Another Landscape Project and a Few Crafts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 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...... 

 

SPECIAL NOTE!!!

 

This week , I will be joining Katherine, over at Katherine's Corner, for her By The Sea Decor on a Tray Blog Hop that she is hosting.....

 

So I will be adding a post this week and posting on Tuesday for the Tray Blog Hop and again on Thursday, which would have been my normal Wednesday post......

I hope you will visit again on Tuesday for that special post.....

 

 Today, I am going to be sharing yet another Landscape project completed by Barna Landscaping!!!

Yes, I keep saying that we are retired from this BUT........

 

 

  I want to Thank to Barb, over at French Ethereal, for choosing my post, Flowers Planted and a Few New Things, as one of her features from last week's Share Your Style Link Party!!!

 

 Thanks so much, Barb!!

 

I also want to Thank Richella, over at Imparting Grace, for choosing my post, Memorial Day Front Porch and Yard with Flowers,  as one of her features from last week's Grace at Home Link Party!!!!

 

 Thanks again, Richella!!

And I want to Thank Andrea, over at The Cottage Market, for choosing my post, Tea Time in the Dining Room, Bed and Breakfast Series, as one of her features from last week's A Morning Cup of Joe Link Party!!

 

 Thanks so much, Andrea!!!

 

 I also want to Thank Allyson, over at Southern Sunflowers, for choosing to feature my wreath re-do from my post, Flowers Planted and a few New Things, from last week's Home Matters link Party!!!

 

 Thanks again, Allyson!!!

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

 

In my last post, I shared my Garden Tea Table and more of my upstairs Sitting Room as part of my Bed and Breakfast Series.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

And now for a few Personal Notes...

 

 Food of the Week

Friday, Joey treated us to hoagies from Serpico's, one of our favorite local eateries.........

 

 Joe ate all of his meatball hoagie!!

 He usually only is able to eat half....

 

Joey ate all of his Chicken Parm hoagie

He also finished off his 2 slices of Buffalo Chicken pizza...

My cheese steak hoagie and I was only able to eat half...

I ate the rest of mine for dinner yesterday.....

 

I have been putting some time aside to do some reading....

I just finished this riveting book, that my son Joey gifted me, written by a former local NEPA TV anchor, Marisa Burke.....

This was taken from the page on Amazon where you can order it.....

"Marisa Burke is a top-rated, local anchorwoman at one of the most respected local ABC affiliates in the country. She enjoys celebrity status, six-figure salaries, a gorgeous home, and beautiful family.

But rather than reporting the news, Marisa suddenly becomes the subject of it when her husband, an admired educator, the father of her two young girls, and the man she truly believed was her loving soulmate, was arrested for unlawful sexual relationships with underage boys. What was even more excruciating, Marisa was forced to endure the shame and embarrassment of anchoring the same newscasts in which the personally gut-wrenching news stories about her husband’s charges were reported.

Marisa Burke’s shocking memoir, Just Checking Scores reveals what happens when a person at the top is brought down by public humiliation into a world of deep despair and what Burke did to channel her suffering and anguish into defiance and strength."

 

Even if you are not from our neck of the woods, I know you will enjoy this book and feel how she felt with every gut punch her husband inflicted upon her and her daughters....

Even though this book is about the shame, embarrassment and betrayal of a Loved One who was addicted to young boys, what she went through and how she survived could be applied to those who have loved ones who are addicted to Drugs, Alcohol and Gambling because of the financial disaster he brought upon her and all his lies and cheating to cover up his addiction....

Having gone through some of that myself being that Joe is a recovered alcoholic who loves to gamble, I felt that same pit in my stomach that she felt with every new piece of news about her husband.....

I was thrilled to see Marisa post this on her face book site.....

"Excited to share that my memoir Just Checking Scores will be an episode in a documentary series airing this fall on a major streaming network. Information is being kept secret for now but the production crew just wrapped up shoots in both Scranton and Colorado Springs. Looking forward to revealing the details in the months ahead!"

 

I can not wait to see what streaming service will be sharing her story.....

 

I hope her book is made into a movie because it really can be.... 

 

I highly recommend this book.....

 

 

Since we have been getting some really Hot and Humid Days, I used them to stay inside and do a bit of Crafting!!!

 

I bought a wood cut out of a tea pot many years ago and got as far as painting it and covering it with a glittered pink piece of scrap book paper...

 

Since I decided to decorate the Dining Room like a "Tea Room" for  the Summer, I thought it was the perfect time to finish it.....

So here it is!!

I added a trim around the edges and decoupaged this graphic that I copied with this quote from Eleanore Roosevelt in the center.....

 

I added some venice lace appliques and ribbon flowers....

 

Glued a piece of pink ribbon on to the handle to use to hang it...

 

And added a beaded applique from my stash to the tip of the spout.....

 

I hung it on the room divider between the Dining Room and the Living Room by the round table in the Dining Room...

I am happy with how it came out....

You may remember that I used styrofoam eggs that I bought at Dollar Tree several years ago and had in my stash to make "carrots" for Easter!!!

Well, I saw something similar in an issue of Country Sampler which gave me another idea of what to do with more of those eggs.....

I made Strawberries!!!!!

 

 

 

I painted them red, used a marker for the black dots and glued "leaves" on top that I simply cut out of felt....

I topped each off with a small white ribbon flower as white flowers bloom on the berry bushes.....

 

I made the sign out of a wood spoon from a Dixie ice cream cup.....

 

I placed them in a basket, that Joe got when he bought cherries, filled with Spanish Moss ....

 

 

And I added it to my early Summer Strawberry display on the desk of the hutch in the Kitchen.....

 

I will be sharing more of this in a future post.....

I can not believe that I took on yet another Landscaping project....

But I am true to my word, keeping a promise when I make one!!!

Last year, after I landscaped the top flower beds of my neighbor Ed, who is renting my former Neighbor Elly's house, I promised him that I would do something to his slope this year.....

This is what it looked like after his landlord came and weed whacked all the perennials that Elly put in , along with the weeds that had grown in her absence, and then threw weed killer on the entire slope!!!

His landlord, who was only in his early 40's, passed away suddenly and now his 23 year old college student son is Ed's landlord so I know that nothing will be done to his slope.....

Ed has bad knees and hips so there is no way he can do it either....

I am amazed that some of the perennials that Elly planted survived the weed killer application!

I started by pulling out a huge onslaught of dandelions that took up residence on Ed's slope....

I tried to save as many phlox, coreopsis, sedum and dianthus that I could while ripping out as much weeds as I could on 80 degree days in full sun!!

Yes, It was quite a job doing it almost all by myself as Joe came out each morning, coughed twice and claimed his allergies were bothering then took off to go shopping, leaving me on my own.....

Better that way though.....

 

The day I did this much was supposed to be low humidity and in the 70's.....

They were VERY WRONG!!!!!

Mid 80's and over 60% dew points!!

 

Now this slope is nowhere near the incline of my slope in front of my house, which Joe decided to climb and weed once he returned home!!!

So since I could not reach a lot of the weeds, I decided to climb this slope, getting on to it from the steps.....

 

I managed it just fine thanks to my Knee replacement!!

 

I was able to get a good deal more of the weeds pulled out!!

And I figured that if Elly could climb this slope taking care of it until she was almost 80 years old, I could give it a try!!!

 

I don't think I did so badly.....

 

 

 But I almost passed out when finished as it was so Hot and Humid.....

I got beat red, got a headache, felt nauseated and was soaked with sweat....

Funny thing is that I could have been laying out there for God knows how long before Joe ever found me.....

I have Heat and Sun Sensitivity from my Auto Immune Disease and have a really hard time in the Summer.....

So I packed it in for that day.....

The following day is was supposed to be cooler even though it sure did not feel that way so I worked up top in the shade......

I weeded, then raked and freshened up the mulch that we put down in this flower bed along the top of the slope last year.....

 

This is the Burning Bush that we cut way back last year as it appeared to be dead.....

 

 

 I transplanted a coreopsis that had reseeded itself on the edge of the slope here....

 

 

 

 

 And pulled out all the rose of Sharon seedlings from these 2 trees by the steps......

 

 

 

Looking down from up top.....

Much better.....

I then turned my attention, staying in the shade, to the flower beds in front of the house......

 

All I did was replace one scalloped brick border that crumbled, probably from Ice melt in the Winter, straightened the other ones and raked up, freshening up, the mulch that was put down last year.....

You can see in the above photo where I drew the line right down the middle of the flower bed shared by Ed and his neighbor, who is the one that kept feeding the squirrels that were then causing such destruction in my yard and patio.....

 

 

It will be a cold day in Hell before I ever touch his yard again so he is on his own!!!!

Make a Fool out of me and lie to me once, okay but forget ever hearing from me after you do it 2 and 3 times...

I then transplanted some of the Missouri primrose growing all over my Cottage garden back yard in the middle of this large bed.....

 

And I gave a good dose of Miracid to the azaleas that Ed thinks took a hit from him shoveling snow that had rock salt from the sidewalk onto them in the Winter....

Hopefully, they will make a come back.....

I don't think I will even have to add any new mulch to these flower beds this year.....

The following day was not too bad out as it was cloudy and we were supposed to get rain...

Elly had also went up into the woods by our row of townhouses and picked , carried and placed rocks, trying to create a Rock Garden effect on the slope and she was in her mid 70's then!!!

I unearthed most of the rocks using a garden claw like tool and rolled them down the slope to the retaining wall where I decided to do a border using the rocks that she so painstaking put on the slope to honor her memory..........

I managed to pull more weeds out, put a good covering of Preen down and applied some of my homemade weed killer to the weeds that I simply did not have the strength to pull out....

Now it is ready for mulch!!

 

I also want to point out that I weeded and cleaned up right to the border of Ed's and the Squirrel Feeder's yard.....

Apparently he noticed as I have seen him on his slope, weeding, more times in the last week than I did on the past 25 years!!!

Oh well!!

 Joe got 12 bags of mulch ....

 

 

I waited until Saturday to do the mulch as it was only around 60 degrees and nice and cool and breezy!!!

 

Amazing what a little mulch will do, isn't it?????

 

Okay, lets start over by the steps......

 

 

 

A loosestrife plant getting ready to bloom.....

 

The border of rocks I made along the top of the retaining wall......

I had thinned some of the hostas out in my neighbor Trish's yard and planted them in pots in the back yard.....

I now transplanted them on Ed's slope.....

Ed is very pleased with how it turned out....

He even said it looks as if a Nursery did it professionally and I take that compliment to heart because Ed, at one time, planned on going into business with a friend to open their own Nursery so he does know a bit about landscaping and gardening!!!

I had enough mulch left to put a fresh coat on the top of the slope.....

Looking down the slope from up top.....

I know my Dad, this Father's Day, is looking down and saying. "That a Girl"!

BEFORE.....

NOW!!!

 

And I hope that my dear neighbor Elly is also looking down and smiling that I returned the yard that she spent so much time taking care of...

To something that I hope she would be proud of.....

I do want to say again that Barna Landscaping is here by retired

BUT

I am not going to hold my breath on that one!!!

 

LOL!!

 I hope you will stop by to visit again on TUESDAY for the By The Sea Decor on a Tray Blog Hop!!

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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  MONDAY 
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TUESDAY
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WEDNESDAY
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  Homestead Blog Hop 

 

  THURSDAY
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Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop 
Grace at Home Party 

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FRIDAY
 Funtastic Friday
Home Matters Linky Party
Farm House Fridays

Create, Bake, Grow and Gather Link Party 

A Morning Cup of Joe Party 

  Unlimited Link Party 

 SATURDAY
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SUNDAY
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