Business & Entrepreuner

Kathryn M. Ireland is a maven of materials. In addition to having her own fabric line, she freely and deftly mixes other designers' fabrics as well as international market "finds." Blending those with quality ironwork, wood, tile, and furniture pieces, Ireland pulls together a magnificent home of unpretentious grandeur.

Mary Ellis follows her captivating Widow’s Hope with a new story from the heart of Holmes County, Ohio. In Never Far From Home, fifteen–year–old Emma Miller finishes school, starts her own wool business, and is longing for someone to court. When the object of her affection is a handsome English sheep farmer, with a fast truck and modern methods, her deacon father, Simon, knows he has more than the farm alliance to worry about. Emma isn’t the only one with longings in Holmes County. Her aunt Hannah wants a baby and her uncle Seth hopes he’ll reap financial rewards when he takes a risk with his harvest. But are these the dreams God has for this Amish family? With engaging interactions and thoughtful characters, Ellis weaves a story about waiting for God’s timing and discovering that the dreams planted close to home can grow a lasting harvest of hope and love.

Computers have changed the way we make music. For less than a thousand dollars (including the computer!), you can have a studio in your bedroom that rivals the capabilities of million-dollar studios of not that long ago. One of the best tools at the recording musician's disposal is SONAR Home Studio, a powerful and relatively inexpensive digital audio workstation. But to truly maximize your creativity, you need more than just the program and the manual, you need guidance on how to actually use the program to make music- guidance included in this book. Making Music with SONAR Home Studio shows you how to use Home Studio as a creative tool, not just a recording program. It goes beyond the user manual to help you get started recording the right way in your home studio, then explains the how and why of using the program in easy-to-understand language. Everything from optimizing your recording setup to composing, recording, and mixing down a song is covered. Each recording scenario offers step-by-step detailed instructions and points you in the right direction for reaching your ultimate musical goals.

The Organised Home, the new book from Real Simple magazine, is a practical, inspirational guide to streamlining your home and creating a more peaceful and productive life in the process. Whether it inspires a fine-tuning or a complete makeover, this lush hardback book has something for everyone. Building upon the incomparable world of the magazine, it provides valuable step-by-step advice on everything from organising kitchen shelves and cleaning the refrigerator to setting up a versatile livin room and creating a peaceful bedroom. A celebration of the liberating pleasure that comes from a clean, well-organised living space, Real Simple, The Organised Home.

Acclaimed architectural photographer Brian Vanden Brink joins forces with Custom Home magazine editor Bruce Snider to take readers into 21 stunning seaside homes from Canada's Bay of Fundy to St. Barthelemy. While Snider writes about homes that range from traditional to ultra-modern, Vanden Brink's photos show that these homes are intimately linked to their seascape settings. This book provides inspiration for anyone who wants to evoke a sense of the sea and shore at home.

Millions of readers around the world have fallen in love with the novels of the New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani. In Home to Big Stone Gap, she tells her most powerful story yet, full of humor and heart, wisdom and hope.Nestled in the lush Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, the town of Big Stone Gap has been home for Ave Maria Mulligan Machesney and her family for generations. She’s been married to her beloved Jack for nearly twenty years, raised one child and buried another, and run a business that binds her community together, all while holding her tight circle of family and friends close. But with her daughter, Etta, having flown the nest to enchanting Italy, Ave Maria has reached a turning point. When a friend’s postcard arrives with the message “It’s time to live your life for you,” Ave Maria realizes that it’s time to go in search of brand-new dreams. But before she can put her foot on the path, her life is turned upside down. Ave Maria agrees to helm the town musical, a hilarious reunion of local talent past and present. A lifelong friendship collapses when a mysterious stranger comes to town and reveals a long-buried secret. An unexpected health crisis threatens her family. An old heartthrob reappears, challenging her marriage and offering a way out of her troubles. An opportunistic coal company comes to town and threatens to undermine the town’s way of life and the mountain landscape Ave Maria has treasured since she was a girl. Now she has no choice but to reinvent her world, her life, and herself, whether she wants to or not. Trigiani is at her best in this exquisite page-turner. Home to Big Stone Gap is an emotional and unforgettable journey that reminds us that you can go home again and again. From BOOKLIST*STAR* Trigiani, Adriana. Home to Big Stone Gap. Nov. 2006. 301p. Random, $25.95 (1-4000-6008-7). Tucked in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia is Big Stone Gap, the bucolic backdrop for Trigiani’s popular series. In this fourth entry, Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney and her husband, Jack, must come to terms with the absence of daughter Etta, newly married and living in Italy. (The country holds a special place in Ave Maria’s heart: her biological father, Mario, whom she learned of and met only after her mother’s death, is Italian). Ave Maria has plenty to keep her mind off missing her only child (the MacChesney’s son, Joe, died of leukemia at age four). She’s a full-time pharmacist and the newly appointed director of the town’s annual musical. Then comes news that her longtime friend, glamorous librarian Iva Lou, has been keeping a startling secret for nearly 20 years. Other developments, including a health scare for Jack and a Christmas visit from a colorful former resident, move the plot along briskly. With her original cast of characters, playwright and television writer Trigiani blends playfulness and pathos in this evocative portrait of a small southern town. Fans of the Big Stone Gap series can look forward to a feature film; Trigiani has written the screenplay and is slated to direct. –Allison Block"Is there ever trouble for Ave Maria Mulligan MacChesney, heroine of Trigiani's beloved Big Stone Gap novels, starting with her married daughter's move to Italy and leading right up to a stranger's disturbing appearance in town."–Library JournalPraise for the Big Stone Gap novels:“Delightfully quirky . . . chock-full of engaging, oddball characters and unexpected plot twists.”–People (Book of the Week)“Funny, charming, and original.”–Fannie Flagg“Satisfying reading . . . As skillfully as Ms. Trigiani makes us laugh, she makes us cry.”–Richmond Times-Dispatch“Heartwarming . . . Everything that really matters is here: humor, romance, wisdom, and drama.”–The Dallas Morning NewsFrom the Hardcover edition.

Old Homes of New England paints a stunning portrait of the charming and important old homes of the region, featuring storybook cottages in white clapboard as well ancient mansions in brick and stone. Cherished for its intimate, community-centered spirit, New England lays claim to some of the most wonderful architecture of the country—and, significantly, its buildings are among the nation’s very oldest. Featured here are twenty-five of the most beautiful examples, ranging from the storied House of the Seven Gables of 1668, in its magnificent colonial splendor, to the Corwin House of 1675, nicknamed the "Witch House" for its direct association to the infamous Salem witch trials, to the bucolic Cogswell farmhouse of 1728. Each house exemplifies its style, which range from early colonial Pilgrim, Puritan, and Shaker, to later Georgian, Federal, and Greek Revival. With richly crafted interiors formed from old woods, fine plasterwork, thoughtfully set beams, brick, and stonework, the houses return us to a more gracious time when the simple pleasures of staying at home were paramount, a time to which many of us, even now, long to return.

Energy Free is designed to equip building professionals and homeowners alike with a toolkit for creating homes that use no more energy than they produce—this means homes that are free from the vagaries of energy-price fluctuations and that help to free society of the high political and environmental costs of fossil fuels.Individuals and institutions have been working toward "zero-energy" homes for decades. This volume is the first record of those collective efforts, distilling their experience into a practical and comprehensive how-to guide. The author includes resource information and step-by-step guidance on how to make decisions that will yield an energy-free residential project, whether a single-family home or multifamily building, new or existing, in an urban or a rural setting. The unique needs and opportunities of each context are addressed.The principal topics include:Project boundaries (why you have to consider not only your home's behavior, but also your own)Prioritizing strategies (e.g., insulation vs. photovoltaics)Economics (including payback periods and incentives)How to minimize a building's energy needsHow to minimize your energy needsHow to power the energy needs that remainThe critical role of integrated project planningEnergy Free offers a wide array of resource information, including detailed window and insulation comparisons; assessments of the relative contribution of different building elements; and overall performance. It draws on research and empirical data from myriad sources, including the Department of Energy's Building America program; Sacramento Municipal Utility District's House of the Future; Passiv Haus Institute in Europe and the Passive House Institute of the U.S.; Florida Solar Energy Center; Living Building Challenge; Affordable Comfort, Inc.'s, Thousand Home Challenge; and many pioneering individual home projects across North America.

The ultimate guide to creating a beautiful home that fits your style and your budget.Find the best ideas and advice for every room in your home, all in one place.Get tips and design coaching on everything from color to space planning from some of the leading designers and architects practicing todayDesign a chic living room, a hardworking kitchen, or a bedroom sanctuaryDiscover the latest materials and products that leading home builders are putting to use todayLearn innovative ways to be eco-friendly with new "green" materials and techniques