How to outline a golf fairway for night golf

Okay, you know that Night Golf is the new hit thing. You've even already gone out and bought your Night Flyer Constant Light golf balls. That way the golfer can hit a solid real golf ball of light and always find it.

But now you're wondering how they'll see the rest of the course. Do you have to buy large amounts of flood lights? NO! Do you have to get tons of tiki torches to illuminate the area? NO!, besides being unsafe it simply isn't practical to have open flames every where that need to be refilled with oil.

Instead use safe, bright, and efficient GLOWING area markers from Night Flyer Golf. Follow these tips and you'll have an amazing looking course for night golf:

• Begin by outlining the fairway with Green area marker glow sticks, these are 10" sticks that come with ground spikes for this specific purpose. Using normal glow sticks and having them simply lay in the ground is not as good since the low lying grass will obstruct the view and you are only getting a side profile instead of 10" standing straight up.

Space the glow sticks about every 10-20 yards, remember the closer together they are the more uniform your fairway will look.

• Mark water hazards with Blue area markers to alert the golfer where to avoid. Here it is important to do the entire perimeter of the pond, or both sides of a creek. The reason is that you want the golfer to know where all the edges of the water are, where they have to hit the ball to avoid it, and where its safe to traverse.

If it is a creek or river that you're identifying then you should also mark where the bridge or walkway is that they're going to want to use. For this use White area markers on both ends of the walkway / bridge to guide the golfers to continue golfing.

• Next you're going to want to outline all sand traps and hazards with Red area markers. This striking distinction will alert all golfers where to avoid placing their shot.

• Finally you should ouline the green with Green 6" glow sticks as well, almost as landing strip for where the golfer wants to end up.
  

When you're finished your fairway should look something like this photo below. In our next post we'll discuss how to outfit a green to highlight the whole, and impress the golfer.

LED soft plastic jewelry

Children love to dress up and pretend (the benefits of which can be read about here), sometimes even taking some of their Mom's jewelry or make up to help their imaginations. And this is great, except for the fact that sometimes you don't want them playing with your heirloom ring or even your own costume jewelry because it could hurt them.

Well what if you could give them light-up jewelry that not only lets them make pretend, but also is a cool accessory for just going out with the other kids? Well now you can!

Windy City Novelties, Inc. has tons of great LED light up items in the form of rings, necklaces, bracelets, hair pins and much much more. Its always amazing to me when I see the local neighborhood children running around at night with our light up jewelry adorned everywhere.

And don't think these are just for little kids, teens and even college aged love light up jewelry too, they wear it for parties, to the club, or even just when its the girls going out!

Stand up decorations of your favorite TV and movie characters

So you're going to have a movie themed party and want to get all your favorite characters there to help with creating the scene. Well most of us aren't Steven Spielberg, and can't have the likes of Darth Vader, Marilyn Monroe or the Three Stooges appear at our beckon call. But instead we can all get them to not only come to our movie themed parties but stand still and pose for photos for almost eternity!

How you ask???

Simply with our Life Size Stand Up Props from WCNovelties! Like above you want Lord of the Sith Darth Vader? Click here and you can have him by the weekend. Just remember not to anger him, your actions are "insignificant compared to the power of the force".

Missing the King and want to be 'nothin but a hound dog' with him? Well your wish is granted. And believe me it's not true what they say, he's more then happy to let you put your arms around him and take photo after photo. And guess what, he'll even talk to you as you walk by! That's right the King can talk to you with several pre-recorded messages (or were they just recorded...)

How about a parent or friend that loves the "nyuk nyuk nyuk"of Moe, Larry, and Curley in the 3 stooges! Here you can stand with your favorite nuckleheads either in Golf atire or have them pose with your recent graduate as they appear ready to start their own professional lives.


You can even have Marilyn Monroe, John Wayne (The "Duke"), The Wicked Witch of the West, Cinderella (glass slipper not included!), Hannah Montana (Miley Ray Cyrus), or even Rocky Balboa just to name a few!

There are too many to mention, but tons of great old classic stars and even some new ones like Fillmore the bus from the Disney hit Cars.

And by the way I'm in one of the photos above... care to guess which one?

Night Flyer Golf, LED golf ball that makes night golf possible

Night Golf is a fun new way to play an old favorite sport. What makes it possible is our patented Illuminated Golf Ball called the Night Flyer™ CL. CL for Constantly Lit. Looking at the ball you'd think that it was as normal as anything else.

Give the Night Flyer™ good hit however and you'll quickly be amazed at what you'll see. A solid streak of light through the night sky! With every hit triggers a micro computer with 2 high powered LED lights inside the golf ball. What's great is that this light is on a timer, meaning it will last for between 8 and 10 minutes with every hit. What's even better is that the computer inside the balls is an intelligent computer and knows not to turn off the light so long as it's hit every 8 minutes.

While some might say, 8 minutes isn't all that long, it really its. Think about it, hitting a ball every 8 minutes means that a par 4 whole is taking you over 32 minutes to complete, or about 9 hours for an 18 hole round of golf!!! No one, not even a the slowest golfer on earth takes that long. Plus add the fact that this is not a one outing wonder, you can play a round with the ball, pick it up and play again some other day!

And don't be fooled this is a real REGULATION size and weight golfball with a multi-layer surlyn coating with an 80 compression ratio. This ball will fly true and roll true, A REAL GOLF BALL.

No blinking, no on again off again, No glow stick to fall out and never be seen again, real honest to goodness solid light emanating from the ball itself.

What's also a huge improvement here is that the Night Flyer™ comes in 5 different colors: White, Red, Blue, Green, Yellow

Besides night golf the Night Flyer™ is also fantastic for twilight hours at the end of a round when the sun is setting and yet you want to finish your round.

How to use a serving tray to make a statement while carrying drinks

Some might think that serving trays are simple functional items that are a necessity to the service industry. Well you're only partly right. To tell you the truth there is nothing simple about how you load up a serving tray. You have to balance it when you load it up, and when you take items off of it. Forgetting to think about weights can send a whole tray of high priced cocktails to the floor.

But I always thought to myself, why is it that the drinks can be dressed up while the trays arent? Well not any more. Introducing our line of LED and EL lite-up serving trays.

My personal favorite is the LED model, with the lights changing in a never ending array that is sure to memorize and impress your patrons. The lighted serving trays come with a 2 x AA battery pack with batteries installed, and easily changed for long term use. Also each tray has a no slip material added so that your drinks stay on the serving tray and not on the customers lap.

EL trays are available in Green, Blue, and a Pinkish-Red color

Please do not be confused by our EL lighted trays, these are not Neon bulbs. Those trays found in bars in the early nineties, were heavy and easily breakable and required large amounts of batteries. EL is a simple cord that lights up when the phosphorous is excited by electrons, they still run on AA batteries and can take a large amount of abuse.

How to create your own Custom made Banner

We've gotten a couple phone calls recently asking to order the banners by phone. Because these are customized banners we can not take your order in this manner. You have to visit the website and place it online.

The reason for this is that we want you to see the actual banner just as it will come to you. The system is completely automated so that when you type in what you want to say our Mega Super Uber Cool machine automatically prints it, cuts it, and grometizes it (puts the brass rings in the corners for hanging).

Watch this video to learn how to MAKE YOUR OWN BANNER!

How to host a house party

The main ingredient to hosting a successful house party is three simple words: Planning Planning Planning! No seriously, a party can succeed or fail before even the first guest arrives.

Be festive by including decorations or even customized banners for House Party.

First, for a house party invite your friends and neighbors (this is especially crucial since they are the ones that can get your party in trouble if you get too loud, inviting them makes them feel like they were included), decide before hand if you want to let friends bring guests or to keep it just to who you invite. Any party can get out of hand if too many people show up.

• While formal paper invitations are great so are e-services like evite.com or google calendar.

• A great way to keep track of if the people at the party were invited or if they were able to sneak in is with neon paper wrist Bands. You know, the type you have to cut them to get them off. Like these:

Second, decide on what people are going to do for food and drinks. It doesn't matter if its sodas, a keg, or even wine and cocktails as long as your prepared for the quantity needed. For beer or sodas assume everyone will drink about 4 servings, this takes care of those that drink a few sips and then forget about their cups, and those that have one and call it quits.

Third , clean your place and remove anything that is a) valuable, b) breakable, or c) you'd be upset if it was broken; you never know when crazy Dave will accidently topple over a vase etc. Also have plenty of garbage receptacles around the house, so your guests can help clean up during the event by throwing away garbage instead of leaving it around.

• If you don't want to have to worry about lots of garbage use cups or plates that people will want to hold on to, and not just throw away. Some good examples are Glowing cups, Glow knives and forks, or even themed paper plates that people will want to keep on using.

Fourth, organize music or entertainment. I've been to some pretty cool parties that have had DJ's, a local band playing, or even Poi / glow stick twirlers. People come to socialize, but they also want to have something neat going on the side.

Fifth, having games prepared can also be fun. These can be as simple as bean bag tosses, frisbee, a limbo line or any other easy to plan game. While it might sound lame, having some games ready can help keep a party from loosing it's 'mojo'

Some other pointers: Never let anyone drive home who has been drinking, or who hasn't waited atleast an hour for every alcoholic drink. Find out what your city's noise regulations are. Be mindful that neighbors might not be on the same schedule as you so be sure to invite or at least inform them (see 1 above).

Besides all this be safe and have fun, it is after all a party!

Party Wigs, the original costume accessory

Okay so its 9:45 pm Friday night and you're about to leave for that killer party down the street, but you don't have any costume to wear. An easy, quick, and fantastic solution is to put on a Party Wig!

Instantly transform yourself from who you are to who you want to be for the night with a simple novelty wig... And the best part is that they go with any outfit. Want to imitate Pink for the evening? DONE!

Going to a 60's rock and roll party? Then dress up as your favorite singer with a wig to replicate out of sight style back then (as if you don't remember...), and you don't even have to run out to find blue suede shoes or leather pants!

Really want to be striking and make a scene at the next outing? Then try one of our light up wigs. These complete with synthetic hair, LED's, and batteries all designed to make you light up at the party (pun intended).



To see a youtube clip of how our current hair options can change the look of one innocent bystander click below.



Ever wondered what the definition of wig truly is? Well click here to see it according to wikipedia

Personalized Banners, say it the way you want!

Whenever a birthday comes around I find that there are two types of banners:

1. Plain old "Happy Birthday" and,
   
2. The overused classic "Over the Hill"

But what if you wanted to say "Hey Brian it's just a number like Uncle Mike always said", or "Jen at least you're always going to be 5 years older then me!" Or some other crazy personalized message. That's where our Personalized Banners make all the difference.

At your local party store or grocery center you're pretty much limited to the first two, with no way to say what you want unless you buy poster board and are REALLY artistic.

But now at Windy City Novelties you can choose from hundreds of pre-themed banners where you can put the exact message you want to convey. Among the most popular are themed banners for: Disco , Birthdays , and Patriotic

"Support our Troops", "Elect Steven Colbert", or even "Welcome home Jim, we've missed you!" And the best thing is that they're printed on high quality vinyl, so they can be used once and kept as a keep sake or used hundreds of times over.

We even now make Personalized Door Banners so your guests can be greeted with the message as they enter the party.

Lighted drink ware, turn any social gathering into a Glowing event!

Drinks are always a great way to spice up a party, and that doesn't mean that you have to have alcohol in them. Lighted drink ware makes any drink can be fun, from normal water or soda to the more exotic fruity drinks. What makes them great and entertaining is the presentation.

Now if we were back 50 years ago I'd say put an umbrella or a artistic piece of fruit in the glass... But not anymore, now we have Illuminated Cups, Glowing Stemware, Glowing Liquid Filled Cups, And Even LED Ice Cubes and GLOW Ice cubes.

And don't think that glowing cups are only good for the more festive parties, we have black tie appropriate stemware that tastefully illuminates your drink while still being true to the high class event you're hosting. In fact with these glasses you can choose what color you want the glass to be in: Red, Green, Blue, Teal, Pink, Orange, All colors at once, or a rotation of colors



But thats only one type of our lighted drink ware. Look below to see our Glow cup options:



To see our full line of illuminated drink ware click here

Lumi-loon ®, lighted balloons with one way air valves

Balloons are great for decorations, they look awesome and can continue any color theme nicely. But what happens when its an evening event or in a dark environment? Obviously you loose most, if not all, of the allure that balloons have.

But that doesn't have to be the case. Our NEW patented Lumi-Loons allow you to enjoy the beauty that balloons have right into the night. Besides illuminating the balloon the device comes pre-attached to the balloon and creates a one way air tight valve where you can fill it up with helium without having to try and tie the neck of the balloon. Simply inflate and let it fly (see our youtube video for a demonstration)

The Light has three different settings, Fast Blink, Slow Blink and Steady. (okay 4 if you count off as a setting smart alec), again visit the youtube video (by clicking on 'youtube') to see a full demonstration of the settings and applications

Two different options exist with this great invention.

1. You use a White balloon with colored LED's
2. You use a Colored balloon with White LED's

Both look awesome and give completely different effects. You can even choose balloons that are printed so that when they light up the image POPS!

How does a glow stick work, Chemiluminescence

Making your own glowstick is difficult and time consuming, and quite honestly all your hardwork will be used up in a few hours of glow. Instead I recommend purchasing your glow from Windy City Novelties. We use the highest quality products around to make sure you get a nice bright glow!

I get this question all the time: How does a glow stick work? Now depending on the age of the person asking I have several different answers.
1. (to a young child) A glow stick works by magic, and it will stay lit till you go to sleep.

2. (to a teenager or curious adult) A glow stick works by a chemical reaction, when you break the ampule inside the stick it mixes two compounds to form the affect of glow until the reaction is finished.

But I'm going to guess that if you're here then you want to really know how a glow stick works... So here is my answer to the do-it-yourselfers out there, and those that really need to know hos stuff works.

CAVEAT: I am not a chemist, with that if there are words that I find too cumbersome to either easily explain or understand by there own then I will link them to a wikipedia page with their definition.

Glow sticks give off illumination as a by product of a chemical reaction called chemiluminescence (light from chemical reaction in difficult language). This is achieved by the mixing of two liquids that alone are uninteresting.

The free flowing chemical inside the plastic tube is a combination of a dye for coloring (usually either a sensitizer or a fluorophor) and what has been called Cyalume which is also known as Bis(2,4,5-trichlorophenyl-6-carbopentoxyphenyl) oxalate (CPPO) which is a solid ester where the oxidation products are what causes the chemiluminescence (glow) in a glow stick.

If you're adventurous and want to try to make it yourself it can be done by reacting 2-carbopentoxy-3,5,6-trichlorophenol with oxalyl chloride.

The liquid in the capsule inside the plastic housing of the glow stick is Hydrogen Peroxide. Same stuff that you get from Walgreens or CVS. If you've ever noticed how it bubbles on contact then you'll understand why its the activating agent. When it mixes with the Cyalume it releases an Oxygen molecule that quickly forms Carbon Dioxide which in turn releases enough energy in the new bonds being broken and formed to excite the electrons in the dyes causing what you see as Glow. When the glow extinguishes you know that the chemical reaction is finished and that the dye has released enough photons (energy in the form of light) to be stable.



In true scientific terms the reaction is best described by Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., who wrote on About.com :

"Specifically, the chemical reaction works like this: The hydrogen peroxide oxidizes the phenyl oxalate ester, to form phenol and an unstable peroxyacid ester. The unstable peroxyacid ester decomposes, resulting in phenol and a cyclic peroxy compound. The cyclic peroxy compound decomposes to carbon dioxide. This decomposition reaction releases the energy that excites the dye."

It should be noted that while different dyes cause the different colors, some chemical formulations are actually patented. Most importantly is the Red dye formulation, which is used in several different colored glow. If you've ever seen a red dyed plastic tubing being used to get a red glow stick then you know that you are not buying from the patent holders or one of their licensees.

This posting has been made possible by the help of information obtained from the following references:

http://chemistry.about.com/od/howthingsworkfaqs/a/howlightsticks.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glow_stick
http://www.howstuffworks.com/light-stick.htm
as viewed on 6/11/08 at 11:02 AM

Fiber Optic Centerpieces

Okay, so complete honesty here.  I thought these Fiber Optic Centerpieces were pretty cool when started selling them some time back.  I started to really like them when my wife used them to decorate my recent birthday party (no gifts please, but thank you for the thought).  And I loved them when my uncle used them for his daughters party this past weekend in an upscale restaurant that had the lights just slightly dimmed.

They truly make any event look like it cost a million dollars, while costing only a few dollars each!

Fiber Optic Centerpieces stand 13" tall and can change colors or BE SET TO A SINGLE COLOR.  Your theme Red? No problem! Blue? Just as easy!  Rainbow color? well guess what, it can phase through the colors too.  They run on 3 AAA batteries, which are replaceable, so you can keep this great looking centerpiece, or night light, for as long as you'd like.  The LEDs will almost never die so you don't have to worry about being frugal with their use.

Yea I'm including a photo, look up and to the right, and yea I have a youtube clip to show you (down below).  But none of that compares to seeing them in person.  For a close second I'm going to ask my uncle to share some of his impressively high quality photos with us all here.  Check back soon to see. 

Different type of Glow Bracelets, and Necklaces

Believe it or not there are many different types of glow bracelets and glow necklaces.  The main differences here are the thickness and length of the tubing.  Generally thicker tubing carries more "glow juice" more juice means a brighter glow with better coloring.

Its like painting a deck or a house, the first coat is nice but the color really starts to show with more coats, here with more glow juice.

There is no question that thicker glow is better.  Besides glowing brighter it also lasts longer since there's more chemical to go through.  To get an idea at the differences take a look at the picture below it shows the different thicknesses and what they look like

At our company alone we have two different types of Glow Necklaces, Superior Glow (at 5mm) and Premium Glow (at 6mm)

In Glow Bracelets we have Superior Glow, Premium Glow and Deluxe Triple Wide Glow (a huge 15mm wide).  Now for most simple occasions Superior Glow is fine and dandy.  You'll get good coloring, bright glow, and it will last for about 6 hours.  Premium Glow will be brighter, and will last 8 hours or more.  Also with Premium Glow you'll get a high end molded plastic connector that is UV reactive and cool on its own.  But the best and brightest glow is the Triple Wide.  Just as in the photo above it is CONSIDERABLY larger and brighter.  The color obviously looks the best in this piece because of the glow size itself. 

To get a better view of this watch the youtube video below that demonstrates the glow of the Deluxe Triple Wide. 

Always be wary of other companies that try to claim they have the cheapest glow.  Make sure to ask what the diameter of the necklace or bracelet is!  If they respond that they don't know then BE WARY!  Also its not unusual to see 4mm or even 3mm glow out there, this will not last long nor look as good as even our Superior Glow at 5mm after 2 hours of GLOW!

Flashing Sunglasses, a cool way to express yourself

Lighted Sunglasses have become a craze hit in many parts of the country. Originally they were designed using EL (Electro-luminescence) wire laid around the frame of the glasses. They looked great but had one major problem... They had to have a 2 x AA battery pack attached to the sunglasses via a power cord. So literally you had a power pack in your pocket, and the glasses on your head. Not to mention they are expensive, the cheapest place I just found them were selling them at $8.50 wholesale






This never seemed to convenient or 'cool' to have to walk around with a power pack the size of a beeper tethered to your head.

Instead we came out with the LED (Light Emiting Diode) Version!!! and these things are cool ! No more need for large battery packs attached with wires, but instead a small watch battery compartment behind the ear as part of the the glasses.

You can also choose the setting you want the lighted sunglasses to illuminate at, slow blink, fast blink, rotate, reverse, or constant on. And another cool feature is that you can have the lights in different colors (you can't do that with EL lighted sunglasses).

To see the different color options of the lighted sunglasses or to get a close up view on how they work feel free to view our youtube video clip by clicking below.