Four years ago, Pinette combined her fascination with the alphabet and magnets to create "fridge gems", a collection of brightly-colored, whimsical letters hand- painted on inch-square tiles worthy of standalone display. At first, painting the magnets offered Pinette a creative outlet from her day job as a high school teacher and inexpensive gifts for her friends. With encouragement, Pinette put her gems on consignment at a local gallery. She credits the gallery owner with giving her the advice and feedback needed to improve her product, and she took them to a gift trade show in Vancouver.

"And it took off from there," Pinette explains. "It was almost freaky, how well-received the magnets were." Pinette christened her growing company "eachanoriginal", playing on the uniqueness of each hand-painted piece. While the alphabet remains the mainstay of the collection, eachanoriginal has evolved to fashion tiles into animals, numbers, punctuation, and seasonal gems.

The same independent-minded, socially-responsible philosophy guides Pinette's hiring practices. The company currently employs 20 women, three-quarters of whom create the piecework magnets within their own homes, a definite win-win for the several single mothers in her workforce. Pinette also operates a busy home workshop, describing the atmosphere as having a "quilting bee environment". She credits the supportive ambiance for allowing the eachanoriginal team to blossom. "I've had lots of advice that I should get the magnets produced in Indonesia with cheaper labor," she admits. But her focus remains on empowering local women to be self-sufficient and encourage their creativity.

The world of carpet can seem overwhelming. It's often hard to find a salesperson that is knowledgeable and willing to be honest. It's still true that generally you should buy the best you can afford. Wool is the most expensive followed by wool-nylon blends, then nylon and at the bottom of the list would be olefin and other polyesters.

Before choosing think about the function the carpet will serve. In a bedroom you'll want a carpet that feels wonderful in bare feet. In the living or family room with children, dogs and friends you'll want something durable and stain resistant.

Once you're shopping, check the back of the samples to see the details about type of fiber and warranty information. The price of olefin is always tempting but it doesn't wear well and compacts overtime. It is better to go with nylon. Make sure you get a good quality carpet pad, as this will increase the life of your carpet.

Carpets and carpet adhesive do give off vapors or out- gas. This is the 'new carpet' odor you smell after a carpet is installed. The degree depends on the chemicals used at the mill. You can find carpet and under pad that does not out gas but you need to ask and also do your own research.

Tom had this problem of getting up late in the morning and was always late for work. His boss was mad at him and threatened to fire him if he didn't do something about it. So Tom went to his doctor who gave him a pill and told him to take it before he went to bed. Tom slept well and in fact beat the alarm in the morning by almost two hours. He had a leisurely breakfast and drove cheerfully to work.

"Boss", he said, " The pill actually worked!"

"That's all fine" said the boss, " But where were you yesterday?"