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Stay tuned – we’re getting a new Abode!

We’re getting a new abode! And I don’t mean online – I mean in real life. Many of you know that about 3 months ago, our family moved to Boston. What you may not know is that in that interim time, we haven’t had our own home. Some dear friends of ours let us use their finished basement as our home base while my husband was working on getting a job up here. We’ve felt so blessed to be able to spend this time with our friends, and grow closer to them and learn from their godly examples. Things have been clicking along for Tim and now he does have a job — and this weekend we are at last able to move into our own apartment!

I’ve thought before that it might seem a little odd that I write a blog called “The Flourishing Abode”, at a time when we didn’t have our own home. And even when we have had our own home, I’ll be the first to tell you, I’m no great housekeeper. But, really, the space in which we live is not really what this blog is about. The important thing to me is not the house, but the home. And we constantly have to be working to improve our home and our family, because that is so much more important than a physical building. BUT … it is going to be nice to have our own physical apartment again! (And I do look forward to taking care of our family’s physical space with a new-found respect after being without it – here’s to improving my housekeeping skills!)

I’m really tickled about the apartment we found. It’s definitely going to be very urban living, which I’m excited about – we’ll be a 5 minute walk to the subway station. Bonus points – we live next door to a branch of the Boston Public Library. *fist pump* (On the off chance that you’ve never visited my art print shop, let’s just say a significant part of it is dedicated to my love of books.) We’ll be without a fridge for a short time, and I’m not quite sure how we’re going to get our furniture up the twisty stairs, but I know everything is going to work out just fine. I’m just SO excited! I hope to be able to put up some pictures of our new place before too long.

In the meantime, though, due to the huuuuge number of things I have to do this week, such as shipping all my orders from Black Friday – Cyber Monday, plus moving our things out of the storage unit and into our new place, I’m taking a one week hiatus from blogging. I’ll look forward to be back next Wednesday and pick up where I would have been this week, if we weren’t moving. So, stay tuned for your regularly scheduled programming!

A shout-out of thanks to our hosts who graciously let us live in their basement. And thank you to all of you who have supported my FlourishCafe shop and/or blog over the last few months – that’s been our family’s income! But most of all, I give thanks to God for his provision and care, even in less stable times of life.

See you next week!

Where is special to you? Custom map art…

I love maps. And I love when customers give me great ideas for new prints to offer. :) I had someone request a custom map art print to give as a gift to a young couple to commemorate the location where they got engaged! It was such a sweet project, that I thought it would be nice to offer custom map prints for others as well.

I made this as an example if you wanted a print to show your home state, or it could also show the place where you got married, or where your child was born, or a favorite destination from your travels .. any special location you would like turned in to a print! Or, of course, like the project that got me started on this in the first place – you could create a custom print for someone else, which could make a truly unique gift, as the holidays will start approaching before you know it. You get to choose the colors, the text, the location, etc. The details are here.

Where is a place that is special to you? Now that we have moved, I think I might just have to make one of these for our family, with a heart over Boston. :)

The real reason it is nice to have a smart phone..

I’ve never had a smart phone before – and I really wasn’t trying to get one. I kind of figured it would be a long time until I had a smart phone, and that was fine with me. But when we needed to get new Massachusetts phone numbers, we shopped around and it was actually cheaper to get a data plan for the number of lines we needed – and the smart phones were free! Sweet.

And now I get to enjoy the real reason I wanted a smart phone:

Instagram.

I went on a quick trip up to Maine this weekend, and I just loved having Instagram to take pictures along the way. My only camera is my nice DSLR, but honestly, I don’t need every photo I snap to be an 18 megapixel photo. I didn’t have a point and shoot, so I’m definitely enjoying using Instagram for that. Here are some shots from this weekend…

Are you on Instagram? If so, leave your username below so that I can follow you! (My username is: FlourishCafe)

Oops, that was dumb…

Well, tonight I needed to write the next blog post for the every-other-Wednesday series … buuuut I just realized I left my laptop charger at someone’s house. And our other charger is packed somewhere. And my battery is about to die. Oops. Plus we are still getting settled and it’s been almost a week since we’ve had a good night’s sleep. One night we got a full 45 minutes of sleep. Yeaaaah, that doesn’t quite cut it. ;) So I’m bowing out for today, but I leave you a couple fun quotes our 4 year old said today while we driving around Boston:

“This is infinity cool and infinity fun!” (while driving through the “Big Dig”)
“This is a cool Boston!”
“I’m so glad we’ve moved here.”

Yeah, me too. :)

Anyway, since I don’t have a great post to offer, please feel free to leave a link to a post of yours or someone else’s that you want to share, and we can find some fun blogs in the comments. I always enjoy hearing from you! :)

BOSTON!!

Today we arrive in Boston! WooT! Fun stuff – you know, like unloading the moving truck. I can’t wait to start exploring the city! In the meantime, here are some Boston-themed finds from Etsy – links below so you can check them out more fully. I think it is amazing to see where different artisans draw their inspiration from, whether it is a geographical location, or something more abstract, the possibilities are endless. And these all sing “Boston” to me. Don’t you wish you were here? ;)

1. Embroidered Necklace by MerriweatherCouncil 2. Boston Mapcut by StudioKMO
3. Vintage Dunkin’ Donuts Thermos by Tribute212 4. Boston Sky Line by ElizabethThomasPhoto
5. Vintage Boston Map by bananastrudel 6. Lobster Print Linen Napkins by madderroot
7. Jigsaw Puzzle Brooch by ME2Designs 8. Boston Skyline by FrescaPhoto

Have you ever been to Boston? Leave your thoughts and comments below, I love to hear from you!

DIY Light Play: A fun break from packing

Packing and getting ready to leave for our move to Boston on Saturday has, of course, been dominating our time lately. But a combination of two things – coming across some forgotten belongings, and the need to take breaks and have some family time – lead to the following fun discovery:

We found a handful of glow sticks, and Tim suggested this idea. We turned off the ceiling fan, activated the glow sticks, and taped a different colored stick to each blade. Then we turned off the lights and turned on the fan – it looked sooooo neat! It was interesting to try the fan at different speeds – the faster you make it go, the more the colors blur into each other, actually approaching white, and we actually used it as a night light when it was time for little one to go to bed.

Our little girl loved it, and it was quite mesmerizing to watch. We all laid on the floor and watched it and enjoyed a break from packing boxes for a little while. I thought it would be fun to share – especially for those of you who have kids. :)

Then, of course, it was time to get back to packing. Just like it’s time for me to get back to packing after writing this post!

What do you like to do when you take a break? Share your thoughts and comments below, I love to hear from you!

August’s Half-Off Print (+ our moving date!)

Time to announce August’s print-of-the-month for half off! And also let you know that since it’s getting to the end of the summer, this is the last month I’ll be doing this. Also – I wanted to let you know we have a moving date! Lord willing, the day we are leaving for Boston will be August 25th!! WooT! I am SO excited!! However, I will probably be closing up my shop sometime around the 19th or 20th. So if you want the print-of-the-month, or anything else from my shop before we move, you probably will want to do that sooner rather then later.

Anyway! Enough chit-chat .. here’s August’s print of the month! It’s my “Six Impossible Things” print, which is a quote from one of my favorite books, Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass”. It’s 8×10, so it’s usually $25, but with the discount it is $12.50. Eek! And any of the colors variations are available for the discount. :) Just use the coupon code FROMTHEABODE

You can click here to see all the options for this print in my shop. The coupon code is valid only on this print, and only while my shop is open during the month of August. I’ll be opening back up shortly after we move, but it might be the beginning of September. Also, the moving sale coupon code LETSMOVE is still good for 30% off any vintage items in my shop (I don’t want to take it all with me!) – but only for a few more days until I remove all the vintage from my shop. I’ll probably keep the vintage section closed for quite some time.

So, naturally things are pretty hectic here as we’re trying to pack some things … and get rid of even more as we continue to downsize for our move. Busy, but happy. How is your summer going?
Leave your thoughts and comments below, I love to hear from you!

4 Ways to Upcycle and Display Postcards: Hack 7!


I love to travel – and I love to collect postcards from the places I go. They’re small, low-cost and lovely .. perfect to be able to collect some from each destination. However, most of my postcards live in a photo album and for this week’s upcycling hack challenge, I thought it would be fun to come up with some interesting and unique ways to upcycle and display postcards. And you only need one item for all of them: an embroidery hoop! Well … and your postcards, too, of course.

Use the screw to loosen the outer band of a 12 inch wide embroidery hoop, and stand your postcards in the space between the bands. Once you have your postcards lined up in a pleasing way, tighten the outer screw to hold the postcards in place.

Pretty spiffy looking, eh? The first idea to display the postcards is just this easy, with the hoop standing on it’s side:

But another idea is to lay it on its base and to let it double as place is disguise storage. Sometimes there are items, like a modem or router, that you need to have out but you don’t really want to have visible. Set the postcard hoop on a shelf, on top of the fridge, etc. and just place whatever items you want to keep out of sight inside the hoop!

The third idea is to make a centerpiece out of your postcards! Put candles in the middle (just not too close to the paper postcards) and enjoy the glow of the places you’ve visited.

It might be neat to use for wedding table centerpieces, and have postcards from places that are special to the couple. You could even have guests each take a postcard and write a bit of marriage advice on it, and then put it back in the centerpiece. If you’re worried about the flame, one reader suggested battery operated tea lights – great idea!

Or, for the last idea, if you’re feeling more ambitious, line multiple embroidery hoops of different sizes with postcards, and hang them at staggered heights to create a chandelier effect.

I hope you liked these simple ideas on how to upcycle an embroidery hoop and display your postcards.
And I’d love to hear – how do you display your postcards? Or do you collect something else from your travels?
Leave your thoughts and comments below, I love to hear from you!

Travel Vlog: Road Trip Games!

Well, a little while back, I asked you all what are your favorite road trip games, and mentioned an upcoming vlog about it … so here it is! (If you’re reading this in a reader or email, and can’t see the video above, just click here) By the way, after the little ending segment, there’s a bonus clip of us playing one of the road trip games. Keep in mind … the emphasis of that game is more on cacophony than being on key. ;)

Leave your thoughts and comments below – I always get excited when I get a new comment notification! :)

Travel tip: Go to the library!

Our trip to Boston was won-der-fulllllllll. I am so looking forward to living there soon, Lord willing! While we were gone we took lots of pictures, naturally, and we also made some travel vlogs while we were driving. I was hoping to post one of those today, but due to technical difficulties with the video, I’m going to have to postpone that one.

So instead today, I want to share with you one simple travel tip: go to the library!

First off, it can be a good idea to visit the library before you leave and check out some books on cd to enjoy on the road trip – I know I’ve definitely enjoyed listening to narrated stories while driving.

But, actually, when I say “go to the library”, I’m not talking about preparations for the trip, I’m talking about while you are gone. If you’re going to a decent sized city on your trip, chances are the library where you are going has some interesting sights and free activities. And when you’re on a trip, fun things to do that don’t cost any money are nice things to find!

I love books, of course, (in case you couldn’t tell) but many libraries have more to offer than books alone. You might be surprised at what you find at a library, especially in a large city.

So one day in Boston, after a stop at, naturally, Dunkin Donuts, my 4 year old and I set out to find the library. I’m so glad we did! Here are some of the things we discovered about the library…

‣‣‣ First of all, before we went inside, it was in a beautiful downtown location, and loaded with statues. I don’t know about your kids, but my little one loves statues. She wanted her picture with this one:

and if there’s a spot that looks like it SHOULD have a statue and it doesn’t, well then of course, you just have to fill in where you can:

‣‣‣ Once you’re inside the library there is a charming little restaurant called The Maproom Cafe, where you could have sandwiches, coffee, pastries – or even a formal high tea! And if you didn’t want to eat in the Maproom Cafe you could take your food out to…

‣‣‣ The Courtyard. In the middle of the library is a huge outdoor courtyard with a fountain and terracced walk ways lined with tables where you can read and enjoy your food. Um, yeah! But before you get to the courtyard you first walk through …

‣‣‣ Amazing architecture! In fact, I noticed there were actually guided tours you could go on to learn the history about all the beautiful architecture. We weren’t there at the right time for that, but we enjoyed wandering from room to room anyway…

‣‣‣ One room we discovered was the map room. I loooove maps. There were all kinds of historical maps on display, plus there were all these little tiny window-seat areas, and in each one was a different map-related activity for kids! My little one really enjoyed the map puzzle nook.

‣‣‣ We also found there was an art gallery exhibition going on at that time in the library, so we stopped in and enjoyed the art:

By the time we had done all of that, we hadn’t even gotten to the part of the library where there were books to check out! But it was time to leave and go meet some friends, so we headed on out, and I can explore that part of the library next time we’re in Boston.

But I’m sure you can see now why I like to visit libraries when I’m travelling – you never know what you’ll find, but chances are, you’ll find something interesting. In fact, I’ve seen libraries featured on the Travel Channel before when they talk about places to visit in certain cities. So check it out! I know I definitely would like to have tea at the library in Boston someday. *hint, hint, Husband* ;)

Do you visit libraries when you are travelling?
Or do you have other low-cost high-value tricks up your sleeve?
Leave your thoughts, comments and travel tips below, I love to hear from you!