Anita’s Happy Birthday Card

“Excellence is not an act but a habit. The things you do the most are the things you will do the best.”
– Marva Collins

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Anita Haltom’s Birthday Card

Our friend Anita turned 80!  We went to her Birthday party at the VFW on Saturday.  Anita can run circles around me.  She’s an energetic and beautiful lady.  I’m proud to call her my friend.  Her husband Harold threw a big wing-ding for her, complete with karaoke.  NO…. I do not sing!  (just in case you were wondering) 

About Marva Collins

American educator Marva Collins pioneered progressive education for disadvantaged children. She was born in Alabama on August 31, 1936 and in her 20′s moved to Chicago, where she founded a school for children who were at risk. After one year, every child tested at least five grades higher. Many public schools have successfully implemented her methods. She has appeared on 60 Minutes and Good Morning America and she received the National Humanities Medal from President Bush in 2004. She believes every child is a winner until someone convinces him or her too thoroughly otherwise.

Myth or Madness? – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor and Ink

“There is nothing more potent than thought. Deed follows word and word follows thought. And where the thought is mighty and pure, the result is mighty and pure.“
–Gandhi

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2013

Myth or Madness? – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor and Ink

Myth is the word of the week for Illustration Friday.  I used that to inspire me when I painted this for my friend, Bobby Ott’s 70th birthday card.

Legend has it… there is a wonderful little place called Ott, where some tiny little magical people live.  It is thought that they are protected by a large, but affectionate creature who  has never been seen by humans…. until now.

Inside this Birthday card, I told Bobby that as he gets older and has an occasion to question his sanity, all he has to do is pull out this card to affirm that no matter how crazy he may seem…. there is at least one person crazier than him.  (me)  He giggled when I gave it to him.

Mohandas Gandhi (October 2, 1869 – January 30, 1948)  was the last child of his father (Karamchand Gandhi) and his father’s fourth wife (Putlibai). During his youth, Mohandas Gandhi was shy, soft-spoken, and only a mediocre student at school. Although generally an obedient child, at one point Gandhi experimented with eating meat, smoking, and a small amount of stealing — all of which he later regretted. At age 13, Gandhi married Kasturba (also spelled Kasturbai) in an arranged marriage. Kasturba bore Gandhi four sons and supported Gandhi’s endeavors until her death in 1944.

Aunt Opal’s 99th Birthday Card – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor & Ink on 5″ x 7″ Black Greeting Card

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things…”
–Robert Brault

So true.  One of my favorite memories of my dad is he and I having an ice cream sundae at Howard Johnson’s… just the two of us.  A simple little moment in time, yet all these years later, one of my favorite moments.

Copyright Beth Parker Art 2012

Aunt Opal’s 99th Birthday Card – 4″ x 6″ Watercolor & Ink on 5″ x 7″ Black Greeting Card

The hubby’s aunt Opal turned 99 last month and we attended her birthday party at The Canadian First Methodist Church on Sunday.   She is such a joy and we love seeing her surrounded by people that she loves.  I had fun making her card.   I am looking forward to doing a special one for her 100th birthday. 

On Robert Brault’s blog: I am a free-lance writer who has contributed to magazines and newspapers in the USA for over 40 years. I offer my writings here as an entertainment only, pursuing no agenda and promoting no political philosophy. You can read more here.

I got his quote from my little Simple Truths book Stress is a Choice, by David Zerfoss.

Swimming Pretty

“If you want a place in the sun, you’ve got to put up with a few blisters.”
– Abigail Van Buren

 
Swimming Pretty
5″ x 7″ Watercolor

This one is a little bit of a happy accident.  I placed some stretched out gauze across a piece of watercolor paper and dabbed color onto it.   (I got a little too far into it, when I realized I forgot to mask off a place for my fish. )

After it dried, I removed the gauze and continued with a little negative painting around the coral.  Not to be undone by my own forgetfulness, I painted a little fish on a scrap of watercolor paper and attached it to the painting.  I think it will make a nice birthday card for a child.  I send hand painted cards to all my family members.  They love it!

Just for fun, I pulled the colored gauze out of the trash can and scanned this one.  Isn’t that fun? 




An even better birthday card, perhaps?

Gotta love those happy accidents. 

About Abigail Van Buren

Pauline Phillips, better known as Abigail Van Buren, wrote the syndicated “Dear Abby” column for 46 years. She was born in 1918 in Iowa. She had never written professionally when she contacted the San Francisco Chronicle’s editor and said she could do better than their current advice maven. Her version was an instant success. Her twin sister, Esther Lederer, became an advice columnist under the name Ann Landers. Phillips retired in 2002; her daughter, Jeanne Phillips, took over her column.