My Personal Challenge of 2018

If you've been a follower of my blog, you probably recall that last January I started a weekly 50-Week Challenge. In it, I read a chapter (2-3 pages really) of the little book 50 Truths Worth Knowing and used that story as inspiration for a card. I had so much fun doing it that and decided to do a different 50-week challenge this year.

For 2018 (well, the first 50 weeks) I am going to take one of the states each week, do some research on it, and then create a card based on something about that week's state. I'm really excited about this challenge! I love to travel (I've been to 49 of our states already and hope to make it to Hawaii someday).

I actually bought another book at the thrift store to help me a wee bit with this personal challenge, but I'm also going to do a bit of online research each week. The book is a Reading Discovery book (for children in grades 3-4)...

I've been undecided about what order to do this in.... alphabetical, random, the order I've visited them in, etc. I've finally decided to do them in the order of the date they attained statehood.

So, first up is....

Delaware

Date of Statehood: December 7, 1787

I wasn't very knowledgeable about the state of Delaware, having only visited there one time, so I did what any good researcher would do. I went to google.  A really helpful site that provided 50 nuggets of information about Delaware is the 50States.com site. You can find the Delaware link to the site HERE but that isn't the only place I searched. I found my quest for knowledge so interesting that I spent an hour or more searching for fun facts about this state.

Here's some of what I learned...

Delaware was the first state to attain statehood and it is the second smallest state.

Its state bird is actually a chicken - the  Blue Hen Chicken, to be exact.

It boasts beaches, but has no national parks in its borders (in fact, it is the only one of the 50 that doesn't have any national parks).

The  League of American Bicyclists named Delaware the third most bike-friendly state in the country in 2015.

There is no sales tax in Delaware, making the malls and other shops very popular with tourists.

The 87-foot-tall lighthouse on Fenwick Island only cost $5 to build in 1880.

Delaware is just under 100 miles long and the width varies between 9 miles and 35 miles wide.

Delaware's average altitude is about 60 feet above sea level making it the lowest average lying state.

And then, there is the tidbit about Delaware that I decided to use for the inspiration of my card... Thanks to a class of second-graders who petitioned the 127th General Assembly on April 25, 1974 (and won!), the state insect of Delaware is the Ladybug.

Not only is there a ladybug on the stamped image, I added a brad ladybug to my card as well.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!
Come back next Friday as we check out some things about Pennsylvania.


Supplies Used

Stamp Set: Flourishes Sunflowers stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black Ink and colored with Copic Markers

Papers: Recollections Black, Red and White CS and AMuse Studio DP

Embellishments: Stampin' UP! Ribbon and a Ladybug Brad from an unknown vendor