Senn & Sons Has Moved!

Oh damn! The new website is up and it’s AMAZING! (Okay, I think it’s amazing, you can head on over to judge for yourself.)

That also means that there’s a new home for the Senn & Sons blog and it’s time to update your links if you like to check out the blog for updates.

Click HERE to go the new blog. And be sure to let me know what you think about the new design!

New Website Sneak Peek.

 

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’ve been working with a kick-ass designer in Minneapolis to give the Senn & Sons website a whole new look. Well, the time has come to make it all happen! The design looks AMAZING!!! (Yes, deserving of THREE exclamation points.)

That said, it takes a little bit of doing to make it all work properly on the world wide internet, so the site is going to be down all next week starting on Sunday to make the updates. It’s going to be a massive change, and I can’t wait to see the new design come to life!

More Prints in Progress.

I’m so excited about the four new print designs being developed for my shop. While at the printing studio today to check things out and look at some new paper options, I got a peek at some of the canvas prints in progress too. I snapped a couple of iPhone photos of the work being done and thought I would share.

Beyond the new prints for the shop, I’ve been busy working on a nursery design for some awesome clients expecting their first child in December (a baby girl!), a few original paintings, my website redesign, as well as entering the early stages of a couple new projects I’ve got up my sleeve. Only time will tell how much I can fit in before this baby is born!

 

A New Place to Hang Your Hat.

I’ve been wanting to update the coat rack in our entryway for a while now. In fact, I posted about it almost a full year ago. So far we’ve started our gallery wall (with intent to add more and change out a few things) and even picked up the rug featured in our mood board. One of the things I’ve been meaning to do is replace our tall coat rack from IKEA with something vintage-inspired that would attach to the wall. We have a pretty small area at the top of our entry stairway, so every square inch of floor space is valuable.

With a reclaimed floorboard leftover from a recent project and some hooks I picked up from Anthro a while back with this coat rack in mind, I put my little elf to work…

… and in a matter of about 40 minutes, we had a new coat rack for the entry!

Anyone else do any quick DIYs over the weekend?

New Work: Modern Americana.

My husband thinks it’s kind of weird, but still kind of cool, that I wanted to turn some old redwood floorboards into a piece of artwork.

I’m not going to say it was easy, but it was actually a completely fun process to go through. I guess when I get something in my head, I have to figure out a way to make it happen – even if that means employing cheap (free!) child labor.

From stripping the many layers of paint off this gorgeous, rich redwood to sanding it down and linking the planks together to form canvases, every step of the process was exciting and sort of unknown. We didn’t know if the layers of paint would easily come off. We didn’t know if it would look good to leave some of the old paint on the boards to add character to the piece. We didn’t know if hand-distressing painted floorboards would feel authentic or schlocky.

Now, I’m not saying this was all done completely uninformed. There was plenty of research and testing that went into the process before putting non-toxic paint stripper to wood, but overall, it definitely was a learn-as-you-go experience. I just kept referring back to what I wanted to create – it was in my head – and knew what I needed to do to make it happen.

The project started out as an idea I had after putting together this Modern Americana mood board based on the brief I got from my client, then it moved into a full-blown concept and finally,  a finished piece. I stressed the details. I took my time. And I am really happy with how everything turned out. It’s so different from my other work, yet somehow fits right in.

What do you think?

***

See the mood board post here. And a post about the supplies shopping trip here.

J’adore Le Labo.

Apparently buying perfume doesn’t have to suck anymore. What was once an overwhelming sensory experience in a poorly lit department store with aggressive sales people spraying fragrances at you while you attempted to dodge them and their musky weapons, can actually be quite pleasant now. But you must go to a little place filled – but not overfilled – with delicious fragrances, lotions, candles and detergents… Le Labo.

The woman who helped me find the perfect perfume (Meg, you’ll love her too) told me all about the company, the founders, the new things coming and we chatted about how cool it is that each bottle is created by hand right in the store’s “lab.” (Aptly named, of course.) Once my fragrance was mixed, Meg handed over the most perfect, simple, personalized package I’ve ever seen.

I’m a sucker for good branding and packaging, and this whole experience pretty much tops my charts. And my goodness, I can’t forget to mention how amazing this stuff smells. I suppose that’s just as important as serving it up in a cute bottle.

(I bought that fragrance with my own hard-earned pennies and wasn’t perked for writing about it.)

Whale Prints are Here!

At long last, I have PRINTS in my shop! And I have a new shop! I’m going to call this the “soft launch” of my new print shop, which will be growing and changing and becoming awesomer (it’s a word, trust me) as the summer goes on.

The prints are available in a variety of sizes on paper as well as gallery-wrapped canvas. You guys, they look hot. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be working with an amazing printer in the Dogpatch neighborhood of SF. I won’t blather on about how awesome he is in this little announcement post, but expect full detailed coverage about working with a super cool fine art printer in the near future.

In a few weeks the shop will start filling up with more designs to choose from. So if whales aren’t your thing, just wait a couple of weeks and there might be something else that revs your engine *hint hint*.

But in the mean time, I’ve got whales. You like ’em? You want ’em? You get ’em.

Wood Planks, Toilets and Mantles, Oh My.

I mentioned in my Modern Americana post a couple of weeks ago that I had started shopping for supplies to create the artwork inspired by this mood board. My first stop was Building REsources kind of out between Bayview and Dogpatch. Their giant lot is filled with recycled, and reusable building materials – it appears most of the stuff has come from typical SF gut remodels. What you’ll find here is always a gamble since it’s completely reliant upon donations from builders and people renovating their homes.

You’ll find everything from bathroom sinks…

to avocado toilets…

ancient chests of drawers…

and old mantles.

Most importantly, this is perfect place to find some reclaimed wood floorboards.

I found exactly what I was looking for – a nice wide plank with a thin depth, in decent condition but still a bit weathered. There was just enough for what I needed and best of all it was a gorgeous California redwood. I’ll strip away most of the white and green paint and get my boards into a decent condition before building my “canvases” for the project. I was definitely worried about finding the right wood for the project, so I was thrilled to find these boards on our first stop.

I’ve still got a lot of work to do, but finding the perfect raw materials for the project felt like a huge step forward!

Love Project Nursery!

I love the website Project Nursery for a million reasons. They’re such an amazing resource for all things nursery and party design, plus they’ve built up an amazing community of people who support each other’s design and creative efforts! I’ve been reading the blog for years now – starting before I was pregnant with my son and have always been so impressed with their content. I’ve loved watching the site grow to be what it is today.

I finally upload my first project to the Project Gallery, and the editors chose it as one of the best of the week! I feel so honored to have been included with three other adorable nurseries and parties in their Favorites of the Week that I just wanted to share it here.

If you have a minute, click on my project page HERE and “like” it. Hopefully the Sassy Southern Baby Shower for sweet Ruby will be a fan favorite!

Sassy Southern Baby Shower.

Here’s what I’ll admit: I haven’t spent much time in the South. Sure, I spent a day in Charleston, experienced one amazing Fourth of July in Irvington, VA, and had a business meeting once in Atlanta – but beyond that, I haven’t done any real time in the real South. Nope, not even Austin. So when I got together with a few girlfriends to plan a baby shower for our friend and mama-to-be with Oklahoma roots, the suggestion of doing a Southern-themed shower came up and we thought it would be completely perfect for the guests of honor. The four co-hostesses brainstormed ideas for food, decorations and activities one evening over snacks and drinks. And while I’m certain the Southern theme could have taken a lot of directions, the one we went was absolutely delicious.

We relied heavily on the Lee Brothers Southern Cookbook to create the most authentic and tasty Southern menu around. Pimento cheese dip, deviled eggs, cucumber tea sandwiches, pulled pork sliders, three different pies, red velvet cupcakes and a variety of other treats filled the tables and the guests’ bellies.

The mint juleps were a hit, and the teetotalers in the group imbibed in lemonade infused with strawberry, mint or ginger syrup.

We kept the decorations simple, choosing a cheerful color palette of bright yellow, fuchsia, baby pink and gray. A handmade fabric scrap bunting adorned the fireplace, tissue paper pom poms crowned the dessert table and balloons were scattered throughout the party space. The home was already filled with amazing mid-century furniture and exceptionally cool creative touches and art, so the decorations didn’t need to do much work to make the space feel festive.

It was a co-ed shower, so we didn’t play any of the usual baby shower games, but the hosts did want to leave our dear mama-to-be with some memories of the party and a few useful items as well. After coming across this blog post, we knew creating cute onesies for sweet baby Ruby would be the perfect activity.

I was in charge of the “onesie station,” so I cut out some standard shapes, drew out a few design ideas and had handful of larger scrap pieces available for folks to create their own unique designs. After finding some washable fabric glue and picking up some rick rack (that wavy, ribbon-y trim) and buttons to use while decorating the onesies, the ladies at the shower got creative.

The finished onesies turned out to be completely adorable and every one was unique! We even had a few different sizes so baby Ruby will be fashionably outfitted until she’s at least a year old.

Everyone seemed to have a great time at the shower – even the men who spent much of the time in the backyard playing cornhole – and each guest was sent home with an adorable baggie filled with homemade chocolate chip cookies.

We can’t wait to welcome baby Ruby into our San Francisco family!

UPDATE 6/1/12: The part was featured in Project Nursery’s Favorites for the week! Click here to check out the blog entry.

{Photos 1/2, 3/4, 5, 6/7, 9/10, 11, 18: Jennifer Paschal Gottlieb of Bruce Forrester Photography. Remaining photos: Senn & Sons.}