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As much of the east coast is blanketed in white blizzard drifts, even though it is late in the month, it seems an appropriate time to post about January! And whether the thought of snow-days already fills you with images of steaming mugs of hot tea while watching the snowflakes flitter past the windows, or whether your mind first goes to thoughts of cold toes, this post is for you: a post about the things to enjoy in January. This is part of the Present-Month Project, focusing on the joys of each month as it comes. Overall, January is new … Read more

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.” I almost wish C. S. Lewis hadn’t said this, because its so true of me that I probably would have said it myself, and then everyone would be quoting me instead of him. Well … ok, maybe not, but I do love this quote. 🙂 (In fact, I loved it so much, I embroidered it on this book tote I made! I call it a “quote tote” and I stitched my paper beads on it – WooT! One of these days I … Read more

Yes, we are expecting or second child!! And yes, I am still alive. After almost a year of posting on my blog multiple times every week, even while travelling, or packing, or moving across the country — I suddenly fell off the face of the internet. My last post was at the end of November saying I would be back in a week. Yeaaah, that didn’t happen. There has been a lot of difficult things going on lately, and added on top of that, we just moved into a new apartment, Tim had to start working both an overnight job … Read more

I love to cook and experiment with new flavors in the kitchen- particularly when I get to try my hand at new flavors from another country. However, the flair of their local fare often comes from ingredients that are easier to obtain there than here. I’m hesitant to shell out a lot of money for some unusual foreign ingredient if I don’t know how to use it very well or even if I will like it! Such was the case, as some of you may know, when I tried to make Hot and Sour Soup. If not, let’s just say … Read more

As much of the east coast is blanketed in white blizzard drifts, even though it is late in the month, it seems an appropriate time to post about January! And whether the thought of snow-days already fills you with images of steaming mugs of hot tea while watching the snowflakes flitter past the windows, or whether your mind first goes to thoughts of cold toes, this post is for you: a post about the things to enjoy in January. This is part of the Present-Month Project, focusing on the joys of each month as it comes. Overall, January is new … Read more

Today is my husband Tim’s birthday. Marriage as God designed it is a beautiful thing. Our marriage is far from perfect, certainly, but this life is a journey and I am glad that he is the one I spend it with and that we can grow, work, love and laugh together everyday. I’m so thankful that I can say this firsthand: “I found the one whom my soul loves.” (Song of Solomon 3:4.) 17-10-2012 April Starr art, bible, love, printables

Well, my shop FlourishCafe is back open for business after our move! The vintage section of the shop will stay closed for awhile until we are more settled, but my typography and illustration prints are available again. Since some of you have been expressing an interest in selling on Etsy, so I thought you would enjoy this infographic. A group of designers made this and contacted me about sharing it on my blog, and I found it quite interesting and I thought you would too! Created by: www.MBAOnline.com If you have any questions about selling on Etsy, leave them in … Read more

I don’t know who came up with the phrase “simple as pie”. Does that mean as simple as it is to make pie .. or as simple as it is to eat pie? Because the former is definitely not always easy … largely because of the fact that pie involves pie crust. However, my friend Lindsey recently made some *amazing* pie crust that has absolutely changed my view on crusts. For one thing, pastry is usually finicky and you have to be really careful on how you handle it. But this was SO low maintenance, easy to roll out and … Read more

Welcome to The Flourishing Abode! I’ve been blogging here for a couple months now so wouldn’t you agree that it is high time for the official grand-opening-kick-off post? Yeah, I agree, a little overdue! Pin It Ever since deciding to shut down my “FlourishandDebonair” shop and blog (though you’ll still find some older posts from that blog, which I transferred over to here), I’ve been very excited making plans for TheFlourishingAbode, and I wanted to share those plans with you, and let you know what you can expect here on my blog – as well as an illustrated blog planner … Read more

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