To Taylor Sparks the gray-blue back deck, the bright blue decorative pots lining her walkway and the blue artificial mulch surrounding a tree in her front yard make her otherwise-traditional home really "pop."

"I'm colorful," Sparks said. "That's just me."

A few of her neighbors in Fuquay-Varina's Morgan Creek subdivision, however, were less than thrilled.

They complained to their property management office, PPM Inc., which sent Sparks a letter: Her deck, pots and mulch were out of compliance and needed to be changed -- or she and her husband would be hit with fines of $100 a day.

"For most people the letter is enough to bring them into compliance," said Nancy Tidwell, PPM's vice president. "Many residents don't realize they have to get permission before they add certain elements to their home or yard."

Tidwell, who has worked in property management for 24 years, noted that some people can get pretty ornery about enforcement of homeowners' covenants -- forgetting it was their choice to live in a subdivision with such restrictions in the first place.

But the threat of fines usually persuades even the most determined rule breakers.

Not Sparks, though.

Sparks, who owns a line of skin-care products specially made for athletes, refers to herself as "principal goddess" of the company. She and her husband, a salesman, showed up for the meeting dressed to kill -- and well-armed.

"We were in our suits, and we were prepared," Sparks said.

With a series of photographs of her neighbors' homes, she showed how others seemed to have broken covenants with impunity. From bright orange planters to red mulch. Even statues of a lighthouse and a blue bunny.

She also brought letters from eight of her immediate neighbors saying they had no problem with the blues.

"I knew my closest neighbors didn't care," she said. "I've taken care of their children, and they've taken care of mine. We all know each other. We're friends."

Of course, what are you supposed to say when your neighbor and friend asks about the blue pots, or the blue mulch?

But between the pictures, the letters and Sparks' razor-sharp recitations of homeowners association law, she made quite an impression.

By the time of the hearing she also had summoned sufficient outrage to give her presentation that extra frisson of righteousness.

"The law says that they can't foreclose on you solely for fines," she said. "But how many weeks of $100-a-day fines would it take before you couldn't pay the mortgage?"

To her credit, though, Sparks also was willing to bend.

"Really, what it came down to is that the developer just doesn't like the bright blue," she said. "I was glad to figure that out because I told him I was beginning to think he had a problem with black, not blue."

Sparks is African-American.

Finally, the developer, who handles architectural reviews for the still-new subdivision, settled on a compromise both he and Sparks could live with. Sparks could keep the blue mulch around her favorite tree, and her blue deck.

But the electric blue pots must be replaced.

She's thinking copper. Nice and bright.