Yes, I do realize that the bottom third of my tree is dark. As soon (and I mean within minutes) as I had finished decorating it, one of the light strands on our pre-lit tree went out. We've been trying to locate the faulty bulb, but we've had limited time (and obviously even more limited success) to locate it. Oh, well, that's real life, isn't it?
For as long as I can remember, I've loved buying ornaments and decorating the tree. Nearly ever year after Christmas I shop the clearance sales (often with Mom in tow) in search of new baubles (and some even get to come home before Christmas, if I like them well enough). My ornament stash has grown to the point, though, that I can't fit them all on the tree at one time. :( I really don't want to put up more than one tree (with the exception of my two mini trees, which have their own ornaments), and I don't do themed trees, either, so choosing what ornaments to hang each year became something of a dilemma.
Last year I experimented with a "color palette" for my tree. Seriously, I did! I picked a color scheme (last year was peacock with shades of blue, purple, gold, and green) and went through all of the ornaments that I already own and pulled out those that fit in with my chosen palette. The result was cool- it wasn't themed, but it was coordinated and since the ornaments were from my existing collection it was much more personalized than a themed tree.
This year I decided to do the same thing, but with a new color scheme. The two ornament sets pictured above were purchased last Christmas (on sale, of course) and were the basis for this year's palette.
I went through all my ornaments and pulled those that coordinated. I wasn't going for an exact match, just an approximate resemblance to the hue. The rainbow of piles pictured below was the result of all that sorting.
I also threw in white/silver as neutrals.
And of course I also included my small collection of Star Wars ornaments. Come on, you knew I was going to geek the halls just a little, right? Some special ornaments will get hung every year no matter what.
Our tree topper is a simple gift-wrap bow. That's a long story that you can read about over on this post (I journaled about it as part of my December Daily), along with the story of the Miss Mouse, who sits atop one of my mini trees.
I've grinned every time I've walked by our tree this Christmas- I'm so happy to have found a way to select which ornaments to hang every year, and you can be sure that I'm already on the prowl for next year's palette.