One Thing Lead to a Huge Project, Part 2

Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

 Today, I will be sharing Part 2 of how this one picture lead to a huge project.......

But first just a few Personal Notes....

May is still a fickle month here in NEPA and even though my Dad always used to say not to plant vegetables and annuals until after Mother's Day, I have learned over the years to wait even longer......

Like closer to Memorial Day because of the threat of Frost.....

And I am very grateful I did not succumb to the desire to buy my annuals for all my pots....

It was 28 degrees here on Saturday morning!!!

And we even had a bit of snow on the cars....

But at my niece Renae's house up "the mountain" as we say....

They had a little bit more.......

 Yep!

On May 9th!!!

I love this picture as Renae took off their pool cover last week!!

These are the steps off their back door.....

Crazy, huh???

I hope that the ice and sub freezing temps. did not kill the buds on my lilac Tree in our back yard.....

 Or the phlox on the slope in front of our townhouse.....

 There was a wicked wind too so it was perfect for a nice pot of Beef Stew!!!

If you would like the recipe for my Beef Stew, click HERE.......

Joe even decided to make some of his infamous Whimpies......

Click HERE for the recipe for what is more commonly known as Sloppy Joe's.....

I will have Take Home containers for our son Jim and daughter-in-law Danielle ready for today and will also be delivering some to our niece Renae and or great nieces......

Speaking of today...

Happy Mother's Day!!!

We will be ordering pizza and chicken tenders from Wegman's and eating at home with our family like we always do!

I would not be caught dead eating out in a restaurant on Mother's Day even before this health care crisis!!

Too crowded

Too many crying and unruly children

Too many loud conversations going on around you that you can not hear yourself think......

I have always preferred a nice quiet and private celebration in my own home so nothing has changed for me as far as any Holidays are concerned during this time.....

Except that since I am retired, I do not have to worry about working on Mother's Day which seemed to usually fall on my weekend to work which meant not only working Saturday night but also Sunday night which used to give me only about 4 hours during the day that I was awake to "celebrate" the day!!

It was exhausting....

Have I said how thrilled I am to be RETIRED??????

I do want to give a few Shout Outs to some Mother's who I think deserve to be recognized.....

 To our Niece, Renae, who we are so proud of and so BLESSED to have in our lives....

Her daughter Cortney says it best as she responded to this question in her interview as one of the Scholastic Scholars of 2020 chosen by the Citizen's Voice newspaper...."Q. Who do you most admire and why?

A. I admire my mom the most. In August of last year my dad passed away and left my mom widowed. The strength that she has possessed in the past nine months has truly amazed me. She continues to work and support my family all while keeping herself composed from the grief. She truly is an amazing woman and as I continue to grow up, I hope to become more like her."

Love you, Renae!! Happy Mother's Day!!!

To our Niece, Lisa, who lost her only son, Craig, 5 years ago...

Love you and Bless you! Happy Mother's Day even though it is bitter sweet....

I am sharing again a Blog Post about my Dear Neighbor Elly, who I believe positively influenced my life more than any other woman in my life did....

 Happy Mother's Day in Heaven , my dear friend and mentor!!

She was the COOLEST Senior Citizen I knew...

Driving her little red Sports Car, in leather pants and boots with that ever present cigarette dangling out of her mouth!!!

 "Friends are the family we choose for ourselves!"

Click HERE to read the post that I wrote about Elly.....

I have spoken often here on my Blog, in the 10 years that I have been blogging, about the tumultuous relationship  that I had with my Mother.....

There were many times when we did not speak to each other even when I was still living at home....

Not everyone has that "perfect relationship with their Mother nor is she their "Best Friend"..

She may be that to one child but not to another child....

Fellow Blogger, Diana over at Nana Takes a Break, wrote a post last year on Mother's Day which really resonated with me......

This is what she wrote......

Mother's Day

Some of us have been blessed with wonderful Mothers.

Some of us have Mothers that were not quite so admirable.

Some of us have Mothers that praised us and adored us,

Some of us have Mothers that never said a kind word.

Some of us have Mothers that loved us unconditionally.

Some of us have Mothers that loved us only

if we met all her expectations,

and even that was not enough.

Some of us have Mothers that smiled readily.

Some of us have Mothers that never found much to smile about.

Some of us have Mothers that~

whatever we did~ it is more than they hoped for.

Some of us have Mothers that

no matter WHAT we did-it was never 

"quite right".

Some of us have Mothers that had a charmed childhood.

Some of us have Mothers that were raised in pain & shame.

Some of us have Mothers that

 need us & want us in their lives.

Some of us have Mothers that are needy

 and we seldom see them.

Some of us have Mothers that complete our lives.

Some of us have Mothers that

leave us aching, wanting and empty.

Some of us have Mothers that stand

on this side of the Great Beyond.

Some of us have Mothers that have passed

 over this earthly barrier.

Some of us will emulate our Mothers.

Some of us will vow to never be

anything like our Mothers.

Some of us are happy and fulfilled,

no matter what kind of Mother we had.

Some of us will never be happy

even if we were nurtured by an amazing Mother.

Today I am blessed to be a Mother.

My daughters are blessed to be Mothers, too.

Today I vow that I will be

the best mother (and grandmother) I can be.

Today I vow that I will love

as deeply as I can those that share my life.

Today I know that I am blessed indeed~

Today I hope that you find blessings

in your own life-

and love your Mother

even if it is just because she gave you life.

~Happy Mother's Day from Me to You~

©Nana Diana

 Click HERE to read Diana's post that she reposted this year....

The one thing that my Mother always impressed upon me was to "NEVER BE DEPENDENT ON A MAN FOR ANYTHING"

When my Dad suffered a work related accident and was never able to return to work in construction again, my Mother, who had already been working full time in a dress factory, became the Major Bread Winner.....

In that respect, we were alike as she worked full time from the age of 16 -67 years old.....

I too was the Major Bread winner and worked for 41 years before retiring.....

Click HERE to read a post I wrote 6 years ago about my Mother......

In the end, before she passed away, we made our peace with each other and I have no regrets.....

Happy Mother's Day in Heaven, Mom........

And now to what caused a huge project for me......

Joe used a Gift Card that our son, Joey, gave him for Christmas and bought this picture.....

In the picture, are jerseys from Joe's favorite Pittsburgh Pens players and of course, one for him!!!!

# 1 Draft Pick.....Barna!!!

Yeah, right!!!

In Part 1, I shared this part of what I call his Pittsburgh corner......

And how I pretty much had to rearrange this whole corner because of that one new picture!!!!

Click HERE if you missed it.....

Today, I will be sharing the rest of Joe's Pittsburgh corner and how it has now jumped over to yet another wall in my very Victorian styled Master Bedroom!!!!

These are 2 shelves that I bought at a church flea market and spray painted black.....

I had to rearrange the bobble heads and hockey pucks after first cleaning them.....

A collection of the Wilkes Barre Scranton Penguin's, which we have Season tickets for their games, mascot, Tux!!!

I decoupaged pictures taken from calendars and magazines to the top part of the shelf...

The bottom shelf......

More memorabilia.....

The Pittsburgh Steeler's Terrible Towel, a Steeler's tissue box cover bought at a Craft Fair and a Penguins door mat given out to Season Ticket holders....

Over in the corner by one of the closets in the bedroom.....

I moved the Pittsburgh Penguins license plates that were hung here over to the wall above the desk and switched this picture and 2 plaques over here......

The closet door......

Joe has a bunch of things hanging on this door......

On the side of the door.......

More plaques......

Hockey sticks.......

And now we go over to the other wall.......

You can see that Joe's collection has found it's way over to this wall.......

It all started when he realized a dream of his last year......

Sidney Crosby is the team captain of the Pittsburgh Penguins and one of the best hockey players to come along in recent years.....

He actually played his very first 2 hockey games in the NHL here in Wilkes Barre as exhibition games....

Joe and I went to those games and Joe had the wherewithall to buy several Line Up cards from those games.....

For many years, he was on a quest to obtain Sidney Crosby's autograph on those Line Up cards.....

I am not at liberty to explain how he was able to realize this dream of his but not only does he have Sidney Crosby's autograph but he was also able to obtain Pittsburgh Pens coach Mike Sullivan's autograph on one of the cards because he was the coach for the opposing team of one of those games!!!!

We had these line up cards framed professionally at Michael's and also had them do the engraved plates for them.....

 This was the first game played by Sidney Crosby in the NHL with his signature above and Mike Sullivan's below....

 And just Sidney Crosby's signature on this card.....

I am not at liberty to say how but because of Joe, Sidney Crosby now also has these 2 Line Up cards in his collection,which he did not have before....

So of course, I had to hang a picture of Sidney Crosby below them......

Since there were already some of Joe's Pittsburgh Collection on this wall......

 It only seemed fitting to add more......

 I cleaned off what I had on this shelf and moved the larger bobble heads over here.....

 Hanging below the shelf is something that we bought a long time ago......

A plaque with the meaning of our last name......

I wanted to hang up some of Joe's hats and I thought about these vintage curtain tie back hooks that I got from my neighbor Elly's house when cleaning it out for her sons...........

I knew I would find a use for them.......

The hats fit perfect on them!!

I reframed these pictures.....

 

I took down a berry vine that I had draped around the top of the mirror on Joe's dresser and replaced it with a silk scarf that Joe had bought for me last year on his annual trip to Pittsburgh for a Pittsburgh Penguins game with our son, Joey!!

In a future post, I will be sharing how I decorated Joe's dresser in a Victorian Gentleman's fashion.....

And I also will be sharing that because of these changes, I also had to rearrange the other walls in our bedroom!!!

As I said in Part 1 of  One Thing Led to a Huge Project, it became what I like to call a Snow Ball Project......

You know what I mean, don't you???

One of those projects that is like a snow ball rolling down a hill, getting bigger and bigger.....

So even though Joe does not have his Man Cave in our house which is actually my She Shed, He does have his own little space!!

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

Stay Safe, Health and Happy!!

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......

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