Need a new purse wardrobe?!

So a couple of weeks ago at the emery reception at the art center, I met a girl, Aimee, who had a beautiful new baby girl only six days old with her. While her little one was the cutest thing ever, like the mommy-to-be I am, I of course noticed her adorable diaper bag as well. I took a closer look at the label and it was from 1154 Lill Studio.

Now my Des Moines friends will know, we obsessed over this place a couple of years ago and I have never forgotten about it. It's a studio where you can design your own custom handbags from amazing fabrics. But to my delight..you can design your own diaper bags too! So I'm back on board people, you should be too.


Then a couple of days later like fate...I got an update from my favorite blog, that she was the new judge for a purse makeover contest from 1154 Lill!! So all you have to do is submit a photo of your ugly purse or bag..and you could win a new purse wardrobe (see below)....so I had to share with emery fans...Cuz I'm pretty sure someone I know needs to win this. I know I am going to enter, but I'm not sure I have an ugly bag...is that greedy?! Let us know if you enter so we can all vote for you!!

Baby Sale!

No, our babies aren't for sale. BUT, our onesies are on SUPER SALE...its the end of summer and all you mamas or grandmas might need to buy one more cute outfit, or prepare for next year. SO, we have reduced the prices of our onesies on our Etsy site to only $12!!

Also to kick off the end of summer, our hooded towels are now only $22- quite the bargain. We are ready to make more of everything, so we need to clear out the store :) These are great for bath time for kids or getting off the lake...hurry we only have two left!

Click here to visit our Etsy store and super emery sale.

My sister, the genius

Emery fans! I've missed you all while I was out being busy having my handsome baby boy and learning what it's like to be a new mom. Tiring, but definitely worth it. Why didn't someone tell Emily and I that starting a business the same year we decided to have babies was crazy?! Luckily I had my lovely partner to keep things in order while I was out.

So now that I'm back, what do you guys want me to do? Color consultation for your home? Re-design your living room? Plan the details for your baby shower? Make earrings or gifts for your bridesmaids? Just wanted to remind everyone that not only do we offer our handmade products, but our services. With our interior and graphic design backgrounds, Emery is THE creative outlet.

I also wanted to give Emily a shout-out to thank her for all her hard work trying to keep Emery on track, even as she starts to get super pregnant! She is extremely talented and has so many great ideas. I feel like she is sitting around being a design genius, that even her own family and friends aren't always utilizing. If you've ever received an invite or something in the mail from or for me, that's Emily's work. She has done my bachelorette, wedding, and baby shower invites. Most recently she did Cole's birth announcements. Em also puts together a really amazing photo slideshow on DVD. Her designs are fun, fresh, and trendy. She does a great job of capturing you in her work. It's like she is inside your head and always gets it spot on. So please remember her or feel free to refer her to your friends/families. She loves doing it and it's not as expensive as you might think to have this stuff done custom. Love ya Em :)

Lastly, remember to check out our SALE on Etsy! You'll be considered the genius when you show up to the next shower with a unique gift by Emery.

Fancy Dry Erase Board

We found this dry erase board tutorial and thought we'd share it with you. I'm definitely going to try this out in my own home and I'll update with pics. Just take fabric or scrapbook paper and put in a cool frame- pretty simple huh? This way it can match the decor of your office, kitchen, or wherever you want to use it. We even thought you could put it in your nursery to keep track of feedings or naps. Emery loves it.

Man Gifts

Emery is hard at work again helping you out with gift ideas. Father's Day is always tough and I learned the hard way on my very first wedding anniversary this year that finding a sentimental gift for a guy is NOT easy people. We liked this wine bag with chalk board tag. You can use it for Father's Day or groomsmen gifts, give them a steak with it from HyVee of course (love you Dad!)

Or we found these photo blocks very intriguing. A designer on Etsy sells them but they were posted on the homepage and she had to close shop it was so popular. I'm thinking find a cool block of wood yourself, roughen up the edges of the photo and decoupage it yourself.

Anyone have a rocker husband or a wanna be rocker husband? We think these personalized guitar picks are cool. Lots of people do these on Etsy in ball markers too..so if you have a golfer instead of a rocker you could go that route.

Don't forget about emery's lyric canvas idea..you can go as small or as large as you want and we'll make it for you! Visit our old post here to refresh your memory. Or our personalized six pack of beer idea. Remember you only have a couple of weeks before its Father's Day!

Clutches!

Emery finished another big project: Amanda's wedding clutches! Her wedding is coming up in June and she wanted her bridesmaids to have unique gifts. Great idea, my bridesmaids loved it, hers will too I'm sure.

Here is another designer who makes clutches that emery loves. She even personalizes the labels for your maids, very cute idea. The next two weeks we are busy filling up the Art Center again, so if you are in town make sure and stop out to see the new merchandise!

Put Fabric Everywhere

Emery is busy working on our brand and what is going to be our niche. Here are a couple of things we love and are working on to make more "emery style".

Wall Canvas Art- you saw last week this is in Baby D's nursery. But why not for your living room or that blank wall you have no idea what to do with? We love these canvases and thought we'd show a different setting in which to use them.

Many of you know we are obsessed with RUFFLES. This pillow is super cute and made out of an old t-shirt. You can't go wrong with recycling things you already own and aren't using. Turn those t-shirts into pillows people!

Last thing we wanted to share this week is one of our emery hooded towels in action. My nephew, Henry, is loving his..don't worry that isn't a mad look about the towel, its just that he is so cute he has to pose for several photos a day- this was like number 20. He told me he really loves the towel.

It's Official!

It's official friends. Emery is on Etsy and open for business! If you click here it will take you directly to our site. Please browse around and let us know what you think. We were very excited to make our first sale pretty much instantly! That customer might even say we were a little TOO excited :) Thank you all for your enthusiasm and input through this process. We love our fans and appreciate your continued interest in our progress.

I also wanted to take a minute to share Baby Donnenwerth's nursery with everyone. You will be happy to see some of the great ideas we've blogged about in the past were used in the room.

This shelf was made for me by my grandpa and in my room while I was growing up. I updated it with some cool, decorative knobs to give it that emery touch!

I made these fabric canvases, including the giraffe silhouette, in some fun, vintage looking fabrics. These kind of canvases are likely to be added to our etsy site in the future so let us know if you have a certain theme you'd like to see. Baby D loves giraffes so this was the obvious choice for his/her room :) Aunt Emily designed this lyric canvas with the words from Somewhere Over The Rainbow. Nothing but sweet dreams of rainbows, lemon drops, and bluebirds for Baby D as he/she drifts off to sleep

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emery on Etsy...this week!

That is right..emery is opening on Etsy.com...this week! As true designers we promised late April, and it will probably be no sooner than April 30th. BUT, here are some previews of our items we are going to list for our first round of our shop. We have lots of baby items: onesies, diaper covers, burp cloths, hooded towels, and baby blankets. Some signature emery items like our custom monograms, fabric magnets, thumbtacks, and earrings, and cowl neck scarves. One of our newest and most popular items will be listed as well: our dishtowels! We thought this would be a good start but of course we are still working on many items to come.

Don't forget if you are in the Lakes area to stop by our shop at the Art Center, and we of course are still doing many custom orders. Right now we are finishing up Amanda's clutches for her bridesmaids, a stylish new apron for Stacy, baby slings for Melissa and redecorating our Aunt Janice's basement! Emery has been busy and now we want to breathe a little and enjoy the arrival of Baby Donnenwerth..who will be here in May. We'll keep you posted on the shop opening..get that money ready! Love, Em and Meg

We have a winner!

Congratulations to Lenae Rubis! She chose two great items from Adornments as her prize, so let us know which one is going to be THE one you take home from the contest. Even though we drew the winner fair and square we loved Lenae's enthusiasm for all things emery! We want to thank everyone who participated, it was awesome to see the great responses and get some feedback on our work!

Next week, is THE big week you all have been waiting for..emery will be open for business officially. More details to come.

Emery Contest #2=FREE Adornments

Mother’s Day is fast approaching and we all know we have been invited to several bridal showers ….need a great gift? OR Just need something for yourself to wear to one of the showers?!

Well, Meg and I are people-pleasers and our first contest went over so well we decided to have another one! This time we have teamed up with one of our favorite jewelry designers, Wendi Cupp of Adornments. Above is a photo of our friend Kelsey, who owns an Adornments necklace! We have been trading projects with Wendi to help each other out recently. For example, Emery designed her business card and logo (see below).

HERE ARE THE CONTEST RULES:

1. To enter you must post a comment on our blog or our facebook fan page.
2. Go to Wendi’s site here and pick out what piece of jewelry you would want to have if you are picked as the winner.
3. Post your comment and tell us two things: what piece of jewelry you love from Adornments and also what you love about emery or what you want to see from us in our upcoming etsy site.
4. All comments and posts need to be submitted by Thursday, April 15 and we’ll pick a winner and announce on April 18. The lucky winner will receive their jewelry of choice!

Emery picked a couple of their faves..now you pick yours!

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Have fun shopping!

emery and Adornments

Babies on the Brain

So we had a very busy week and some of you might have noticed this blog post is late. Did some of you wonder what happened when Monday morning you didn't have a lovely emery email? Well, tough. We have been busy but we didn't forget- and if you DID notice then we really do love you :)

This past weekend was Megan's baby shower hosted by myself and her sister in law, Lisa. I thought I would remind everyone, and for those that don't know, that I am a graphic designer and LOVE to do invites for these occasions. Here is the invite I did for Meg's shower. She is torturing me by not finding out what she is having, so I went with the theme of her nursery (giraffes and gender neutral colors!)

Also, we wanted to welcome Carly and Caylin Kisker to the world this week. We know they are going to be huge emery fans and can't wait to meet them! Congrats Hills!

Monograms

Attention Brides! It's wedding season and you're probably busy planning all the little details like the reception site, the menu, the dresses, but have you thought about one of the most important details? The monogram? Well if you haven't, don't worry there is still time to make sure you avoid this blunder. Emery made a few samples this week that will be available on the Etsy site.

We wanted to have a few ready that may catch your eye, but since it's hard to predict what your initials are before we've even talked, we will also largely offer custom monograms. Each is unique and made-to-order for you, whether it be for a wedding or just because you want one. We're planning to offer them in sets (like you see above), singles, lowercase and uppercase.

The ones we've already done for weddings have been great for an extra touch on the cake or guest book table. It's a decoration you can actually use post-wedding and just display somewhere in your house.These aren't just for weddings either. We'll also be happy to do any sort of design if you have another idea for where you want one. Monograms or spelling out a full name for wall hangings or on a shelf are a popular idea for baby and kids' rooms that can be very cute. They also make a stylish "knick-knack" for your desk at work or home. I know I'm always drawn to monograms in stores and think one would be perfect decor for my cubicle, but of course they never a have a good "M" in a design I like. So just let us know what you're looking for and we're on it!

Towel Hoodies

What is emery doing this week? Working on our products for our Etsy site of course! Towel hoodies are quickly becoming one of our favorite items to make. I even read in a baby book you should have 4-5 for your child...hello emery?! We sell these at the art center and are also making some for our Etsy shop. Here are two of the hoodies that will be featured in our Etsy shop.


They are fun for bath time and also for the beach. I know many times I have been at the beach or getting off the boat and I could have used one myself! Of course they are soft and cuddly and we are loving the idea of using fun emery patterns for the towels. So let us know when you need 4-5 for your child! :)

Keep the ideas coming!

As we spread the word about emery and what we've been up to, we find that a lot of people have interesting suggestions of things they'd like to see us make. Turns out everyone has ideas but they just don't know how to make them happen! We love hearing things like this and take note of products for the future all the time.

I was talking about our little venture at work this week with a friend. She recently had a baby girl. Now that her baby is in daycare, she was complaining about how everything you bring has to be labeled. Specifically she is having trouble labeling bottles. Right now she writes the name on the bottle with a sharpie but it wears in the dishwasher. She told me they have bottle rings but she hadn't found anything good. I was kind of baffled by this. I mean my baby is still in my belly and now I have a label dilemna to worry about?! The wheels started turning and I did a little digging and came up with three different options for labeling.

First is this elastic, embroidered band:

Genius to use it as a gift label to, right?! The second option I found has emery written all over it, literally. It's much like our fabric coffee cozies we've been making for the Lakes Art Center, modified for a bottle. Bottle cozie!

The last one is vinyl labels (dishwasher and microwave proof of course). These would not only work for bottles, but sippy cups, bowls, pacifiers, bags, etc. I have not run this by my partner, but I am confident with her amazing graphic design skills this is something she could easily do. Right Em? She can't really protest, she's living it up in Vegas this week!

So anytime you have a need like this, keep letting us know and we'd love to make it for you. We just want to give the people what the want! We are still working hard on custom orders and more product for the big etsy site launch. We promise we'll have more previews of that to come real soon.

Grand Opening

The grand opening was a huge success! We sold lots of product, lots of people turned out for the event, everyone finally got to see our work in person...overall a great day for emery. We wanted to show our blog readers some of the photos of the displays but check out facebook for a complete album. THANK YOU to everyone who came to support us, it means so much to us.

What's next? We need to fill up that display again, and work on our Etsy site products. A new idea we had is entering into Art in the Park in Okoboji...what do you all think?!

Winter Blues?

Is everyone sick of winter like we are? I guess all the bad weather has given us reason to stay holed up inside working hard on product for emery, but seeing a little sunshine this weekend was pretty dreamy right? We know we've told you all about the opening of the gift and coffee shop at the Pearson Lakes Art Center featuring emery products....BUT we're really excited and want to remind you that it is THIS Saturday, March 6th. So if you can make it, it's a perfect way to come out of hibernation and see some emery product in person. Even better, it's finally available for purchase so all of your dreams can finally come true :) You're going to need a funky new apron or dish towels if you want to do spring right this year. Plus it's probably time to go green and get yourself a fabric coffee cozie that is reusable. AND if you're not in the market for anything amazing right now, it's still going to be a fun afternoon. The opening is from 1-4 pm and there will be food and drinks for your enjoyment-featuring delicious cheesecakes by our own mother, Judy. That's reason to attend right there I'd say! We'd love to see you there and we're excited to be able to offer some of our product in this retail setting.

On another note, with my baby on the way, I think I'm starting to "nest". I've been having my hubby rearrange rooms and scheming how I'm going to deep clean the apartment to prepare. With warm weather on the way (hopefully), everyone is probably starting to think about spring cleaning and how to refresh their homes. We are currently in an apartment, so for me painting isn't an option and I've been trying to come up with some cute ideas for the baby's walls. I know wall decals are the craze right now and they're a good way to give a space a new look without making it permanent. You can use them instead of wall paper or use them in place of a headboard. There are tons of options out there, but I found some cute decals on etsy that you may be interested in.

2010 Emery Gift Giving Guide

It's that time of year when brides are winding down their plans and are looking for more lists of things to do, the mamas-to-be are getting rounder and more irritable every day...that's right, its wedding and baby shower season. What to get your girls that made it through the B-team in 7th grade basketball with you, the ones that held your hair in college, or the ones that you were a bridesmaid for a few years ago and helped throw their fabulous bach parties? Its not easy, and many of you who have been through it will say STICK TO THE REGISTRY PEOPLE. But there are times when being crafty and original might just say it better.

Emery has some ideas to give to your girlfriends and even some of those guys that might appreciate a unique gift. Here is Emery's 2010 Gift Giving Guide.


This is our favorite idea for prego mamas and brides. Use her name and her new hubby's or maybe all her little ones' names will make the perfect gift. We love all of Lisa Leonard's designs so check it out here.

Ok, let's get to the wedding party. Bridesmaids will need earrings for your wedding, so give them as their gift and attach some cute paper and give to the girls in a cute box. Emery makes fabric covered earrings so another idea would be to give these to the girls for throwing your shower or bachelorette party. They'll be more excited they went to all the trouble.These bangle bracelets are fun too, anything unique to their personality will mean a lot.

Your maid of honor or personal attendant needs a special gift for all her hard work. Emery makes tote bags that will give them something to carry all your stuff in on wedding day and will make a great keepsake for after the event.

What to get the groom...the night before the wedding give him a personalized box of beer to make sure every drink he takes that night with the boys will remind him of you and the celebration of your love. Ok, for real, he'll like that you thought of him and went the extra mile to do something sweet. These could make great groomsmen gifts too but you might not want to tell them you love them the night before your wedding. Maybe make it about their relationship with the groom. Emery can make these custom labels for you, just ask us for a quote! The six pack box can have a custom label too. This might be a good gift for the daddy-to-be as well, he might need it before his life changes in a few months.

Ok, those mama-to-be's need some unique gifts too. Why not give her cute burp cloths since she'll have one on her shoulder for the next two years? Emery makes these and we will have a variety of these in our Etsy store. These little stuffed animals and booties are a cute crotched gift for those really ambitious at creating gifts. The patterns for these are free and located here.

Monograms are big right now, Emery makes these custom for weddings. Think cake table or guest book table, or even for that baby's room that needs something else to make the room personalized.

There you have it, a full list of great gift ideas, so get started early or let us help you create these unique ideas.