I’ll start with myself, my sister, Megan, fill you in on who she is. I am Emily Butterworth, grew up Emily Jensen. I have always had a passion for all things art. Megan and I used to make our own barbie furniture and had to decorate everything we could get our hands on. I always bossed her around and made sure she kept things organized and you can see some of this when we pull out our old barbie clothes and I made her categorize the brown paper bags she kept her clothes in. This is why we as sisters, have decided to join forces and use our skills for good.
During high school I took art classes from Mr. Hall and loved every class I was in and started to gain confidence this was something I was good at. Mr. Hall helped me get my stuff together and apply to the art program at UNI and I was accepted and started my next chapter there. I took all studio classes and started to realize I liked my design classes more than my art education classes. Was I really not going to be an art teacher? I decided to go the path of becoming a graphic designer.
From there I graduated with a degree in studio art and was on a quest for the perfect design studio job. If you are a graphic designer you realize what I’m talking about and what reality you really get when you start the job hunt. You think you are going to design for this hip little studio but you end up in a small office that needs a marketing person and they give you a PC and some programs they think might help you. I struggled though that first year and landed a job at Stelter in Des Moines designing newsletters for non- profits. Here I met some of the best friends I will ever have. After four years, I reconnected with Andy Butterworth who was living in Spirit Lake. We quickly fell in love and I took the plunge to move back to the area we wanted to have a family grow up in.
Here I am today working full time as a graphic designer for Bank Midwest, but doing freelance work on the side..and starting this idea with my sister to satisfy our creative needs.
We kicked off Emery last weekend, Oct. 24, 2009. I had a photo shoot with Crystal Newcomb, who I worked with at Stelter in Des Moines. She photographed my graphic design work for my freelance site I’m working on launching in the next month and we also photographed a preview of Emery. Megan was along to help direct the shoot and we hope to have photos soon to show you what we have started.
Now I'll let Megan let you know where she is...
Hello, All. I'm Megan Donnenwerth, Emily's sister and now business partner. I want to tell you a little bit about myself and hopefully get you as excited about Emery as we are.
Just like Emily has told you, ever since we were little Jensen girls, our minds have been churning with crafty ideas. From our lamps made of marbles and toothpaste lids for our Barbie house to friendship bracelets to sell at our Mom's garage sales to jungle safari Halloween costumes in college, we've always been thinking outside of the box with do-it-yourself projects.
I also had taken art classes throughout high school, but never really thought I could cut it in the professional world as an artist. Keep in mind I was the third Jensen kid following behind two amazing talents (my brother, Adam, and of course Emily). So when I went off to college at UNI, I had it in my head that I was going to be an accountant. You know, use my brains and try and make the big bucks. Well, I made it through just one accounting class before I realized the creative side of me was going to be completely unhappy if I didn't take a risk on what I really wanted to do. I changed my major and ended up earning my Bachelor of Arts in Interior Design with a minor in Business.
Immediately following college, I married my high school sweetheart, Luke Donnenwerth. We moved to Iowa City and have been living here for the last 4 years almost. I am currently working at AEGON, a life insurance and investment company. I've been trying to help out friends and family with design ideas for their houses whenever I can. It has been a struggle to find something in my field so it's definitely exciting to finally have this business forming on the side where I know I can satisfy my creative passions.
Having an interior design background, I have a real love for textiles and a good eye for color. I find that I am constantly drawn to cool things wondering how they were made or thinking of what I could do with them. Emily and I cannot go shopping together without finding something and being like, "Oh, we could totally make this!"
This is going to be an interesting/challenging/fun journey for us and we're excited to share the progress with you.
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