Ok folks, it's party time. Tonight is the night to come out and party with us. Join us at the Framingham Circle Furniture for a wild night! Champagne, chocolate, raffle prizes of jewelry, candles, spa items...what more could a gal want? Well, for one thing to wipe out breast cancer! In the meantime, organizations like The Ellie Fund, who help people who are dealing with breast cancer, are SUPER important for the good work they do, so all proceeds from our Pink Party go directly to The Ellie Fund.

See you tonight. Oh, and by the way, men are totally invited! In my opinion, any real man can pull off a good, pink tie and wear with confidence. Don't you agree?

Build It Green!

Last year at the d2e (that's the down to earth convention in Beantown) we met Kim and started talking to her about her BIG project. She was in the midst of building a "green" home. Since Circle Furniture sells eco-friendly upholstery and green furniture we were so interested in what went into building a green home (and furnishing it as well!). So we want you to meet Kim and hear her story. It's pretty cool!

Our family is building a green house. What started as a quest to build our dream home on the RI coast became a mission in educating and helping homeowners realize what living sustainably and conserving our planet’s resources really means.

We bought the one-acre property located along Narragansett in August of 2005, after two years of attempting to remediate a serious mold problem and a foundation that doubled as a pool, we made the decision to knock down and build from scratch. At the time, I didn’t know we were going to build a green house, but after getting involved with a work project I learned about LEED®-H (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Certification through the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council). LEED for Homes is a rating system that promotes the design and construction of high-performance green homes. A green home uses less energy, water and natural resources; creates less waste; and is healthier and more comfortable for the families. I knew this was what we had to do.

For the record, I am not an environmentalist. I am a mom of two and a wife of one. I am the principal of a small PR technology firm. But when my daughter was born I found myself making the small changes that made her life healthier. Organic bedding, food, milk. No pesticides on our grass, natural products in our home. Honestly, they were small changes, easy to make and really focused on our health. Like many mom’s I am obsessed with everything the news says about our kids. From obesity to contaminated playgrounds, from carcinogens in schools to flame retardants on bedding, I consume information about how to keep my family healthy. And I use technology to keep us connected, safe and secure. That is how I became obsessed with building a LEED home and showing the world that a house could be a modern marriage of today’s technology and green living through our project, aptly named Green Life Smart Life.

Today’s homes are a hub of activity and our home is no exception. Centralizing busy schedules, family activities, working remotely and sharing information is critical to keeping the home running smoothly. The smart home technology that is showcased in our home will offer techniques for keeping the family connected, sharing digital entertainment with friends and family, managing home systems like water and energy, and making the entire system seamless, safe and secure. Technology has been a cornerstone to understanding the methodologies, products and tools a homeowner needs to build a green home and ultimately technology is what is conserving our resources, managing our energy consumption, monitoring our air quality and running all of our home’s systems.

Stay tuned to see all the cool things Kim is doing to build that "green" home and check out Kim's blog as well.

Designers We Love

Next we want you to meet Alicia, another fabulous designer at Circle Furniture.

Sign - virgo, libra on the cusp
Favorite furniture decade - 50's/60's modern, kitsch
Collects - anything with a cherry on it
Favorite family tradition - eating birthday cake for breakfast the next day
Favorite quote - "In life, as in art, the beautiful moves in curves", Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton
Favorite furniture advice - pillows in 3's, 2 the same and 1 an odd size
Loves - texture!
Dislikes - The matchy-matchy look. Ugh.

Thanks Alicia! I too enjoy a good birthday cake the day after, when you can dig in first thing in the morning...you get that super-duper sugar rush, especially paired with a good cup of coffee!

Imagine a Place...

...Where you can find leather in every color of the rainbow...Where you can find lamps that look tasty enough to take a bite out of. Where the pillows come in 750 billion fabrics and you can sit in sofas spun from gold; well, no, scratch that - that would just be silly.

Moving on. In this magic land you are fed all day long from bacon and eggs to grilled salmon and tenderloin (and that's just for breakfast!) Every time you turn a corner someone is serving you a drink. Martini, chardonnay or good ole' tequila, what's your pleasure?

Ahhhh, furniture market. It's a tough job but someone has to do it! Every year a few of us travel to North Carolina to find the best furniture that is out there. We check out the latest styles and fabrics hoping to bring home something new and special to Circle Furniture.

Seriously, it's amazing how much work it is. Up and down hallways. In and out of showrooms. Trying to find furniture that will knock the socks off our customers. We've already visited some of our favorite vendors and, good news, we've been wowed! We visited our friends at BDi and they are introducing some great new contemporary entertainment furniture and sleek office designs that we know you're going to love! At Saloom, our friends who build dining room furniture right here in Massachusetts, we were introduced to their modern collection called Gardner Contemporary. Wait until you see it - SO HOT! Last, but not least, American Leather has the most amazing leathers you've ever seen and they will be arriving to our stores any day.

After seeking out the furniture of all of our dreams (and eating and drinking WAY too much!) we feel like we're ready to come home. We've gotten some great ideas and are SO excited to start implementing them to our showrooms. We'll be home soon...hope you didn't miss us too much.

Green Film Fest

This Just In:

The Green Guild Green Film Festival is scheduled for next week and Circle Furniture is giving away a pair of tickets to the event to the first 5 people who respond to this post. Just email info@circlefurniture.com and we'll let you know if you won.

"A sneak-peak at the much-anticipated film The Muddy River Chronicles leads a series of short films on the environment at the historic Coolidge Corner Theater on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 from 7:00PM to 9:30PM. Each film will be followed by a panel discussion including many of those featured in the films, during which the audience in the Theater will have the opportunity to join the debate."

So if you are into green building, eco-friendly furniture or sustainable living check it out!

Queen Bee Strikes Again

While our own Queen Bee has flown off to Australia in search of all things "outback", her drones (ok, me) have received the good word that she has been asked to sit on yet another panel for sustainability. "The American Home Furnishings Alliance will hold its second annual Sustainability Summit which provides marketing intelligence for companies developing eco-friendly home furnishings. The AHFA is assembling a panel of retailers for "Bridging the Gap: Communicating Green at Retail." Among the participants will be Andy Thornton (our great friend!) of LaDifferénce in Richmond, Va., and Peggy Burns of Circle Furniture in Boston."

Ok, so we are pretty proud to offer eco-friendly furniture and fabrics but how does this translate to the consumer? In SO MANY WAYS!!! Not only can you feel good about buying furniture that was made locally and sustainably but you won't have to pay more for it. Many of our upholstery vendors offer eco-packages on their sofas and chairs and there's no upcharge for it. And where do most of our hardwood products come from? You guessed it - New England. That means they don't have to be shipped across the country, which saves on fuel and pollution. Plus, our vendors, like Copeland Furniture, use sustainably harvested wood from the American Northern Forest. All good things.

As we've said before, "we carefully research every new manufacturer before we put the Circle stamp on it. The environment, our local economy, it matters to us. It's our world and we have to take care of it"...So, if you're looking to be as green as you can be...check out one of our Circle locations today!

Designers We Love

At Circle Furniture we have some amazing designers. We want you to meet them. Let's start with Sean.

Sean Thomas Christoun
Bday - 9/6/19whatever
Sign - Virgo
Interesting Fact - Ambidextrous
Lives - Gloucester
Born - The Triple L (Lowell)
Favorite Food - Olives
Favorite Quote - “I love to collect things. There is nothing I like better than shopping for knick-knacks” - Patsy Stone from Absolutely Fabulous

Sean's In and Out List

IN...thrift stores...OUT...malls
IN...acquiring...OUT...hoarding
IN...collecting coins...OUT...collecting stocks
IN...yankee pot roast...OUT...yankee's winning
IN...dim lighting...OUT...dim wits
IN...mustard...OUT...mayo
IN...diet coke...OUT...diet pepsi

Thanks Sean for introducing yourself. By the way...you are absolutely fabulous! But, sorry, diet pepsi is so much better than diet coke.

What A Week!

The leaves are changing and the mornings are so cold already. And doesn't it seem like it's already way too dark in the morning? How many times can a girl trick herself into thinking she will get up at 5:30 am and get to the gym? But the alarm goes off and I crawl back under the covers and think, "Wow, I'm not going anywhere, who am I kidding?" Brrrrrr. It's fall. And what a fall it's shaping up to be.

We've had such a busy week here at Circle Furniture. We've been going crazy; moving our showrooms around to make them look beautiful for our upcoming Fall Upholstery Sale. And let's not forget our Ekornes Home Theater Sale that brings so many people though the door everyday. Our big American Leather sale is still going on throughout the weekend; as well as our Comfort Sleeper Sale. Plus, we have some classy new styles to show off; some contemporary furniture and some eco-friendly furniture. See what I mean? Busy!

The stores have never looked better, thanks to our talented merchandising team. One of the things I have always loved about Circle, even before I worked here, was that Circle is not a cookie-cutter store. We may have 5 showrooms, but we don't have the constraints of "corporate" telling us how to decorate our showrooms - where to place the beige sofa and the brown rug. No, we can do whatever we want. And with all the colorful furniture and style we offer - we can create vignettes that don't just work in the showroom but they can make your rooms at home explode with happiness and joy. Imagine walking into your home everyday and just saying "Ah, my oasis...I love where I live!"

This fall, before the holidays take over, come in and let us work with you on creating that dream oasis. We love to create. We know our options are almost limitless. There's nothing we enjoy more than "getting into" an exciting new project with a client - that's you. It makes us happy. It also keeps us out of trouble...and, trust me, we know how to get into trouble!

Check Out Libby!

I haven't forgotten about all of you who missed out on Libby! Notice anyone twittering live? You bet. That's our own, Sean D, who is never without his phone!