Design Day, Bubble Lights

You may not know this about me, but I love the creative process of decorating a Christmas tree.  When I start with a tree, I keep working to "get the tree right" (which can lead to many follies, I must admit). This year, I got a bee in my bonnet and wanted bubble lights on the white tree (started this white tree last year) because it is my "retro tree"--with my mother's old Christmas ornaments. We used to have a strand of bubble lights when I was a kid and so did my husband's family.  I had seen old fashioned bubble lights on a tree at the Jubilee of Trees this year and so I hoped they might be available locally.  The white tree is pre-lit with multi-colored lights but imagine how those bigger bubble lights would light up a white tree!

There were bubble lights available online at Miles Kimball ($19.99 per strand before shipping, and pictured above) and more at Vermont Country store ($29.99 per strand before shipping but it looks today like they are sold out) but it took a while to find them around here.

This is like the set we found at Lowe's.  What this picture does not show is that there is a colored bulb in each of those bubble lights--red, green, yellow and blue--and that bulb lights up the whole plastic "light" and makes it all appear to be the color of the bulb with the water bubbling also the color of the bulb.  Not exactly multi-colored like the top picture and like our childhood memory but the cost was about $8.50 each.  Sold!  They do create a bigger spot of bright light against the white tree, and they do bubble.

This is a picture of one of the bubble lights on the tree.  It looks great!  That issue is resolved!  Now, something is still missing . . . hmm . . . what could it be?  I guess I will just have to continue working on this tree until I get it right (read: another of P's follies!). What you do not know is that once I "get it right," I have to change it up again . . . a never-ending design story! Stay tuned!