* i am reposting this story i wrote about sarah kinn’s amazing paintings several years ago. her work has continued to evolve creatively and i am so excited for you all to see what she is bringing to california! come see it live at our pop-up on octover 17th! x0x
Read Morecome to a POP-UP ART SHOW featuring sharon wheat's soft sculptures (and to celebrate jennifer rhode design launching in california!) x00xx
come to a POP-UP ART SHOW featuring jess parker's pots (and to celebrate jennifer rhode design launching in california!) x00xx
come to a POP-UP ART SHOW featuring ann rhode's quilts (and to celebrate jennifer rhode design launching in california!) x00xx
come to a POP-UP ART SHOW featuring sarah kinn's work (and to celebrate jennifer rhode design launching in california!) x00xx
in art
come to a POP-UP ART SHOW featuring sharon wheat's soft sculptures (and to celebrate jennifer rhode design launching in california!) x00xx
come to a POP-UP ART SHOW featuring jess parker's pots (and to celebrate jennifer rhode design launching in california!) x00xx
REPOST: yom kippur, the day of atonement, is coming!
(hank thinking about his transgressions during the year)
* i am reposting my story about yom kippur as it is approaching… it’s not always SO much fun to think about all the things i’ve done wrong, easier to think about what hank or my children have done wrong, but that’s not really the way it’s supposed to go…
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celebrating the california launch of jennifer rhode design with a pop-up ART SHOW! x0x0x
hi friends! it has been so amazing to be back in my home state of california and i am thrilled about relaunching my interior design business here. to celebrate, we are hosting a pop-up art show featuring:
* the paintings of sarah kinn, a dear friend and boulder based artist whose bright, colorful pieces are all over my house as well as in the homes of many of my colorado clients. she is coming out to berkeley to paint and create in the california sunshine and to share her work at our pop-up. a few of her gorgeous paintings…
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how do you like them apples? I DON'T!! x00xx
(hank back in boulder with apples that had fallen from our tree…)
rosh hashana is the jewish holiday celebrating the new year. the date jumps around (as do all jewish holidays - that’s just how the jewish calendar works) but it is always in the fall. this totally makes sense to me since fall is the beginning of so many things that our lives revolve around: new school year, new TV season, fall fashion lines… the regular new year has always felt kind of arbitrary to me coming in january because it seems like the MIDDLE of the year, which it IS if you are a student or a parent and i’ve been one or the other of those for most of my life.
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boulder buddies! x0x0x
(lucy and ella at lu’s third birthday party…)
i have been thinking a lot about friendship lately. since we moved back to california it’s been so much easier for me to spend time with my growing up friends and that has been so grounding and wonderful. we moved to berkeley from seattle when i was five so my longest current friendships started then. (i DID have friends in seattle, but i don’t know them anymore… i even had an adorable boyfriend in preschool that my parents totally lost track of. i LOVE the stories on people.com where they feature couples who knew each other in childhood and reconnected decades later… all the rest of my old boyfriends are either married, gay or disasterous so “ramey” is my last hope to be on the cover of people. we can’t remember his last name, but he was five or six in seattle in 1975…)
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just delighted to be back in california! x00xx
(the berkeley marina with the GG bridge and the city in the distance! x0x)
my eldorado springs project was featured in home & garden colorado magazine! x0x0x
i am so thrilled that my eldorado spring project is included in the summer 2025 issue of home & garden colorado. this was an especially rewarding project because my clients moved from the house we worked on together in boulder to a smaller, jewel box of a home in eldorado springs. we had a great time placing their original furniture and layering on new pieces. many thanks to lori tobias for the story and to heather burns for the lovely photo and of course, my wonderful clients! x00x
Read Moresuper HAPPY to be back in california! x00xx
HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful father! x00xx
(me and my dad in front of the giant sedan he never had trouble parking)
despite being an economist and a statistician with a super solid understanding of probability and odds, my dad was also a DREAMER. he really believed in luck (especially his own, which he called, “rhode luck”) so he regularly bought lotto tickets. several nights a week, on his way home from the city he would pull over at max’s liquor and get lottos with our birthday numbers. he DID have luck, at least for parking, because he always seemed to get a spot right out front in his BIG sedan, even though san pablo is one of the busiest streets in berkeley (like the way the lead character in a movie always pulls up smack in front of the bar or restaurant in a crazy city without ever circling or even having to back in to the space.)
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september's FEATURED QUILT of the month by my mother, ann rhode! x0x0x
(floating, 2021 by ann rhode, 80W x 84L”)
ann created “floating” in another attempt to reduce her scrap bag. the printed strips were all leftovers from other quilts. she estimates over 200 different fabrics were used, which gives a sense of the incredible size of her fabric collection. the scraps were organized by width and then arranged with the lightest value prints at the top and increasing to the darkest at the bottom. the horizontal solid strips were appliquéd in place after.
floating is is machine pieced and machine quilted. fabrics and batting are all cotton.
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VERY happy to be back in California! x0x0x
(flowers from a neighborhood walk with hank! x0x0x!)
REPOST: interact brand design studio
in commercial interior, art, office
(the lounge area of the office complete with vintage ads)
* now that i am back in california, i am sharing some of my previous projects… this commercial project was so much FUN. i loved all the whimsy and unexpected “art” like the giant ice cream cones, the collection of vintage soda cans, the big drum and the ad campaigns from another era. work spaces can always have a bit of “silly” slipped in! x0x0x
Read Moreso exciting to be in california! x00xx
the last week of summer 2025... x00xx
(hank and rosie getting used to each other and sitting on the same rug!)
this was a big week in our house… lucy started her second year of high school, theo left for his sophomore year of college AND rosie is staying with us (my mom is at quilt camp with her friends making pretty new quilts and gin and tonics!) there’s been lots of flurry, loads and loads of laundry, last minute target runs, tons of take out, MANY extra hugs and of course, some tears (NOT as many as last year, thank goodness!) as i write this, i am nestled between two sleeping dogs and it is quiet for the first time all summer (except for hank’s snoring, which sea saws between soft whistles and full on freight train.) even this new girl, alexa is quiet. i am not sure when she moved in, but she is kind of driving me crazy. she is very bossy and she needs so MUCH attention. she starts chatting around 6:30 am, even on the weekends. she doesn’t respond well to niceties… i have to be really direct and say, “alexa, STOP!” she pipes down for a minute or two and then she starts telling me the weather. i don’t really care about the weather because i have lots of windows. also, berkeley is pretty temperate and i don’t even like to go outside too much. again, i have to firmly say, “alexa, STOP!” and then (just to bother me i am sure) she starts playing music… and not even MY music, random stuff i don’t recognize and don’t want to hear. i typically start to get super irritated at this point and don’t articulate my directions as well so i might have to tell her to stop NUMEROUS times before she finally does (kind of like conversations with my two teens.) but at least i KNOW those teens (i gave BIRTH to them) and i LOVE them so i have more bandwidth for them. i have never even SEEN alexa… she just sort of slips around the house and i hear her voice or her advice or her music from all different areas. i would appreciate it if she could introduce herself properly and look me in the eye.
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