She She Hand-Painted Wallpaper Is a Must See
Good morning dear friends. Are you well? The weather has been gorgeous lately so I've been outdoors as much as possible with my little boy. Our 3 months of northern European gloom arrives at the end of November and settles until end of February - gray, gray, gray, so I'm drinking in the sun as much as I can!
I don't know if you follow me on Instagram, but last week I had a bike accident - some pedestrians walked in front of me while I was biking, I rang my bell, they acknowledged me but didn't move so I tried to slow down on the wet pavement and when I applied my brakes, my bike lost control and my front tire got stuck in the trolley tracks and I landed with a boom! It hurt like HELL.
I used to get into a ton of accidents as a child, mostly on my skates or just running about, and I remember what my parents taught me when you fall in the street - get up immediately and get off the street, even if you have to drag yourself off, because breaking a bone is okay but getting run over by a vehicle is not. Things your parents say can stick for life! When I fell last week, I hopped up, dusted off, and moved on. My friend was a little shocked that I was okay... And I thought I was until I got nearer to my home. I felt dizzy and my shoulder began to kill me.
Fast forward to the next morning, I was stiff and in loads of shoulder pain. By midday though, after a shower and relaxing in bed, it cleared and I was back to normal within 24 hours. I'm so glad I didn't get massively injured because it would have really set me back. I got back into biking this past May after not doing it regularly since I was 14, and I've fallen in love with my bike and I go everywhere with it now. I feel like a genuine northern European now with my bike- ha ha! I'm lucky I didn't get hurt and hope this is my "one accident" everyone says you have to get into to smarten up and then you don't have another for a long time... Anyway, how are you? Everything going well?
Enough about biking accidents and weather. Let's explore something I found to be mega inspiring. It is a an American bespoke wallpaper company called She She. I found it by reading an article I stumbled across last week here and saw the writer had her own wallpaper company. Intrigued, I clicked around and landed on She She.
The story of She She is quite cute. Two Americans, Interior Architect/Designer Jennifer Jorgensen and Illustrator Kate Worum were in the thick of crappy breakups and decided that the only way to move on was to get a little silly and have fun together as friends. I guess you can say art therapy was their way out of the deep hole. They created a toile on the wall of Jennifer's apartment to tell the story of their experience. Then, they painted the same toile on each other, naked, and took photos in front of the wall.
Crazy, nutty, and unexpected - neither do anything like this on a regular basis, the experiment of painting opened their eyes to something truly magical. A shiny new business. This was how She She got its start and today, their designs are still driven by telling a good (and sometimes not so good) story. They hand paint custom designs for residential and commercial clients across America. What is their dream? Ultimately, to design a boutique hotel with their patterns from top to bottom. Wouldn't that be amazing?
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Imagine the courage to just strip off your clothes with your friend and paint the walls together? Then, to turn it into a business that others end up loving, what an inspiration! Who says you have to follow the normal path to find your next business calling, right? Maybe a lot of us would do a lot more good (and interesting) things in this world if we let go more often and just get wild and unconventional sometimes. I found this quote on Pinterest recently that said something like the best memories come from bad decisions. Getting naked with buckets of paint may sound like a bad decision but.... (wink).
As you explore the images in this post, I'm sure you will also fall in love with their unique aesthetic. What do you think? Do you like it too?
(Photography: 2nd Truth Photography and She She)