Hi. It's me again, Anna. My Mom went off to play Santa, or so she says. She's just delivering cheesecakes and wine and cookies and cards and stuff in regular clothes, but she's acting like it's a big deal and she's running about with flying reindeer. Mom, you drive a minivan. That's what I say. So I'm in charge of the blog again today. In honor of flying reindeer, I chose a page from my journal where I collaged birds. There's torn papers and cut edges, and some of the shapes were pieced from lots of little bits of tissue while the one bird was cut with a stencil I made and is just one big piece. This is a page that I did in one of Mom's Creative Journalling classes. Sometimes I go as her helper, and sometimes I go as a student. I like doing both for different reasons. I like getting to journal because you never know what will show up on your page when you are done. So that is it for today. I don't know if Mom will let me blog again tomorrow, but I want to come back again some time. Thank you for reading and being our friends. And can I say Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukah to all of you too. Sincerely, Anna Santini PS My Mom says I can't give my email out, but if you send her a note, she'll make sure that I get it. ksantini@turtledovedesigns.com Me? on countertops? Please, don't listen to her. I couldn't be bothered to get on those stinking countertops. I'd much rather unravel the toilet paper roll and drag it through the house - now that's real fun, right monkey? End of Year Celebrations We've got a guest blogger again! My 10 year old daughter will be sharing pages from her journal while I'm taking care of the business side of things. Thanks to everyone who wrote Anna after her post yesterday - she feels special indeed after all the positive feedback! And I'm a dervish here in the background. I'm getting images prepped for reproduction as notecards, adding new paintings to Etsy, working on another book (!!) and lining up fresh new faces for 2011 paintings. (If you want on the 2011 calendar for a portrait, please let me know!) And we made a mess of homemade biscotti yesterday, too. Yum. I am hoping that your homes are full of love and light and laughter. Have a wonderful holiday! Fondly, Kim PS Kitten Mona Lisa's mastered the aloof "I didn't do it" part, even when caught red handed. Like when she's nonchalantly cleaning herself in the midst of 50 paint brushes scattered all over the studio floor. Maybe she IS innocent. Maybe it's Monkey.