Amish Furniture Home is excited to announce a new feature coming soon to our blog – on the third Wednesday of every month, we’ll be posting the Amish Furniture Home Interior Design & Decor Blog Carnival!

What’s a Blog Carnival?

A blog carnival is a type of blog event that is easily compared to print magazines (thanks Wikipedia!).  They’re published according to a regular schedule and revolve around a central topic with content coming from multiple sources.

Blog carnivals are a fun way for bloggers to provide their readers regular collections of recently published, high quality resources. With these blog carnivals, web communities can begin a discussion and get a high standard of information on a certain niche.

In addition to AFH’s carnival, you can find a wide range of carnivals, or even start your own, at BlogCarnival.

The Amish Furniture Home Carnival

Our Carnival will be posted every third Wednesday of the month.

If you’d like to submit your post for inclusion, entries will be due by the Sunday preceding the third Wednesday of each month. That means that submissions for next month are due by Sunday, February 14 (Happy Valentines Day!), with the first carnival going up on Wednesday, February 17.

Submissions can made in one of two ways:

1. Complete the form on our BlogCarnival page
2. Contact us directly at @amishhome on Twitter with the URL, title and a brief description of your post

Please only submit posts that fall within the following topics:

• Interior Design
• Amish Furniture
• Green Furniture
• Sustainable Living
• Bringing the Family Together
• Ann Arbor
• Michigan Furniture

The articles we accept will be rewarded with a do-follow link from our blog and will have the honor of being included with some of the best content on the net.

Please limit your submissions to two posts per month.

Thanks for reading and we look forward to your posts! Let’s have some fun, it’s a carnival after all!

The revolution has begun.  Organizations across the United States are encouraging their communities to “Think Local”.  As we heard numerous times in the past year, the economic recovery will come on Main Street, not Wall Street.  As such, local business leaders have taken up the banner in support of their locally-owned, independent businesses.  Many small, urban centers, such as those in Washtenaw County are dedicated to strengthening their local economy.

Think Local First – Washtenaw County

Our local advocate group is called, “Think Local First” and operates out of Ann Arbor, MI.  As the group tells us on their website, “Our mission is to support and cultivate locally-owned, independent businesses in Washtenaw County, Michigan that are committed to making our community a healthier and more vibrant place to live”.  Grand Rapids is also fortunate enough to be involved with a locally-sustainable organization called Local First Grand Rapids.  Given the state of Michigan’s marketplace, buying local has never been more important to a self-sustaining economy.

Local Purchases Are an Investment

The Stats

For those looking for reasons to shrug online purchases, we highly recommend Michael H.Shuman’s book Going Local. According to his calculations, when you spend $100 at local businesses, $73 stays within the local economy. Compare that to the $43 that remains if the original $100 is spent with a national chain and you see how quickly a vibrant community like Ann Arbor can become unstable.

Does It Help?

The Andersonville Study of Retail Economics produced by the Andersonville Chamber of Commerce concluded 4 critical points in 2004:

1. Local merchants generate substantially greater economic impact than chain firms.
2. Replacement of local businesses with chains will reduce the overall vigor of the local economy.
3. Changes in consumer spending habits can generate substantial local economic impact.
4. Great care must be taken to ensure that public policy decisions do not inadvertently disadvantage locally owned businesses.  Indeed, it may be in the best interests of communities to institute policies that directly protect them.

Without getting too technical, residents can easily understand how the “Think Local” movement can help their community.  By raising community awareness and encouraging shoppers to buy from their neighborhood shops, capital stays within the banks and businesses in their neighborhood.  Business owners then reinvest this capital in their operations and spend revenue at other local establishments.  Rather than a typical expenditure, thinking/buying local is an investment.

We’re in This Together

Think Local First of Washtenaw County began initial discussions in 2003 concerning the shared belief that strong communities begin with businesses that are a part of the fabric of our community.  Since 2006, this organization has been under its current label.

Amish Tables Growing in AA

Companies and businesses all over Ann Arbor are jumping aboard the Think Local Movement…and so are we!  We are dedicated to providing local customers the best shopping experience and results.  This mission has led to a brand new showroom opening at the end of the month.   Amish-Furniture-Home.com is just one of our family of sites that we at Amish Tables, LLC have put together to serve our customers more accurately. Please look for the Amish Tables showroom opening at 4844 Jackson Rd #100 in Ann Arbor, MI.

Like many businesses these days, we spurred initial success through a dedicated online presence.  As our family of sites continues to grow, we are bringing the success to the community. Rather than keep the business as electronic only, our new showroom is a commitment to the Washtenaw Community.

Small Steps, Big Solutions

The economic climate in our state is depressing; no doubt about that.  But in times of despair and gloom, groups like Think Local First are providing hope.  Like numerous clichés point out, big problems often take many small solutions.  Think Local First and the businesses of Washtenaw County must recognize the significance of a joint effort.  When money is tight, it’s easy to hunt for the lowest prices online or at the “big box” retailers.  But in the long term, a concerted effort to support our neighbors and independent businesses will benefit everyone.

]]> http://www.amish-furniture-home.com/blog/news/think-local-washtenaw-county/feed/ 0 http://www.amish-furniture-home.com/blog/design-style/a-brief-history-of-19th-century-eclectic-from-the-civil-war-to-modernism/ http://www.amish-furniture-home.com/blog/design-style/a-brief-history-of-19th-century-eclectic-from-the-civil-war-to-modernism/#comments Fri, 17 Jul 2009 04:01:06 +0000 admin http://www.amish-furniture-home.com/blog/design-style/a-brief-history-of-19th-century-eclectic-from-the-civil-war-to-modernism/

 

The years surrounding Civil War was not just a separation of tastes politically but one in interior décor. The last part of the 19^th century in North America saw the blending of many very strong interior design tastes within one home. Many consider this to be the Eclectic period in American history. This eclectic collecting may have resulted from the easier access to more thanks to the Industrial Revolution. Machine made products kept products flowing at a much less expensive rate. Large scale manufacturers in Grand Rapids, Michigan were pumping out furniture to the common man at easy to pay for levels.

BRIEF INTERESTING FACTS FROM THE LATTER 19TH CENTURY ECLECTIC ERA-

• In rapid sequence designers birthed first Gothic then Elizabethan and finally rococo. While these co-existed in popularity in the mid-century they did not co-exist under the same roof. All three were used and admired but not blended.  
• The latter half of this century saw even more design styles, like the Renaissance style, emerge but none truly retire.
• This was the era of the kings; from France to England and from Louis to Henri.
• The big English furniture designers Chippendale, Sheraton and Hepplewhite shined brightly in the Victorian days. Colonial, Centennial Revival and Empire became common by the turn of the century.
• In large part thanks to William Morris and his Arts and Crafts philosophy and followers furniture was being influenced by far away lands like Turkey, Japan and Persia.
• Charles Eastlake agreed with Morris and Lewis Day on their discrimination against mass produced furniture and wrote a book touting the belief that home furnishings should be made by hand or machine workers that truly took artisan pride in their work.
• During these decades many felt a prejudice towards keeping it American and a cry went out to create a style distinctly American.
• Very distinct designs and designers emerged during this time and many published books that became hard and fast bibles used by designers, cabinetmakers and other furniture builders.
• Almost always if a design style became popular the wallpapers, rugs and accessories  appropriate to that style became available.
• No matter how modest the home it was believed that there should be a library, a sort of retreat for the family.

The 20^th century saw less desire for homes to be so eclectic. A yearning for something more simple in American homes was emerging. The birth of styles like Modernism had brought a sense of more efficient and less cluttered designs like the contemporary designs found from Amish-Furniture-Home.com.

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