Getting Ready for 2010!

Well, it took 9 cities and 12 stores, but I found the lights I need for next season's remodeling of the display. I got most of them at half price.

Those LED color changing globes are really cool, I have 36 of them for the big tree, as well as six present to go under the tree!

I also got started on the frames for the fan lights that will be part of the replacement for the Bellagio Fountain display.. I will post more about those as I get more work done on them.










Here is a picture of the first completed half-frame and the spines bent for the other five.

First time I have ever paid full price

Well, I have never paid full price for lights since I started this madness, but this year the stores are bare. I have been to over 15 stores where there are no lights left whatsoever. So when another Christmas nut tipped me off that the Scottsburg WalMart still had solid color minis on the shelf I jumped on it.




It's frustrating, though. Here's what I got for the same amount of money December 26, 2007.

Playing Around with Colorine

I am still considering switching my display to all LED lights for next season. However, I like to be prepared.

Since the stores are completely bare of lights this season and there will be no half price deals to be had, I am looking at ways to maintain lights and make ones I have on hand work where I will be needing them. Next season I plan to replace the standard light strings along the roofline of the house with icicle lights. I have not had any luck finding colored icicle (other than multi) lights around, so I am going to have to make my own. I was trying to avoid changing out bulbs with other strings, but it looks as though I may end up having to do just that.

I found a product made by Rosco (the leading supplier of theatrical lighting supplies) called Colorine. It's a product you can use to dip lights (up to 25 watts) into to change the color. The product itself is great, dries fast, super durable. The problem is I am not finding the colors to be a good match for factory mini light colors.

The examples you see are using 7607 Emerald Green, 7604 Moonlight Blue, 7602 Ruby Red and 7615 Canary Yellow. (The green and blue just won't work. I have ordered a pint of Cardinal Red and will see if that's a closer match to factory red mini light paint) You can match up the Colorine colors with the Rosco color chart here.

The only one that turned out well, is the yellow. It's a near perfect match to factory yellow mini lights, if not a slightly nicer hue. This will work.


I will show the other colors below. In each case the lights I dipped with the colorine are on the left and the factory mini lights are on the right. As you can see, just not good matches. I am especially disappointed with blue as those are the ones always needing recolored.






All things considered, not a success. Oh well, on to the alternative; switching out hundreds 0f bulbs.

Seymour Tribune Article

Seymour Lights was featured in an article in the local newspaper, The Tribune, recently. You can read the article on our media page.

2009 Show is up and running

Well, the 2009 version of Seymour Lights is up and running. The crowds have been great and we are so happy to be spreading Christmas cheer again. Stop by and check out the show. Merry Christmas.

Waterproofing is a chore!

I spent the evening in the garage getting the LED par cans going around the video wreath into the 2.5 quart paint pails for waterproofing. Should get the wreath up and start mounting them on tomorrow afternoon.

2009 Setup is underway

I have gotten started setting up for this year's show. The big tree is on site and assembled. We used a man lift this season, which made the job soooo much easier.
The truss is also installed above the garage doors. So, just have to get the video wreath mounted and it will be on to wiring... shooting for Thanksgiving night lights on as usual.

New addition this year

There they are. 16 LED Par Cans all set with the correct dmx addresses and ready to mount around the perimeter of the video wreath. The paint pails will be used to weatherproof them. Should make for some really neat effects.

Striking the Show

Tearing down seymour lights isn't quite as much work as setting up, but it's still a chore.

This mess has all been sorted out, wound up and packed away now. It was not a lot of fun, however.


Yech...

It's also a bit of a challenge to tear down the big tree. We have a simple crane type apparatus that goes into the hitch receiver on a truck. We used it to take down the star and top two sections of the tree.

Thanks for a fantastic season!!

Teardown begins today. Thanks so very much to all those who came by to see the 2008 display. We have big plans for 2009 and we will be back with some major changes to the display.

I have posted some videos from this season's show on the video page and will post a couple more in the next week or so.

Thanks again for making 2008 a great year for Seymour Lights. Happy New Year!