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It’s week 3 of the hack challenge! And I must admit, it was a close call this week to get a project done. But, ta da, here it is! I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to get any project finished for this week’s post done while we are out of town … I had a back up plan in mind, but I’m glad I didn’t have to use it because I wasn’t terribly thrilled about. Fortunately, my sister in law up here in New England was having a craft night at her house this week, and I realized … Read more

I never would have thought of today’s hack-a-week project without my husband, Tim. He currently works in the auto glass industry, and brought home this lovely piece of dark glass. It was his idea to turn it into a tray! Handles were posing somewhat of a problem, though, and so I suggested feet instead. And voilà, here is today’s project! Now, you might be thinking, “Great, I don’t work at an auto glass place. How on earth am I supposed to get my hands on something like that?” Well, here’s the deal. Apparently on certain kinds of trucks with divided … Read more

Here we go! Thanks to all of you who voted for what would be the next challenge – and this week it begins: The “Hack” Challenge, where each week we come up with a new DIY project, upcycling an item from it’s original purpose into something new, usually some kind of home decor or furniture type project. And so onto week 1… Solar Powered DIY Paper Lamps! Generally when I come up with an idea for something I would like to turn into a lamp or use in lighting, I run into the same problem: it is not an object … Read more

Well, this past week was week one of my Adventure a Week Challenge, and I think we are off to a great start!  I made an illustrated free printable, and its available at the end of the post, for anyone else who would like to do this scavenger hunt adventure, so be sure not to miss it: Pin It When I first mentioned to my four year old daughter that we were going to have an adventure a week, she was thrilled. I told her we might do a nature scavenger hunt, and she said, “Ooooh, how about a pirate … Read more

Well, we’ve reached the end of the 6 weeks for the Creative Business challenge! And for the finale, we’ll be covering the single most asked-about topic from your handmade biz questions: marketing. I left it for last because one of the reasons marketing can be so difficult is because there are other things about your business that have to be in place first to be able to market more easily, and so I wanted to cover those in the first in the series. I hope you found those posts helpful. If you missed them, they lay out groundwork for how … Read more

I’m very excited about a project I’m involved in this year – Art House Co-op’s 2012 Sketchbook Tour! Basically, it’s like a music tour, but with art instead of music. Many artists are sending in sketchbooks to the project, and then all of our sketchbooks are going on tour around the country, visiting various major cities where anyone can come and browse through them and enjoy the artwork. My little sketchbook will be going along for the ride! I was able to choose from a variety of offered “themes” for my sketchbook … I went with the theme “Fill me … Read more

I love to hear from you, so feel free to get in touch! Email: aprilstarr@flourishcafe.com Twitter: twitter.com/FlourishCafe Facebook: facebook.com/FlourishCafe Pinterest: pinterest.com/FlourishCafe Tumblr: flourishcafe.tumblr.com Etsy: send a convo

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 … Read more

Well, our timeline has definitely been a little different in Boston than I had expected, but I did mention wanting to start back up the Truth & Evidences series during October … and, hey, there are a couple hours left. 🙂 Since its been a couple months since I took a break from the series during the craziness of moving, this post will just be a recap, and then I’ll plan to continue this series every other Wednesday, Lord willing, as we were doing earlier. The topic of this series of posts is a discussion of whether there is actual … Read more

I am the primary writer on this blog, but my husband Tim may be putting up occasional posts here as well in the future, and so I thought I should start off by letting you get to know him a little bit. So last night I “interviewed” him. HA! Generally you interview someone you don’t already know. I think all married people should interview their spouse sometimes … it makes for some good laughs. 🙂 Me: “So, what’s your name?” Tim: “….Tim. Why are you asking that?” Me: “How would you describe yourself in one word or less?” Tim: “Pretty … Read more