Dad's 77th Birthday

It's been 8 months since we lost my dad. I really miss him, but take comfort in the good memories. I am incredibly thankful that I was able to travel to Idaho for Dad's 77th birthday, a month before he died. He was at a care facility following a hospital stay and was having some good days and some bad days; fortunately, his birthday was a great day. My mom, sister, niece, and I brought gifts, balloons, cake, and ice cream to his room. He had invited the entire staff to his party. He never stopped smiling that day, but he positively lit up each time a nurse or physical therapist or receptionist would stop by for some of my mom's famous gingerbread. 

Dad's 77th Birthday (affiliate link)

I knew I wanted to use yellow and blue on this page to bring the attention to Dad (proudly wearing his UC Davis Grandpa shirt), so it worked out well that the required elements for this week's BYSS Winter Olympics challenge started with yellow and blue. 

I earned a total of three points for Twisted Scissors: one point for the yellow and blue; one point for using numbers (handwritten date in the top right); and one point for using something silver from my stash (the 77 stickers are silver foil but scanned dark). My three points aren't much, but last week's game was decided by a mere five points. Go Scissors! Let's beat the Banshees again this week!

Napa Lighted Art Festival 2026

We had such a good time at the Napa Lighted Art Festival in 2024 and 2025 that there was no way we were going to miss it in 2026. This year's festival ran from January 17 - February 15. The best time to go was during the first nine days when there were projections on three downtown buildings in addition to the 15 other artworks. But between our Vegas trip and other commitments, we weren't able to go until after the projections had ended. It was a bit disappointing, but the upside is that there were no crowds when we went. 

In the past, we've had dinner first and then went to the Festival. This year, we did the reverse. We actually got to Napa shortly before sunset and immediately started looking for the twelve Roaming Gnomes, a new addition this year. 

  

  

Since we had some daylight, we were able to enjoy some of the permanent public art too.

   

That's the beautiful Napa River. And in the distance, the first piece of Lighted Art we visited. You can read about it, and the rest of the artworks, on the map at the bottom of this page. The names of the pieces and their artists are here as well. 

The piece has a pre-programmed light show that happens occasionally; that's what's going on in this photo. 

The rest of the time, visitors can touch the buttons on the lowest orbs, which send color upward. Where two colors meet, they mix. It doesn't work that well when you're alone though - I'm pushing the button for that single red and there's no one else around (except Steve, taking the picture) to generate another color. That's the downside of avoiding the crowds, I guess! 

Oooh, pretty!

I love these guys. 

  

These flowers weren't lighting properly, so we hung out for a bit while they tried to fix them. Even unlit, they were beautiful. 

More string art. 

The interactive pieces are some of our favorites. Here, each time you touch a panel, it cycles through a bunch of different colors. You can record individual designs to make an animation. So neat!

I took this picture, then walked forward to read about the artwork.

I hadn't realized Steve stayed back and took a picture of me silhouetted in the heart as it changed from reds to greens. Such a cool shot!

I like frogs. Who wouldn't? I'm glad there was enough light for me to photograph him. It's been a long time since Steve and I have done the Napa Art Walk during the daytime. We'll have to do that soon. 

Many of the artworks at the Napa Lighted Art Festival are color-changing. It's fascinating how they can portray such a different mood in two photos taken just a second or two apart. 

Gorgeous. 

As the color changes on this piece of art, different designs are revealed. 

There was projected artwork on the bridge over the Napa River. 

One one side of the bridge, there were poems in English and in Spanish.

On the other side, some very creative shoe designs. 

More Roaming Gnomes. 

  

I thought he was reading a book, but it's a map. 

He's located just outside Napa Yard, which is where we ate. We'd walked by it many times but this was our first time eating there. 

There was a private event in the restaurant, so we ate in the bar. Everything was absolutely delicious. 

We had so much fun at the Napa Lighted Art Festival and are already looking forward to going again in 2027!

How to Draw a Fleur de Lis

Mardi Gras (literally "Fat Tuesday") was first celebrated in the US in 1703, brought to Louisiana by French colonists. Once a holiday for Catholics to indulge before the penitential season of Lent, Mardi Gras is now beloved by many who have no connections to the religious aspect of the celebration. One of the main symbols of Mardi Gras is the fleur de lis. It only takes a few simple steps to draw a colorful fleur de lis that looks like it's popping up off the page. Affiliate links below. 

Draw a Fleur de Lis

Materials:

• paper
• markers (green, yellow, purple)
• colored pencils (white, medium grey)
• colorless blender

Steps: 

Lightly sketch the basic shape of a fleur de lis on paper, using a regular pencil or the grey colored pencil. There is one center portion, shaped like a pointed spoon, bent spoons on either side of the first spoon pointing left and right, and a oval band connecting them. You can make your spoons more or less pointy or bendy than I did. Use the markers to color the center spoon and the connecting band yellow. The left and right spoons are purple and green. 

With the white color pencil, draw guidelines along each element. You're basically splitting each part in half, plus adding a chicken foot at the bottom of the yellow spoon. Draw your lines lighter than I did; I made my lines dark so you could see them in the photo. 

The next step is to lightly color certain sections of the spoons and oval white: the left of the yellow spoon, the top and left of the purple spoon, the top and right of the green spoon, and the top of the  oval.  

Use a medium grey pencil to shade the remaining sections: the right side of the yellow spoon, between the chicken toes on the yellow spoon, the bottom and right of the purple spoon, the bottom and left of the green spoon, and the bottom of the oval. The pencil in the photo below is too light. I switched to a medium grey and recolored the sections, but forgot to take a photo. 

Use a colorless blender to even out the color. 

Finally, add white highlights as shown. 

After drawing your own fleur de lis, you might enjoy this article about the connection between the fleur de lis and Scouting America. There's some interesting information in the comments as well.