Leanne Shawler, Artist

Remember this post about my summer reading? I'm only a quarter of the way through the N.T. Wright book. It's very readable but I'm finding it slow going regardless. I am heading off on retreat to Mt. Calvary Monastery in Santa Barbara, and so I've made the important decision as what to bring. Two books from this pile: Found: A Story of Questions, Grace and Everyday Prayer by Micha Boyett The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church's Conservative Icon by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan And then one for fun borrowed from a friend: The Fear Sign: An Albert Campion Mystery by Margery Allingham And we'll see if I have to resort to the monastery's library after that!

Last evening, halfway through reading this book, I found myself leaving blog comments of eshet chayil!  (woman of valor) here and there. It's even fun to say because the "ch" sound is kinda as in "loch" with a bit of spit. By Rachel Held Evans, the full title is A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering her Head, and Calling Her Husband "Master" . Thanks to eating too much rich food on an upset stomach (yay Thanksgiving), I stayed up past midnight to finish reading it. This may be the third most influential book for 2012. (Rachel doesn't come in third. It's just the third book this year I've found.) For me, I hasten to qualify, for where I am right now in my faith journey. Your mileage may vary, but it is a darn good read. The other two (in no particular order except the order I read them in) are Ann Voskamp's A Thousand Gifts (which okay, technically I read at the end of ...

I thought I would give you a peek at the finished board book I'm sending off to my nephew. He likes to cook, so I thought this would be perfect for him. Most of the images I used I downloaded from The Graphics Fairy . (There were a couple of serendipitous finds in a vintage paper packet a friend sent me.) This is my favorite page out of all of them. The book needs to "de-gas" since I chose to spray it with Krylon's workable fixative rather than spreading Liquitex matte medium over all the pages. Call me impatient :) I think I may've laid it on a little too heavy or maybe it was the cool weather. But if it's not smelling better by tonight (I am writing this on Sunday to post later in the week), I might try running some baby wipes over it to see if that cuts it. Else, I suppose it'll have to wait to be posted a bit longer....