A huge pile of tired, dusty and not at all realistically colored garland!
One of the reasons, that I have not completed this usually enjoyable task is that I wanted to do away with all of the old, worn out garland. This stuff is that cheapo stuff that you buy at the local dollar store when you have lots of kids and not lots of money. It has been hung and rehung for decades now. It has been strung from the stair rails with added pine cones and holly berries. It has been draped across the mantel and decorated with mistletoe and magnolia leaves. Why, it has even been attached to a dog's collar and dragged around the yard. (This was pre-Ezzy days. Our dog, Annie, was sooo patient with the kids!) Now..it was time to retire this sad excuse for artificial garland and get new. I did not want the same ugly mess of strung astroturf! I wanted something that at least "looked" real! I usually use a lot of real pine and cedar but on my stair rails it is just too difficult to use the real stuff. So the search began. At first, I went to the computer to explore just what my options were. I found the most realistic-looking pine garland! It was beautiful! This was exactly what I was looking for until.....I saw the price! AAACCCKKKK! I cannot afford anything that is about twenty dollars a foot! My goodness! That stuff needed to be made of gold! I kept looking.
The "new and improved" pine garland with real pine cones!
My search then transferred to my husband! He scoured the local stores..all of them. He would call from each Christmas aisle as he dug through the mounds of garland. Again..anything that appeared to have any resemblance to a true piece of pine was outrageously priced! It seemed as if I was going to have to use the icky stuff or no stuff. I was not happy with the aspect of putting up wimpy, dusty, plastic garland. Ugh! Then I decided that of all things, I needed to make a run to the shops. I would get all of my Christmas shopping finished in one clean swoop! Yep..that happened..right..no way! But one good thing came from this outing! As Mark and I were shopping, I would invariably wind up looking at the Christmas decorations. I know that I did not need to be buying decorations but for some reason, I was drawn to this area. At the last store we went to, I rounded the corner and there was my garland! Mounds of pine garland with real pine cones. I was excited but dubious. Would this be priced like all the rest? Would I go into sticker shock when I peered at the price tags? I timidly picked up one strand and turned the tag over. $7!!!! What??? It couldn't be! I stared at the tag...$7...WOW! I looked at Mark and he said "Get them!" So, we did! We gathered up ALL of the garland that was in the store and shoved it in the shopping cart! It looked as if we had a huge pine tree in our buggy! Now...I have my garland! I can now put up garland everywhere and not be depressed over the shedding of non-real needles nor spend hours trying to tie that stuff back together because the wires have become brittle. I have pine! Beautiful, beautiful pine garland with real pine cones! It is still not quite like the expensive stuff but for the price, I can live with shortleaf pine! Now if I can only get all of this other mess out of my house!
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