"Under the Sea" Decorations and Crafts and the Story Behind them......

 

 

 

 

 

 

  Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

 

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

 

Today, I will be sharing more of my "Under the Sea" decorations in the Living Room and how I updated some of them and made something new......

 

  Thanks, Barb, over at French Ethereal, for choosing my post, And the Landscaping Continues, as one of her features from last week's Share Your Style Linky Party!! 

 

 Thanks, Barb, especially for your kind words!!!

 

 Thanks, Bev, over at Eclectic Red Barn, for featuring my post, A Case of the Might as Well's in the Front of Our House,  from last week's Thursday Favorite Things Link Party!!!

 

 

Thanks again, Bev!! 

Thanks to all the hosts of Funtastic Friday Link Party.........Donna over at Two Chicks and a Mom, Heidi over at Building Our Hive, Michelle at Coastal Bohemian, Angela at Simply Beautiful by Angela and Melynda over at Scratch Made Food for Hungry People....... for featuring my post, And the Landscaping Continues, as The Most Clicked On Post from last week's party!!!

 

 Thanks again Melynda, Michelle, Donna, Heidi and Angela!!!!

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

 

 

And now for a few Personal Notes...

 

 A few things I want to mention about blogging.....

 I still need to change my subscription list over to another source with the elimination of the Feedburner subscription by email....

Sorry but I have just been so busy and I hope to do so soon but until then, I am posting now twice a week on Wednesdays and Sundays if that helps for a reminder of when to look for a new post from me...

Another thing is that since I cut back to 2 posts a week from 3, ironically, I have noticed more views and comments per post that I have had in the past.....

Interesting, huh?????

I also started to pay attention to stats, which I never did as I do not monetize my blog......

 

Since I cut back and started to add more labels to my posts, the amount of views has doubled and even tripled and then some especially around the weekends...

And for some reason the location of the most views is in Sweden???????

Does anyone know anything about this because I feel like there is something wrong with all of this?????

Let me know what you think about or know about any of this in the comments please.........

 

 In my last post, I shared the completed Landscaping Projects we did for our neighbors.....

 

 

 

 Click HERE if you missed that Post....

I am glad to say that I am thrilled it is finished......

I had planned on doing some Christmas crafting in July but that did not happen and we will see if it does in August.....

I did get to do some trimming and cleaning up of our back yard when it was still fairly nice weather with low humidity and temps. in high 70's......

But I can not do much out there because I disturb the Robin who made a nest in our tree and laid her eggs.....

 We can see that there are now 2 babies!!!

 

Mama Robin will fly back in if we stay on the patio but flies out screeching if I step foot into the yard so trying to water my flowers is a bit interesting.....

 

I do have a "Bird's Eye View" of the nest looking out the window of the Den where I sit at my main computer....

Some quick pics of how my cottage garden is holding up with excessive heat and rain for our area....

It is holding up okay with some of the impatiens looking water logged.....

I also made some zucchini bread.....

Now is when I will be stocking the freezer with it so I have some for the Holidays......

I have gotten to spend some evenings during that cooler stretch of weather on the front porch reading and taking in more Sunsets which I truly do enjoy seeing......

In less than two months, the Sunset will no longer be visible from our front porch as we will no longer get any Sun in the front of our house until next April.....

So I plan on enjoying those Sunsets when I can....

 

 

In a previous post, I shared my Late Summer "Under the Sea" Tree and "Beach" in the Living Room......

 

 

 

 

And a new Lighthouse that I made from clay pots!!!

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

 

 

I love the aqua color theme for my "Under the Sea" decorations because I have aqua in the Living Room in the form of drapes, the color of the wall below the chair rail and a lot of other accessories and decorations....

To me, it just screams Summer and a Summer at the Beach where I used to vacation every year for a week since the age of 4 years old in Wildwood, NJ.......

 

 Me and my Dad on the beach in Wildwood in 1963 when I was 5 years old

We originally stayed in one of the old Hotels that was built at the turn of the century, the Hotel Garfield.....

This is where my love of Front Porches came from as my parent's home only had a Front "Stoop"......

After coming back from walking the Broadwalk in the evenings, we would sit on wonderful big rockers on that porch and watch the Sights go by!!!!!

My Dad with my best friend Anne and me

The Summers before I started 11th and 12th grade, we took Anne with us.....

What fun that was.....

 

We would always take a day trip to Cape May and it was so exciting to see the renovation of those stunning Victorian homes each year after the entire town was placed on the National Historic Register in the 1970's......

The Summer I graduated High School, before I went into Nursing School, I was already dating Joe and he started to come down with us....

Here we are in Cape May....

 

By then, the Hotel Garfield was torn down as part of the Redevelopment Plan and we started staying at the Riviera Motel which was family owned and one block off the Boardwalk......

We would always get rooms with the balconies that you can see in this picture and loved sitting out there in the evenings, watching the Sights go by......

 

We continued to vacation there every year after we got married and had our 2 sons.....

 

 

 

 

 Even after my Dad passed away, we took my Mom with us......

 

Then the Casinos in Atlantic City opened and we would take a day trip there....

Shortly afterward, Joe started getting offers for free rooms at Ceasar's in Atlantic City......

 

 It became much cheaper to go to Atlantic City and stay in free rooms and get free meals and shows off of Joe's Comp Points then to go to Wildwood .....

 

We were able to stay for Free in Suites.....

 

 

And we were still taking my Mom with us.....

Then Joe was hired at the Post Office and life as we knew it changed drastically....

For the first 6 years, he was not able to refuse overtime and worked 6 days a week, 50 -60 hours in a week....

Before that we were going down to Atlantic City at least 5-6 times a year and he had to let all his comp points expire.....

We only made it down to Atlantic City one time after he started working at the Post Office and then all my health issues started and I knew I would not be able to travel again..... 

That was when I started to turn our 1970's built townhouse into my very own Victorian Bed and Breakfast like so many that I saw in Cape May......

 

I wanted to feel like I was always on vacation whenever I stepped into my home.....

 

Little did I know how much that would help me in Retirement and during this Pandemic..... 

Except for the Sea and the Beach, I now feel like I am on vacation everyday in my own little Victorian Bed and Breakfast.....

So I brought the Sea and the Beach here for the remainder of the Summer......

 

As I mentioned before, I created the "Beach" under my Tree......

 

 

We used to walk the beach in the evening after Dinner around 6 pm with the boys and collect shells.....

 

 

 All the shells that I used in making the ornaments for the Tree and elsewhere through out the Living Room came from my neighbor Elly, who lived in Miami Beach during the Winters when her second husband was still living.....

She collected shells, cleaned them and then organized them according to size and had tubs of them!!!!!

 

 Her sons were going to throw them away after she died.....

I took them.....

I even just gave a tub full to our little neighbor Maria who was helping us with the Landscaping and has become my friend!!

 

 She loves crafts, what can I say!!

She already painted some of them!!

The Lighthouse that I made for the inside of the house....

 

 

 And the one that I made 2 years ago for our Front Porch.....

 

Remind me of the Cape May Lighthouse which I remember before it was even restored!!

 

 Once it was restored to it's former beauty, we climbed it even though I am terrified of heights.....

I had my back glued to the wall while my Mother was hanging over the railing pointing things out to the boys!!!!!

 

So that is the story behind my "Under the Sea" decorations ....

 

They bring back many wonderful memories of the vacations of mine and my son's childhoods and of a place that I loved but can really no longer visit, at least not in the Summer with the heat and sun sensitivity that my auto immune disease has caused......

 

It is on my Bucket List that maybe we could go back to visit in the Fall sometime, just to see what Wildwood looks like..... 

We will see.....

 

Let's continue on......

 

 In my previous post, you saw that I decorated the faux window in the Living Room with a Coastal Wreath that I made a while ago and a mini flag.....

 

I like to decorate this mirror with a Seasonal or Holiday wreath.......

 

As I mentioned before, I love how the aqua Coastal decorations go with all my Aqua things in the room......

 

I updated these a bit this year......

This is how the wreath looked other years and the mini flag, that Joe bought for outside that looked better inside, was just hung as is.....

 

 

I "dabbled" a bit and removed the Sea Horse that I made from the wreath, replacing it with a bow made from white and the aqua deco mesh .....

 

 

 

 I then glued the Sea Horse in the middle of the bow.....

 

 

 

 So much better, I think!!

I then glued some shells to the mini flag to give it some depth......

The updated version.....

I was in a crafting mood after finishing our Landscape projects and I decided to make something to go with my "Under the Sea" theme....

I started with a Pringles can, a container from Parmesan Cheese and a container from Herb Ox Chicken Broth Cubes.....

I painted the Pringles can and the lid from the Parmesan Cheese container since I did not want the color and lettering to be seen underneath the burlap that I was covering these with.....

 

I then covered this cardboard circle I cut out with burlap to use as a base......

 

I covered each can with burlap and trimmed them off with gimp trim.......

 

I glued a piece of rope around the top 2 cans after gluing them to the base and gluing them together.....

 

 

I then glued a piece of fish netting to the structure.....

 

And I glued various shells around the base and the cans....

I remembered that I had 2 ceramic doves that were sold by Home Interiors many years ago......

 

I glued them to the top of the 2 larger cans......

Perfect fit!!!!

 

Beach Wood Pilings!!!

And you know that those "Might as Well's" even pop up when doing things like this in the house.....

So I figured that I "Might as Well" rearrange the "Beach" underneath the Tree since I made a few new things......

 

 I took out the 2 signs that I made a few years back.....

 

And replaced them by moving the lighthouse and wood pilings onto the the platform......

 

 I put the Wood Piling with the doves over here on this side.....

 

 

 The fence is a vintage piece of fencing used around a Christmas Tree platform that I thought would look good as a fence on the "Beach"......

 

 

On this side is where I put the Lighthouse.......

 

 

 Now I think it looks more like a "Beach" with the addition of the Wood Pilings and Lighthouse that I made......

 

 

 

In the evening..........

I moved one of the signs over here......

I hung it using a peach shower curtain hook in the shape of a rose from the valance rod....

 

 

 

 

 

And I hung the other sign here on the front door......

 

 

 Next to the front door on the marble topped plant stand.....

 

I filled the bottom of the large Hurricane Votive with shells.........

 

 

 

And I wrapped a piece of aqua grosgrain ribbon around the battery operated candle......

 

 

In front is a bottle that I filled with shells and sand.....

  

 I added a bow that I made out of aqua and peach ribbon to the lid of the Apothecary Jar.....

The Hutch to the left when you walk in the front door.....

 

 

On top of the Hutch......

 

 

 

A Summer scene......

 

With Victorian dressed Ladies......

 

Butterflies......

 

I filled candleholders that I made quite some time ago by simply gluing a vase and a candlestick from Dollar Tree together, with shells and placed a battery operated candle on top of the shells that I had wrapped some aqua ribbon around......

This Sail Boat that Joe bought at Big Lot's was a royal blue until I painted it aqua......

I placed in in the middle.....

 

 

 

Another Victorian Lady and Butterfly......

 

 

 

Inside the Hutch....

 

 

Looking at the stairs.....

 

 

 

  

More Victorian Ladies.....

 

Bows made from aqua and peach ribbon on the lanterns.....

The lanterns filled with shells and candles wrapped in more aqua ribbon.....

I decided to make another sign......

 

I painted the letters white and sprinkled them with aqua glitter on the last coat of paint......

 

I printed this Mermaid Lounge graphic off from the computer......

 

And added some shells......

 

I wanted to hang something right below the Life Preserver Wreath I made some time ago......

 

 

 

 Perfect!!

 

The Life Preserver Wreath I made!!!

 

  

 

 

 I made this out of a glass block.....

 

 

 All lit up with a set of Fairy Lights!!!

 

 

 

 

 

The corner....

 

 I use this chair for decorations.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 A few more Coastal decorations....

 

 

 

 A vase with flowers is behind the shell picture.....

 

 

 

 

 

 I filled this apothecary jar with shells and sand and embellished it with trim amd a bow.....

 

More shells...

 

 

 

Underneath the chair.... 

 

 

 

 

 

A hat box I bought a long time ago at The Christmas Tree Shop!!

 

 

 

 

 And an aqua mercury glass planter filled with peach velvet roses inside the lantern.....

 I also decorate my Branch Tree for the different Seasons and Holidays.....

 

 

 

 Joe bought several packs of aqua ornaments after Christmas one year in Big Lot's.....

 

Birds.....

 

Butterflies.....

 

And Dragonflies.....

 

 

 I placed the Tree in a galvanized tray that I filled with shells..........

 

 

 Another apothecary bottle that I filled.........

I have a Brian Baker Lighthouse hanging on the wall on top of the Curio.....

 

 

 

 

 

It reminds me of the Hereford Inlet Lighthouse in North Wildwood, NJ......

It still functions as a Navigational Aid for the US Coast Guard and has lovely gardens around it where you can buy seeds from vintage perennials in the Gift Shop!!

 

In the evening.....

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the crafts I updated and some of the new ones I made to go along with my "Under the Sea" theme for the rest of the Summer...

These decorations will stay up until after Labor Day ......

In my next post, Summer at the Beach continues with my annual display of a Victorian Day in the Park......

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......

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