Yes its true the new macbooks come out tomorrow, all with their shiny new form design and 13.3″ screen and most importantly the addition of a new port… (I’ll tell you a secret… its an HDMI outlet).  Don’t ask how I know and I won’t tell you (oh yea and LED backlit screens).

If that isn’t enough then I should also mention that Windy City Novelties, Inc (a Vernon Hills Illinois based novelty and party goods wholesaler) announced their new product line of iGlow hair gel (patents pending and trademarked)!  Now you can add a frightful array of glow to your hair when you go out (and even style with it).

Oh yeah! and here’s a video of how it works:

So you like beer, and you like the idea of having a light up cup but LED lights isn’t your thing?  Then try our NEW glow in the dark beer mug.

Operating under a similar idea as the glow cups, this beer mug is ready to party!  Simply crack the ampules on either side give it a good shake or two and then let the good times poor!  My personal favorites are Sam Adams and Coors Light, but everyone has their own preference.  This Beer mug also works with the self christened “Champagne of Beers” Miller High Life.

If you’re about to serve Budweiser then please make sure you light up a Glow Beer Mug, hand it to a buddy and be sure to say “This bud’s for you”.

Don’t be surprised if recipients exclaim “My Goodness!” when being fortunate enough to get a Glowing Beer Mug with Guinness.

If you’re interested in making an entire bottle of beer, or water, light up then be sure to read about our Sticky Bottoms.

To learn how Glow works click here.

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.

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.

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

It is undeniable, finally, that summer is here. How do I know this you ask? Well for starters the birds are back but more importantly so are the summer festivals.

Vending time is upon us.  Summer fest, Independence days, Carnivals, Concerts and picnics are here and that means large concentrations of families out enjoying the evening together. This is a perfect situation to go out and start vending Glow LED Novelties or other items.

Now some are asking “what do you mean by vending“, what I mean is this is the perfect time to go raise tons of money for your club, sports team, Firefighters brigage, Fraternal order of the Police, or just even Yourself!

$50 of product can net you over $500 in an hour, and if you think I’m exaggerating then you’ve never done it. Why else do you think places like Disney World, or Six Flags hire tons of people to go out and sell inexpensive fun items?

The key to this, besides getting local government approval i.e. a vending license, is to make sure that what you’re selling is a good deal and that the kids are happy when the get the items. The best situation you can be in is for your customers, and their parents, to be happy to see you and get something that they’ll love. To this end LED items or Glow sticks are perfect, they entertain and occupy the kids while not annoying anyone else, stay away from noisemakers! Do this and you’ll have plenty of repeat business to keep your pockets full all summer.

For a video on how to vend, and how to organize others to vend, click here or simply look below.