Mother's Day Online Shop Offers It All - Mompreneurs Dream Come True

MOTHER DAY GIFTS—MADE BY MOMS

Looking for the perfect gift this Mother’s Day? Do your shopping online at the Mompreneurs® Marketplace—where all the products and services are mom-made. Not only will you be honoring the special mother in your life, but you’ll be saluting and supporting mom-owned businesses.

“Entrepreneurial moms know what other mothers need most,” say Ellen Parlapiano and Patricia Cobe, authors of Mompreneurs®: A Mother’s Practical Step-by-Step Guide to Work-At-Home Success. “They’ve started their businesses to attain family flexibility in their own lives, so it’s not surprising that their products and services are often designed to focus on the needs of moms and families.”

The authors started their Mompreneurs® Marketplace (http://http://www.mompreneursonline.com/) to showcase the creativity and resourcefulness of mom-owned businesses, a workforce they call Mompreneurs®. At the online mini-mall, shoppers can find anything from adorable baby accessories, to beautiful handicrafts, gift baskets, pampering beauty products, and custom-designed weekend getaways—all for that special mom in your life.

Here’s a look at what’s on the shelves at the Mompreneur® Marketplace.

GIFTS FROM THE GARDEN

Shop at: Michelle Masters Topiary Art

What you’ll find: Topiary-themed artwork, linens and stationery, featuring images of hats, birdhouses, sundials, weathervanes, and cute creatures, like leaping labs and trotting horses. There are sweetly scented monogrammed sachets, hand printed guest towels and aprons, and framed prints—all designed to bring a bit of the garden indoors.

The mom behind the biz: Michelle Masters left a promising career in computer graphic design to pursue her creative passion: painting. As she painted in her home studio in the Finger Lakes region of New York, her love of gardening and whimsy was reflected in her artwork—especially in creations like the Lady Lavender hat topiary, a design that remains her most popular.

GIFTS WITH A SOCIAL CONSCIENCE

Shop at: Mama Afrika

What you’ll find: Pottery, baskets, and other handicrafts made by African women in crafts cooperatives throughout the continent. Not only does Mama Afrika help African women earn a decent living through fair trade, but it also donates 10% of the proceeds to African non-profit groups that assist women and children. Informational letters are included with every product, so consumers learn about the country of origin, traditional uses of the item, and a little about the organization that will receive a donation.

The mom behind the biz: As a child growing up in Virginia, Ester LaPollo was always reminded by her parents of the hardships suffered by relatives and friends left behind in East Africa. But it wasn’t until she became a mom herself that she figured out a way she could help Africans living in poverty. While brainstorming ideas for a home business, so she could spend more time with her three kids, LaPollo realized that if she connected with small groups of craftswomen in Africa, she could help them sell their wares worldwide through fair trade. “I ask the ladies to tell me the price they want for their wares, and I pay it,” says LaPollo, who now lives in Lompoc, California. “All of the crafts cooperatives I trade with are women-owned groups who work at home around their daily village chores.

GIFTS FOR THE NEW MOM

Shop at: Lilypad Baby

What you’ll find: Stylish bibs, diaper covers, and baby blankets in fabrics that are fashionable and functional. Design-savvy moms will love the fabulous florals, funky prints, and trendy colors. Order a gift basket or set and have it personalized and customized for the new mom and her baby.

The mom behind the biz: Kathie Papera started sewing her own baby bibs after she discovered she was spending a fortune on baby shower gifts for friends and family members. But this savvy California mom decided that her designs should stand apart from the others on the market. Instead of pastel-colored bears and bunnies, she chose fabrics with bold florals and vintage prints. Her friends loved them, and begged for more. Now she has a staff of mom designers, who name each bib design after the special babies in their lives.

GIFTS THAT PAMPER

Shop at: The Balter Catalogue Company

What you’ll find: An array of soothing selections—from warming tea and coffee sets, delicious gourmet goodies, and specialty soaps for the bath. A sister site, called Balter Baby, offers an extensive array of natural products for the new mother.

The mom behind the biz: Gina Ritter certainly understands the needs of busy moms. Not only does she have three young boys, she juggles several work-at-home roles. She’s a cartoonist, children’s book author, and writer of screenplays and humor columns (you can read her blog at http://www.blamemama.com/). Her current project is moving her family cross-country from New York to California.

GIFTS WITH A SPRINKLING OF PIXIE DUST

Shop at: Magical Journeys online travel agency

What you’ll find: Affordable Disney getaways. Treat mom or grandma to a magical trip to Disney World during the month of May, when you can catch the annual Flower Show in Epcot and celebrate Mother’s Day with brunch in a flower-filled pavilion.

The mom behind the biz: Nancy Rossetti fell in love with Disney World on her honeymoon in 1984, but once she had kids she couldn’t afford a family trip to the land of Mickey. Determined to find an affordable Disney vacation for her family and learn insider strategies, Rossetti took travel agent courses and then started booking low-cost trips for families and friends. Today she has a staff of independent contractors across the nation—all of them Disney-loving moms who work from home.

About the Mompreneurs®
Ellen Parlapiano and Patricia Cobe are co-authors of the books Mompreneurs®: A Mother’s Practical Step-by-Step Guide to Work-at-Home Success and Mompreneurs® Online: Using the Internet to Build Work@Home Success. After coining and trademarking the phrase Mompreneurs®, which describes entrepreneurial mothers who start their own businesses, Parlapiano and Cobe have watched the movement grow. Their website, MompreneursOnline.com attracts mompreneurs from around the world.

Tutoring Business - Home Based - News Release

For Immediate Release
Contact: Laurie Hurley
http://www.hometutoringbusiness.com
805-498-5669

Home-based Success Starts with Expert Advice and Financing Options

Newbury Park, CA, (April, 2006) Today, as more and more people want to join the ranks of the self-employed to make a better living, the question remains, how do I do it? What’s the magic ingredient that will allow me to work from home, leave corporate America, and finally make the kind of money I know I’m worth? With so much out there, how can I be assured this is right for me? The answer – consult an expert. Find someone who is doing it now and succeeding - someone who is walking the walk and talking the talk. Laurie Hurley of Home Tutoring Business is that person.

Hurley is a tutor broker matching qualified tutors with students for private, individualized in-home tutoring. Hurley founded Home Tutoring Business, http://www.hometutoringbusiness.com to fill a much-needed niche in the educational services industry. After realizing the success she achieved, which included earnings in the six digits, Hurley knew this was something that others would want: being a business that is in high demand nationwide, one that is easy to set up and requires little in the way of investment, and, most importantly, one that provides an enormous amount of self-worth. Corporate executives and those who once considered franchise ownership were some of the first to purchase this business package enabling them to start a tutoring business.

Everything one needs to succeed are included in Hurley’s business package, including a customized website and accounting software, a comprehensive business manual outlining what is needed to succeed, and what most packages leave out - financing options. As individuals looking to start a business realize, rarely is financing available for home-based businesses. Also, it’s difficult to obtain financing for smaller amounts of money at a reasonable interest rate. Home Tutoring Business offers what few do, including:

- Financing handled “in house” with no third-party lenders
- An easy application process
- Reasonable monthly payments
- Low interest rates

Home Tutoring Business is committed to helping people fulfill their dreams and visions of being independent or succeeding in a career change. Stop by http://www.hometutoringbusiness.com today to find out how you can be a one of the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

Open Heart Surgery Press Release

For Immediate Release

CONTACT: Diana Ennen, Publicist
(954) 971-4025
diana@virtualwordpublishing.com
http://www.openheartcoach.com/

Open heart surgery’s challenging four to eight week recovery period is finally addressed in this highly informative book

Sante Fe, New Mexico, (March, 2006) Every year in the US alone, 709,000 open-heart patients (current AHA figures) plod through an arduous convalescence. Yet rarely are heart patients told what to really expect during the stressful open-heart surgery recovery period at home. Maggie Lichtenberg, a recent open-heart surgery thriver, former publishing company executive, professional speaker, and coach (PCC), decided this needed to change. Through dozens of interviews and weaving in her own personal battle with heart disease, she wrote The Open Heart Companion: Preparation and Guidance for Open-Heart Surgery Recovery (Pub Date June 13, 2006, ISBN: 0-9776063-0-9). This one of a kind recovery guide reinforces the wisdom that knowledge is power, and knowing what to expect during open-heart surgery recovery -- and preparing for it – is a life-affirming process.

For those facing heart surgery, this book includes tips on recovery. A few include:

1. Organize a “home team” before, or just home from, your surgery. Dole out assignments to friends and family – dinner nightly, buddy system, running errands, housekeeping, chauffeuring – so your primary caregiver is supported along with you.

2. Arrange for spiritual and psychological support before, during, and especially after the operation from people who will be willing to check in on you regularly about your state of mind and soul.

3. Take a positive approach to avert intermittent depression during recovery – combat lethargy, force yourself to get exercise despite your fatigue, explore meditation, go into prayer, exchange supportive phone calls with another heart patient, ask for help. Another seven tips are found in Chapter 10 of The Open Heart Companion.

This is the first book written with the focus primarily on the recuperation period with the goal of reducing fear and stress -- and maximizing support options -- by simply planning ahead. Not only does the book empower patient and loved ones before the open-heart surgery date; it also provides supportive guidelines, plan-ahead exercises, bibliographic resources, checklists, glossary, and index for the challenging “recovery gap” between hospital discharge and readiness for a cardiac rehab program.

As Kathleen Blake, MD, President, New Mexico Heart Institute, states in the Foreword, “Because The Open Heart Companion outlines a series of plans for thoughtful and collaborative action, it will be equally useful for those assisting in the care of a family member or friend.”
If you know someone facing heart surgery, stop by our site today for the support you need. In addition to the book, Lichtenberg offers an informative newsletter, a Recovery Organizer, coaching, and a monthly phone support group.

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Fiction Book - Sledgehammer

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For information contact: Diana Ennen
Diana@pauloreyes.com
954-971-4025
http://www.pauloreyes.com

Fiction Book Sledgehammer’s gripping tale of a terrorist attack using smallpox has you glued to every page

Los Angeles, CA, April 2006: Fiction in the dictionary is described as a story not based on reality but invented and fashioned to entertain or deceive. This definition fits perfectly with the description of the fiction thriller, Sledgehammer, http://www.pauloreyes.com. Sledgehammer is packed with all the ingredients of a good fiction book: imagination, suspense, and a terrific plot with plenty of action, but deceiving enough to leave you wondering, “Could it happen today?”

The story unfolds in a Los Angeles hospital’s emergency room, where a patient appears with flu-like symptoms. The book’s lead character, Max Kroose, an intuitive emergency room physician, suspects smallpox and determines terrorists are to blame for the attack. Kroose fears an onset of the more lethal form of smallpox, Sledgehammer Smallpox, which kills within days. To save the hospital and the nation, Kroose first must convince the hospital’s top officials and the government of the immenient threat., thereby stopping the epidemic.

In Sledgehammer you journey through the massive panic of outbreak, the initial diagnosis, the realization that smallpox could spread to malls, sporting arenas, and airports, and the rush to find a cure. It’s a plot that draws you to each page to see what happens next.

Author Dr. Paulo J. Reyes, an ER doctor and First Responder in Los Angeles, brings the book its startling reality with the help of his 25 years of medical experience, his First Responder training for terrorist’s attacks, and his extensive research on smallpox. Reyes supports voluntary smallpox vaccinations because this once dead disease’s is present in certain laboratories, making it available for a possible terrorist threat. The Centers for Disease Control itself considers smallpox one of the possible agents of a bioterrorist attack.

Fiction and science fiction buffs will love this action-packed drama, plot and characters, as you yearn for the cure, and a way to stop the terrorists. Also, because of the emergency room setting and focus on detail, those who love a great ER drama on TV will enjoy this book as well. Sledgehammer (ISBN # 097713870-4) is 200 pages of great reading and is available at Reyes’ site, http://www.pauloreyes.com, Amazon, and leading online bookstores.
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