Hack Challenge: Week 2! DIY Record Side Table

By April Starr | Published: May 18, 2012

Onward with the weekly hack challenge – where each week I have to hack an item and upcycle it into something completely new, typically decor related. I’m so tickled with how last week’s project of the DIY solar paper lamps went, and I’m also excited about this week’s project: an upcycled DIY record side table!

I’ll be honest – I had a completely different idea for this week originally, but I was having trouble at the hardware store finding screws with the right threading, the right head and the right length that I needed for that other project .. I must admit, I never thought I’d have such specific requests out of a screw, but it was what I needed. The guy at the hardware store was baffled by my request. Soooo, long story short, I’ll need to take a different approach with that project, and I put it off for a different week. And instead I came up with and idea that is MUCH simpler … ridiculously easy, in fact. Which I’m guessing would be preferable to me sending you on a project that calls for you to baffle the hardware store with your request for a certain kind of screw! So here we go with the simple (but still kinda spiffy, in my opinion, anyway) project for this week…

For this project you will need:

‣ ‣ ‣ a vinyl lp record. Make sure it is one that you don’t mind “destroying”, for all listening purposes, anyway. You can often pick up some old records at thrift stores for about a dollar.

‣ ‣ ‣ a planter stand. Preferably in black, to match the record. Also, make sure it in not wider at the top than your record’s width. For instance, for a 12 inch record, I used a planter stand that was 10 inches wide at the top.

‣ ‣ ‣ a glue gun.

You’ll only need the record, not the cover. But if it has interesting cover art, you don’t have to toss it! I think vintage albums make an interesting decor feature! Like this:

But back to the table! Instructions:

1. Wipe down the record with a damp paper towel – chances are if it’s vintage, there may be a good bit of dust trapped in the grooves. Clean both sides, then wipe gently with a dry cloth. Make sure it’s dry before attaching to the table.

2. Heat up your hot glue gun.

3. Once the hot glue gun is ready to use, apply an even line of hot glue all along the entire top edge of the planter, where the record will sit.

4. Promptly place the record on top of the planter while the glue is still hot. Be careful to place it so that it is centered – you don’t want to scoot it around to get it in the right position after it has come in contact with the glue.

(I tend to eyeball things, but if you’re not comfortable with eyeballing it, before you heat up your glue gun, subtract the width of the top of planter from the width of the record, then divide that in half, and the result will be the amount of overhang the record should have. (ie, 12 inch record – 10 inch planter = 2 inches. Divided in half makes it 1 inch of overhang all around.) On the underside of the record, measure that far in from the edge in a couple of spots, and mark at that point. Then, when placing the record on the planter, watch from underneath as you place it, and line up your markings so they land directly on the glue, and your record will be centered.)

5. Let the glue cool and harden – and you are done! Super easy.

All that is left to be done is to find the perfect spot for your new little little piece of upcycled furniture to sit! :)

Hope you enjoyed this project idea! Records are great for projects, there are tons of things you can make with old records.
Have you ever upcycled a record?
And I’m curious – do you prefer easy projects like this, or more time intensive/elaborate projects?
Leave your thoughts and comments below, I love to hear from you! :)

Posted in Challenge, hack a week, upcycling, vintage | 25 Comments

Seek the things above: Being faithful

By April Starr | Published: May 16, 2012

Continuing the “Seek the things above” (Colossians 3:1) series, today, let’s think about this question:

What does it mean to be faithful to God?

Let’s think about it this way … what if your spouse said to you, “Hey, honey, I love you so much. And I want you to know I will always be faithful to you on Tuesdays and Fridays.”

I think it’s a pretty safe bet to say that’s not going to cut it!

No, being faithful isn’t an on-and-off switch. It is a part of life, it is a part of who you are. It’s not something to be labelled a couple times a year, or just on Sundays, and then to be neglected the rest of the time. That is not faithful.

In marriage, we are to be faithful to our spouse by always and continually keeping the vows we made to them. In our relationship with God, we are to be faithful to him by keeping the commitment we made to him the day we were baptised: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (Romans 6:4) Walking in newness of life. What does that mean? Well, the Bible is it’s own best commentary! The text in Romans 6 goes on to explain what this new life is:

“We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” (Romans 6:6-13)

To summarize in a word: obedience.

And if, on that final day, we want to hear from him, “Well done, good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21), then we need to BE that good and faithful servant now, obeying what he has told us. Not only on Sundays, but everyday. And what a comfort that we can “know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments” (Deuteronomy 7:9) But our faithfulness to God will never be as perfect as God’s faithfulness to us- and even if we suddenly WERE always perfectly faithful from this point on, there is nothing we could do to remove our past sins. Just as it goes on to talk about in the next couple verses of Romans 6 – we are under grace:
“For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!” (Romans 6:14-15)
God calls us to be faithful, and we must – but it is by his grace we are saved.

I hope you’ve found this encouraging. As always, if you disagree, or if you have questions, or just want to talk more, my goal is always to simply convey accurately what the Bible says and I am more than happy to discuss in greater detail – whether in the comments below, or if you’d rather talk more privately, you can always email me. I love to hear from you!

Leave your thoughts below, or drop me a note! :)

Posted in bible, seek the things above | 7 Comments

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Mother’s Day Stop Motion Video

By April Starr | Published: May 14, 2012

Since yesterday was Mother’s Day, I wanted to share with you a little stop motion video that my 4 year old daughter and I made together for my mom – we also made another version for my husband’s mother. My little girl did the drawings and I told her the basic idea of what to draw, and then took the photos. You’ll notice a little segment, though, where she stops and “thinks about obeying God” … that part was my 4 year old’s idea that she wanted to include, which I thought was pretty sweet – and it shows the kind of example that both my mother and my mother in law set, that my four year old automatically associates them with the desire to obey God. I am so blessed to have both of these wonderful women in my life. Happy Mother’s Day to both of them. :) I hope you’ll enjoy our little stop motion video!

Did you have a nice Mother’s Day? (whether you’re a mother yourself, or celebrating your own mother)
Leave your thoughts and comments below!

Posted in family, Stop Motion, video | 9 Comments

Hack Challenge: Week 1! DIY Solar Paper Lamps

By April Starr | Published: May 11, 2012

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 that would be safe to light with an interior candle, and it can not be easily wired. But for this week’s project, you don’t have to worry about either one. Since these are solar powered, they don’t need any wiring, and there is no flame to worry about. We’re “hacking” into yard solar lamps to create our own glowing paper lamps. I think these would be lovely in a collection as part of a centerpiece for a dinner table, or lining a deck railing for an evening gathering, or anywhere ambient lighting would be a nice touch!
All you need are…
- some solar powered lawn lights, one for each lamp. You can pick these up for just a couple dollars.
- an old illustrated book (encyclopedias are perfect because of the variety of types of images!)
- and a pair of scissors

Make sure you get the type of solar lawn light that has a square head, and then stand them outside in direct sunlight to get their charge.

Choose an page from the encyclopedia, or whatever paper you choose to use, that has a design you want to be the “shade” of the lamp, bearing in mind that whatever is on the back of the page will also shine through. Cut a square out of that page. The size ratio that I used was this: for a 2.2 inch square solar lamp head, I used a 5.5 inch square paper. Here is how you turn that piece of paper into an origami box to use as the “shade” for your mini-lamp:

I made three separate paper “shades” for the lamps, all from the same encyclopedic volume from 1965: one was an outer space photograph, one was a map, and one was simply text.

Once the solar lights have charged, bring them inside, and disconnect the top, which contains the light bulb, from the rest of the body. You’ll probably be able to do this by simply partially twisting the top and then lifting.

Fit the paper box shade onto the solar light unit. If there is still a fair amount of light where you will be displaying these, you’ll probably need to sit them face up, so that the solar panel is downward, and not absorbing any light, so that the light will turn on, as shown in the first photo below. But if it will be dark, I think they also look very nice displayed on their side, as shown in the second photo below. Either way, you now have a unique piece of ambient lighting, which can be changed to a completely different design by simply making a new origami box to go on top!


Remember to recharge the lights before their next use – just remove and set aside the paper, and reattach the light to the top of the yard light, and put it back outside!

So, what do you think of week one of the hack challenge?
What type of paper would you use on top of your lamps?
Leave your thoughts and comments below, I love to hear from you! :)

Posted in Challenge, hack a week, upcycling | 30 Comments

Unplug & go outdoors! A break till next challenge

By April Starr | Published: April 30, 2012

I recently saw a little cartoon where it shows a woman in the morning, thinking to herself, “I’m going to get so much done today!” Next block, she had been punched in the face by a figure saying, “Nope.” That figure was labelled “Internet”.

There is a sad and growing trend of people’s online lives beginning to eclipse their real lives. We read of social media addiction and people frustrated that their offline life is not as full as it is online. That is NOT what I want. I see my online presence as a way to chronicle and supplement my real life – not replace it!

I know there are always tons of things vying for your attention online. But for the next week and a half, my blog will not be one of them. I just finished up the Adventure-a-Week challenge last Friday, which was SO much fun, and the weekly “hack”/upcycling challenge isn’t starting until May 11th – so in this brief period in between I’m taking a step back, and a short break from the blog. I’d encourage you, too, if you find that the Internet is taking up more time than you would like, to disconnect and spend more time in the real world! Go hiking, read to your kids, cook a meal, have some friends over – all that beautiful real-world-real-life living.

Think of it this way- which are you more likely to regret:
Spending less time online?
Or spending less time in your real life?

So unplug and go outdoors! And then when coming back online, to supplement and not replace real life, you’ll have so much more inspiration and things to share. I’m personally looking forward to a little break – and I’ll look forward to seeing you back here on The Flourishing Abode for the new challenge starting on May 11th, Lord willing – and I intend to have a much cleaner real life Abode by that time. Spring outdoors (and spring cleaning) here I come!

Until May 11th, signing out,
-April

Posted in blogging, family, motivational, time management | 9 Comments

Final Adventure Challenge! Stop Motion Festival

By April Starr | Published: April 27, 2012

Well, it’s time for the final post of the Adventure-a-Week Challenge! It’s been such a fun project over the last several weeks. You can see a list of all the Adventure-a-Week posts here.
(If you’re reading this in an email or reader and can’t see the video above, just click here .. the video is where the substance of this week’s challenge is! Plus there’s some new stop motion video, as well as the announcement for what the next challenge will be, now that the adventure challenge is over!)

Below, is the set of Bingo printables – I’ve created 6 Bingo sheets, all from our same festival alphabet finds, but scrambled into a different order for each sheet. Hand one out to each family member and start looking for the finds! Just like any Bingo – who ever crosses off five in a row first, yells “Bingo!” and wins. :) All of the items just need to be spotted/found, not necessarily purchased. Most of the letters should be self-explanatory as shown in the video … but on “N”, new food just means anything you have never tried before. In my case, it was a deep fried Snickers. Om nom nom!
Just click the image below to access the free Festival Alphabet Bingo printables:

Thanks to Mike Mills (from the Knox Historical Museum who was giving free local history tours at the festival) and B Edward Pope (from bpopewoodturning who gave us lots of interesting information about his work) for both kindly letting me take your photos for our project! And thanks to Kevin MacLeod for the music.

Don’t forget about the upcoming new challenge as announced at the end of the video, and be sure to subscribe so you’ll be the first to know when the new challenge posts begin! :)
So what do you always look for at fairs and festivals?
Leave your thoughts and comments below, we love to hear from you!

Posted in Adventure a Week, Challenge, Stop Motion | 19 Comments

Seek the things above: Are we like the Bereans?

By April Starr | Published: April 25, 2012

For this week’s “Seek the things above” post, I want to pose some questions which I hope will be thought provoking.

Why do you believe what you believe? Is it because it is what you’ve always heard? What your culture commonly believes? What your parents taught you? What your preacher, priest or pastor told you? How do you know what they told you is true? Does the Bible tell us we’ll just get a feeling about it – or does the Bible teach us to study his Word to know his will?

What about the Bereans? When the apostle Paul went to Berea and started teaching in the synagogue, it says that they “were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed” (Acts 17:11-12 ESV)

Do we follow this example? Are we noble like them? Do we examine the scriptures daily to see if the things that are taught to us are so?

Are the people who teach us today infallible?
Or is it possible to be taught error?
Do we compare the things we are taught to the things God has said?
Did God make his Word available to all?
Do you have a Bible?
How often do you study it?

Leave your thoughts and comments below.

Posted in bible, seek the things above | 11 Comments

I’m ready for fresh produce! – Vegetarian Tacos

By April Starr | Published: April 22, 2012

I’ll be upfront – I’m not a vegetarian. But once spring and summer come around, I am craving fresh fruits and veggies, and frankly, meat can take a back seat then sometimes! Not to mention the fact that meat is more expensive and often more time consuming to cook. So sometimes I feel like making a meatless meal, and I wanted to share an easy vegetarian recipe I came up with recently: cilantro and lime black bean tacos. Nothing ground breaking, but it is easy, healthy and delicious!

Vegetarian Tacos:

For the filling (instead of meat):
- About 3 cups of black beans, cooked and mostky drained
- 1-2 teaspoons of cumin (to taste)
- 3-4 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro
- Dash of lime juice
- Salt to taste

Toppings:
- Diced red pepper
- Fresh salsa (diced tomatoes, diced onions, diced fresh pineapple, cilantro, lime juice, diced hot chilies if desired)
- Cheese of your choice
- Cilantro
- Sliced jalapenos
- Sliced avocados, or whatever else you feel like!

It’s delicious served with fresh pineapple.
Enjoy!

Is anyone else like me and crave fresh veggies this time of year?
What are your favorite simple meatless meals?
Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Posted in cooking, food | 10 Comments

Adventure Challenge: Week 8! Go Geocaching

By April Starr | Published: April 20, 2012

Have you ever gone geocaching? It is the perfect activity for week 8 of our adventure-a-week challenge! Once you have a GPS, it is something you can do for free, and is a great way to explore a new area – or even to see a familiar area is a whole new light. As it is described on their website, Geocaching.com, it is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online.

The fun is in the hunt – to find these hidden caches, more than what is inside them. They can range in size from micro caches in tiny capsules only a couple inches wide with barely enough room for just a sign-in sheet, to regular sized caches often in an ammo-box or other waterproof container which often have little trinkets of small value which you can trade out in addition to the sign-in sheet, to “virtual” caches which are not a typical cache with a log-in sheet, but just takes you to an area where there is an interesting sight to see and find. My personal favorite are micro caches- I think they are the most challenging to find! Often, in addition to the coordinates given for the GPS there are clever clues to help you narrow down your search to a more selected area.

To start, you sign up and download the waypoints from Geocaching.com, and input them into your GPS to get you to the area where the cache is hidden. Once there, you start hunting. But with a somewhat clandestine air- you have to be aware of “muggles”! The definition of muggles on the geocaching.com website makes me laugh: “Muggle: A non-geocacher. Based on “Muggle” from the Harry Potter series, which is a non-magical person. Usually this term is used after a non geocacher looks puzzled after befriending a geocacher searching for a cache, or when a non-geocacher accidentally finds a cache. Geomuggles are mostly harmless.” If you call too much attention to a cache, non-geocachers who saw you might move it or take it after you leave, not realizing what it is. So be sneaky! ;)

After you have found the caches and logged into the sheets and had your fun exploring, when you get back home you log your finds on the geocaching website. Geocaching is something we enjoy doing occasionaly – but it had been a pretty long time since we had gone geocaching, so this week it was fun to get out and try it again! Here was our adventure, there were very few “muggles” around where we were geocaching, so I was able to take pictures without too much trouble:

I don’t usually bother trading items in the larger caches – anytime I’ve seen someone give Geocaching a try thinking that the trading is the main thing, they’re usually disappointed …the fun is really in the finding! A lot of times the clues/names and such are very clever, too. But I did decide to leave one of my mini-art prints in one of the caches, as you see above. :) We had a great time, and one of the fun things about geocaching is it takes you to new places and helps you find interesting areas. We certainly made some new discoveries!

If you haven’t gone geocaching, you should give it a try! Here are a few more geocaching terms that might be helpful to know:

BYOP: Bring your own pen. This means the cache is too small to hold a pen along with the sign-in sheet, so you must bring your own to be able to log your visit.

Multi cache: This is where a single cache hunt is made up of a series of individual caches, in a series. It is usually on some theme, and you may need to find the caches in a certain order to get all the information needed to find the later caches.

Travel Bug: You might find a travel bug in a cache. This is a token of some sort with a tracking number, and hitchhikes from person to person and cache to cache, with its progress tracked online.

CITO/Cache in, trash out: This is a common practice that as you geocache and log into caches you find, that if you find litter in the area you are hunting, you take the time to collect it and throw it away. So do some good while you are out having fun!

Have you ever gone geocaching? Does it interest you?
Leave you thoughts and comments below!

Posted in Adventure a Week, Challenge, family | 17 Comments

Seek the things above: Want vs. Need

By April Starr | Published: April 18, 2012

Well, I’ll be perfectly honest – I’m going to be stepping on my own toes for this week’s “Seek the things above” post. It’s about want vs. need.

I wish I had more of the attitude expressed here in Proverbs 30: give me only what I NEED. I’m more fond of wants and comforts than I wish I was. And, sure, many people in our society wouldn’t look at my life and call it the most luxurious. We don’t make tons of money by US standards. But is that really the standard? Compared to many countries today and throughout history, my life of temperature controlled rooms, running hot and cold water, mechanical servants to wash my dishes and clothes, soft mattresses, a wealth of information at my fingertips, and food prepared by others accessible in minutes, is downright posh. And yet I get impatient when the internet takes a while to load.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with money in and of itself. It’s just a tool. 1 Timothy 6:10 is often misquoted as saying “money is the root of all evil” – but that isn’t what it says. The verse actually reads, “For the LOVE of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” It’s the love of money that is the problem, not the money itself. But that love of money is so prevalent in our society. We’re constantly being told we “deserve” things we have no real need of or right to own. People are judged for having clothes that aren’t to-the-minute fashionable, or cars that aren’t a “statement”. Or what about a cell phone that is 10 years old? That will get some full blown laughs.

How much do these things really matter in the long run? At the end of our lives when we are on our deathbed are we really going to look back and say to ourselves, “Boy, I sure am glad I bought that new iPad in 2012″? Yet how much focus do people put on those things now? And when I say “people”, I’m very much including myself. I don’t have an iPad. I don’t have an iPhone. Have I ever been guilty of feeling a little sorry for myself when my friends are all talking about their new apps and I see their Instagram pictures? Yeah, sometimes. Shame on me. I have all I need — and WAY more.

We start to get dependent on our economic standing. Too often, more faith is put in banks accounts and portfolios than in God. We start turning into the rich man mentioned above in Proverbs 30. We become the rich man in Mark 10:25, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” We become enslaved to our wants and belongings which have become our idols: “covetousness, which is idolatry” (Colossians 3:5) And we have forgotten what we NEED.

Again it’s not that having money is wrong. It’s an issue of where the HEART is, as it says in Matthew 6:19-21: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. … No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Where are my “treasures”?
Where is my heart?
Who am I serving?

A life focused on God is so much more fulfilling than a life of accumulating stuff.

Leave your thoughts and comments below! Or, if you ever feel like discussing something further, feel free to drop me a note.

Posted in bible, seek the things above | 10 Comments

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  • Learning and laughing everyday! Foremost a Christian, then wife & mama. Farther down the list: artist, writer, lover of spicy food, amateur explorer and worth very little in the early mornings.

    Boring is not on the menu of my life. This is all about making home a more flourishing place - no more ho-hum, let’s do extraordinary! Let’s turn off the tv, and turn on life. Let’s go exploring, let’s experiment in the kitchen, let’s play, let’s flourish!

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