Making the North Poles

Today, as we wait to see if tropical storm Erika turns into a hurricane, I did some more work on the new north poles. Over the years, we've remade them a few times. Each time they get better and we get more efficient at remaking them. This year, I decided to paint them instead of wrapping them in red duct tape. Not sure if this will be better or worse than duct tape, but I guess we'll see how they look a year from now.

Over the past few weeks, we sanded off the letters, added cords, then painted them white with Krylon. Today, I wrapped them in two pieces of tape, then painted. I ended up using two cans of white and only one can of red. I'm so proud of my little template that I used so all my stripes would be even. It's just a folded up piece of paper that I taped to the top of each pipe,

I couldn't find painters tape that was wide enough, so I had to add two rows of tape. Double the work....ugh.

I know I shouldn't be painting in 100% humidity here in FL. It was pouring as I did this. But in summer here, it rains every afternoon, so no time for perfect condition painting.

I guess I'll wait overnight to let them dry, then I'll remove the tape. The painting is the easiest part!

2015 Mega Tree with Light-O-Rama

John and I decided to resurrect the mega tree for the 2015 Copeland Christmas display! We'll add 12 strands of mini lights to this flagpole. The base diameter should be 15-20 ft. We'll add a star topper and then hook all the lights into a Light-O-Rama controller so the lights can be controlled by our home computer via cat5e cables.

We had to get the flagpole (20 ft sunsetter) from the other house. Once it was at our new house, we settled on this spot. It's kinda close to the the street, but it's really the only area of open grass that we have.

 

John tested it out. I think it's extendeed to 10 feet here. For the show, we'll extend it to 15 ft.

The nxt step was to check over all the parts to see what can be reused and what needs to be rebuilt. The tree topper (built in 2008 I think) disintegrated in our hands, so we had to rebuild that first.

It's made of a wood bun (that what's it's called at Lowes) and 12 metal coat hooks. The top has some kind of plumbing flange and a large bolt. It's a very simple design that we adapted from something we saw online years ago.

I disassembled the old topper, bought a new bun, and one replacement hook. I drilled pilot holes for each screw, then screwed in the hooks. Couldn't be simpler. Coast was around $10.

I was hoping to put some of my 6th grade protractor skills to use. Yes, I've had that protractor since 6th grade and it's almost 25 years old! The bun already had all the correct angles notched into it. So, I verified all angles were perfect, then continued. Oh well.

 I primed it with two coats of Krylon outdoor paint for some added protection against our wet, humid weather. Black will disappear into the night when the lights are on.

Next step was to clean all the rust stains off the flagpole. This is the toughest part. Neither of our rust removers are working. I wish Rustaid was still around. Not sure what we'll do about the rust. Maybe nothing. The rust stains (orange) are from the well water (sprinklers) at the old house.

The next step will be to dig the hole and set the flagpole in concrete. I bought a groundsleeve kit from sunsetter because they said that's what I'll need. So far, cost for this year has been $40. Not bad :)

Rotating Christmas Tree in Fast Motion

We tore down all the Christmas stuff last week. It feels so good to have a clean house again!!!! Christmas 2014, here we come!!

Loving the new new GoPro. Here's the teardown process (living room and master bedroom). Thanks to Mom, Matthew, John for helping.

Copeland Christmas on Social Media

It's been forever since we updated this blog. These days, we update our facebook and Instagram much more frequently.

https://www.facebook.com/CopelandChristmas1
http://instagram.com/CopelandChristmas

Wizard of Oz Christmas Weath

Today, my friends came over to help with setting up the Wizard of Oz Weath. We love it!

In years past, the Wizard of Oz stuff was on a small ruby red tree (2008 and 2009).

This year, we placed the weath near the front door and I think we'll add one of those space heaters that looks like an old fashioned wood stove. It'll be a great little nook on that awkward little wall. :)


Earlier this year, I made a vision board for the wreath. I know it sounds weird, but I have a habit of pasting a bunch of pics on a blank PowerPoint page just to see how I might like the concept. I liked this concept, so we made it happen.



The lights are Kurt Adler and the dolls are Annalee. Each year, John's surprised me with a few of the Annalees from the Wizard of Oz collection. I just love them!

First Themed Christmas Tree of the 2013 Copeland Christmas Display

Today, I decorated the new woodlands themed Christmas tree. It's adorable so far. I think I'd like to place it in a galvanized pot then on a tree skirt. I have lots of extra jute ribbon, so maybe I can use that for the gifts under the tree. I think this tree will probably end up in our bedroom or on the porch.

I just love all the woodsy elements of this tree. Now I just need to find my pine cone and gnome ornaments. I saw a cute diy ornament on Pinterest...you hang a tag from the house key of your first home. The tag says "our first home" and lists the address. I think I'm going to do this and hang it on this tree.

I'm really happy we were able to use this custom wall hanging as the tree topper. I hot glued it to the pipe from the ribbon roll. Then I hot glued the squirrels to the wood. It's cute.

Laser Stars Projector Light Show - Ordered

We just ordered a Laser Stars Projector Light Show! I'm so excited!

2013 Planet Christmas (Mini) Convention

2013PlanetChristmasMini, a photo by ladybugfalcon on Flickr.

John and I are up in Celebration, FL this weekend for a mini convention called "Florida Planet Christmas Mini Convention." We are learning about the future of Christmas light customization...DMX and RBG devices. These two technologies allow users to control millions of colors at the pixel level. Imagine making every bulb a different color! Then imagine fading all those colors slowly into other colors! Imagine violet, peach, aqua lights! That's where we are heading and we're proud to be among pioneers of this great industry. We even gave a small presentation about photographing your Christmas lights. Download the file.

We also learned a few software tips, like "paste to foreground" in the software. I realized I need to download the latest version of the LOR software and it's only about $20 (I thought it would be $100).

We learned about adding a new element to the display....water. We learned how to set up a DIY mini version of the fountains at Bellagio. Well, maybe not that fancy.

We won a raffle!...$140! That will almost pay for one of hotel nights :)

Electrical Upgrade at Copeland Christmas

Over the past few days, we've had an electrician here at Copeland Christmas upgrading our system. He had to begin at the existing breaker panel. Then, he ran lines from the main breaker panel through the roof. Of course everything is being done "to code" so ran the lines inside conduit.

All those ceiling lines come out the eave, down the side of the house and into a brand new 125 amp subpanel (the large gray box). Then, Richie installed 6 new quad outlets for our Light-O-Rama boxes.

In the garage, we asked for several new outlets on each side of the garage. They look pretty good.

We couldn't be more excited and highly recommend this local guy Richie Neu (Palm City).

Next week, Richie is coming back to give us a few more outlets around the exterior, he's gong to hard wire the boat lift motor, and he'll clean up some exposed wires the previous home owner left us. We just love all this new power!

2013 Easter Decorations

I know it's way too early to set up for Eatser, but I did anyway. :)

I just love how these snowy Christmas Trees can be left out all year long! We took off the silver Foxes from Christmas and added glitter carrots and glitter easter eggs and they are instantly Eastery. I got a few new things at Pier 1 this year (which goes against my usual rule of only buying holiday decorations after the holiday on clearance).