the more I listen to women my age, the more I hear about stories of women who, at 45/50/55 years old, get a divorce.

Very often, they end up with a not too plush bank account and a home with more or less repairs and renovations to undertake.

That's exactly the story of Allegra Bennett. Allegra ended up with a house as a settlement of her divorce and a bank account full of holes.

Impossible to call upon the professional repair guys, way too expensive for her budget.

So she ended up taking on herself all the renovations, learning through the process, and loving it. She fixed one house, sold it, bought another one, fixed it also and became a serial home renovating woman.

She started writing articles, give workshops and realized that many, many women were interested by her experience and her expertise.

She has now a wonderful magazine, workshops, and site www.renovatingwoman.com

She just wrote a book : A guide to home repair, maintenance and real men............. and appears on TV shows.

Congratulations Allegra!

The 55+ market is attracting a whole lot of new actors who want us to purchase from them. We are an estimated 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964, and we flex about $ 1 trillon in annual spending power. That's a huge market!

The other day, I went to buy the C.O. Bigelow products, which I had often seen in an old apthecary in New York West Village. They used to carry only few products, but of high quality.

Bigelow features now an unparalleled assortment of health and well-being products, including entire homeopathic collections to high-end beauty products.

Clearly, Bigelow targets middle-age, affluent shoppers with premium-price goods to help them feel good and look better.

C.O. Bigelow began with a 166-year old apothecary tucked amid the bustling chic of New York City's West Village, that grew into an apothecary for health and wellness products.

Then, 3 years ago, Limited Brands approached Ian Ginsberg, the owner of the apothecary, inquiring about licencing the C.O. Bigelow name and developing more Bigelow products. The product development deal expanded into stores.

Limited Brands, who owns Bath & Body Works, has plans to open 25 stores after a period of test stores in various cities.

Limited Brands is hoping that Bigelow will become a baby boomer brand and complement their Bath & Body Works line of products which is more youthful in terms of a target customer.

Bigelow is part of the trend of big companies buying old brands that can appeal to us as they create nostalgia.

Have you examples of other old brands being revitalized to attract our attention?

Well, finally, I made it. I entered the world of the 55 +.

I know I'm part of a huge crowd as we represent a good third of the population. And our importance increases with the time as our numbers sore rapidly.

But, still, it's a surprise to realize one day that I'm about to become a senior !

I have mixed feelings about it as so many different images come to my mind.

Images of old seniors who are only 60 but look and seem like they are 90. Images of young seniors who are 80 but look like they are 50, more energetic and healthier than so many younger people.

So I want to write about what it is to be 55 +, our references, our hopes, our needs and issues, our pleasures....

I want also to write about all the marvellous people and new ideas that I find while traveling back and forth between Europe and the US. Ideas of new products and new services who can help us in our daily life, who can give us more pleasure

I hope you will communicate with me, that we will be able to exchange ideas and feelings

and sorry if I make some mistakes while writing. English is not my 1st language