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, August 25, 2021

A Garden Update and Late Summer and Fall/Halloween Crafting !!!!!

 

 


 



 


  Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

 
I am so happy you decided to stop by!!
 
Just a reminder, I will be posting on Wednesdays and Sundays every week so be sure to check back on those days to see a new post...... 
 
 Today I will be sharing some Crafts that I have been making!!!!
 
But first, a few Personal Notes...
 
 
Pizza is a BIG thing in this area as there is a large population of people from Italian descent residing here.....
 
Joey treated us last Friday with pizza from a local institution, Dino's in the Wyoming Valley Mall right by us....

 
This one was topped with bacon which was so good!!

 
 People in this area ( Wyoming Valley) often say that there is a Pizza Place, A Bar and a Church on every corner in every town!!!


So true but we do enjoy all types of local pizza places along with the national chains.....

I always get comments on the Sunsets that I share from my front porch so here is another one......

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
On Sunday, my neighbor Ed, whose yard we landscaped, walked down in pouring rain to deliver this small token of appreciation to me!! 
 
 
 
Joe answered the door and Ed said "This is for your wife"!! LOL!!
 
 
 
 It is pretty good and I am picky when it comes to nut roll...I will have to ask him where he bought it as Joe did not think to ask!!!!
 
Also on Sunday, I made a Vat of Lazy Lasagna  or Baked Ziti!!
 
 4 cheeses....Ricotta, American, Parmesan and Mozzarella......
 
 
 
Ready to go in the oven.....

 
All done!!

 
 Since I made so much, I gave some to both my neighbor's Tom ( yes, the one who was feeding the squirrels) and Ed!!!
 
  
 
Joey ate 2 bowls and he went home with a Take Home container.....
 
Picky Joe does not care for this so he made himself a pizza......
 

 Both Ed and Tom loved it and were shocked that Joe does not care for it but Joe was quit to point out that he does like Baked Ziti from several local restaurants and that he just does not like mine!!!

To each their own and he knows where Burger King is if he does not like anything I cook!!!


 
Speaking of Joe, I was taking these pictures because I was going to say this is a dangerous sight...
 
 
 
 Little did I know that he once AGAIN screwed up my Printer!!!! 
 
This is his face after I got done yelling at him!!!
 

 
 I need to put a lock with a key on my things here in this corner!!!!! 
 
Joey is going to kill him.....again!!!
 

I want to THANK my FB friend, Debbie, for gifting me these lovely vintage stamps!!!
 

 
  I LOVE them!! 
 
She thought I could use them for Christmas crafting and she already has my mind thinking about all kinds of things like some thing with vintage Christmas cards, etc!!!!
 

Thanks so much for your kindness and generosity, Debbie!!!!! 
 
 
 
 Since it is either raining or unGodly Hot and Humid here, I have been stuck in the house with the air conditioning and the fans blaring!!!

And yet they are calling for more near 90 degree temps. this week....

When will this Summer ever end!!!!

We had a Priest who was Pastor at our church a few years back that had a dry sense of humor...
 
One time, after a particularly Hot stretch of weather like we have had this Summer, Joe and I were up at the church office doing something with a Fund Raiser that I was in charge of and when talking about how hot it had been , the Priest said ...

"I thought we all died and went to Hell"!!!!!


What made it even more hysterical to me was that he didn't even crack a smile, just a sheepish grin!!!!

LOL!

This summer has been the same.....

The remnants of Hurricane Henri dumped almost 2.5 inches of rain on us in just a few hours this past weekend.....


 Some parts in out area got over 4-5 inches of rain which caused a lot of flash flooding......
 
And this was all in addition to the 1 1/4 inches we got from the remnants of Hurricane Fred last week!!

With all that rain and humidity, that is considered "Tropical", my back yard Cottage Garden looks like a Jungle!!!!!!


There is a pot of petunias that is setting on top of a pedestal somewhere amongst these Asters that are the largest I have ever seen them!!!!!!

In the Fall, they will bloom with a deep purple daisy like flower..... 
 
 
 
 
The impatiens in my bags are waterlogged, I think!! 



 Next year, I am going to go with begonias in this coal bucket.....
 
 
 
 The impateins in the watering cans are doing okay!!



 Some of my annuals now look like shrubs.......


Like this begonia.....
 
 
 And this coleus.....
 
 

 Another begonia.....
 

Begonias in this pot in my chair planter.....
 
 
 
 
 
 The sedum in front of the chair......
 
 

 Now will you look at this coleus!!!!!
 
 
 
 I think it has doubled in size since Joe bought it!!!!
 

These impatiens are growing good in this birdcage.....
 
 
 
 And these impatiens have just exploded in this fountain, turned bird bath, turned planter!!!!!
 

 
 You can barely see the marigolds in the pot in the center!!!


You may remember these 4 coleus plants that I panted in each flower box on the wall between my house and my neighbor's......
 
 


 They grew so much that my solar lights got lost!!!

 
I took the solar lights out as they were not getting any sunlight and put them elsewhere.....




My Dad always said that if you cut down shrubs and trees, they will grow back nicer......

These are the azaleas that we cut the bejesus out of a few weeks ago......

My Dad knew what he was talking about because there is new growth on all 3 of them......

This is the pink colored one at the left end of the front flower bed that runs along the sidewalk in front of row of townhouses......


See the new growth in the center......


This is the fluffy white one......


A lot of new grow on the larger branches......


And the red one on the far right of our flower bed.....


This one looked the worse but is also showing a lot of new growth!!!


 
 
Joe was still stalking the Dollar Tree stores in our area when he found these things.....


This bag is actually from Big Lot's.......


I am thinking of maybe decoupaging it onto a piece of wood to make a sign.....

Sunflowers......


I guess he thought I would like to paint these....


I will give it a try but my hands are not steady.....

And I think I will give these rocks to our little neighbor Maria who is 6 years old.....


I actually went out again but I am now done with Dollar Tree for Fall.....

I left the house 3 times in one week!!!!!

I have not done that in 2 years!!!!!
 
I ended up buying these.....


I will probably add them to wreaths I already have......



And these.....


The branches I plan on using on top of my Autumn Tree in \the Living Room.....
I
And I just love these stickers......


I used them other years to make ornaments for my Fall/Halloween Kitchen Tree......



And that is exactly what I did with them again!!!!

I checked my stash and found paper mache ornaments and wood circles .....

I painted them black using a can of black chalkboard paint that I also had in my stash.....

And this is what I came up with!!!!!


 
I will be using the majority of these on my Dining Room tree as I wanted to add more orange to it this year.....




Several years ago, I bought some of these wire wreaths at Dollar Tree.....

Well, I finally decided to use them......

I never used them to make a deco mesh wreath but I decided that I was going to use this organza mesh that I bought a few years back after Christmas on Clearance instead......

I watched a few tutorials and this is how it came out!!!!

I made 18 bundles of 3 different Fall ribbons cut in 10 inches strips and used the 18 pipe cleaners, that hold the mesh onto the wreath, to hold the bundles of ribbon on.......

I fluffed out the ribbons in each bundle once tied on....


It is a great way to use up ribbon.......


I had a large amount of Fall ribbon and I was able to get rid of 5 rolls of it.....


There are no flowers at all on this wreath.....



Even though I already shared this in another post, I added more leaves and some sunflowers to my Pringle Can Pumpkin!!!!



Several years ago, I saw this idea on Pinterest......


Not long afterward, I bought a bag of thread spools at a church flea market.....

I finally got around to making my thread spool pumpkins!!!!


I used rolls from ribbon covered with burlap and a cinnamon stick for the stem.....


The leaves and the sunflowers are from Dollar Tree.....


And I used Scrabble tiles to spell out Fall on the larger one......


I also found these cornucopia like ornaments that I bought at Dollar Tree many years ago in my stash......


I filled them with wired flowers that I used to use on my Victorian crafts and a few leaves glued to the side.....


I will be hanging these on my Living Room Autumn Tree......
 
I recently bought this mason jar plaque at Dollar Tree.....


2 years ago, I had bought similar mason jar plaques and embellished them.......



I liked the brighter colors of the older ones in comparison to the muted colors of the new one so I simply used a few permanent makers and darkened it.....


I then used the same deco mesh piping around the border.....

 
And glued on some leaves and some of those wired flowers......




Of course, I will be using this somewhere in the Kitchen along with the older ones!!!



Usually I change things around a bit in the Kitchen after July 4th but I was so busy with the neighbor's landscape projects and other things that I just now got to do so......

Last year, I had the idea of using Apples in the Kitchen for Late Summer and early Falll.....

Everyone thinks of pumpkins for Fall but not Apples......

The house my Dad built when I was 4 years old was in a brand new development of houses which was an Apple Orchard prior to the construction of new homes.....

My Dad saved one of the apple trees in our back yard and both my Mother and later, after his construction accident that rendered him disabled, my Dad used those apples to make the BEST apple pies!!!

They were yellowish and my Dad always called them banana apples and there is actually such a thing!!!

Winter Banana Apples prevalent in New England!!!


These are exactly what the apples from our apple tree in our back yard looked like!!!!!

I will be sharing the Kitchen decorated for Late Summer in my next post but I will share some apple crafting I did.....

The first thing I made was a new wreath for the cabinet door.....


This is all from things I already had in my stash!!!

I started with a small thin grapevine wreath that I bought at Dollar Tree years ago.....

I wired on a red berry garland that I also had......

And then added 2 large apple picks.....

Next I wired on a left over piece of apple garland from another project that I will be showing you next....

I found this sweet green and white gingham checked ribbon in my ribbon tub so I made a bow and a ribbon hanger for the wreath and hung 2 wooden apples in the center......


Simple and the perfect size for the kitchen cabinet door......



Next up, I had 2 vintage looking apple cloth napkins......

So I decided to use them with two 12 inch embroidery hoops that I had.....

This is the first one I made using the apple garland that I had.....


I glued red and green gimp trim around the hoop.....

 
And then glued on the apple garland.....

 
I had just enough of the cute green and white gingham checked ribbon left to make a small bow for this one.....

 
I also added a bow made from red satin ribbon....


I wanted to make one more using the second napkin that I had.........

 
Just gimp, one apple at the top and a red satin ribbon bow......


While purusing Pinterest looking for Apple Craft Ideas, I found this!!!!!!



Now I have been making toilet paper pumpkins for years!!!!

These were the first ones I made about 8 years ago.......


And these I made a few years later as favors when I was a Hostess for our church's Harvest Tea......


I never thought of making apples though!!!!

I loved that they showed yellow, green and red apples......


Now I did not have a solid red fabric but I did have red and white checked fabric left over from when I made the valances and curtain for the Kitchen out of a tablecloth!!!!!

I amazingly had green and yellow fabric too!!!!

 
 Actually, I only had narrow strips of the yellow so I sewed two together to get the right dimensions needed .......

I added red satin ribbon bows to the tops of my apples.....

I specifically wanted to make the yellow and green ones for this reason......

See how good they look with the stained glass lamp????

I will be sharing more pictures of where I put all my apple crafts in the Kitchen in my next post......

So 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......


I am linking up to these parties:

 

 

Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!
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16 comments:

  1. JeanieAugust 25, 2021 at 3:57 PM

    Beautiful skies there! It's been hot and humid here, too. We had a huge rain/storm last night. (I didn't get flooded but still LOTS of rain!) It cooled things off for about five hours and now the mosquitoes are back!

    I love your cute Halloween ornaments. They're very fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gail @Purple Hues and MeAugust 25, 2021 at 5:35 PM

    Your flowers are gorgeous, Debbie! My flowers are really struggling - either getting too much water from all the rain or too much sun and heat from the extremely high temperatures! Some days they look great and other days, not so much. And I have to say that all of your fall craft projects are just adorable! Looks like you are having too much fun creating them!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sandi MagleAugust 25, 2021 at 7:20 PM

    Looks like you have lots of stuff to work on....LOTS. And, your flowers are gorgeous and huge, totally must be loving the tropical temps and tons of water. We are back to dry and it is too hot to go outside for anything here. The humidity and allergens are epic! Hugs, I haven't any new posts at this time...maybe tomorrow! Sandi

    ReplyDelete
  4. Miss MerryAugust 25, 2021 at 8:36 PM

    You still have so much color in your garden! It looks so pretty. I planted all kinds of marigolds thinking I would have fall color. They got crowded out by petunias and lilies and really aren't much bigger than when I planted them. But the petunias are crazy!

    I love your little owls! And the ribbon wreath looks great! We did that as an adult craft at the library one night a few years ago and I came home and made 3 more using up lots of ribbon. I still have way too much ribbon, but it did make a small dent.

    Stay cool - it is so hot and humid here too.

    ReplyDelete
  5. KathyAugust 25, 2021 at 9:27 PM

    I loved seeing all of your projects. We don't have a/c and my ambition level is just zapped with the heat. I, too, have made toilet paper pumpkins for years--I love using a faux grape leave for a leaf. Have started another bunch of pumpkins using orange clothing from Goodwill when they were $1. A few sell, and I use quite a few for raffle items for a group I belong to. Your sunsets are just gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Debbie-Dabble Blog and A Debbie-Dabble ChristmasAugust 25, 2021 at 10:41 PM

      Kathy,
      I honestly do not know how you are surviving with out A/C!! I can not imagine it....Today was just terrible outside...I was inside all day long...I a trying to take as many pic of the sunsets that I can because soon, it will be setting where I can barely see it from the back yard and the front of my house will not see the Sun again until April.....Thanks for stopping by again!! stay safe, healthy and happy!!
      Hugs,
      Debbie

      Delete
  6. Carol @Comfort Spring StationAugust 25, 2021 at 11:12 PM

    I agree the summer was too hot for sure. It's really a nice collection of photos - beautiful skies, crafts, and all your Dollar Tree decor. Wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  7. LindaAugust 26, 2021 at 7:35 AM

    We have a similar rain gauge, but alas no rain here to measure. Lots of Fall decorating all ready fir you. I just might have to use your idea of thread spools made into pumpkins. I have to visit a couple of times as there is always so much to take in on your posts. Thanks for sharing. Have a great day,

    ReplyDelete
  8. Michele MorinAugust 26, 2021 at 10:48 AM

    Your good work here is getting my mind adjusted to the upcoming seasonal change!

    ReplyDelete
  9. ConniecrafterAugust 26, 2021 at 9:47 PM

    Wow your garden is doing terrific, it is enjoying that heat and rain you have had! Your ornaments with those stickers turned out cute. Pretty ribbon wreath too. I agree fall is always pumpkins but Apples are a great fall item!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Joanne August 27, 2021 at 10:29 AM

    We have lots of pizza houses around us too; in fact I think that's just about all we have for take out/dining options unless we want to drive 30 minutes! Your gardens are doing amazing with all this rain. Most of my potted plants died while we were away and they haven't bounced back yet.

    ReplyDelete
  11. The Crowned GoatAugust 27, 2021 at 12:15 PM

    Can't believe I missed this one earlier, Deb! Love your flower beds so much. All the color combinations you have are really pretty together. I'll be so excited when hurricane season is over. We've been lucky so far but the constant rain, heat and humidity are definitely starting to get to me too. Can't wait to see everything you have in store for us this sesason. You are always so creative. My nephews are obsessed with Halloween so I'm super excited to send this to my sister so she can see your fabulous ornaments. They are going to go bananas! Hugs, CoCo

    ReplyDelete
  12. Amy JohnsonAugust 28, 2021 at 9:32 AM

    Love all your fall projects. Your garden looks amazing. My coleus grew insane this year too. It must have been a good year for coleus.

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousAugust 28, 2021 at 10:41 PM

    Hi Miss Debbie, love all your crafts you've been working k ING on, especially the apple wreath, beautiful. Your flowers are all doing well. One thing I gathered from reading is yell eat well, Joe is missing out, I say the same, you don't like what's on the menu you know where burger King is lol. That's nice of you to share your food with your neighbors. I'm sure they appreciate it. Soon this hot weather will be gone and the freezing Temps will be here then we will all be saying it's too cold wish it was summer lol. Looking forward to seeing what your going to be crafting along the way. Lisa@ SweetTeaN'salty Air

    ReplyDelete
  14. My thrift store addictionAugust 29, 2021 at 1:14 PM

    Debbie, your apple crafts are so cute! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Richella ParhamSeptember 2, 2021 at 9:22 AM

    Debbie, I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again...you just amaze me! I love the way you create lovely things for your home and also find time to help and bless your neighbors. I especially love the wreath you created out of ribbon--that's really lovely!

    Thanks so much for joining the Grace at Home party at Imparting Grace. I'm featuring you this week!

    ReplyDelete

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