunk of change that I'll be able to use for whatever I want. Although I'm thinking I should just keep saving, saving and saving. Since my brother and his family moved to Germany there has been talk of visiting them so I'll want to have the money for that!

♥ Clean the basement. I haven't finished the basement up yet but I've certainly made a dent. I'm pretty stoked about how far it's come. I used neighborhood clean up day as a push to clean. We had a lot of furniture (tables, shelving, etc) that was just taking up room in the basement so we put it out and I was just tickled pink to watch my neighbors pick up literally everything and take it home instead of it going to the dump. (PS. Do you guys have this kind of neighborhood clean up? Where everyone puts out their trash, like tons of it, in their front yard and then the trash disposal company comes and picks it up? This is fairly new to me and I really enjoy watching everyone go nuts digging for treasure in each others trash and I of course, love to snoop as well. People are craaaazy, I have never seen truck beds crammed so full of random things!)

♥ Camp more often. I am sad to say I haven't been camping yet this year. But I suppose I shouldn't be too bummed because camping season just started in my opinion. I've got one trip planned (well, the date anyways, not the location just yet) and I hope to squeeze a few more in before winter.

♥ Shoot more film (& learn to develop it) I'm kicking butt at shooting more film. I'm so so excited to have really fallen in love with it again. I still haven't tried my hand at developing my own film though. I have all the supplies ready to go I just need to get myself all psyched up.

♥ Take nieces and nephew on one on one date. No excuses here, I still haven't done this. I need to brainstorm some cute ideas. Although I'm sure they'd be happy just to go to the playground or go mushroom hunting with us.

So, I feel pretty good about what I've crossed out so far. Rereading these and evaluating how I'm doing has helped me see which I need to continue to work on and helps me feel motivated to finish because of how awesome it feels to cross off the ones I have been doing.

How are you doing on your new year's goals?
xoxo

what i wore; at the covered bridge

the details 

dress - c/o Rusty Cuts

belt - thrifted

camera bag - Jo Toes

shoes - thrifted

I don't particularly care for our neighborhood, the homes are too close together for my tastes but I do love the surrounding area. We're a hop, skip and jump from a variety of awesome things - including bunches of covered bridges. This one is the one closest to us and we've been spending more and more time there since discovering lots of mushrooms there last summer.

Last week we went down there for a few hours, played on the banks, splashed around in the water and looked for critters and mushrooms. We really didn't find much except for a little area with tons of crawdads. We ohhh-ed and ahhh-ed at the tiny ones. They are so stinken cute!! It's ingrained in my brain that any tiny animal is super cute. (See last year's baby turtle, tiny toads and that super cute bunny. Oh my!)

This has quickly become on of my favorite summer dresses. Judith makes them exactly to your measurements which eliminates all the fuss of trying to figure out what size to order and worrying it won't fit. The dress is super comfortable and light weight - a must for summer attire. I wish I had five of them in a bunch of different patterns and colors.

Also I can't get over how much I love the cut of the back of the dress. I used to have some acne on my back (looking back it wasn't really that bad, but I felt so embarrassed of it as a teenager) which left me buying only clothes with really high backs. That was not fun in the summer time, finding sleeveless shirts that came up to my neck in the back was super hard! Eventually, as I got older, it just cleared up on it's own and I learned to accept the minimal scarring. Now showing off my back feels so great, not worrying about covering up is just the best.

Well, I've got to run, there are oddles of photos from the weekend begging to be sorted through. Hope you all have a fabulous Monday!
xoxo