I'm sorry I'm posting something a little late here, but it was on time there. There, being the Idaho Women's Journal where I will post a few articles in their family life section. The Article is Fortune Cookies & Freedom. It's late because Friday was National Fortune Cookie Day but not so late that you can't use it on other days. (You'll have to head on over to get the idea and download.) It's just a way for you to tell someone it's your good fortune to know them.

Okay, yesterday I left a little teaser here, though it didn't start out that way. It was just that after having a little introspective moment I realized I had gone on so long already that I didn't want to go on even more and I really had one more day that I could work with. So the unintended teaser.

Here's what I really wanted to say yesterday, "In 50 days I'm turning 50!" (Though yesterday would have been 51 days but let's not get sidetracked again.) Starting today, I'm going to celebrate for the next 50 days. Well, let me revise that, we're going to celebrate for the next 50 days. That's if you want to join me.

The best birthday present for me is to be able to be creative. Something artsy. That's all. Soooooo....... here's what we're going to do. I'm going to post a portrait a day (except Sunday), for 50 days starting today, from one of your photos. Ambitious right. Okay, crazy. Like I said yesterday, maybe one challenge.

I did this one time a few years back (here) - where I had people send in an image and painted a portrait. That's the portrait I did above. I had fun with it so I thought I'd do that again, just on a much bigger scale. Because 50 is big!

Here's the how-tos and what-fors -

#1 Upload an image to Shannon's Studio FB page, here
#2 Leave your email in a private message on FB or my website
#3 Optional - Leave a thought about birthdays, turning 50 or      
       whatever you think of
#4 Optional - It would be nice if you 'like' the recent      
       Shannon's Studio FB I've opened up 
            (I'm switching over from the Shannon Christensen Fine Art FB page)

Since it's a celebration this will all be fun and flexible. So? Are you in? I'll know if you upload a photo.

I'm going to turn 50 in Aug. It seems like a milestone to me. Something that should be celebrated, in a bigger way. I have a Provo friend who celebrates her birthday all month long. Every year. (You know who you are.) I love that she does that even though I've never been inclined myself to carry it out that long. Until this year. Until 50.

Fifty is just different. It seems like a transition. And permission. And... 

Okay, I'm back. I went and looked for a word to best describe the feeling I was trying to convey. And I found it --- concordant. I've never used that word concordant in my life. No time like the present, since it fits. I feel like fifty is coming into agreement, harmony - concordant. Or concordance. Or concord. Whichever. Whatever, it feels like it's the long process of the coming together to contentment.

I'm content with where I am. Not the content that wants to sit and slide. Not the content that doesn't want improvement or see the need for it. Not the kind that doesn't want a challenge or two. (Okay, maybe only one.) But the kind that recognizes and respects goodwill, harmony, friendship, love, because of pain, contention, loneliness, and heartbreak. In the little scheme of things it's like a personal peace treaty.

But, this really wasn't what I was going to talk about. At least not in such depth. What I wanted to say was that I've been thinking about this for a while and I've come up with a way that I want to celebrate turning 50. But, this has taken up too much space already so I will tell you how tomorrow. 

The other day one of my daughters informed me that she had a birthday party to go to. Of course she let me know at the last minute and we were scrambling for a gift. I went back to my original idea of the Hospital Contraband Kit and decided to see what I could do to quickly revise it. With a few changes this is what I came up with.

I printed the new insert and she folded and filled it. What a life saver!! I'm beginning to really like these kits. Made my life a little easier when my kid was trying to make it harder. Here are the contents she put inside.

Here's a download with the name space left blank. I've added a few direction with the measurements so that you can print it off with your own name if you want. Hope the idea comes in as handy for you as it has me.

Parade Float conception and construction is not usually what people do in their spare time. Welcome to the unusual life. Here's a float our youth group did for the parade this summer. We had about a month to do it from start to finish. I think the longest part was trying to come up with something that 1) had a message, 2) that many people could be involved with and work on, and 3) that stay within a very small budget. It took us about 10 - 12 hours of group construction. And a few more from me. 

Our Construction Team did a great job! The young women are a natural at this sort of thing but the young men even got their creative sides to show up and did a lot of things they don't normally do. And everyone was laughing, smiling, and having fun with one another. Bonus!

I've kept my mad-float-building skills to myself and didn't volunteer for this project. Things just seem to find me. Like the float another group I was a part of did 12 years ago. It was a bit bigger with more people involved. But, I learned a lot constructing... guts for all the animals - saws, screw guns, wood, chicken wire, pulleys and paper mache on a LARGE scale. Also, there was animation - giraffe's swiveled, jaws opened up, and elephants sprayed water on the crowd. It was a great learning experience for me. Things tend to run in my family and here's my sister's float experience.

I noticed that a lot of sites that talk about DIY float building have never built a float. I hate that. Not because they haven't built one (they could have done a lot of good research talking to people who have made one) but because their info doesn't really answer the questions of people who are doing it themselves and usually aren't "creative". So, here are a 5 quick tips to things that usually come up in the beginning of any parade float madness. 

This helps immensely in decision making. If you know what you want to put across, that helps in the how to put it across. Having a theme will automatically make some decisions for you. 

DIY floats can be from a few hundred dollars (the Free to Believe float) to a couple of thousand dollars (the Ark and Sister's float). Knowing how much you can or can't spend helps you get creative with materials. 

Someone's got to be the bottom line. There has to be a coordinated effort for the group. When things don't go according to plan, and that will happen, then someone has to be able to make a decision about what to do next. 

Even though this is a DIY project, it's still a good idea to have teams doing specific tasks to spread the workload. Get a 1) Trailer Team, 2)  Creative Design Team, 3) Construction Team, and 4) Outreach Team. Because this isn't a project that comes along very often, involve as many people as possible.

It's hard when you haven't done something before and don't know how it's going to turn out or even if it's going to turn out, but try to remember to have fun along the way. By nature, parade floats are about fun and celebration. It should be that way through the whole process.

Here are a few links of DIY types. They don't really have a tons of info but it might get the ball rolling for you.

   • Here's a DIY for the "guts" (trailer construction) of a float
   • This link describes the standard materials (tends to be expensive) and lots of other parade float info.
   • Another true DIY parade float builder with tools they used

   • UPDATE 2/25/12 Another link with a few tips by Bethenny Watters, eHow Contributer 

 Add more links below from others. I've already been given the assignment for next year.