That's a Wrap...

Sorry for not posting in a while, life intrudes on my hobbies every so often, and this was one of those oftens. There is some good news though, I completed sequencing my first song. The reactions from the people I've shown it to are either "that's incredible" or "you are crazy". Maybe it's a little of both. Anyway, I'm now on to my next song, "Run, Run Rudolph". Also starting to research FM transmitters, but that topic is for another post.

Mini-Tree Quest

After a very nice breakfast with the offspring (hubby is in Myrtle Beach golfing with some buds), church and umpire clinic drop-off, I headed out to find the proper sized wire frame for my mini-trees. First stop..Joanne's Crafts. They had a 30" frame which I thought was perfect. However, after having learned my lesson with the 24" frame, I sought out a ruler. Good thing I did, because the 30" frame still had 10" legs which only gave me a 20" tree...still too small. Joanne's didn't have 36" frames so I trekked over to AC Moore Crafts and was rewarded for my diligence. They had 36" frames (lots of them) and their legs were 10" (I'm noticing a pattern) which gave me 26" for lights...PERFECT! I got 11 and a bag of Good and Plenty for the road.
Once the evening responsiblities and the laundry were attended to, I sat down to watch the final round of The Masters and construct my mini-tree. These things take a lot of cable ties; I'm definitely going to need more. It took me about 2 hours to finish the tree, but you've got to remember I was watching golf and doing the laundry at the same time so it can probably be done faster, but I have until November so I think I'll be okay.
Anyway, it looks great! I may want to add one more set of lights, but for now I'm satisfied. Only 10 more to go....

Mini-Trees and The Masters

Got back from the drumline championships where the offspring took 2nd place! I taped The Masters golf tournament and am now ready to watch my favs (Phil and Freddy) and tackle my first mini-tree.
I got the first frame, 3 sets of lights, and a bag of cable ties, and I'm off. After getting the first set of lights on I noticed that it seemed a little small. I measured the area of the frame that holds the lights, and it was only 14 inches. Problem...I neglected to account for the length of frame that would need to go into the ground to hold them in place. The 24" easel had 10" legs which made the tree too small. Stymied...I'm going to have to check out the 30" or 36" easels, but that's going to have to wait until tomorrow.

"Queen of Winter" Update

In between the offsprings' Jazz Band and Indoor drumline competitions (and watching the Masters),I worked on the sequencing for "Queen of Winter". The song is 3 minutes and 13 seconds long. I have completed the first 2 minutes and enjoyed every minute of it. I'd say those 2 minutes took me about 4 hours of programming. The "experts" at Planet Christmas tell me the first song takes the longest...

Animation Window II

Finished setting up the animation window! It's looks pretty good!

Animation Window I

Since my light stringing outside is on hold until September, I decided to turn my attention to the sequencing software. I had already setup the channels. Now I needed to create the Animation window. The animation window is a 100x100 block grid that you set up to represent your light setup. I had a few minutes before my daughter's indoor guard championship meet so I started the process. Because this is all new, it's going a little slow at the moment, but it's not as hard as I thought it might be...stay tuned...