Earth Month Contest!!

In honor of April, and to close out “Earth Month”, I have decided to host a contest.   Here’s how it works.  In order to be a contestant, all you have to do is read my blog and submit a comment.   

On Friday, May 1st (May day), at 4:00 pm MST, I will randomly select someone from my list of comment submitters to win this globe.  The globe will be on display at my shop all week, so stop in any time and give it a spin.

Good luck everyone.

EchoEchoMT.com goes live!

We are proud to officially launch EchoEchoMT.com! We are also proud of Jennifer's new found abilities creating a facebook fan page ... Thank you Mr. Hank Donovan of Astarna Web Development for all your assistance and patience! For all you new Echo Echo consignment furniture shop fans - my facebook Echo fan page link is up and running! Come visit, comment and encourage my "internet marketing" via "social networking" progress!

Products

Let me introduce a little Montana company with a little Montana gift. Jerry and Lois owners of “Kith and Kin” started making special occasion benches over 25 years ago. Whether it be a graduation, wedding, baby arrival or anniversary celebration - if you were a member of this couples circle, you would receive “the bench”. The simple design of “the bench” allowed it to fit and function in any home setting and quickly become a contributing member of the household furniture collection.

Through the years, however, it was discovered that the bench had a flaw. Nothing major, just a blemish that could at times become an embarrassment. You see, under the seat of each bench, the creators would inscribe the initials, celebration dates and the special occasion warranting their gift. Over time, while the bench remains strong and steady, relationships sometimes do not, and this left the bench pushed into a dark corner and treated as a reminder of times better off forgotten.

Recognizing the potential for this problem, the couple adapted. Instead of inscribing the celebratory message on the bottom of each bench to last into eternity, the message is placed in a more subtle and easily changed location. A removable, hand carved peg allows for new lives and new circumstances and is now the location for a special inscription. The peg has grown to be the signature of all their furniture, and “the bench” is now part of my collection and available to YOUR “Kith and Kin”!

Come visit us at our new store!

Sustainable!

SOLD!  Green, Green, the color of Spring ... and frogs and diapers and houses and lightbulbs and menus and cars and clothes and corporate logos and pretty much everything these days!

I grew up “the Ranger's daughter”. For those of you familiar with the play, “Little Mary Sunshine”, that was me. Anyway, my point being, I was green before green was in. In the United States Forest Service, it was good to drive green trucks. You lived in log houses with green shutters and it was good to plant gardens and care about trees and not litter and protect clean water and appreciate blue sky and, of course, to never ever play with matches.

Today, green is all grown up and it is very trendy. Well, I’m all grown up too, and I’m going to jump on that new green bandwagon while there is still a bit of room left. From this point forward, I reclaim my investment in green. I am an active advocate of durable, sustainable, distinctive green furniture. I support breathing life into the old and making it new again. I promote the purchase of sturdy, tried and true second hand furniture over new stuff imported from --- you know. I will campaign for an onslaught of “green designers”, decorators who believe in the cause and shop in my store! And finally, I will seek out quality used furniture and save it from the landfill and encourage others to help save our landfill from trucks full of disposable furniture.

Follow along as we find our way along the path of “green design”. We will add a fresh twist to some old styles and you will see how viable, smart, clever and comfy second hand furniture can be.

It started with the Take Apart Table.

This is an all too familiar story about a college girl and her essentials. It involves the quarterly drill of musical apartments, me and my 1971 Super Beetle, my dad, and his red English Land Rover with matching small trailer, and the usual collection of starter furniture.

For reasons of bettering my lifestyle, nearly every quarter, soon after the ink dried on my last final, I’d call my dad ... “fire up the Rover, I’m moving!” Dad would convoy to town and help me load up the ensemble of trappings I called furniture and off we would go to my new digs! I took great pleasure in arranging my cinder block book shelves, saw-horse and door table/desk combo, fluffy pillow couch/chair affair, hip posters and green house plant collection into different configurations. The newness and freshness gave me hope and inspiration for better grades in the upcoming quarter. Each new living quarter required additions to my collection and with each new piece it took more imagination for the inexperienced onlooker to appreciate just how my theme was developing.

Along about Junior year, Dad lost interest in the moving cycle and my folks took matters into their own hands. That Spring, I was presented with my first piece of “real” furniture. It was a beautiful little oak trestle table embellished with a keyhole cutout, accompanied by two benches. It was designed by my parents and dubbed “The Take Apart Table”. It came with their "Less is More" advice and they convinced me that I could live a more fulfilling life with this one artistic, simplistic, versatile, functional piece that would, ahem, fit into my Volkswagon. They had motive since my collection of necessary favorite things now required a U-Haul.

I love my table and I embraced my parents’ philosophy making it the cornerstone of my style. I now own a small home furnishings consignment shop where I feature once cherished and gently used “really nice versatile pieces”. Sometimes it is that one quirky item that sets the tone ... in a room and in life! So, be on the lookout for the unusual!