Tag Archives: Birthday

Thoughtful Thursday Leap Day

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Today is a very special and unique day, Leap Day!! This a day that doesn’t exist legally, so is it real? What do you do if you’re born on Leap Day, only celebrate your birthday every 4th year? I thought you’d enjoy a little history and some fun facts about this magical day:

  • People born on Leap Day are called Leaplings or Leapers and get to choose when to celebrate their birthday which is normally February 28th or March 1st for non leap years. About 5 million people around the world were born on Leap Day and the chances of this happening are 1 in 1,461.
  • Traditionally men propose to women but on Leap Day, also known as Bachelor’s Day it is acceptable for women to propose to men. It apparently started when St Brigid made a deal with St Patrick that allowed women to have the right to propose marriage to men.
  • Early calendars followed the lunar cycle. However, because it takes around 29.5 days for the moon to orbit the earth resulting in a 354 day year, this causes an 11 day gap between the calendar and seasons.
  • The Egyptians helped Julius Caesar introduce Leap Day in 46 BC by using the solar cycle. It takes around 365.242189 days for the earth to circle around the sun 1 time and this cycle more closely matched the seasons. It isn’t exact but is close enough.
  • The twin cities of Anthony, Texas and Anthony, New Mexico are the self-proclaimed Leap Year Capitals of the World.
  • Some famous people born on Leap Day include: Dinah Shore, Tony Robbins, Mark Foster, Jimmy Dorsey, Peter Scanavino, Cullin Jones, Alex Rocco, Jack Lousma and many more!
  • Some cultures say that a leap year is bad luck. The Greeks believe getting married in a leap year will only end in divorce. The Scottish believe being born on leap day will lead to a life of bad luck. Personally, I like to think of it as a magical good luck day.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Thanks for stopping by!!

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Handmade Birthday Cards – Take 2

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I really love creating these watercolor abstracts. The splashes of colors are happy and uplifting making them perfect for birthday celebrations!

This was a card I made for my cousin. I thought it would be nice to add few flowers to front for more interest. She called last night to say how much she loved the beautiful card and said “this one’s a keeper.” 😊

I wanted to find something fun for the inside so I looked online and found this rhyming poem. I don’t know who wrote it but it went perfectly with this handmade card:

Instead of buying an expensive machine made card the next time someone’s birthday rolls around, try making one instead and touch their heart 💖

Hope this inspires you, thanks for stopping by!!

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Handmade Birthday Cards

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I started creating birthday cards when I was very little. Dad showed me how to draw flowers and I’d color them with crayons and cut them out to glue on the card. He always told me a handmade card is a special gift because it’s made with love and there’s nothing more special than that.

I’ve created many cards over the years. Some were simple that I put together fairly quickly, while others took hours with lots of layers and intricate moving parts. But the idea of creating a small work of art and giving it someone to see the joy in their eyes as they’d revel in it’s uniqueness is what puts a smile on my heart.

There are so many designs you can make and it doesn’t have to be complex if you don’t want it to. You could make a card using a special photo or create a small painting that can be framed. The possibilities are endless and handmade gifts are are gifts that touch the heart. Why not give it a try?

Hope this inspires you, thanks for stopping by!!

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Here’s a sampling of birthday cards I made:

Thoughtful Thursday – Happy Birthday Dad

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Today would have been my father’s birthday but he passed away a few years ago. He was a talented man who could fix anything under the sun. He had a superb sense of humor and was a great artist and my inspiration for art.

Dad was very practical and logical in his thinking. He drew this pen and ink picture the day before his 21st birthday. I was lucky enough to find it mixed in with a bunch of other papers he kept. I was in awe with how beautiful it was. Funny enough, he never hung this masterpiece in the house so I hung it in mine.

When I was a kid, I couldn’t draw well. So dad took the picture I was trying to draw and drew a numbered grid on it. Then he drew another grid on blank paper and told me to copy each square, one at a time until I was finished. This made complete sense to me at the time and thus my adventure in art began. Eventually, I got better and didn’t need the grid as much. I really love this piece by dad because you can still see the numbered grid on it which reminds me of my first art lesson with him.

Dad was an oil painter but I never liked the turpentine smell, it was always very strong so I gravitated to watercolors. I started painting with my sister’s watercolor set by Mayflower with 24 colors. I was having a blast with that. Then for my birthday, mom and dad got me a big watercolor set made in England by Page of London with a whopping 80 colors!!! For a kid who was fascinated with colors, it was like I won the jackpot!!!!

Dad kept pretty much everything so lo and behold, he still had the original paint sets from when I was a kid. Sadly some of my pan colors in the larger set broke and got lost over the years but the sets are in good condition overall. I’m so glad he kept these because they bring back a lot of nice memories.

Thank you Dad for all your patience, creativity and ingenuity in teaching me art!

✨Happy Birthday Dad ✨