DEBBIE-DABBLE BLOG: July 2021

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!!!!!!

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

A Case of the "Might as Well's" in the Front of Our House......

Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

Today, I will be sharing what the Landscape project that we did for our new next door neighbor lead to in the front of our house.....

But first, I want to Thank Amber, over at Follow the Yellow Brick Home, for choosing my post, Lady's Boudoir Powder Room, as one of her features from last week's All About Home Link Party!!!!

Thanks again, Amber!!!

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

And now for a few Personal Notes...

On Sunday, I finally got the Carpe Diem day I wanted......

I did virtually nothing but sit on the front porch, as it was nice with a good breeze and shade in the afternoon, reading another Sue Grafton book............

I actually did not realize the pretty quote on this book mark until I was working on this post!!!

Have no idea where I got it from.....

While I was relaxing on the front porch, Joe was actually working!!!

He was sanding and cleaning up the railing on my neighbor's porch.....

He promised her about 2 months ago that he will eventually paint them.....

He did ours last year and they look so much better with a fresh coat of Gloss Black on them.....

These railings have not been painted in at least 12- 15 years......

Yes, Joe has no issues kneeling and then getting up like I have!!

When we have a few cool days with low humidity and no threat of thunderstorms, he will paint them.....

He should be doing that at the end of this week because our forecast for then is temps. in the 70's with low humidity.....

On Monday, the humidity and temps. went up , so I finally got to take down, clean and pack away all my Patriotic decor in the Living Room......

The Tree was stripped down and is now waiting to be decorated in my late Summer "Under the Sea" theme for the Living Room.....

This area was stripped down and will also be re-decorated.....

Because of the heat and humidity, the storms came back and these pictures are of one coming from over the mountains across the Susquehanna River.....

I love that our townhouse is up high and I get such great views of Sunsets and rain storms.....

And then the rain came......

With some clearing afterward.......

Until another storm came through.....

And then clearing with this Sunset.....

On Tuesday, I sent Joe out to Big Lots to get what I needed to complete a Theme Basket that I am making up as a donation to our Church's Designer Purse Bingo Basket Raffle......

Pre- Pandemic, this was a great Fund Raiser for our Parish, bringing in close to $10,000 from the Bingo and Basket raffle......

Poor Joe had to go to 2 different Big Lots to get everything I wanted for my Party on the Patio Theme Basket......

These are Outdoor Dinnerware from Big Lot's!!

Terra Cotta and Yellow Medallion Melamine......

Sets of 4 Dinner Plates, Dessert Plates and Salad Bowls.....

Clear Hammered set of 4 Tumblers, a Terra Cotta Medallion Serving Tray and a $25 Visa Gift Card......

The matching Clear Hammered Pitcher, a Navy Herringbone Round Tablecloth and a Yellow Medallion Serving Bowl.....

I wanted to get a few pieces in a coordinating color, hence the 2 different patterns of Dinnerware.....

And Joe picked up the Service for 8 and Serving Utensil sets at Ocean State Job Lot......

I wrapped everything up in a Jumbo Gift Bag that I had left over from making other baskets.....

And I placed it inside a Large Square Party Tub with Handles which is perfect for putting Beverages on Ice

I always take a picture of what is inside my Theme Baskets and print up exactly what the items are because it is so hard to see everything when a Basket is made up.....

Sorry for the glare off the plastic sheet that I placed the print out in......

Joe took it up to the Church Office after I got it all ready.....

There is over 20 Theme Baskets valued at $100 or over made up from donations from parishioners and businesses and baskets made up by individuals such as myself......

When I used to run our Church's Craft Fairs, I started having the Theme Basket Raffle.......

I made up a letter to present to businesses asking for donations of items or monetary gifts in the form of certificates or gift cards and promised them 3 different ways in which I would advertise their business if they donated.......

One way was the name of their business printed on the gift basket their items went into,.....

The second way was in a Thank You Letter in our Church Bulletin...

And the third way was that I made up a huge sign listing all the Businesses that donated and it was displayed by the basket raffle tables....

The letter was signed by our priest and printed up on the church's stationary with their tax ID number....

Joe would canvas area businesses, presenting the letter....

We were able to make up anywhere from 20 - 25 baskets valued at over $200 a piece for the raffle....

We would make thousand's of Dollars on the raffle alone....

Up to $4000!!

I made up most of the baskets myself so I am a pro at making up theme baskets...

Plus we have donated one yearly when we had our church Festival and the Harvest Tea....

I guess I have made up well over a hundred baskets by now......

I am passing on going to the Bingo as CoVid cases are doubling by the day here and I do not want to be sitting inside with over 200 people for 4 hours.....

Joe used to buy me purses at the Casino, using his comp points and I have over 25 purses, some designer, already.....

At this stage of Life, I truly do not need anymore...

We also made a donation to our Church's No Festival Fund since this is the second year due to the Pandemic that we are not holding our 3 Day Summer Festival....

Wise choice with the uptick in Co Vid Cases....

And my MIL's Leaf for the Tree of Life in our Church finally came in so he was able to instruct the maintenance guy where to put it, which will be next to the 2 Leaves that we bought for my parent's when they passed away.....

Those on the Tree of Life are remembered and prayed for at every single Mass in our church.....

When Joe went to Ocean State Job Lot, something caught his eye and after he ran it over with me, he went back and bought this!!!!!

A Mystery Craft Box over over 100 pieces for $40 and in return, you receive a $40 Crazy Deal Gift Card!!!!!

Yep, you are reading that right......essentially this box is FREE!!!!!

Ocean State Job Lot has Crazy Deals like this all the time and I have a stash of gift cards from there......

Joe used a regular Gift Card to buy this box for $40 and got a $40 Crazy Deal Gift Card back.....

There was quite a haul inside of it!!!!

Some things I will use and others, I am going to put aside to use in making up a Kid's Craft Theme Basket to donate to our church for our Fall Craft Fair when they have another Basket Raffle......

Can't beat FREE!!!!!!

We do really love Ocean State Job Lot!!!!!

Okay, so we took on the job of Landscaping my neighbors yard which was an overgrown disaster from the previous neighbors who let everything fall into a terrible state of neglect....

BEFORE

AFTER.....

Click HERE if you missed this post.....

And we also did the flower bed under the Living Room window for her......

BEFORE

AFTER

And that finished the whole project......

At least in regards to her yard.....

Click HERE if you missed that post.....

That was when the "Might as Well's set in.....

Seeing how nice it was to finally see her front porch from our parking lot , made me look at our yard.....

So I thought we "Might as Well" give our yard a good trimming and sprucing up too!!!!

So we cut down and trimmed 3 azaleas which were planted about 30 years ago and were so large that they were blocking the view of our house from the road and parking lot.....

Joe also trimmed the rhododendron which was also getting a bit too big......

I then removed all my garden art from the top flower bed of our slope, raked up all the mulch to freshen it up, weeded and then rearranged how I displayed my garden art in that flower bed......

The azalea on the left side of my chippy Angel was cut way back.....

My Dad always said to cut it back and it will encourage new growth......

I guess we will see.....

You can see that there are no leaves inside of it.....

I moved the mini flags that I had displayed in our flower bed under our Living Room window over to this flower bed so they could be seen from our road and parking lot now that the shrubs were cut down......

We also cut back this azalea......

Looking up at the front flower bed from the steps by my other next door neighbor's......

We took the park bench out and positioned it on bricks so it would no longer sink down into the mulch because of all the rain we get.....

Now why I did not think of that a lot sooner than now is beyond me!!!!

I have been saying that I can think clearer now that I am not working!!!!

And we were able to position the lamp post better, attaching it to the bench with zip ties......

The Bird's Nests on the bench were taken out of my neighbor's shrubs in her flower bed.....

I also moved the shepherd's hook that hold my hanging bird baths a bit further back on each side of the bench......

I moved this concrete girl that belonged to my neighbor Elly over closer to the bench.....

Moved the other mini flag over here.....

And placed the deer closer to my neighbor's yard because her grandson, who will be living here with his mother, loves these deer and pets them!!!

He is 3 years old.....

Looking down the flower bed at my neighbor's yard....

Yes, I put one of my mini flags in her yard and she loved it....

The Might as Well's" continued when I looked at the front Porch.......

I decided to move around the wall decor on the porch.....

Since we will be getting nice new neighbors next door, I moved my welcome sign over to the area between both our front doors......

At least now I know that it won't be ripped off and destroyed by the crazy person that used to live there....

Now I have all the things with black and white checks together......

I then rearranged the things hanging above the sitting area......

I think they look more"balanced out"

I am happy with this arrangement......

Next up was deciding what to do with my faux mailbox that I had in the front flower bed but now looked out of place after everything was cut back.......

It was Joe that came up with a great idea!!!!

Lo and Behold!!!!

See the mail box hanging on the side railing?????

The plant stand that I had it glued to was rusted out and falling apart.....

So we removed it.....

I bought the mail box at an Estate Sale of a Florist who used it at Wedding Receptions to put the cards for the Bride and Groom in.....

He had screwed an inverted plastic pot to the bottom as a base for the mail box.....

Joe removed that.....

Joe thought of the railing brackets I had that you use to place a flower box on........

You can see that last year I used it for that purpose.....

The mail box fit perfectly on the brackets.....

I think I am going to use it to store some garden gloves and tools in it for use in the front yard.....

I like how it looks on the other side of the porch.....

And I can simply take it off the railing and use it elsewhere for different Holidays if I choose....

Great thinking, Joe!!!

You might have noticed that my marigolds are no where near the size of the ones from previous years....

That is because I realized that Joe bought miniature or dwarf marigolds this Season......

I threw some seeds in these pots that I took from last years plants so we will see what happens.....

The "Might as Well's" continued....

I had every notion of sitting on the Front Porch and reading on Saturday but as I attempted to, I kept looking at the flower bed under our Living Room window.....

Realizing that it was a bit overgrown......

And the only area in front that we did not spruce up after completing my neighbor's landscape project!!!!

So I figured that I "Might as Well" work on this flower bed too!!

I trimmed the shrubs which were getting quite bushy from all the rain that we have been having here.....

Since I moved the mini flags that were here to the front flower bed, I had a bit more room, visually......

I moved everything out of the flower bed.....

I stuck this black fencing piece that I had used as a divider between mine and my neighbor's yard against the house in the middle of the bed to add a little interest behind the bird bath hanging on a shepherd's hook....

I raked up all the mulch, freshening it up, moved the pots of impatiens over more to the sides and added the stakes holding pots of Hens and Chicks, that were once on each side of my park bench in the front flower bed, to the edges of the flower bed....

I did not want to pull out the fencing around the border to remove the Hosta which I want to divide and place in the back of the bed.....

The Coleus that I planted in the long flower boxes are doing great.....

I love the colors......

Until they are killed off by Frost, I think they will look great in the Fall.....

When taking these pictures, I captured a visitor......

One of our resident chipmunks.....

When I did finish this flower bed, I actually was able to sit and read 2 chapters of my book!!

Now everything in the front of our townhouse got a bit of a make over too!!!!

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

This is how it all looks from down in our parking lot......

You can now see the front yard and porch better.......

And you can now see our house as you are walking up the steps as we can also see who is walking up the steps.....

I think we are done now with all the "Might as Well" projects in the front of our house for this year......

We have been asked by 2 neighbors if we would be interested in doing their slopes to which we declined....

Doing this one was back breaking enough.....

However, the neighbor who I had the issue with him feeding the squirrels who were destroying my back yard by digging in all my pots to bury them in.....

Was one who asked us about his slope..

But as a gesture that all is forgiven, I agreed to help him trim some of the plants at the top of his slope in the flower bed and to help putting a fresh layer of mulch down....

His is the property on the other side of our steps so I guess he too got a case of the "Might as Well's" seeing what we did to our neighbor's yard.....

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

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, 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......