I'm back...I could go pick up the paint brush and finish the trim in the breakfast room...but I stopped to read e-mails.
I get this little comic strip daily in my e-mail (because my name is Lila and I couldn't resist), The Meaning of Lila. Today's strip shows that Lila has a blog. Funny! ?

[I really think she is a more shallow and superficial "Lila" than I am! Also a generation younger???]

In addition to the comic strip and e-mail, I have been reading "Three Cups of Tea" which I highly recommend!

I have just started reading, "The Kite Runner", and think I will like it, too ( though I know it is intense, so we'll see.)

I'll post some photos of my backyard "secret garden" soon....I was inspired by visiting my friend Paula's garden!

I'm still making altered book pages....





I have learned about some new authors and new blogs while doing "cut and paste" from a pile of last year's magazines!




One author is Ann Hood whose novel, "The Knitting Circle" has just come out in paperback. Read her blog here.


Another of my most beloved authors is Phillip Gulley. A Quaker minister who writes with such peaceful humor, often about the fictional town of Harmony, Indiana. [He has been called the Garrison Keillor of Indiana, I'm not sure I agree, but you get the idea!] His blog about his real life is delightful!




Today is also the day that Oprah begins the new book club book, Eckhart Tolle's "A New Earth".
I decided to jump in and do it along with the on-line club. (Though I resist being involved in anything as "mainstream" as Oprah....like I'm not "mainstream"???? myself?)


I think this book says things I already knew, but I am enjoying it. I like how he explains that we are drawn to the beauty of a flower or a bird because they represent the ethereal or luminescent. Also the innocence of any newborn as they still have the "aura" (my word not his) of having been so recently with the Creator!
[This has made me be less hard on myself for often choosing birds and flowers to include in my artwork...I was afraid it was getting into a trite rut or something.....]

I hope you are all reading something wonderful and uplifting....and maybe something that makes you laugh too!