ScrappyLisa

To Lisa’s family and friends, we are honored to have known and swapped with this sweet lady, she was a treasured and valued member of Sharp Shooters photo group and What’s in your mailbox group. She will be missed.

It is with sadness that I announce Lisa passed away this summer. She was a kind person, a talented artist, a wonderful teacher, and a devoted mother and wife.

Happy Autumn! ♥

Hi! Thanks for returning by stamp bag!!!

Thanks for sending me an extra copy of your 10 reasons why swap! HYSTERICAL.

I love that this was such a fun idea, brought on by our mutual annoyance. Forever, you have the best reason why!

To the Nuts For Sewing and Crafting Group

Book covers profile decoration

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov is one of my most beloved books. One of the few I actually re-read. The first time I read it I was around 14 or something. I totally skipped over Jesus parts and read only Satan in Moscow ones. I read it all over again at 18 and concentrated mostly on the parts I skipped before. At my 3rd re-read, I was near 30 and by then learned to appreciate both the hilarity and the deep philosophical meaning of the novel.

I rarely read Mystery books, and yet The Flanders Panel by Arturo Perez-Reverte is one of my all-time favorites. It's very gorgeous and decadent read about art, justice, freedom, murder and chess.

I have a thing for Decadence and Melancholy. Be with You by Takuji Ichikawa is probably the most beautiful and charming love stories I ever read. And the twist in the end feels my heart all together with sadness, hope and delight. Also it's one of the prettiest covers I have on my bookshelves.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik is my absolutely new favorite, and undeniably the best read of this year. It's an adorable Fairy Tale about 17 year old "Baba Yaga" and her fight with Dark sentient Forest. It has plenty of magic, humor, adventure and female friendship. Also - very unusual romance. And it has one of the greatest openings: “Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”

Happy New Reading Year! Ksenia

for Book covers profile decoration swap: These are scans of my personal books. They are my three most beloved books. Enjoy!

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery - This was a gift around 1986. I fell in love with it - and Anne - in the first reading. My younger daughter's middle name is Anne, after Anne Shirley.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles - this was required reading in high school in the early 1990s. The book was used when I acquired it, and the cover is no longer attached to the book. I really related to the main character and enjoyed the book. Our teacher told us to reread it when we turned 30, so I wrote a note to myself inside the cover. I reread it at 31 and found that I related to it on a whole different level and still thoroughly enjoyed it. I plan on rereading it at 40 and every subsequent 10 years.

Mists of Avalaon by Marion Zimmer Bradley - I discovered this book in high school while working in the school library in the early 1990s. I spent a weekend engrossed in the world and stories in its 876 pages. A few years ago, I learned that the very book I read twice and loved was still in my old high school library and the librarian (the same one I worked for as a student) very graciously sold the book to me. Sadly, a paperback cover has been copiously taped to the front and back of the beautiful hardcover, presumably after it sustained damage. I haven't been brave enough to try to remove it for fear of further damaging the book.

I love the Leopard Lisa! So fun! :) Thanks!!!