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Chartreuse and Purple

Now for some real fun!

I just love to decorate for the holidays. There is just nothing as fulfilling as imagining a design, constructing and finally sharing the finished product.

My outdoor color theme is chartreuse and purple. If I throw in some gold, I figure these colors will take me right into the Mardi Gras season. I used white pine roping around my entranceway, my lamppost, and my roadside mailbox. I attach as many oversize pinecones as I can find. At a flea market, I came across some huge purple glasslike balls. They are perfect because they are actually plastic (which is great for outdoors) and the entire bag of 20 or so cost about $1.00! So, I attach these along with some chartreuse lights (chartreuse is that yellowy green color that people love or hate - it actually reminds me of a horrible cough medicine from my childhood but I still love the color) to my roping around the doorway. Another great find are some large plastic chartreuse balls that fit over the mini light bulbs. Next to this, I have a monster grapevine wreath. This gets adorned with a stretch of artificial garland, purple lights and the purple balls. My windowbox gets emptied and then I jam pack it with juniper branches full of those beautiful blue berries. Everything gets green velvet bows for accents.

With all the millennium madness, it seems you just can't have enough lights on display. So, my home does have the icicle lights framing my window and the gable end of the roof. I also did red and pink lights on the lower branches of a flowering pear tree to give a weeping effect. Unfortunately, a branch snapped off in my hands. Fortunately, the warm weather we have been having has made the branch suitable for forcing inside. With frequent fresh cuts and hot water I should see some pretty and fragrant pink blossoms for the holidays! My blue spruce that stands about 8 feet tall (which had been our live indoor Christmas tree a couple of years back) is now showered with tiny white lights. Last but not least after spending too much time trying to figure out why my mini red light string was half out, I wound up the dead end of the strand and gracefully laced the top of a small rhododendron with the remaining lights.

It never really seems to be finished. We are still deciding if the "totem pole" (the 20 foot stump left behind by the town's attempts at pruning) should have one of those colorful spiral trees on top of it, or maybe a star, or maybe an angel. . .

12/6/99