I am a Victorian Soul, who lives in a small townhouse that was built in the mid 1970's, not a huge Mega Mansion!! I just recently lost my Hubby Joe, who was a Retired Letter Carrier. I worked night shift as an RN on a Hospital based Rehabilitation( Physical Medicine) Unit for 37 years before I had Knee Replacement Surgery and officially Retired in 2019 after 41 years working in Direct Patient Care ... I am so glad that we retired at 62 years of age and got to spend that time together before he passed....I still do love Retirement!!!!

I DABBLE IN A BIT OF THIS AND THAT!!!!

" IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO BE WHAT YOU MIGHT HAVE BEEN"
George Eliot
George Eliot was actually a pen name for a woman named Mary Anne Evans......

BLOGGING FOR FUN AND FRIENDSHIP!!!!!!

Friday, February 28, 2020

A Year on Our Front Porch

Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!
I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

I have been busy all week in the Den packing away Winter decorations and Christmas decorations that I left out as part of my Winter decor......

Then cleaning the room and returning it back to normal, whatever that maybe.....

Everything except the China Cupboard which I have decorated for St. Patrick's Day but that will be my next post....
I want to Thank Stacey, over at Embracing Change, for featuring my post, Dining Room Valentine's Buffet, as one of her features from last week's Creative Inspiration linky Party!!
 Thanks, Stacey!!

Stacey is taking a break from blogging and suspending her Linky Party as she adjusts to her new full time job!!

I wish her luck in her future endeavors and will miss her in the Blogging World and hopefully, she can find the time to return.....

 I want to Thank "Mother of 3" over at Slices of Life for featuring my post, Winter/Valentine's Home Tour, from last week's Encouraging Hearts and Home Linky Party!!
 Thanks so much!!

And also Thanks to Bev, over at Eclectic Red Barn , for choosing my Post, A Few New Things, as one of her features from last week's Thursday Favorite Things Linky Party!!!
Thanks so much, Bev!!

Please stop by and link up to these wonderful parties!!!

I have always had a fascination with porches.....

I have gotten hooked on the HGTV show "Hometown".....

 They recently aired a show where they looked back on all the beautiful porches that they did called, "Stay awhile, Sit a Spell"

These are 2 of my favorites.....
 HERE is a link to some of their amazing porch transformations!!!

Erin Napier said "Your Best Self for your house is the Porch!!" and "Porches are Magical"...

Porches are magical to me!!

I have no idea why because the house that I grew up in since I was 4 years old, did not have a porch.....
It had a stoop as it was called......

We did have a "Breezeway" between the house and garage that my Dad enclosed and made into what we called the Patio......

I did spent a lot of time out there as a kid.....

But I think it goes back to vacationing yearly as a child in Wildwood, N.J.

When my family first started going to Wildwood when I was 2 years old, we stayed in one of those century old Hotels which had a fantastic wrap around porch!!!
While on vacation, we would spend the evenings sitting on that huge porch in rockers watching the world go by after coming back from walking the Boardwalk....

This is a picture of my parents sitting in those great rockers.....
Even with a cast on, my Dad made sure we went on vacation.....

Sadly, when I was a senior in high school, they tore the Hotel Garfield down as part of the Redevelopment Project.

We then began to stay in a family owned Motel that had balconies!!

My dream house is a Victorian Queen Anne with a wrap around porch like the one pictured below....
Maybe in my next lifetime.....

When we stayed for the weekend at the Frederick Stegmaier Mansion here in Wilkes Barre, celebrating our Anniversary several years ago, I did get to enjoy the beautiful porch of this Victorian mansion on a Sunday morning....
 At least our townhouse has a bit of a Front Porch.......
When we moved in, there was no railing around the porch so we had one installed......

This is my neighbor Lynn's house, which is just like mine but you can see that she does not have a railing.....
I decided that for today I would take you through a year on my Front Porch which I do like to decorate for every Season......

In the late Spring last year, right before Memorial Day, I was finally able to plant my annuals and get the porch set up so we could sit out on it......
Since I had just had my knee replacement surgery, I was not able to get up into the attic to get the majority of the outside Patriotic decorations.........
I was only able to put out some flags that I had stored in the shed in the back yard......
The cushions and the rugs were bought quite a few years ago......
For the past few years, I went with a red, orange and yellow color theme when it came to decor and flowers.....
 Notice the chairs on my porch are quite similar to the chairs on the porch of the Stegmaier mansion!
 Later on in the Season, I finally had the time to make something that I wanted to do for some time......
A lighthouse made from clay pots.......
In mid August, I decided to buy new cushions for the chairs which were on Clearance and I also noticed that the rugs were starting to deteriorate, probably from all the rain that we have had for the last few Summers......
I went with more red in the cushions and the rug.....
I like the pop of color that the red gave to the Front Porch......
 I really liked how the porch looked in late Summer and apparently so did Country Sampler Magazine!!

They featured this picture of my Front Porch......
 On their Pinterest Outdoor Spaces Fan Board!!!!
I was absolutely thrilled!!!

The flowers in the front really took off this past Summer......
 The colors made it easy to transition in Fall.....
So much so that I left them in the pots and urns even after I decorated for Fall and Halloween......
 I brought back the old rugs and cushions for the chairs because they went better with the orange and yellows for the Fall......
 The marigolds hung in there until October......
These are some pictures that I took in the evening of the Fall/Halloween decorations.....
When I finally pulled the marigolds out, I bought a few mums and re-did the urns and pots......
These held up until early November.....

And then I decorated the Front Porch for Christmas......
I do love decorating it for Christmas!!!
 We didn't get much snow this Winter so when we did, I took pictures......
Everything looks so much prettier with snow, especially in the evening!!!!
After Christmas, I changed over the Front Porch to Winter decorations.....
I decorate the outside for Winter because I love to keep the house lit in the Evening during the dark Winter months.....
Probably next week, I will be taking all these decorations down and packing them away down our storage shed.....

And then clean the porch from the Winter and getting it ready to decorate for the Spring and Summer.....

I am looking forward to spending a lot of time, enjoying the porch now that I am retired......

Hopefully, it will not be a hot and humid Summer like the last few have been, forcing me to spend most of it in the house with the air conditioning blaring......

I hope you enjoyed looking back at the last year on our Front Porch......

I like to think that our Front Porch welcomes friends and family to our home....

And gives a bit of a preview of what they can expect to see inside....

 And I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

For February Rudolph Day, I posted over on my Christmas Blog about some ornaments that I bought after Christmas on Clearance and plan to use to decorate trees throughout the year....
 Click HERE if you missed that post......

Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!

If you do not have a blog, PLEASE  give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment.  If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......

I am linking up to these parties:

FRIDAY
Friday Features Linky Party
Friday Favorites
Home Matters Linky Party
Flaunt It Fridays
 Funtastic Friday
Farmhouse Friday

 SATURDAY
Saturday Sparks
Pink Saturday-Anything Goes!!
Best of the Weekend Party

SUNDAY
Snickerdoodle Sunday
Silver Pennies Sunday
Happiness is Homemade Linky Party

 MONDAY 
Inspire Me Monday
Love Your Creativity Link Party
Busy Monday
Ducks in a Row Wonderful Wednesdays Blog Hop
Party in Your PJ's
Waste Not Wednesday

THURSDAY
Vintage Charm
Home and Garden Party Thursday
Share Your Style Thursday Link Up Party
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop 
Grace at Home Party
Encouraging Hearts and Home Party

Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!
Posted by at 13 comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...