Silver Solver Una Griffin - Single Mum Following Her Dream.

When Una Griffin was made redundant she used the opportunity to set up her own jewellery business - Lovu.

At Lovu Una Griffin sells beautiful, funky sterling silver jewellery she imports from Mexico – from her front room in Ranelagh, Dublin 4, Ireland. Prices are keen as she has no overheads, and the single mum is finally following her dream.

“It was being made redundant earlier this year that made me think, things are so bad, I may as well give this a shot. I have always loved jewellery, since I was given a jewellery-making set when I was about seven. I have been tinkering away since, but never tried to make a living from it.”

Una took €3,000 from her post-office savings account and took off to Mexico to buy silver, with little more information about how to do it than she had gleaned from some Google searching. A week away, a journey up dirt-tracks to mining villages three hours outside Mexico city, and a bit of luck later, she had what she wanted: samples of beautiful, funky, John Rochaesque silver jewellery and beads she knew she loved and hoped others would, too.

She set up a stall in her kitchen one evening and invited friends, and their friends, for an evening of wine and silver, and the pieces “flew out the door”.

Almost all of the pieces are sterling silver – and so last forever, in and out of the shower – and are akin to the kind of work you would expect to find in Designyard or Kilkenny Design.

The pieces include: rings with funky, bright blown glass “stones” in silver plate, the least expensive costing €12; silver beaded and agate bracelets costing between €30 and €35; and chunky but sophisticated silver rings at €45. She also has simple pendants and necklaces – some of which can be worn a number of lengths and ways depending on how they are fixed around the neck – for between €60 and €135.

She has converted her front room into a shop, with display cabinets, a sales desk and a business name – Lovu. “Well, it’s the return of the cottage industry isn’t it?,” she says with a laugh.

This original article is by Kitty Holland of the Irish Times

Lovu is at 19 Cherryfield Avenue, Ranelagh, Dublin 6 (Tuesday to Thursday, 9.30am-2pm and Tuesday, 6-8pm). www.lovu.ie

The FabJob Guide to to Become a Jewelry Designer
covers topics of vital importance if you want to become a jewelry designer and get hired as a jewelry designer or start your own jewelry design business.

New Online Gift Business for New Moms

Wouldn’t you just love to take the hassel out of buying a lovely and useful gift for a new mom you know?

Well Maeve Barry has done just that when she started her online gift business www.babyelephant.ie after being inundated with bunches of flowers on the birth of her baby. Maeve’s idea was for an online gift business to offer presents that could be pampering and practical. Now in business for six months, she has started to deliver worldwide, and has added two new organic skincare brands – Cowshed and Mambino Organics – to her range. The new online gift business next-day courier delivery in Ireland is €5. Baby gifts such as organic cotton rompers start from €33 and mama gifts start at €44.

Click Here to Discover How to Become a Gift Basket Business Owner

Value Fabrics

Congratulations to Helen Turkington (pictured above) who has just opened a second shop in Ranelagh (Dublin, Ireland), this one devoted to a selection of 200 value fabrics selling for 40 per cent less than similar quality, designer branded products.

The range starts at €10 per metre, and the rolls of fabric are displayed beside paint samples to help you concoct a pleasing colour scheme. “A relatively small amount of money can revitalise any home,” she says, “by recovering old pieces of furniture or changing the curtains.” Upholstery and curtain-making services are available through her interior design consultancy, or you can simply buy the fabric and do-it-yourself. The selection includes linens, silks, brushed lambswool paisleys and floral damasks. You’ll find Helen Turkington Fabrics at Terminus Mills, Clonskeagh Road, Dublin 14. Open Monday-Saturday. See www.helenturkington.com

Shirley Conran on Fame and Fortune for Women

Shirley Conran, superwoman author and women's rights campaigner argues for a simpler tax system and women handling their own finances

Shirley Conran is an internationally-renowned writer and campaigner for women’s rights. Her latest project is to help teenage girls better understand money. Her new book, Money Stuff for Girls, is due to be published this month.

She was married to design tycoon Sir Terence Conran. Their two sons, Sebastian and Jasper, are also designers. She lives on her own in Putney, south-west London.

Conran, 76, is famed for her books including Superwoman (1974), a guide to household management, as well as novels such as Lace, which was an international bestseller in 1983. She became the first women’s editor of The Observer colour magazine and then women’s editor of the Daily Mail.

For the full article click here.

Family Influence - How to Become a Jewelry Designer

Perhaps it was inevitable that Elaine-Sarah Comerford would be drawn to the world of jewellery design and production, given that she grew up the youngest child in a creative family.

Her father, Andy, was an important influence on her from an early age. An electrician by trade, he had a passion for leatherwork and encouraged his children to involve themselves in artistic projects.

Comerford remembers her four older brothers and sisters constantly cutting up and refashioning their clothes, adding patches and lace to lend them their own individual look. Last year, father and daughter collaborated on a beautiful leather presentation case with silver clasps, and it was while rooting around in her mother’s sewing box that Comerford was first attracted to the shiny buttons that lay among the spools of thread, scraps of fabric, needles and pins, which influence her distinctive range of button-inspired jewellery.

Comerford initially trained as a goldsmith and jewellery designer with the Craft Council of Ireland, under the tuition of award-winning jewellery designer Jane Huston. On graduation, she approached the Enterprise Board and set up her own business with the assistance of her fiance, Mark.

The couple designed their own home in Waterford, with a workshop and gallery. She has focused her collection around a sterling silver bracelet, adorned initially with one beautiful button. Additional limited-edition buttons can be added to mark an occasion such as a birthday, anniversary or first child.

Following Comerford’s appearance on RTÉs Dragons’ Den, filmed last January, entrepreneur Niall O’Farrell, the man behind the phenomenal success story that is Black Tie, acquired a 35 per cent stake in the business. See www.buttonmemories.com for details.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times

Mom takes position with UN Africa food programme

Working Mom Has to Worry About Pirates

She claims she is a housewife at heart but one of the hazards of her working week is dealing with the threat of pirates taking over her vessels in the Indian Ocean.

Helping the less fortunate is all in a day's work for Arklow woman Mary O'Neill who has recently taken a position with the UN as port captain for its World Food Programme in Africa.

Having lost her husband Michael to illness in 2006 Mary has made a big change in her life swapping South Wicklow for Tanzania and all the risks that come with it.

This, however is not Mary's first time to be involved with aid work and in the last decade, she has also been in charge of aid reaching some of the world's most disadvantaged people in Eritrea and Iraq and victims of the tsunami in Indonesia.

A mother of three, (whose three children are now in university), Mary told the media this week that security is a big issue when crews take to the water and that pirates are a constant problem of which they must always be aware.

While family members at home understandably worry about Mary's safety while she is on the job she says she makes a point of calling her parents in Arklow regularly to let them know how she is doing.

Having worked with the UN in Rome handling aid shipments for more than two years, Mary moved back home to Arklow in 2004 when her husband's health worsened.

Previous to this she worked in the port of Massawa for six months ensuring that food supplies reached people in Ethiopia who were caught up in the conflict there.

How to write a good cv (or resume) and how to look good on paper

Career adviser Liz Leavy gives some handy tips on making your CV stand out from the crowd:

It is important for any job seeker to remember that your CV is a sales document and needs to give the relevant information to the prospective employer in the best possible way. Career adviser Liz Leavy outlines the main things to remember.

Your CV needs to be visually clear – a maximum of two pages, using bullet points to outline the most important and necessary information.

Remember that if you are one of 100 CVs received for a job vacancy, you have to ensure that the employer can, at a glance, find the information that is relevant to the role.

Firstly, consider the role you are applying for. If you are answering a job advertisement looking for a Marketing Executive for example, there is no point sending a CV showing your current role as a Marketing Manager because you will be considered too senior for the role and your CV will be passed over. Ensure that you are applying for a position that suits your experience and make sure your CV clearly expresses this.

If you have had three jobs over ten years, spend the most time and CV space on your most recent job – this is what the employer will be most interested in. For example, do not take half a page to detail your experience working a summer job in McDonald’s ten years ago, and then only give three lines to your most recent role, which you have
held for five years.

Many people write a CV when they leave their first job and then over the years just keep adding bits to it – don’t do this! Create a new, fresh look for your CV, tailored to the job you are applying for.

Finally, always list your achievements. Employers are always interested in these.

Equally, think about what hobbies you are listing, making sure that they are relevant to the job you are applying for.

For more information or a one-to-one consultation, contact Liz Leavy at (01) 863 6901 and invest in yourself. www.thecareerclinic.ie

Vitae statistics: Make sure to put relevant information on your CV

Individual Painting Ideas Art

One artist who has come up with a very interesting individual painting idea is Elin Hayes, creator of Artdob which stands for art date of birth.

Artdob, or art date of birth, is the name of a new business set up by artist Elin Hayes. A graduate of the National College of Art and Design, she had earned her living from painting for the past 10 years, specialising in painting Irish pubs around the world, and also film sets.

After the birth of her first child she was spending more time at her home in Rathcoole, Co Dublin, Ireland, and she used her painting skills to make birthday, Christmas and anniversary presents for family and friends.

She painted scenes relevant to the subject's life and these gifts were so well received she has gone into business doing them to order.

Most of her work has been done for children, but other occasions are catered for, too.
Christenings and retirements, she says, are new fields. For children, a birth date is often chosen, or a family pet, or their house.

Hobbies and family trees are popular with older subjects. Indeed any theme, even a photograph, can be incorporated into the work of art. The paintings cost €200 and are acrylic on canvas, varnished to preserve colour and luminosity. www.artdob.ie.

Get Hired as a Yoga Teacher or Open Your Own Yoga Studio.

As a yoga teacher you will have a rewarding career where you have the opportunity to grow personally while being of service to others.

In 2006, after 10 years in the financial services industry, Gráinne Martin gave up her job to learn how to teach Bikram Yoga. While a lot of people are often reluctant to make that jump into self-employment, doing something they love, rather than something that pays the bills, Martins decision has meant that she has, quite literally, gone from strength to strength and has just opened her second studio in Fairview, Dublin, Ireland specializing in Bikram Yoga. Full article here.

Click Here to Discover How to Become a Yoga Teacher and find out more about how to become a Yoga teacher, Get Hired as a Yoga Teacher or Open Your Own Yoga Studio. The information in this yoga teacher guide can save you many hours of research and experimentation, help you avoid some common mistakes, and give you advice you need to get a job as a yoga teacher or open your own yoga studio.

Fiona McCann on Facebook and the Pressure of Getting Started With Twitter

‘What’s on Your Mind?” asks Facebook. And it’s nice to be asked, though I’m suddenly aware that I don’t really have anything on my mind. I curse the little blank space on Facebook waiting for me to insert some witty precis of my current state of mind. This is what used to be called a “status update”, back in the early Facebook days (ie about three weeks ago), a window into the teeming mind of Fiona McCann. Eh, Fiona is writing a column? Fiona is procrastinating writing a column by pretending to use Facebook as research for writing said column?

There are those like my friend Tom Ryan, for example, who really know how to work the status update: “Tom Ryan leads a life of quiet perspiration”; or “Tom Ryan: some days are best seized unconscious”. Unfortunately, not all of us have Tom’s gift for self-effacing one-liners. When I read that “Sabrina is recovering from four hours of Bikram yoga!!!!!” it makes me want to punch Sabrina in the Facebook. And as I learn that “Brian is hungry”, “Claire is in Paris”, “Shane is enjoying the sunshine”, valuable minutes of my life are being lost forever, frittered away on Facebook.

Oh, how the word friend has been devalued by Facebook, which reminds me daily of the cheery illusion that I have 317 “friends”, a thought daunting enough were it not for the fact that a large number of these are passing acquaintances, people I went to school with 750 years ago but haven’t seen since, and one person I don’t even remember but with whom I have so many friends in common that it seemed churlish to reject the hand of Facebook friendship when it was extended. And my mother, whose mastery of every technological tool that can be used to keep tabs on her daughters is truly terrifying.

But I digress. My very own Facebook presence on the whole is grindingly banal, and the pressure to maintain an interesting online persona while on permanent lookout for incriminating, double-chinned photographs of myself posted by my so-called “friends” is turning Facebook into a full-time job.

So why am I still at it? The official line is “professional reasons”, Facebook being an essential journalistic tool to keep an eye on the zeitgeist and in touch with my 317 peeps. The truth is a little closer to your common-or-garden nosiness, though. I like flipping through other people’s photos, and finding out what people I know (as well as one person I’m pretty sure I don’t know) are up to without having it filtered through conversation. As well as the opportunity to test my movie knowledge or to find out once and for all which Sex And The City character I am, what I like about Facebook is that it allows me to snoop around the lives of others.

Which, of course, means there’s always the chance that others are doing the same to me. While I am certain that the accumulative hours of my life spent flicking through the birthday photographs of friends of friends of friends is motivated by a benevolent curiosity about human nature, that’s not exactly how I see it when others do the same to me. And as careful as I am about who gets to access my Facebook profile (only 317 of my dearest, dearest friends), there are some things even I can’t legislate for . . . including, principally, my own stupidity.

Take for example the engagement. When the Beyoncé popped the question, I followed protocol and broke the news to my immediate family first. And then – so help me God – I changed my Facebook status. In my defence, I finally had something on my mind, so I may have been a bit carried away.

Furthermore, my status change was so obscure, I thought, that few would be able to read between the lines. Ha! Who was I kidding? Before you could say Control Z, the news had spread among my 317 friends and beyond. Then some of my non-Facebook friends – let’s call them, er, friends – found out from my Facebook friends, and the natural order was upended. People were writing congratulations on my Facebook “wall” while I furiously dialled close friends and relatives in an attempt to get to them before the internet did. It was a lesson hard-learned.

Of course, now I’m under pressure to start tweeting as well, given that Facebook is suddenly so five milliseconds ago. Harrumph. Unappealingly, Twitter appears to consist almost entirely of constant status updates, and we all know how I feel about them. On the plus side, my limited investigations indicate that you don’t so much get Twitter friends as followers, like Jesus or Gandhi had. And it would provide a new use for those valuable, never-to-return minutes that I would ordinarily be using to compose Facebook status updates or take movie quizzes. On the other hand, it would increase the risk of me exposing ever more embarrassing aspects of my personal life to thousands of readers at the tap of a keyboard. Now why would I ever sign up for that?


Article by Fiona McCann of the Irish Times

Kids Party Ideas Food For Thought

In these difficult economic times its great to get another inspirational story from work from home moms who have come up with a great idea and started a new business from home.

So congratulations to mompreneurs Sarah Walters and Jennie Power, both mothers of young families, who are brim full of vigour and enthusiasm for their new business with the brilliantly catchy name ‘Treats’, their catering company that provides kid-sized, and very cute, party food for birthdays and other celebrations.

With the First Communion season not so far away, their homely, tea-party-style spreads are very much in touch with the times and certainly more wallet-friendly than lavish lunches and marquees.

Their aim is to offer “homemade, tasty, visually attractive and affordable party food for children of all ages”. The goodies can be delivered to your door, and the range includes homemade pizzas, sausage rolls, fairy cakes, cookies and birthday cakes. A food-only party-package of individual pizzas plus five sweet treats costs €10 per child, and for a further €10 per child you can hand over responsibility for organising party games, face painting and party-bag provision to children’s entertainer Hokey Cokey.

“We’ve both done the whole commercial kids’ party scene, and we thought it would be nice to go back to the old-fashioned way of doing it,” Walters says.

So if you are a mom like me who panics in the wake of the preparation for a kiddies party and thinks along the line of – kids party ideas food? – surely www.Treats.ie is just what we need!

For more information about how to become a cake decorator and start a cake decorating business (also known as a cake design business, cupcake business, or cake business), download the FabJob Guide to Become a Cake Decorator at http://www.FabJob.com/cakedecorator.asp.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother’s Day to all our wonderful Mother’s out there. For sure, the woman who made sure you were fed and watered, warm and dry and loves you unconditionally deserves to be pampered for the day.

My personal three favorite treats on Mother’s Day - handmade cards from my wonderful children, breakfast in bed, a clutch of daffodils on the tray. That’s more than enough for me!

Hope you all have a great day!

Juliette

Happy St Patrick’s Day

St. Patrick's Day is March 17

Wishing all our moms and readers a wonderful St Patrick’s Day. Friends, family, green beer! - no matter how you celebrate have a great day. And to all our parents out there - parents can make St. Paddy's Day fun for kids and you might just create all new traditions in the process!

All the best to you all.

Good To Grow - Grow Your Own Drugs

The title of James Wong’s new book, (and accompanying TV series), Grow Your Own Drugs , has raised a few eyebrows, but the young ethnobotanist (a scientist who studies how people use plants) aims to teach us how to use common plants to treat any number of ailments.

According to Wong, athlete’s foot can be treated with a foot bath made of garlic (lots of it) sage and vinegar. A home-made viola and chamomile cream can soothe eczema. Instead of using toxic chemicals to deter mosquitos and midges, make a “pest pot-pourri” from dried rosemary, wormwood and sage. And you can lower your cholesterol by munching on a mix of artichokes, hawthorn berries, sugar, cinnamon and lime. Fascinating stuff, and strangely addictive reading. Grow Your Own Drugs: Easy Recipes for Natural Remedies and Beauty Fixes is published by Collins.

Am I Having A Panic Attack?

Have you ever experienced a feeling of intense fear or discomfort accompanied by a variety of physical or psychological symptoms such as sweating, trembling, discomfort, nausea, dizziness or light-headedness, fear of dying, pins and needles, and hot flushes and chills? Have you ever experienced an intense fear of losing control? Have you ever thought – ‘Am I having a panic attack?’ If you have - you may be suffering from panic attacks.

Clearly panic attacks are deeply unsettling, but hopefully help is finally at hand.

Top selling Panic Away is an Immediate Anxiety Relief. A Natural Technique To Stop Panic Attacks and General Anxiety Fast. Click Here for the Video.

For more information on panic attacks, symptoms and recommended treatments please see the article Panic Away - Stop Anxiety and Panic Attacks

Change is Here and Great Hopes for America and the World

Today has finally come. Moments ago Barack Obama took the oath of office to become the 44th president of the United States. And so today a man who was serving in the relative obscurity of the Illinois State Senate as recently as 2004 is now the most powerful man on earth - and, of course, the first African-American to lead his nation.

The great excitement that Obama has generated is one of the reasons why literally millions (four at last estimate) of people today flocked to Washington to celebrate this amazing date in history.

There is no doubt about it the challenges he faces will be great - the economy is in turmoil, as a housing collapse and the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression continue to bite; the nation is embroiled in two foreign wars, one of which (Iraq) is largely seen as a foreign policy disaster, while the other (Afghanistan) is giving increasing cause for concern. On top of all that, problems that have bedevilled America for years - notably its ailing healthcare system - continue to fester.

But we hope and pray that Barack Obama will battle through this sea of troubles, and that he will go down in history as one of the great presidents.

Good Luck from all at HomeBasedMums.com!

Home Based Mums Nominated For Bizymom’s Choice Awards as one of best websites for moms!

Home Based Mums Nominated For Bizymom’s Choice Awards as one of best websites for moms!

Fantastic news in a gloomy start to 2009 - HomeBasedMums.com has been nominated for the prestigious Bizymom’s Choice Awards!

Bizymoms.com is conducting an awards selection that allows its visitors to nominate the best site of 2008! They get to nominate any site that has added value to their lives and made their day.

Home Based Mums was nominated by one of our happy moms – thanks Stephanie O'Connor! The feedback from Bizymom’s has been terrific as many others have voted Home based Mums to be their choice also because
our site has given so much reliable content and features that added value to their online-experience.

And this is just some of what they’ve said:

“Lots of great information for work at home moms like myself.”

“One of the Best websites for moms”

“homebasedmums.com recommends the best companies for moms”

As a result Home Based Mums are very be proud of ourselves in knowing that we are highly appreciated and valued as a site that has made the internet a more reliable, informative and trustworthy in 2008 and that we are being recognized by Bizymoms.com a WAH site that has catered to moms for over ten years.

We hope to continue our splendid work in the upcoming New Year to continue to remain one of the best websites for moms.

Please vote for us http://www.bizymoms.com/choiceawards/homebasedmums.php


Thank you all!

Homebasedmums.com team
www.homebasedmums.com

Announcing The Launch Of My Mind Shift Binaural Audios

Have you ever heard of binaural audios before?

Me either... but it is scientifically proven that these special type of audios can be used to influence your brain into specific 'states'. For example they can be used to...

1) Increase Motivation
2) Increase Energy
3) Increase Focus
4) Increase Creativity
5) Increase Learning
6) Increase Happiness
7) Increase Relaxation
8) Decrease Stress
9) Stop Panic Attacks

And so much more.

Without getting into the technical details of how these audios work, let me give you a brief description of how these audios work. Your brain functions on primary frequencies based on the speed of your brain waves. Specific states have specific frequencies... for example if your brain is functioning at a specific frequency of between 13 - 40 Hz this is called 'Beta' waves and it is when your brain is active, busy or anxious thinking and active concentration, arousal, cognition.

But if you are sleeping your brain has a frequency of between 4 - 7 Hz or 'Theta' waves and this is when you are dreaming are in deep meditation or have, REM sleep.

So if you are feeling tired... then you have a particular low brain wave frequency at that time. The power of binaural audios is that it can lift those brain wave frequencies and within 5 minutes make you more alert and active, all by just listening to an audio with a set of stereo headphones.

Now normally these audios cost $29.95 a piece or more but Paul Kleinmeulman has just launched MyMindShift.com and he supplies 12 different audios to help you with specific problems all for the cost of one of these audios.

Lack motivation, simply pop in the maximum motivation audio and within 5 minutes your brain waves will be 'switched on' for more focus and more energy to increase your motivation.

Check it out at...MyMindShift.com.

It is highly recommended.

Sincerely,

Juliette

Eat Pray Love Elizabeth Gilbert - Favourite of Destiny

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

Elizabeth Gilbert was just 34, burnt out, her marriage in tatters when she left New York to travel the world. Her confessional book, Eat Pray Love, with its happy-ever- after ending, has sold millions. No wonder she says she's a 'favourite of destiny'.



In this memoir, a blockbuster of self-discovery, Elizabeth has catalogued, uncensored, the depression, disintegration, infatuation and masturbation that followed the breakdown of her marriage and the year abroad she spent trying to recover from it, as well as her relations with her ex-husband, sister, parents and boyfriend. There are currently five million copies of Eat Pray Love in circulation.

To read her last book, The Last American Man, and Eat Pray Love in succession is to remind oneself that there is no heroic journey for women, no concomitant woman of destiny trope, that doesn't involve childbirth. Perhaps this is the key to Eat Pray Love's success; that after spending all that time watching and listening to the agonies of Conway, Gilbert went off and listened to herself in a way that thrilled lots of women.

Her journey started with an act of bona fide bravery: an admission that she didn't want to have children, not with her husband, not with anyone, ever. In this book she details how she dealt with her husbands pressure to have kids, her appeal to God from the bathroom floor while her husband sleeps innocently in the bedroom next door, because she didn't know what else to do; she hated her marriage and didn't want to have a baby at that point. But she was only 31 - what was the big deal?

The end of her marriage constituted the first real failure Gilbert had dealt with. The crisis was so huge, she says, because she was not used to disappointing people or herself, a sneaky piece of self-promotion. She believes that her breakdown was also fanned by grief for the children she'd never have. "When I diagnose my depression now, I think it was partially about saying goodbye to these kids that I always expected to have but already knew that I wouldn't."

When asked why not? She replies "Because I know my own energies. [Having children] would be the only thing I could do, and that would be devastating to me, because of what else I am and what else I want to do. So it's no accident that I fell in love with a much older person who didn't want to have kids." This is her second husband, Felipe, whom she met in Bali at the end of Eat Pray Love. "It was such a relief. Magic trick! Companionship with no pressure for family! Free built-in stepkids who have already been exquisitely raised by another woman! It's like, how'd I get away with that?"

A lot of people who loved the book for its honesty, and I did also (although I do think her first husband got a raw deal -he's barely in it and we don't learn his name or anything about him!) which had lead to this books great success. Eat Pray Love started off selling slowly; it was in the US bestseller list for two weeks then fell away. But instead of disappearing altogether, it hovered outside the top 10, shifting a hefty 1,000 copies a week for a year or so, and then the paperback went crazy - the film rights have also been sold.

Interestingly, Gilbert's sense of her own beneficence isn't just a matter of style; she puts her money where her mouth is. When she wrote The Last America Man, she divided profits from the book equally with Eustace Conway, a rare gesture from a biographer, and in Eat Pray Love she raised $18,000 to buy a poor woman in Bali a house by emailing her friends and asking for donations. When the woman tried to screw more money out of her, Gilbert cannily defused the situation and they still came out of it as friends. And then there is Felipe, whom she met at a dinner party in Bali and whose worldliness she welcomes as a counter to her credulousness. "In Bali, I'd come back with reports of these magical events and he'd say, 'What a bunch of bullshit.' It was good for me to be around someone like that."

Now Elizabeth is nearly 40, is happily re married and living in New Jersey. She didn't want to get married again, but Felipe is Brazilian and there was no other way to get him in the country. After a year of long-distance dating, they moved to Frenchtown and opened a furniture importing business. She has just finished her next book, another memoir that is also "a meditation on marriage". Her second wedding was very different from her first, low key, in normal clothes. "I didn't want this marriage to be based in any sense on an illusion. I've done that. Sanity and clarity are more important for me and I'm willing to give up a lot of shimmer for it. I'm willing to have more boring friends, who are sane." Anyway, she is happy, which is what her readers turned to her in such numbers for in the first place. Now that’s a very good ending.

Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia

New Beginnings and How To Start a Photography Business

Ahhhhhh! That's what we said, of course, when Claire Wilson's photographs blinked on to our screens. She has had the very smart notion of specialising in taking pictures of babies, starting as soon after birth as possible, and collating them in the most beautiful books. If you are lucky enough to live in Ireland, you can make a booking with her based on your due date, and she will come to your home to take the first photographs in the baby's first few days. She doesn't use lights and will take as many breaks as are required over an hour or two, so there are no jolts or shocks for anyone.

She'll also come back to mark the baby's first six months and year if you so wish. Basic sessions start at €150. Contact her at 087-9111207 and see her portfolio on www.newborn.ie

If you are interested in how to start a photography business from home - what better idea?

Click Here to Discover How to Become a Professional Photographer

Happy New Year To You All!

I hope that you, your family, and your business have had a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, or whatever holiday happiness you might celebrate!

Thanks for being such loyal Work From Home fans and readers!

2008 proved to be a great success with many of my readers starting the journey to independence and starting there business from home. So much so in fact, that over the course of the past year, it's become really evident to me just how many of us home based moms are out there and what great mompreneurial spirit is out there.

So, in an effort to help support you all in what may prove to be very difficult economic period, I am going to be concentrating on finding reports of the best work from home opportunities available, and reporting on as many success stories as possible.

And as always - if you have a suggestion or an idea for a topic you'd like me to cover, please drop me an e-mail at: juliettestewart@ymail.com.

I look forward to hearing from you!

May each of you have a wonderful and joyous holiday season!

And To Your Business From Home Success & Passion In 2009!

Juliette