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!!!!!!

Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Summer Patriotic Tree, 2020

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

Can you believe this weekend is Memorial Day weekend????

Where did the time go????

At least for me, it went by very fast but I am always busy so that really makes time fly....

I mainly just decorate our Living Room for the Patriotic Summer Holidays....

In my last post, I shared how I decorated the top of our TV Entertainment Center for the Summer Patriotic Holidays.....
 Click HERE if you missed that post.....

Today, I will be sharing my Patriotic Tree in the Living Room.....

 But first, I want to Thank Charlene over at A Pinch of Joy, for featuring my post, Word for the Month of May, Change, from last week's Busy Monday Link Party!!
 Thanks so much, Charlene!!

Please stop by and link up to this great party!!

And now, my Personal Notes......

 We do not have central air conditioning in our townhouse.....

I wanted to devise a way to still keep up the peach lace curtains with my new aqua drapes and still have an air conditioner in the window.....
So on Friday, I cleaned the windows and simply pulled back the peach lace curtains.......

Also on Friday, our son, Joey treated us to Take Out dinner at one of our favorite places, Serpico's Pizza.....

They have a truly amazing cheese steak pizza......
Joe and Joey both got a meatball hoagie.....
 And I got a mushroom cheese steak hoagie which I only ate half of and saved the other half for Saturday.......
 It is a local business that has been around for over 20 years and with Take Out, they are doing fairly well.....

We were supposed to buy all new air conditioners when we had new windows installed which was originally planned for last May but when I had to schedule my Knee Replacement Surgery sooner than planned, the new windows were put on hold until this year.....

Now with all of this going on in the World, we decided to put having new windows installed in the house on hold again.....

Joe did not like the almost 20 year old low profile air conditioner that we were using in the Living Room window and he was questioning last year if it was even working properly so we decided to just buy a new one.....
Remember Joe bought a $100 gift card at Ocean State Job Lot for Mother's Day and got a free additional $30 gift card with it????

They had an air conditioner that would actually fit our wider than normal window so I told him to use the 2 gift cards which took a $220 air conditioner now down below $200 with the free $30 gift card.....
And I think it fits nicely and is not as obtrusive as the other one was, nor is it as heavy.......

With our Summers being hotter and hotter each year, the extra cooling will be much needed.....

Our son, Joey, is thinking of moving back home next weekend as restrictions are starting to ease a bit here in Pa.

He surprised me with a brand new wireless keyboard and mouse to go with my new monitor and tower that he replaced for me when my hard drive was fried because of a power surge during a storm......
He appreciated being able to stay here and all the home cooking that I have been doing!!

So much so that he will still be coming for dinner here daily until all of this is over....

 I have thoroughly enjoyed having him here ......

I thought the snow and ice from last weekend might have killed my flowers on my lilac tree in the back yard but it didn't......
I love this tree as it has the deep purple flowers instead of the light purple ones which are more prevalent in this area.......

Last year, I had Joe cut back this shrub that I actually grew into a tree because I thought the Gypsy Moth Infestation from the last few years had killed it off......
But it seems to be making a come back so we will see how it does this Season......
It is a purple leaf sand cherry shrub......

I had to look that up because someone asked me what it was on a FB post.....

On Sunday, I got a lot of things done...

I decorated the front porch and yard for Memorial Day weekend.......
Once I get my annuals this week and plant my pots, I will do a post on the front porch and yard...........
But I will give you some sneak peeks......
I was not able to decorate the porch last year for the Patriotic Summer Holidays because of my surgery so I was thrilled to be able to do so this year......
Especially since I bought the red carpet and new red cushions and pillows in August last year.....

I also added a bit more Patriotic decorations to the china cupboard in the Den ......
 And the area around it......
While out in the Den, I also decorated Nelson Crest, my Victorian doll house..
I also cleaned up the Kitchen and finished decorating it for the early Summer months.....
I will be sharing all of these in more detail in future posts......
 
So needless to say, it was a very fruitful weekend!!


Our Great Niece, Cortney, is truly amazing when it comes to woodworking.....

She has done it again with building this raised bed garden area!!!!
It will keep out critters and had a door and walkway to make it easy to harvest the veggies planted inside of it!!!
Our niece Renae and the girls worked hard planting this weekend.....

This is just one little area that they planted with vegetables in their large yard.....

I was also able to finish decorating my Living Room Tree since we now had the new air conditioner in the window and I could decorate underneath the Tree on the platform.....

In past years, I decorated a 6 foot white Tree in the Summer......
This is how this corner looked 2 years ago......
After several years, this white Tree turned yellow and was starting to look dingy.....
So I got rid of this Tree.........
I decided to just keep the 7 foot slim Tree and the platform that it sits on in the Living Room permanently and decorate it year round.....


Even though it has a totally different look, I do like this Tree decorated for the Patriotic Summer Holidays....
I wasn't sure how it would look with the new aqua drapes......
But I am liking it!!!
I stripped the Tree down to the lights after Easter......
 
I liked the way the pink/purple lights looked on this Tree for Easter.....
 And when decorated.......
I checked my stash and found that I had a set of LED blue lights, only one set......

So I thought why not.....
Next Christmas, I will look to buy 2 sets of red and another set of blue.....

I like the blue lights on the Tree....

Over the years, I both made and bought Patriotic ornaments......

These are some I made or embellished......
 And I recently embellished these card board coasters that Joe gets for free because I think he donates to each and every Veteran's group!!!
I bought these several years ago at J.C. Penney's....
I used everything to decorate this Tree that I used on the white Tree.....
Including a tinsel garland in blue, red and silver that I bought years ago in Dollar Tree wrapped around the Tree.......
Let's take a closer look......
I used a party favor for the topper on the Tree that some how reminds me of fire works.......
I tucked flags and star picks into the top of the Tree......
The bow is made from 3 different Patriotic ribbons.....
And there are also streamers of ribbon running down the Tree.......
A lot of the ornaments were bought after Christmas on Clearance......
Red.....
Blue...
And silver ball ornaments......
 I bought these honoring our Armed Forces at a flea market....
Silver stars....
Red and blue stars......
These cute bears were bought in Michael's a few years back....
I wrapped the Tree in a wired red, blue and silver star wired garland....
I have a few ideas for some other ornaments.....
So I just may be making more ornaments to add to this Tree......
I also decorated the platform underneath the Tree.......
I covered it with a vinyl Patriotic tablecloth that I already had......
It fit almost perfectly.....
Over on the left side.....
I tucked a few red, white and blue flowers into a faux boxwood ball inside of this urn......
And wrapped a set of lights around it.....
Last year on Clearance after July 4th, I bought several Patriotic signs for $1.00 each in Gabes......

This was one of them......
Another one of those signs......
I bought this soldier at a Flea Market......
I also bought 2 of these birdhouses at Gabes for $2.00 each....
I bought this plate at Salvation Army for 99 cents....
On the back of the plate....
  The hats were bought at Dollar Tree.....
 I moved my red truck from the Den here to sit these bears inside of.....
These cute bears in Patriotic sweaters were my neighbor Elly's.....
 A wood plaque that I made using a greeting card was placed in front of the truck......
Over on the right side.....
I bought Uncle Sam at a Flea Market.....
This bottle was my neighbor Elly's.....

Sorry for the poor picture but George Washington is on this side....
And an eagle is on the back......
Elly had marked what type of bottle it was on the bottom.....
A 1950's Collectible Lestoil bottle.....
A floral arrangement in a milk glass vase......
Another sign that I bought for $1.00.....
And this map sign of the United States was also only $1.00......
 " Land that I Love"
 I strung a set of battery operated lights through out the display on the platform.........
This tree will stay decorated like this until the week after July 4th when I will decorate the Living Room in my "Under the Sea" theme for the remainder of the Summer.....
I hope you enjoyed seeing my Patriotic Tree and how I decorated under neath it for the Patriotic Holidays of the Summer......

I really enjoyed decorating for the Summer patriotic Holidays as I was not able to do so last year because of my Knee Replacement Surgery.....

In my next post, I will be sharing the rest of the Patriotic decorations in the Living Room.....
 So I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

Stay safe, healthy 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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8 comments:

  1. What fun decorations. Glad you were able to replace the air conditioner. We ended up adding one last year and it was worth it. The old ones only have so much life.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh, Debbie! How festive! It looks just like Christmas!

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  3. Reminds me of right after 911. Driving around there were so many patriotic displays. - Margy

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  4. That raised garden bed is the bomb! So cool! It will be nice to have your son return for meals. This mess has certainly brought families together even more.

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  5. How nice to have your son calling in so regularly and enjoying meals together, so good. It was a joy to see your tree with all its decor, you have some beautiful decorations. So many caught my eye but the truck with the bears was a particular favourite.

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  6. I love everything dear Debbie ! The patriotic tree is gorgeous and your transferware blue and red is a wonderful collection.
    You have a sweet son my friend. You are blessed !
    Your front yard is looking so great.
    Keep safe and happy.
    Fabby

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  7. You decorated the tree so pretty and patriotic. I love the way it looks and congrats on a new ac which we need during the summer months. Enjoy the weekend and have a Happy Memorial Day.

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  8. Debbie, your patriotic decor is so festive and your lilacs are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!

    ReplyDelete

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