Snake Crafts for Kids, Plus Thoughts on State Snakes

I put together a graphic highlighting some of my favorite snake crafts for kids, including my latest project, the rattlesnake. 

 

I mentioned in that post that two states have named a rattlesnake as their official State Reptile. I don't know nearly enough about reptiles to know if, out of every single reptile species native to Arizona and West Virginia, those two rattlesnake species best represent their state. So I did a little digging and found the delightful Life is Short But Snakes Are Long blog by Andrew Durso. It hasn't been updated since 2018, which is a shame because it's really interesting. Most interesting to me, and most relevant to my own blog, is Durso's 2-part series What the State Snakes Should Be.

You should read the entire article. But in case you don't, I'll give a few spoilers. First, Durso feels that both Arizona and West Virginia got it right - their respective State Reptile rattlesnakes are what he would choose as State Snake. Second, Durso thinks Alabama, Michigan, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Wyoming should also have rattlesnake species as their State Snake. He names other harmful-to-humans  snakes for some of the other states. Third, Durso feels the racer is a good candidate for a National Snake. I'm not opposed. 

Here are some other articles from Durso's blog that I enjoyed reading:

• Basics of Snake Skulls
• How Many Snakes are Venomous and How Many Are Constrictors?
• What the Provincial Snakes of Canada Should Be
• Are There Any Countries Without Snakes?

Enjoy!

South Dakota 2023

South Dakota is one of the most underrated states in the US. There is so much to see and do and it is a beautiful place. We had a wonderful time exploring South Dakota back in August 2023. If you've never been, I definitely recommend a visit!

South Dakota 2023 (affiliate link)

For my layout, I chose 10 pictures representing the variety of things we did in South Dakota. I included photos of bison and pronghorns, since spotting wildlife was one of the highlights of the trip for us. I will never get tired of seeing prairie dog towns! I hope to return to the Mount Rushmore State someday to explore more of what is has to offer. 

Coloring Disney Villains: Evil Queen

I took a break from coloring state quarters to do a quick Disney villain. Here's my Evil Queen: 

The image is from Art of Coloring Disney Villains (affiliate link here and below). It's a fun book filled with lots of different evil characters to color. 

Overall, I like the coloring book. There is a good mix of designs, some more simple and others more detailed. They represent a wide range of Disney movies, both older and newer. However, some of the images span across two pages, meaning some of the design is lost in the binding. The designs are printed back-to-back, so you can't color all the images if you work with markers. Fortunately, the paper is fairly thick, so I didn't have an issue with the printed design on the back showing through to my colored side. 

I started by coloring a base coat with Ohuhu Kaala and Honolulu markers, which is what you see on the left. Then I used Prismacolor colored pencils to add the tonal variation and shadows you see on the right. 

  

After coloring 42 pages using 12 different art materials, it is telling that I chose Ohuhu markers and Prismacolor pencils to do this page just for fun. Using the two combines the best of both worlds for me - the speed, color choice, and coverage of the Ohuhus along with the precision and ease of blending of the Prismacolors. 

I'm looking forward to coloring my next villain!

Thoughts on Fairfield

I have lived in Fairfield, California since 1997. I like Fairfield. We're a large and diverse city (population: 119,881) with a small-town feel. We're located equidistant between Sacramento and San Francisco; it's just 45 miles to either one. Napa is 20 miles away. We can be at the ocean in an hour or skiing in the mountains in just over two hours. We have great weather, with year-round sun and cooling breezes during our hot summers. We're home to Travis Air Force Base and Jelly Belly Candy Company, as well as a bunch of wineries. There's a large regional park in town. Fairfield is home to International Bird Rescue and the future home of Pacific Flyway Center. 

(Our sign has been there since 1925.)

My grandmother was from Fairfield, Washington. The current population is 589, and I don't think it was much different when she lived there. I haven't been there in decades, but I have fond memories of visiting my mom's cousins on their wheat farm just out of town. Fairfield, WA has a library, a community center, three churches, a single restaurant, and not much more. 

The most well-known Fairfield in the US, and the one for which my Fairfield is named, is Fairfield, Connecticut. With a population of 61,512, it is half the size of my Fairfield. Fairfield, Connecticut is located along the north shore of the Long Island Sound and has some nice looking beaches. At least as far as I can tell from photos online - I've never actually been there. It is also home to Fairfield University 

I'm aware of three Fairfields, which led me to wonder... how many other states have a Fairfield? Answer: It depends. Do unincorporated towns count? Townships? How about a census designated place (CDP) called Fairfield? What about a Fairfield County? According to 24/7 Wall Street, there are 20 Fairfields in the US, making it the 22nd most common city name in the country. GeoTarget says there are 35 Fairfields. Wikipedia lists Fairfields in 25 different states. Most of them are tiny. It would be an interesting project to visit all the Fairfields in the US, but not one I intend to do. Although Fairfield, Iowa is tempting. 

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While researching this post, I came across an interesting article by Ken Jennings you might enjoy. I'm a huge fan of Ken Jennings. If you haven't read Maphead yet (affiliate link), drop what you're doing and go read it. You're welcome. 

Chickasaw Molasses Bread

Visiting the Chickasaw Cultural Center was one of the highlights of our time in Oklahoma and a must-see if you will be in the Sooner State. The large campus is beautiful and has so much to see and do. One of the many things you don't want to miss is the Aaimpa Cafe. We loved trying traditional Chickasaw foods that we'd never had before. 

If you can't make it to Oklahoma, you can taste what you're missing with Ilimpac'chi': We're Gonna Eat! (affiliate link). This Chickasaw cookbook is packed with interesting recipes, as well as a lot of interesting cultural information, photos, and personal stories. The recipes are a mix of newer and more traditional Chickasaw recipes. 

Ilimpa'chi' Chickasaw Cookbook

Chickasaw language lessons are scattered throughout the cookbook. Bread ("paska") is my favorite food, so these are the most important phrases for me. 

I recently made Molasses Bread ("Paska Champoli'"), which is both in the cookbook and on their website. I was mystified by the instructions to bake it in an "oblong" pan - no size given. There wasn't enough batter for a 9x13, but an 8x8 seemed reasonable (even though it's square and not oblong!). But that's part of the fun of traditional recipes, right?! The bread was delicious.  

If you are interested in the cuisine of other Native cultures, there are a lot of indigenous cookbooks available on Amazon. If cooking isn't your thing but eating is, be sure to check out my article about the best indigenous restaurants in the US. And let me know if you have any to add. I'd love to check them out. 

Future Survivor - Documenting Breast Cancer Surgery

I had surgery for breast cancer on June 10, 2024. This is the layout I made to document it.  

 

Future Survivor (affiliate link)

I wanted a stark look - it would feel weird to me to use pretty, colorful papers and lots of photos and embellishments for a page about cancer surgery. I paired a photo Steve took after I woke up after surgery with the graphics I made when I announced my breast cancer here on the blog. That's all I was going to include, but at the last minute I added the journaling on the left that includes my diagnosis and surgery date. I opted against including more information; everything about the surgery is documented on the blog for anyone who wants to read it. 

Rattlesnake Craft for Kids

When you live in rattlesnake country, you learn early on how to recognize the characteristics of a venomous snake. In California, the only venomous snakes we have are rattlers, so the most obvious sign that a snake is venomous here is a rattle. That said, rattles can break off. Or, in the case of a baby, there's only a single non-rattly rattle at the end of their tiny tails. Of course, the intact, adult-sized rattle end of a snake can be hidden from your view. When you're looking at the business end of a snake, a wide triangular head is a good indication that you should get away. 

I’ve seen (and made) many snake crafts during my time as a craft blogger, but never one that is specifically a rattlesnake. Since we're about to welcome in the Year of the Snake, I thought it would be the perfect time to add a rattlesnake to my collection of reptile crafts. Interestingly, both Arizona and West Virginia have named a rattlesnake species as its official State Reptile. Though much more common in the Southwest, rattlesnakes are found throughout the continental United States, so go ahead and make this no matter where you live. Affiliate links below. 

Rattlesnake Craft for Kids

Materials: 

• chipboard
• scissors
• craft glue
• colored pencil (brown, black)
• inks (earth tones: forest green, brown, black, cream)
• blending brushes

Steps: 

Starting at the center of the chipboard, draw a spiral that is the size you want your finished rattlesnake to be. Draw a triangle-shaped head at the end of the spiral. (Just like for this craft, but with a different head shape.)

Cut out the snake’s head, then continue following the spiral with your scissors. When you get to the inside of the spiral, taper the end. This is where you'll be gluing the rattles. 

Use the scraps to make rattles. Cut a tapered piece of chipboard. The longer you cut it, the more rattles you can have. (A rattlesnake typically has anywhere from 1-13 rattles, depending on how many times its shed and whether any have broken off.) Snip the piece you cut at 1/2" intervals, then glue it back together, overlapping each rattle on top of the previous one.

Use the scraps to cut a forked tongue and two eyes (which aren't in the photo below).  

Use a brown colored pencil to draw scales on the snake. No need to be fancy - just diagonal lines in opposite directions in order to give the illusion of scales. (Notice that I updated my rattle?)

Put the snake on a piece of newspaper or other protective surface, then add ink. I used large blending brushes to give the whole snake a brown and green background, then darkened the tail. Then I used the mini blending brushes to add the stripes. I used the timber rattlesnake as inspiration, but you can customize yours however you want. 

Glue the tongue beneath the head, the eyes on the head, and the rattle on the end of the tail. Bend the chipboard gently so that the rattle is raised up a bit. Use a black colored pencil to add pupils to the eyes and two nostrils on either side of the forked tongue.  

Napa Lighted Art Festival 2025

We had such a good time at the Napa Lighted Art Festival last year that we made it a priority to return in 2025. This time, we started with dinner at Norman Rose Tavern, which was fabulous. Then we strolled through downtown, admiring the gorgeous lighted artwork that is part of this free, outdoors festival.  

We started at the projections onto the beautiful First Presbyterian Church. The five minute show of coordinated music and lights is completely different from last year, but the experience is just as magical. 

  

  

The second building project features break dancers. As they dance near the top of the screen, their limbs extend down to the bottom like a waterfall. It is so unique and positively captivating. 

  

The projection onto the Hall of Justice is a fantasy about dreams. The colors are so vivid and the movement mesmerizing as one design transforms into the next. 

In addition to the 3 building projections, there are 11 lighted art sculptures. Two of them are interactive. Here, visitors use moist sponges to 'draw' light onto the surface. 

Here, the movement of the visitors influences the designs along the wall. I watched when it was more crowded without taking pictures, not realizing that when most of the people left, there wouldn't be much to photograph! Duh. 

These light tunnels are cool. 

Can you make out the rabbit at the end? 

The Barrel Boy family is made from recycled plastic barrels. 

A photo doesn't properly capture the experience because the light moves and the colors change. The movement is so interesting. 

  

I love these peonies so much. There are a bunch of them all along the Riverwalk. 

They look so pretty from underneath. 

  

This robot is super cool. 

This enormous lamp is just one of many. 

I didn't count, but I think there are eight. 

This enormous poppy is absolutely stunning. 

  

This campfire was our favorite installation. You can see the people off to the right for scale. The colors flickered and flowed, just like real flames. No heat though!

The Napa Lighted Art Festival runs through February 16, so there is still time for you to visit. However, I recommend you try to make it there before Sunday, as that's the final day of the projection artwork. Enjoy! 

These are a Few of My Least Favorite Things

Last year, I made a scrapbook layout about a few of my favorite things. Thirty of my favorite things, to be exact. Today I'm sharing the companion page.

 

A Few of My Least Favorite Things (affiliate link)

This page was much more difficult to make than the favorite things page. The first challenge was picking 30 items. It's not hard to think of 30 things I don't like, but I didn't want them to be things that everyone hates, like cancer or car accidents. I wanted to pick stuff that other people actually like, or at least not actively hate. I also chose not to include specific people or characters amongst my least favorite things, although it was tempting because there are some I really hate. I had to remind myself that the goal wasn't to pick the 30 things I hate the most, but rather to pick 30 items I don't like (that other people do). 

Once I had my list of 30, I had to replace some of my choices because I couldn't find a photo. As before, I made the five photo collages using the library of images on PicMonkey. They have a lot fewer pictures of unpopular things than they do of things like donuts, snowmen, and flamingos. 

I used the same format for this page as for the favorite things page, except I chose a color palette I don't like for the title and embellishments. Swamp green, brown, grey, and pink might be someone's favorite combination, but it certainly isn't mine. 

While I didn't feel like there was anything to explain with the items on my favorite things layout, I think this one calls for some explanations. I'm sorry in advance if it bothers you that I hate something you love. 

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A Few of My Least Favorite Things

1. Eels are the creepiest animal that exists. I will happily pick up spiders and I find snakes delightful. But eels are awful. I hate the way they look and how they hide and lurch out at their prey. 

2. Spicy food makes no sense to me. I don't like pain. Why would I intentionally eat food that causes burning pain? I wouldn't. 

3. I hate sand. It is my least favorite texture. And the fact that it gets everywhere is another reason to hate it. I don't like the beach, but when I can't avoid it I wear tennis shoes that don't come off. 

4. I am extremely uncomfortable in crowds. I feel trapped and disoriented when there are too many people around me. I worry about being separated from the people I'm with and I worry about getting trampled. Crowds are unpredictable and I hate that. 

5. Smoking is disgusting. 

6. Boxing is my least favorite sport. The goal is to hurt someone else by punching them in the face. It's barbaric. 

7. Snorkeling is awful. Breathing through a tube is difficult and uncomfortable. I've tried snorkeling at least 10 times, most recently on my honeymoon. I hated it every single time. Never again. 

8. Mochi is gross. The elastic texture is off-putting, to say the least. And the taste doesn't make up for it. 

9. I don't like flying. I get on planes because that's the only way to travel to some of the places I want to go in the time that I have. I didn't mind flying until I was around 30 and now it's miserable. My anxiety is sky-high (ha!) the entire time I'm on a plane. 

10.  Bubble tea is gross. I don't like tea very much to begin with, but adding slimy starch balls does not improve it. 

11. I don't like fog - I find it oppressive and depressing, not to mention scary. Who or what is lurking nearby that I can't see? But driving in fog is a thousand times worse. 

12. I don't like coffee or coffee-flavored anything. I don't particularly like the smell either. 

13. I hate peeling paint. It just looks so bad to me - rundown and neglected. It is beyond my comprehension that some people actually choose a 'shabby chic' style for their decor. 

14. I hate sushi. I don't like seafood of any kind, cooked or raw. That includes nori. Yuck. I've choked down sushi for the sake of being polite more times than I care to remember. 

15. Most of me is not particularly claustrophobic, but my feet certainly are. I can't last more than a minute or two in a mummy bag before my feet desperately need out. 

16. Thrill rides don't thrill me, they make me throw up. Especially the ones that spin. For the first 20 years of my life, I tried thrill rides every time I went to an amusement park. Once in a while, I'd be lucky and I wouldn't actually vomit. Instead, I'd sit on a bench for the next hour thinking I was going to vomit.

17. I don't like the smell of lavender. I really don't like the taste of lavender. I've never eaten a single thing that made me think, "This would be better if I added a bitter, yucky-smelling, dried flower to it!"

18. Hunting to survive makes sense, but killing animals as a hobby is deeply disturbing to me. Putting the heads of the animals you kill on the wall is not something people who are hunting to survive would do.

19. I don't like the texture of tapioca pudding. Or pudding in general, for that matter, but especially pudding with 'pearls' in it. (See #10.)

20. I like virtually every dried fruit except for dried grapes. They have a rotten taste to me (which I also taste in some wines). It is annoying when raisins ruin perfectly good foods, like oatmeal cookies or cinnamon rolls. 

21. I broke the rule somewhat for this one since I don't think anyone particularly likes port-a-potties, but I loathe them. I've done weekend campouts without using the bathroom a single time to avoid them. I know that level of dehydration is not healthy, but that's how much I hate port-a-potties.

22. Packing is very, very stressful for me. I am unreasonably terrified that I'm going to forget something important that I can't replace at my destination. I make lists and start packing early, but it still causes major anxiety. 

23. I don't like the look of tattoos. At all. 

24. Bean sprouts taste like crunchy grass. 

25. I learned to drive cars with an automatic transmission since that is what my parents owned. In college, when both my roommate and my boyfriend drove a stick shift, I started to have nightmares about needing to drive a loved one to the hospital only to find out the only car available had a manual transmission. In my mid 20s, I took lessons in an attempt to stop the nightmares. It was better for awhile, but they restarted in 2002 when I began dating Steve, who drove a stick shift. He gave me a few more lessons, but the nightmares didn't stop completely until he sold that car and bought an automatic in 2012. 

26. I don't like the floral taste of lychee. 

27. It's irrational, but I despise paying for parking. I don't mind bridge tolls or sales tax or other types of payments, but I will go significantly out of my way to avoid paying to park.

28. I don't like long fingernails, fake or real. 

29. I don't like fish. I'm uncomfortable around living fish and even more uncomfortable around dead fish. 

30. Steve loves whiskey. I am no longer drinking any alcohol at all since it interferes with my cancer medication, but before that I would always take a sip of Steve's whiskey-based cocktails to see if I could finally find one I liked. Nope. 

  

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I love the way the two pages look together in the album. 

Agree with any of my least favorite things? Have your own to add? Let me know in the comments!