Cindy deRosier: My Creative Life: Maine

Showing posts with label Maine. Show all posts

8/4/26

The City I Most Want to Visit in Each State, Part 4: Kansas to Maryland

This is the fourth post in a series. I recommend reading the first, second, and third posts before this one. Today I'll be picking the city in Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, and Maryland that I most want to visit, then listing my top 2 attractions in each location.

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The City I Most Want to Visit in Each State, Part 4: Kansas to Maryland

The city I'd most like to visit in Kansas is Wichita. Quite a few celebrities grew up in Wichita, including Mars, the pygmy hippo who stole the internet's heart. Mars lives at Tanganyika Wildlife Park, which is my top attraction in the Wichita area. The next place I'd visit is the Museum of World Treasures.

Paducah is the city I'd most like to visit in Kentucky. Paducah looks like such a charming town. It is one of 10 cities in the US that have been designated a UNESCO Creative City (I've been to 8 of the 10 and I very much want to finish that list.) I most want to visit the National Quilt Museum. Now that I'm a (novice) quilter, I am especially interested in spending time there. Steve and I watched Chef Sara Bradley cook during the Tournament of Champions All-Star Christmas and would really enjoy eating at Freight House, her restaurant in Paducah.

Before visiting Natchitoches, I need to practice pronouncing it. It's NACK-uh-tish. I can pronounce it just fine until I see the word again and my brain goes to to Spanish. Anyway, Natchitoches is the city in Louisiana I would most like to visit. While there, I would go to Cane River Creole National Historic Park and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum.

The city I most want to visit in Maine is Augusta, the state capital. When there, I'll visit the Maine State Capitol, as well as the Maine State Museum. Of the 5 remaining state capitals we haven't visited, this will probably be the last, as it is the farthest from us and not close to any of our other remaining must-see destinations. Fun fact: Augusta, Maine (which is obviously part of the contiguous United States) is significantly farther from us here in California than either Juneau, Alaska or Honolulu, Hawaii.

This may be a bit of a surprise since I'm not a beach person, but the next time I visit Maryland I would most like to go to Ocean City. My highest priority would be taking a boat tour from Ocean City to Assateague Island. The other thing I'd most like to visit is Ocean City Life-Saving Museum.

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Are there any other must-visit places I need to know about? Please let me know in the comments!

Cindy deRosier

Cindy deRosier has a masters in Education and taught 4th and 5th grade for 11 years. She uses that experience to blog about crafts and family-friendly educational travel. She spent many years as the Editor of Fun Family Crafts, a website with over 12,000 kid-friendly craft tutorials. Cindy is the co-author of "What Would Jesus Patent?", does freelance writing and designing, loves jigsaw puzzles, is an avid scrapbooker, and has been to all 50 states.

6/25/26

How to Draw an American Lobster

I feel sorry for lobsters.

I literally can't think of another animal where every craft project, sign, or other visual representation portrays it as dead. A red lobster is a dead lobster. Can you imagine if you wanted to make a cute chicken craft and instead of this 🐓, the only options looked like this🍗? It seems... rude. So today's craft honors the living version of Maine's state crustacean, the American lobster.

My lobster, while realistic, is not intended to be a scientific drawing with every feature exactly perfect. This is the level of detail I'd use with the 4th or 5th graders who are most likely to be studying their state symbols. I chose to use watercolors, which is the easiest way to mimic the mottled colors of this fascinating animal. Affiliate links below.

How to Draw an American Lobster

Materials:

Steps:

Start by drawing the main part of the lobster's body in the middle of your paper. I'm struggling to describe its shape; the best I can come up with is a stubby carrot or an elongated guitar pick.

Next, draw the abdomen. There should be six segments, not four like I drew (sorry). I was looking at a photo of a live lobster while drawing and it looked like four from that angle.

Add the tail fan - two segments on either side of the middle segment.

Now draw the claws. An American lobster's claws are asymmetric. The larger one is used to crush its prey. The smaller claw is for holding or tearing the prey. A lobster can be right or left "handed" depending on which side has the crusher claw.

Time to add legs! The lobster actually has ten legs, but you've already drawn two of them (the claws). There are 8 "walking legs" along the body of the lobster. The first three pairs have small claws, but you don't need to draw that level of detail unless you want to.

From the angle we've drawn, one pair maxillipeds ("jaw legs") are visible near the lobster's mouth. There are two other pairs that are hidden in this view. The lobster uses them to pass food to its jaws

I've also added the eyes, antennae, and smaller antennules. If you won't be painting your lobster, draw them now. Otherwise wait until after painting.

I said before that a red lobster is a dead lobster. That isn't quite true, as approximately one in ten million lobsters is red while it is alive. Read this article to learn about other rare colors! Most American lobsters are a mottled greenish-brown color, so that's how I chose to paint mine.

I painted the lobster itself, let that dry, then painted a watery background. When that was dry, I used a brown colored pencil to outline the lobster and add some details. I used a black pencil for the eyes, then went back to the brown pencil for the antennae and antennules.

I learned so much about lobsters in the last 24 hours! I love how much I learn with practically every craft project I do.

Cindy deRosier

6/16/26

Perler Bead Lighthouse

My latest internet rabbit hole led me to lighthouses. I learned that there are 750+ standing lighthouses in the US, of which approximately 450 work. All are fully automated. There are lighthouses in 31 states; Michigan has the most by far. There is some debate about how to define what exactly a lighthouse is, but most experts agree that Michigan has around 129. Maine and New York each have around 65, followed by Massachusetts (52), California (45), Wisconsin (43), Washington (30), Florida (30), North Carolina (29), and Ohio (26).

The vast majority of lighthouses are white for easy visibility. Some have colored patterns (usually black, red, or unpainted brick) called "daymarks" that provide a contrast with the sky and water for easy identification during daylight. Lighthouses come in a wide variety of shapes and styles. Rather than design a craft for one specific lighthouse, I decided to make a generic design that represents the hundreds of lighthouses in our country. Affiliate links below.

Perler Bead Lighthouse

Materials:

Steps:

Start by placing three black beads at the bottom center of the pegboard. Add five white beads on either side of the black beads. Repeat this same pattern for the next three rows up. Then add four rows of 13 white beads, then one row of 13 grey beads.

Add two rows of 11 white beads centered over the grey row. Then make three rows with two white, two black, three white, two black, and two white. Add two more rows of 11 white beads, then 11 grey beads, then 11 black beads.

The next row up has 9 black beads. Then add three rows with one black, three yellow, one black, three yellow, and one black. The next row has 11 black beads. Add two rows of 7 black beads, then one row with 5 black beads, one row with 3 black beads, and a single black bead at the top.

My pattern is easy to alter if you want to make a lighthouse that looks different. Just change out the colors to add daymarks, make it wider, make it taller (you'll need to use a second board), move the windows, etc. You can base your project on an existing lighthouse or design your own like I did!

Cindy deRosier

6/11/26

Common Loon Craft

The common loon is a beautiful and distinctive bird that lives primarily on lakes in the northern US and Canada. An expert diver, 80% of its diet is fish. The loon is the state bird of Minnesota (and the provincial bird of Ontario, Canada) and is also found in abundance in Wisconsin, Maine, Michigan, New Hampshire, and Alaska. Make a loon of your own by following this easy tutorial. Affiliate links below.

Common Loon Craft

Materials:

Steps:

Cut out the basic shape of the loon from black cardstock. Draw your own on scratch paper first or print my shape below in the correct size to use as a template.

Shade the loon's beak with a grey colored pencil. Use a black colored pencil to add a line to define the upper and bottom mandible.

Color the eye orange, then add a black pupil in the center. Use an extra-fine Posca marker to add a white catchlight at the top of the eye.

Draw a series of vertical lines along the throat and the back of the neck to make the distinctive bands.

Use a Posca pen to make the rest of the markings on the loon: white hatch marks on its breast, curved white lines on its shoulders, and blocks of white on the wing that are bigger at the top and center than lower and on the sides. Finally, use the grey colored pencil to define the tail feathers.

The underside of the loon is white like its chest, but I didn't bother coloring it since I knew it would be covered by the water. Also, I trimmed the loon to give it a more rounded bottom. Here's my finished loon.

Cut three (or more) strips of cardstock to make the lake water. You want them to be a little wavy. Glue one piece to your background paper, then glue the loon on top of that. Glue the next strip so that it covers the underside of the loon, then glue the final strip over that.

I'm glad to have made this project and learned more about this super cool bird!

Cindy deRosier

6/1/26

State Name Art: Ohio, Idaho, Montana, and Maine

It's no secret that I love name art. Over the years, I've shared 47 unique ideas for creative projects using my name (or yours, if you aren't named Cindy). Today's craft is a little different because it features the names of states inside their silhouettes. This would be such a fun project to do with a class of 4th graders studying their home state, or with fifth graders who are each working on a different state report.

For my samples, I chose four states with distinct shapes to see how well my idea would work. I started with what I thought would be the easiest (Ohio) and worked my way toward the most challenging (Maine). It took a bit of creativity to fit the names legibly, but figuring it out was so much fun! I'm really happy with how these turned out. Affiliate links below.

State Name Art

Materials:

Steps:

Print or trace the outline of a state onto Bristol vellum, or the paper of your choice. (Bristol vellum is my favorite when working with colored pencils.) I made the outlines using PicMonkey graphics, but there are a lot of places to find outlines. You can also have students draw their own outlines or use pre-prepared tracers.

Use a pencil to LIGHTLY sketch in the letters of the state. Make adjustments until you are happy with the letters. Don't be afraid to have missing parts of letters (like the M in Montana) or distorted letters (like the E in Maine) as long as the state name is legible. Outline the letters with a Flair pen, then color in all spaces that aren't part of the letters.

LIGHTLY sketch a scene across the white space that represents the state. When you are happy with it, fill it in with colored pencils. I chose fields and a classic red barn for Ohio...

... forests and a mountain for Idaho...

... a sunset behind the mountains for Montana...

... and a lighthouse on a rocky shore for Maine.

When you are done coloring, cut out the state and glue it to colored construction paper.

I had so much fun making these that I will definitely be doing more! I have no intention to do all 50; I learned just how much work it is when I colored in all 50 state quarters coloring pages. It took me eight months, working on four at a time. On the other hand, never say never!

Cindy deRosier

1/29/26

The Best and the Worst of the 50 State Seals, Part 2

This is the second post (of five) rating the designs of each of the 50 state seals. I suggest starting with the first post, which gives the background and explains the criteria I'm using for grading.

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Rating the State Seals: Hawaii through Maryland

Hawaii's state seal was adopted at statehood in 1959. It features King Hamehameha, the goddess Liberty holding the Hawaiian flag, a rising sun, a phoenix, 8 taro leaves representing the 8 main islands, banana leaves, ferns, a kapu stick, and more. The state motto, written in Hawaiian, translates to “The life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.” There is no question that this seal represents the state well with all those elements, but the resulting design is very crowded. It would be a much better design with just half the elements.

Design 2.5, Representation 5 = 7.5

The state seal of Idaho was updated in 1957 to highlight Idaho’s main industries (mining, agriculture, and forestry) and the state’s natural beauty. The woman symbolizes justice and the virgin land of Idaho and the man is a miner; together, they protect the items shown in the shield. Idaho's state flower (syringa) is represented, as is the state motto. It represents the state well and is nicely balanced, if a bit crowded. I'd change the colors to be more harmonious. (Fun fact: Idaho has the only state seal designed by a woman.)

Design 3, Representation 5 = 8

The state seal of Illinois was most recently updated in 1869, replacing the original seal that was nearly identical to the seal of the United States. The design features a bald eagle in profile, on a rock, holding a shield, with a banner in its beak proclaiming the state motto (State Sovereignty, National Union) reading from bottom to top, with a twist in the banner that makes word Sovereignty upside-down. There is an oddly-shaped sunrise over water. I am not a fan of this design. While it no longer looks like the seal of the US, it still has many of the same elements, including a shield with 13 stars and stripes. Illinois is the 21st state, not one of the original 13 Colonies. The statehood date (1818) appears twice, which is unnecessary. There is no reason for 1868, the year the seal was redesigned (before being adopted in 1869), to appear on the seal. I hate the spacing / kerning of the text.

Design 1.5, Representation 1 = 2.5

The most recent version of the state seal of Indiana is from 1963. It features a forest with a man felling a sycamore tree, a bison running away, and the sun setting behind some hills. The designs in blue on either side of the date are the leaves of the tulip tree (the state tree), with dots and diamonds in between them for no apparent reason. (Am I the only one who sees a chicken?) There are 14 rays on the sun (Indiana is the 19th state, so this is not symbolic). I don't hate the seal, but I don't like it either. Without the text and the date, I would have never known this was supposed to be Indiana. Many states have (or had) bison, forests, and hills.

Design 2.5, Representation 1.5 = 4

The state seal of Iowa was created in 1847, a year after statehood. It includes a soldier in a wheat field (the predominant crop of 1840's Iowa vs. the corn and soybeans that dominate now). He is holding a gun and the US flag topped with a liberty cap. He is surrounded by symbols of farming, mining, and transportation. The ship is the Steamboat Iowa, famous for holding the speed record on the Mississippi from 1843 to 1849. An eagle at the top of the seal holds the state motto. (Fun fact: The wording describing the seal is controversial, but it remains unchanged as of January 2026.) The design of this seal isn't terrible and it represents 1840's Iowa decently. The scale of the items is weird, unless that's a child's dollhouse with a working chimney. The motto is hard to read, since you have to start with the bottom left, move above it, then across, then down. I'd like this seal more without the soldier, US flag, and (especially) the gun.

Design 2.5, Representation 3 = 5.5

The state seal of Kansas, adopted in 1861, focuses on the history of the state. It includes a sun rising in the east, a river and steamboat (representing commerce), a man plowing (representing agriculture), a settler's cabin plus covered wagons heading west (representing pioneer life and Westward Expansion), indigenous people on horseback hunting bison, the state motto ("To the stars through difficulties") and 34 stars representing Kansas' admission as the 34th state. This is a well-balanced design that represents the state very well. I appreciate that the original inhabitants are acknowledged (and not in an adversarial way).

Design 4, Representation 4.5 = 8.5

The state seal of Kentucky was originally designed in 1792, then simplified 170 years later to portray "a pioneer meeting a gentleman in a swallowtail coat." Many believe the man in buckskin is Daniel Boone (a pioneer in the exploration of Kentucky) and the man in the suit is Henry Clay (Kentucky senator and eventual Secretary of State), but officially they are not specific people and instead represent all frontiersmen and statesmen. The seal also includes the state motto and goldenrod, the state flower. This seal could be so much better, but at least it's not too busy.

Design 1.5, Representation 2.5 = 4

The state seal of Louisiana was most recently revised in 2006. The seal is very distinctive, featuring a pelican in her piety, traditionally a Christian symbol of self-sacrifice. The state motto (Union, Justice and Confidence) appears prominently. While the pelican might have first been chosen to honor the state's Catholic heritage during a time of anti-Catholicism elsewhere, I'd rather see the Pelican State design a more secular seal with a pelican that isn't actively bleeding. It's not the Self-Sacrifice State, after all.

Design: 2, Representation 2 = 4

The state seal of Maine was adopted in 1820. In the center is a shield featuring a moose, resting in front of a pine tree, between the water and the woods. Two men (a farmer with a scythe and a sailor with an anchor) stand on top of a banner, on either side of the shield. The top of the seal has the state motto ("I direct") and the North Star. This design isn't particularly attractive, but it could be dramatically improved with just a few changes. I would expand the scene in the shield to fill the entire background of the seal, then move DIRIGO to where MAINE is located and write STATE OF MAINE in large letters across the top. Right now, the red DIRIGO banner looks like a brand name on a package of pasta sauce.

Design 2, Representation 4 = 6

The state seal of Maryland is two-sided, but since the front was never cut and thus not used as a seal, I'll be focusing on the reverse. It was updated in 1959. It features the Calvert coat of arms being held by a farmer (holding a spade) and a fisherman (holding a fish). Behind them is ermine fur and at the top is a crest with two pennants. Below is the state motto. The literal translation is "Deeds are males, words are females" but in 2017 they changed the official translation to "Strong deeds, gentle words." The poorly-spaced text around the seal translates to "With favor wilt thou compass us as with a shield" and 1632 is the date Maryland was established. This design represents the origin of the (province then colony then) state well enough, but I think there is too much emphasis given to the founder. I'd like to see more of the natural resources, industry, or something else.

Design 3, Representation 3 = 6

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So far, we have Arizona (10), California (9.5), Kansas (8.5), Alaska (8), Idaho (8), Delaware (7.5), Hawaii (7.5), Colorado (7), Florida (6.5), Maine (6), Maryland (6), Iowa (5.5), Kentucky (4), Louisiana (4), Indiana (4), Alabama (3), Georgia (3), Illinois (2.5), Arkansas (1.5), and Connecticut (1). Let me know in the comments if you agree with my rankings. Tomorrow I'll look at the next ten seals.

Cindy deRosier

11/14/25

Blueberry Pie Painted Rock

Does this look like a blueberry pie? I hope so. It definitely doesn't taste like a blueberry pie. Not that I've tasted it. If I did, it would taste like a rock. And paint.

When I first saw this disc-shaped rock, I thought it looked like a pie. So I painted it to be a blueberry pie, which happens to be the state dessert of Maine. Affiliate links below.

Blueberry Pie Painted Rock

Materials:

Steps:

Use a light blue paint pen to make dots randomly across the entire front of the rock. Use a dark blue paint pen to draw smaller dots on top of those dots. You should mostly fill the space, but leave tiny bits of rock showing through. I colored the sides of my rock black, but in retrospect, that was completely unnecessary, so skip that.

Paint the sides of the rock with yellow ochre (yes, completely covering the black that doesn't need to be there.) When it is dry, brush it with brown ink to give it some varigation. Then paint vertical lines to form the first part of the lattice.

Add horizontal lines to complete the lattice. When the paint is dry, use the ink and a mini blending brush to darken every other intersection. This will help give the illusion that the lattice work is woven.

When the ink dries, use the colored pencil to draw tiny lines around the outside edge to mimic the crimp marks made by a fork. Then you'll have a blueberry pie that looks good enough to eat! But don't. It's still a paint-covered rock.

I will be taking the next two weeks off as I spend time with both sides of the family. I'll be back with more posts on December 1.

Cindy deRosier

10/13/25

New England and Canada Cruise, Part 4: Portland, Maine

This is my fourth post about our New England and Canada cruise aboard the Enchanted Princess. I recommend reading the first, second, and third posts from the trip before this one. Because I blog about educational travel, I received complimentary admission tickets for some of the places we visited during our trip. Other places are free for everyone; we paid full price for the rest. This has no bearing on my reviews.

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Portland, Maine

On Tuesday, September 16 we visited beautiful Portland, Maine.

Our first destination was Long Wharf.

There's a piece of the Berlin Wall on display, the third we'd seen in 5 days. I should start documenting the sightings the way I do when I find one of 8 Places to Find Moon Rocks. On the right, Portland's solution to a love locks problem.

We boarded the Harbor Queen for the Harbor Lights and Sights Cruise by Portland Discovery Land and Sea Tours.

In Newport and Boston, Jonna took Princess-organized shore excursions while we did our own thing. In Portland, she joined us for this tour.

The weather was absolutely perfect. We were so lucky during the entire trip.

There's our ship in the distance.

This is Portland Head Light, Maine’s oldest lighthouse. It was commissioned by George Washington.

We saw many lobster traps during the tour. Actually, it's more accurate to say we saw many lobster trap buoys during the tour. The only actual traps I saw were with this fisherman.

This is Fort Gorges, completed in 1864. It was used as a storage facility during WWI and WWII.

There's our ship again!

We saw several other lighthouses and many of the islands of Casco Bay.

Our guide was outstanding. He kept us informed and entertained during the entire trip. I highly recommend taking the Harbor Lights and Sights cruise when you're in Portland.

After the tour, we visited locations along the 2-mile Portland Freedom Trail. The Trail marks 13 important sites in Black history, specifically those dealing with 19th-century men and women who fought against slavery. All of the sites were really interesting, but the one I enjoyed learning about the most was the barber shop of Jacob C. Dickson. During the time of the Underground Railroad, Dickson's barber shop served as a places to exchange information, help change people's appearances, and arrange for transportation for fugitives.