Allow Me to Re-Introduce Myself

"My name is Hov, oh, H to the O-V"

Anyone? No one? Just me?

Oh, alright then. Thanks anyway, Jay Z. You can go now.

In light of the recent social media blowing up craziness (hello, really not crazy at all. More like AWESOMENESS), I thought I'd introduce myself for all of the circaNewbies. Welcome the family! Take off your shoes and stay a little while. Tell me a little about yourself! In the meantime, I'll tell you a little bit about me.

My name is Kayla and I am the 26 year old co-owner of the jewelry company and vintage bus boutique, circa1910. Together with my fiancé, Matt, and our three rescue pups, we are trying to run the world (lol, jk) build a platform to encourage and instill self confidence in women. I am a huge advocate for empowering women and reiterating the fundamental fact: you are MORE than enough.

I founded circa1910 jewelry in April of 2013, after my mom told me that she had been diagnosed with Stage 2 breast cancer. (Holla! for being cancer-free for 2.5 years now!) I have always, always wanted to own a business and I knew I wanted it to be about more than just making a profit- I wanted it to have a purpose and to have meaning behind it.

So, I saved up for 2 months to purchase $200 in gemstone beads. My designs starting out were not good. They were well made but not um...aesthetically pleasing (to be nice to myself). At least, they weren't me. I was told that repurposed vintage jewelry would not sell, so I steered clear of what my heart really wanted to design. After becoming slightly successful with my new business, I just wasn't happy, so I said "screw you" to all the negative opinions and began creating what I truly wanted to- one of a kind jewelry with vintage elements. There is something so magical about finding a piece of forgotten broken jewelry and giving it a new life to be loved and cherished once again. I keep everything one of a kind to remind the beautiful ladies who I meet on a daily basis, you are unique. You are loved. You are cherished. You are enough.

I named the company in honor of my great-great-grandmother. She was alive until I was 14 years old and because my mom was a single working mother for a good bit of my young life, my grandmothers helped to raise me. I absolutely wouldn't be as strong-willed and passion-driven person I am today without being raised by four, yes four, incredibly strong women I know as love as my mother and grandmothers. My great-great-grandmother was creative and talented and ladylike with a crude sense of humor. She was hilarious and awesome and so very lovely. Her name was Pearl so in every single necklace and bracelet by circa1910, you can find a small hidden freshwater pearl, reminding you to look for the beauty in life and in every situation. #findyourpearl - that's our thing :)

Baby Emmy - (We think) Rottweiler + Basset Hound mix, found emaciated and left on someone's doorstep

Anyway...

Here are some random facts about me just for fun:

•I hate ice cream

•I love baby animals, doesn't matter what it is- chances are I'll try and snuggle with it

•All three of my dogs are rescues who were either abused or neglected

•I would have 57 rescues if Matt (and our house size) would allow it

•I like really good erasers

•I eat cold leftovers for breakfast. Doesn't even have to be breakfast food. Steak and potatoes? Sign me up.

•I have an undiagnosed gastrointestinal disorder that has affected me nearly my whole life

•Most of my clothes are from thrift and consignment stores but I don't skimp on shoes or jewelry. Gimme all the Frye, Lucky, Free People and circa1910.

•I started out by sewing beads onto paper and clothing as a kid, then eventually moved onto bigger things...like necklaces. Maybe beaded paper will come back...watch out for my new Etsy store lol

•I identify as Christian but don't bring none of that political mumbo jumbo my way. I love my gays, love people of all shapes, sizes, colors, genders, nationalities, don't matter. I love 'em all. Except if you're mean, then I don't like you just because of that. You like puppies and antique books too? Cool, let's be friends.

•I moved to Nashville, TN when I was 19 to pursue a songwriting career. I knew no one, it was 6.5 hours from my home town, and I made it work somehow. With a lot of tears and my dog and cold Spaghettio's mostly. I still play guitar occasionally and would love to start writing again.

•A good glass of iced coffee and a good writing pen are all I need to succeed

•I'm very shy. Like, really, very, super. I've become better since starting circa1910 by a long shot but I still have my moments. Get to know me though and I'll have you laughing. I'd like think so at least.

•I have four siblings! I'm the oldest.

•I didn't meet my biological father or his family until I was 21. Whaaaat.

•Always down for a nap.

•Chocolate covered donuts (the store-bought, pre-made kind) are my jam.

•I'm 5'1" and half Italian

•I still tell 'your mother' jokes like a 12 year old boy in 1999.

•I love all music and can appreciate so much from nearly every genre.

•I'm getting married in October this year! We've been engaged for a YEAR this coming weekend and we still don't have anything planned except the venue and the photographer (shout out to my homie Vera Gayazov Photography)

River - Great Pyrenees + Spaniel Mix, rescued from extreme neglect and won over in a court case

That's all for now. Thanks for reading my random thoughts and catching up on a little behind-the-scenes circa1910 action. Until next time...

xo,

Kayla

Concrete Illness

One of my all-time favorite sights is to see a little flower or puff of grass growing through broken concrete. That small, delicate little flower pushed and pushed its way through a substance that even an 80,000 pound semi can't crack. How did it push through? It kept growing. It persevered. It prevailed. It was smothered by the weight of the world and it didn't stop until it saw the light of day.

I wanted to open up about something that I have kept hidden. I don't announce it on social media, I don't talk about it in regular conversation, and unless someone asks how I'm doing, I avoid the topic altogether.

I have dealt with a yet-to-be-determined gastrointestinal disorder nearly my whole life. Despite tests and needles and blood work, doctors can't seem to figure it out. I have taken enough medications and natural herbs and oils to last me a lifetime, and nothing has cured it. Sometimes the symptoms are lessened, but I feel sick on a daily basis even with the symptoms at bay that day. I can eat completely healthy foods or a double cheeseburger from McDonald's and the outcome is the same- eating makes me sick. At my lowest points, I would go days without eating little more than a yogurt because I get depression from feeling so bad. And I'm so tired of feeling bad.

This illness makes life unpredictable in ways I never thought possible. Something is always wrong, even if I'm having a 'good' day. The single most used question used in our household is, "How are you feeling?" and so far I can't say I've been able to answer anything other than "okay" or "not good."

I push through and act as normal as possible but most times, I'm just trying to keep my mind busy so I don't focus on how I feel. Symptoms affect my skin, hair, vision, mouth, my mind, emotions and my well-being. I won't get into the details, as there are around 50 symptoms that show up on a daily basis, but they aren't pretty. I work hard to hide the bald spots on my head and thinning hair, my cracking and bleeding lips, the embarrassing dyshidrotic eczema on my hands and the worst, my belly that bloats to a full 2nd trimester-state after simply drinking glass of water. I DREAD swimsuit season because of the obvious bloating and sucking in my stomach from hours on end is exhausting. Nearly every time I eat, it feels like I have some sort of food poisoning. I randomly become very nauseous and can spend hours vomiting for seemingly no reason. I have a hard time concentrating and getting motivated. I get light-headed easily and have fainted a few times in the heat. I get winded and a headache just bending down to tie my shoe. I forget day-to-day tasks and have to write a list of things I need to do every day- including things like taking a shower and answering a text message. I have to schedule my plans around using the bathroom and have had to cancel meetings or move them because my digestive system has other plans. 

It s-u-c-k-s.

I have dealt with this issue in one way or another nearly my whole life and have kept it under wraps but I feel like it is finally time to come clean. I don't want this illness to ever be seen as an excuse or to be viewed as a weakness because I'm pushing forward. One to three days a week I'm usually too ill to work on circa1910 but I've come this far with the weight I carry and I can only imagine how far circa1910 will go when I'm finally able to shed those chains and say with so much joy, "I feel GREAT today."

I love the analogy of the flower stretching tall and doing what it was told it could not do. I choose to be strong and to push past what is weighing me down, because I'm a delicate flower, damnit.

Keep pushing upward, friends. Your fresh-aired breakthrough is only just above you.

xo,

Kayla

Photos by The 2654 Project, Bluffton, South Carolina

Learning to Swim

Today I bought a new camera. A beautiful, vintage-inspired mirrorless Fujifilm that I will have to teach myself to learn. It was very expensive and I had a mini panic attack when clicking the 'confirm purchase' button, but it was necessary, because I have issues with comfort.

I hate change. I hate learning new things that require effort, because I'm afraid of failure. I hesitate on nearly anything and everything and constantly question myself, my motives, my decisions.

So today, I made myself buy this camera. I have wanted to learn photography since I was a little girl. I have always had a gift of being able to discern emotions from faceless photographs. I would walk outside as a child and listen to the birds chirp, run my small fingers over a pine cone, noticing every detail. I would pick up a seashell and wonder about the ridges. I have always had an eye for texture and an appreciation for the tiniest features around me, especially in nature. I can pick up sensations and energies and truthfulness at just one glance, and I've always wanted to convey those thoughts in the purest form. I don't want to take photos for a living, but I'll be damned if I go through life without learning an art that I have always felt an enormous admiration for.

I bought a starter Nikon DSLR a few years ago and with the help of Matt (and YouTube), have soaked up as much knowledge as I could about it. Learning the camera wasn't too hard, but figuring out editing styles and such has proven to be my downfall. I have an idea of how I want an image to look and with the help of my extreme perfectionism, I can never recreate the photograph I have in my head. But I keep on trying.

So today, I made myself cannonball into the deep end. I killed a roach with my favorite leather boot and picked it up instead of waiting for Matt to take care of it. I spent hours editing unusable photos in Lightroom because I wanted to make myself learn the program. I wore my thick-framed glasses and makeup-less face in front a business professional because I'm sick of putting weight into how I look while preaching that inner beauty is most important. I moved a heavy wooden table out of the bus and into the house by myself without damaging anything. I ate chocolate cake for breakfast without worries of my digestive disorder...

And damnit, I bought the freaking camera.

How will you ever learn to put trust in yourself if you keep tiptoeing across the bottom, with water rimming your face and exhaustion creeping in? You can't appreciate the depth of life if you confine yourself to swimming only in the shallows.

Just my thoughts.

xo,

Kayla

Jordan + Uri's Story - Custom Necklace Design

I was boo-hooing like a baby when I read the message that my sweet friend Jordan sent me a few months ago. My friend Taylor and I were headed out shopping and she looks over in her front seat (because I was being too quiet I presume) to find my face tear-stained and my eyes red and puffy.

"What is wrong with you?!" she asked jokingly, knowing I wasn't sad but more than likely crying over a baby sloth video I stumbled upon on Facebook.

"You have to listen to this story...it's amazing..." I managed to stammer out through blowing my nose. Taylor looked at me like she had a bad taste in her mouth but also with a smirk on her face because she knows how emotional I get over sappy things (and puppies, let's be real.)

I read to her the story in the exact way that Jordan typed it out and that's how I'm going to share it with you all (with Jordan and Uri's permission of course.)

"I love old keys and locks, LOVE them. About 2 months after Uri and I started courting (yes that's the word he used) he gave me this old key on a leather strap. Nothing fancy, but I loved it. Wore it pretty much all the time. Sometimes as a necklace but usually as a bracelet."

"Fast forward to a Sunday in September 2009 and his amazing proposal. My ring was on an old english lock that his dad had given him. The key to get the ring off? It was the key he had given me way before hand, the key I had been carrying around without any clue what he eventually planned."

"It was awesome and special! Here we are about to celebrate 7 years married and the poor key has gotten some rough treatment. I don't wear it nearly as much, if at all. So you being able to transform it into something new will be a dream!"

Jordan had a few requests for the necklace:

•She wanted their birthstones, aquamarine and amethyst, incorporated

•Something copper, the traditional gift of the 7th anniversary

•Shades of blue and green

•The original leather cording (if I could figure out a way to incorporate it...which I did and I'm pretty proud haha!)

I toyed around with the design for a few weeks before I felt I had gotten it just right. I managed to incorporate all of her requests in a way that flowed nicely and all coincided, including using green amethyst instead of the more commonly know purple (That was my aha! moment). The necklace is fully adjustable from a short length to long, thanks to the original leather cording, and there are hints of copper as an accent throughout the cool, coastal colors.

I had a great idea to surprise Jordan by beading the bottom strand of different shaped vintage glass pearls into the morse code for their precious 1 year old daughter's name- Lorelei. Each letter was encased by the small copper beads.

(P.S. How gorgeous is the name Lorelei!?)

And here is the beautiful human being that is sweet Jordan, rocking her new necklace!

Thanks Jordan, for sharing your story and entrusting me with such a special and meaningful project!

A Touch of Whimsy

I love wearing something pleasantly unexpected. It's usually a really kickass piece of jewelry but every once in a great while I like to mix it up and throw on a favorite thrift store find.

Thrift stores are a mecca of under-appreciated awesome clothing. I've scored many great things among my 26 years and this skirt is in the top 10 of my list. It adds just a touch of whimsy and I kept it under the radar with a simple sleeveless sweater, gorgeous jewels and a leather belt. I also paired it with knee-high leather boots. 

Fun fact: most of the outfits circa1910 posts on Instagram include some sort of awesome thrift find!

I don't find things every time I go thrifting, and it usually requires a great amount of digging/searching (and hand sanitizer- just in case), but I live for the thrill nonetheless! A little thrifting tip I always use: if you find something great and don't know how to use/wear it right away, get it anyway and figure that out later. I can't tell you how many times I passed on things that I kicked myself afterwards. It's kind of like buyer's remorse...except the opposite. Of course...that 'trick' is probably the reason our attic is filled with projects and treasures and clothing I haven't found a use for yet 😜

On another note, this week has been quite the adjustment. My fiance, Matt, travels so much for his job during the holidays that I'm usually left to fend for myself. The first few days aren't bad at all. I usually clean the whole house, top to bottom, then revel in my accomplishment by relaxing for a moment on the couch then getting back to work. It always hits me just how much I miss him by day 3 though. Matt and I never, ever fight. Sometimes we disagree on small things but never have a cross word. We get along so well, it's just...easy. I don't think either of us ever feels like we need a break from each other so it's harder on me when he leaves because he's my best friend. I end up sharing the funny jokes I come up with to the dogs and they just don't quite have the same reaction...

Thankfully, these nearly 3 weeks apart from Matt have been made better by staying busy with circa1910 and a photoshoot with Kristen of The 2654 Project at my house on Tuesday. She stayed well past how long she intended to but I was beyond thankful for the human interaction- and with such a great friend! Love love love her! And I mean, just look at these photos she took a few weeks ago...so dreamy 😍  

P.S. SURPRISE! We're having a flash sale!! Take 20% off all website orders from now until Sunday at midnight! Use code: MerryChristmas at checkout.

Also use code: FREESHIP for free shipping on all orders over $75!

Outfit Details:

Top- Forever21

Crenoline skirt- Thrift store find for $5

Belt- American Eagle (sold out)

Boots- Born (sold out)

Necklaces- Hypnotized Necklace, Built to Last Necklace, Bold as Love Necklace

Beautiful photos by The 2654 Project, Bluffton, South Carolina

Army Green + Navy

I was too excited to stop by local coffee shop, Pluff Mudd, yesterday and grab a frozen treat before dinner. I threw together this outfit and had it on in about 3 minutes because basic pieces are my go-to and are always easy to dress up or down or mix and match.

The way I see it, clothing fades or goes out of style. You can grow out of it mentally and physically. The key is to spend less on clothing itself and instead, invest in quality accessories that will last you a lifetime. Shoes, belts, jewelry- it's all in the details. I'm not just saying that because I, myself, make jewelry. I have always been a firm believer that outfits are truly made great through the creative and clever use of add-ons.

For example, since my fiancee and myself are pretty big 'car people', say you go to a used car lot. You want a nice looking car but all of the ones there are fairly basic. They are exactly what you know you need but there's just something missing. You can pay more for an expensive looking car at a new dealership and break the bank, or you can buy a less expensive one, same quality, and modify it to make it match your personality. Add tinted windows, nice rims, maybe a paint job and there you have it! 

Same car, different perspective.

Would you believe me if I told you this whole outfit (minus the jewelry) cost less than $30?

Outfit and jewelry details are down below!

Shop the Look:

•Tee is American Eagle from their Soft & Sexy Collection and I got it on a big sale at an outlet mall. (Softest shirt you could ever own)

•Vest is a few years old from Old Navy and I scored this at a second hand store for $6. They don't have anything else similar but I found this one at Macy's that is on serious sale.

•Boyfriend jeans are also by American Eagle but I bought these at TJ Maxx for $16.

•Boots are made by Rocket Dog but I scored these at a thrift store, brand new, on sale for $2!!

Jewelry:

•Make it Better Necklace - Antique Coin

•Middle Necklace Coming Soon to www.circa1910jewelry.com

•All Mixed Up Necklace/Wrap Bracelet

•Bracelet coming soon to www.circa1910jewelry.comwww.circa1910jewelry.com

Emerald Dream with a Hurricane Twist

My oh my, has it been a long week. Last Tuesday we found out we would be evacuating so instead of hitting hours of traffic the next day, we decided to drive through that night to my parents a few hours away from the coast. I threw everything I own (that's an exaggeration) into a suitcase and loaded down my car with every sentimental item I could think of in my time of panic (old family photos, my great-great-grandmother's sewing scissors, antique jewelry given to me by sweet friends, and of course these gorgeous Frye boots and many other pairs). I also brought with me nearly 20 pounds of jewelry!

The hardest part was the waiting. I knew the hurricane would hit early Saturday morning so I was beside myself trying to enjoy our 'hurrication' while also trying to push the thought of what we might come back to into the dusty, cobweb ridden corner of my mind of things I never thought would happen to me. We tried to stay in antique stores as much as possible so my mind would be busy focusing on buying trinkets to make pretty jewelry for you guys. That strategy worked about 50% of the time ;)

Thankfully, our house only managed to take on debris, fallen branches and lost power. Our back yard did flood about 2 feet but we had prepared and anything that may have gotten damaged was put up high on shelves in the garage before we left. 

One of my biggest concerns was losing Melvin the Mini Bus, but I am so happy to say that he weathered the storm and was a champ! No water damage, no fallen trees, no broken windows. What a trooper :)

We traveled back to Beaufort as soon as we were allowed to, exactly a week after we evacuated, and I cried when I pulled into the driveway. We had left our house 95% sure that we'd lose everything based on the predictions of Hurricane Matthew, and much to our surprise we were extremely fortunate to only have to clean up the yard. Many of our neighbors are dealing with massive amounts of damage to their homes and we are working diligently to help as many people as we can. (Sorry for the delay in answering emails/messages and shipping out orders...we have no power and limited internet and our post offices are still closed.) 

I can't help but feel guilty when people ask how our house fared...we didn't experience any damage that we can find. I know it's so terrible to go through a thing like this, but seeing strangers help and donate and feed one another in a time of crisis really puts the 'feel goods' back into my heart. I am so blessed to live in this sweet community that I call home.

I am thankful I got to spend so much time with my family and in my hometown of Augusta, GA. The downtown area there is filled with history and beautiful old buildings. I found this romper for under $30 so that made me a little happier. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't think rompers are very flattering on anyone but this one fits like a dress and doesn't give me the dreaded 'granny booty' (as I so nicely like to call it.) I paired it with the Frye boots I got on a killer flash sale from freepeople.com, a vintage leather belt that was my grandmother's, and layers of circa1910, of course. Links to all outfit pieces are listed below.

Thanks for reading and following along with my crazy life! We are the only house in our big neighborhood without power (and extremely limited internet) so I'm off to wash my hair with freezing cold water and a flash light! ;) (Gotta find the humor in it- always!)

xoxo,

Kayla

Shop the Look:

Plunging V-Neck Lace Romper in Ponderosa Pine

Frye Boots

Jewelry:

Change of Heart Bracelets in Solid Vintage Chain and Antique Buckle

The Battle of Evermore Necklace

A Great Day for Freedom Necklace

Don't Bring Me Down Necklace