Kourt: I’m so happy to be sitting here with Jenni Kayne, someone who really inspires me. Thank you for coming over!
Jenni: Thank you for having me.
Kourt: I am obsessed with your.. everything.. that you do. Probably when I had Penelope, I was, became like obsessed. I would sit at night after the kids went to bed, and I would just look at everything in order. I feel like your aesthetic is that every single thing should be, should look nice. Whether it’s a sponge and you’re, you know in your kitchen or if it’s the scissors that you use. And I remember being like, “Oh my god, you only live once, I need to have the best scissors and the best–” and it’s not that it’s super expensive/
Jenni: No.
Kourt: Did your mom have your house, like everything like that? Or?
Jenni: No, so I—I’ve always been like this, I’ve always had a very, kind of distinct um- sense of style and a very, I like to say a discerning eye. Umm, but at the same time I feel like I’ve, as my life has kind of changed and as I’ve grown up, I have gotten interested in different categories. So, what used to be just caring about fashion, then became caring about the way my home was decorated, and now is about literally every single detail.
Kourt: Yeah.
Jenni: So, from, ya know, the scrubber brush that I’m using, to the scissors, to what my hamper looks like.
Kourt: Mhm.
Jenni: /Is equally as inspiring to me, as how I’m setting my table and what I’m wearing and what the house looks like. To me, I always say it’s about living well and living beautifully, and all those small details, they just make me happy.
Kourt: I know, but it’s so– it makes me so happy and it’s— it is like really about you and how, just knowing that you’re using this sponge, that’s, ya know, not the green, classic, you know, sponge.
Jenni: I’ve changed, um, being critical or judgemental to be discerning, because I don’t think that, um, the way that my eye works is, it’s not meant to make people feel bad/
Kourt: Mhm.
Jenni: /it’s meant to um, enhance whatever they’re doing and so I think having a discerning eye means like, you are very particular you’re specific about what you gravitate towards and what you like, but it doesn’t mean that you’re judging the way people are doing this.
Kourt: So do you just say it in a different way?
Jenni: Yeah.
Kourt: Like what? I need to– I need to know how to say it.
Jenni: I say it in a different way and I wait for– and I wait for the right moment like…
Kourt: So you kind of wait for them to ask you…
Jenni: Yeah.
Kourt: For their,
Jenni: It comes from less of a judgemental or..
Kourt: Yeah.
Jenni: But I do, you know, as a designer and a virgo, it’s kind of a curse, any time I go to a hotel or to somebody’s house or anything, I think, “Oh, what would I do here” you know?
Kourt: Yeah.
Jenni: and have ideas, but to me that’s just part of my creative process and it’s being inspired, wherever I am.
Kourt: No, and I think it’s nice to also, you know, take the beauty of what something else is, and just appreciate it and not, you know, want to change everything. Like, I think it’s like a fine line.
Jenni: Totally, and like my sister Maggie just moved into a Spanish house, and she is decorating it super colorful and it’s totally different but I can appreciate it because it’s beautiful and it’s her and it’s a reflection of her.
Kourt: When we have so many of our celebrations like we’re all about celebrating, every possible occasion that we can, and for so many of them I go to your site and look up inspiration, and I was just wondering, do you go to anybody for inspiration?
Jenni: Yeah. Well I’m flattered you say that. That was what the blog was meant to do. Um, I had so much information in my head and so much that my friends were coming to me for, that I wanted to kind of put it in one place and that’s like how Rip and Tan started.
Kourt: Mhm.
Jenni: Um, I would say, I do a lot of research online and I usually get inspired by an ingredient or an occasion… Um, and I really try to live seasonally, and then I start a Pinterest board so I’ll pull from different places on Pinterest online, um, in general I would say I look to Martha for so much, and we definitely have a different aesthetic, but um, the way that she entertains and the way that she really like lives seasonally and um, ya know, grows food and has her chickens and um, just has this beautiful life,
Kourt: Mhm.
Jenni: Um, it’s all about coming together and all of that I think it pretty— pretty inspiring.
Kourt: Yeah.
Jenni: And I think what she’s built, being a mother and um, an entrepreneur and everything, I really– I look to her.
Kourt: So this is a question I ask everybody, is, “What would you want to Poosh yourself to do more of?”
Jenni: I think to really be in the moment, it’s something that I talk about a lot, but I’m not always practicing it myself.
Kourt: Mhm.
Jenni: So really, whenever I’m with my kids, to be focused and with them and not tracking my work emails and whenever I’m at work, to be focused on who’s ever in front of me and really taking time for myself to– to kind of get grounded and be in the moment.
*Music plays*
