DEBBIE-DABBLE BLOG: June 2023

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!!!!!!

Friday, June 30, 2023

Patriotic Crafts & More Americana Decor, Plus a Tree, 2023

Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!

I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

ANNOUNCEMENT!!

It seems like I have quite a bit that I want to share so for the next few weeks, I will be now posting

3 TIMES A WEEK !!!

I will be posting on MONDAY, WEDNESDAY and FRIDAYS

starting this week!!

Today, I will be sharing the rest of the Americana Decor in the Den along with a bit more of Patriotic crafting......

In my last post, I shared Part 1 of how I decorated the Den in an Americana Theme for the Summer using blue and red transferware especially in the china cupboard.....

And the area around it...

I also shared a flag that I made.....

Click HERE if you missed that post!!

I want to Thank to Niki, over at Life as a Leo Wife, for choosing my post, Patriotic Treats in the Living Room, as one of her features from last week's Crafty Creators Link Party!!!!

Thanks so much, Nili!!

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

And now for a few Personal Notes...

This week was a busy week where I worked on a few projects and did a bit of crafting.....

The haze and smoke from the Canadian fires is back and our air quality levels are now in the "Unhealthy Range for Certain People" meaning those with lung issues and young children...

This is what it looked like....

You can barely see the VA Hospital by us...

Since our road is now finished being paved, as you can see in some of the pictures above, I needed to fix the flower bed that I created by our Court's mail boxes.....

And transplant a few perennials in....

More in a future post on this.....

I also transplanted 2 perennials that I recently bought in Lowe's in the pots I had been growing the Columbine and Loosestrife in....

Coreopsis

A Blue Balloon Flower....

I will also be doing a Tour of My Cottage Garden Back yard soon....

I also laid down white marble chips under and in front of the gutter down spout in the flower bed under the Living Room window...

To help prevent the mulch from getting washed away when we do get rain which has not really been the case so far this Summer....

We did get an inch of rain from last Friday to Wednesday which is better than nothing but it seems all the storms went around us and missed us....

We are in a Drought here in NEPA so any amount of rain is greatly wanted and appreciated....

And I finally was able to check a big project off my now 4-5 year Post Retirement TO DO List!!

The chalking around the outside of our tub where the shower door meets the tub and also where the tub meets the floor was in really bad shape so we also added one of those peel and stick strips to both.....

I do not have any before pics as I was too mortified by how it looked to take any...

Long story short, I removed the rubber stripping, scraped all the old chalk out, repaired the crack, which was about 1/2 inches wide between the tub and floor and laid down new flooring!!

After I scraped the old chalk off............

After I filled in, chalked and put up a strip of rubber molding where the floor did not meet the tub....

And after I laid the new flooring.......

I will be doing a post on my Bathroom Refresh Project in the future...

So you see it has been a busy week for me...

I mentioned that I also did some crafting...

I wanted to finish up my Patriotic Crafting as we all know July 4th is next week....

So I made up a few more Patriotic ornaments from those coasters that Joe keeps getting in appreciation of donations that he makes to Veteran's Organizations...

I used up some more of my stash of ruffled lace....

Trims....

And ribbon flowers...

I embellished the above ornament that I bought at Dollar General for a buck....

I love this one but they only sent one of these....

And of course, I hung them on the Living Room Tree.....

You may remember that I made this "Fire Cracker" using vintage styled graphics....

I decided to make a plaque in the same style....

Several years ago, I bought 2 sets of 3 burlap plaques....

I made several signs for my "Under the Sea" Theme using them....

I again used the "Star" fabric from a banner that I cut up after it had faded out from the Sun....

I added a blue and white ruffled lace and red tinsel trim to it....

Along with 2 vintage style graphics and ribbon roses,,,,,,

I placed it here by the stairs....

I think it looks pretty good with the "Fire Cracker" I made...

Because of where I put my newly crated item, I was able to move this Dollar Tree sign here....

The candle comes on by timer and the bottom of the hurricane candle holder is filled with red and blue ornaments....

I also made these using vintage style graphics....

I had the wood plaques in my stash so I painted them red....

And added some trim, ribbon flowers and scatter Stars that I recently bought at Dollar Tree....

And made a lace bow for the bottom....

Here is where I hung them....

Next to the Star Ornaments I made Previously.....

I also added some red tinsel trim to this sign that hangs in the hallway......

Okay, let's go back into the Den....

As I mentioned in my last post...

I have decorated the Den in a blue, burgundy and ivory color scheme.....

Which lends itself nicely to an Americana theme of decorating for the Summer months...

I like to display a lot of my red and blue transferware dishes in this room....

Especially in the China Cupboard......

Today, I want to share the Tree that stays up year round on the side of the China Cupboard....

Hanging on the door is another plaque i made...

The side of the China Cupboard....

I bought this red truck from the Furniture Store that was damaged when the tornado hit the shopping center next to us and they were holding a storm sale....

Sitting at the helm is one of my late neighbor Elly's Bears that she had in her collection....

Don't you just love his Patriotic outfit and the Stars on his paws?????

In a white crock in the back of the truck is a floral arrangement that I made....

Did you notice the colors of the "books" on the storage book that rests on the suitcases in front of the china cupboard????

Here is my Americana Tree....

You may remember back in early January I bought a few of these Tree Toppers on Clearance in Big Lot's for $3.25 each....

2 of these.....

And one green one....

I transformed the green one to use on this Tree for Saint Patrick's Day...

By painting the bow white and using green glittered tape that I had in my Stash....

Here is what I did with one of the toppers with the clear gems...

Just a simple transformation....

I just glued a small flag to the back of the bow!!!!

Also topping the Tree is a bow made from 3 different ribbons including a french script and buffalo check one....

I decorated this Tree with red and blue toile ornaments in the form of Tea cups and tea pots....

I bought them in Boscov's at a Christmas in July sale MANY years ago!!!

I left the white tinsel garland on this Tree....

I also added a few star ornaments in the primitive Americana colors....

Even a toile Teddy Bear!!

I tucked cotton picks into the Tree...

Along with tea stained flags...

The Tree sits in a vintage blue speckled enamelware pot that also belonged to my late neighbor Elly....

And I tucked 2 pheasant feathers in the top for that Victorian touch!!

I have a few other areas in the Den that I also decorated in Americana...

I leave up this "North Pole" mailbox year round because the color goes so well in this room....

I just hung a tag made by a friend in front of the "north pole"....

Hanging on the door to our storage room....

A wreath I made a few years back....

And a sign that Joe bought at Big Lot's on Clearance at 90% off!!

Over in the corner....

An arrangement on a burgundy tin pocket....

On the back door....

A metal flower bought for 90% off...

A flag tucked into a floral arrangement....

The windows...

2 more 90 % off signs....

The top of the computer armoire....

Another floral arrangement I did ....

I tucked 2 tea stained flags and a garden stake from Dollar Tree into it....

And another bow I made....

This basket was also my late neighbor Elly's....

On a vintage smoking stand below the basket...

A bird cage with a flag added to it....

And this is where Nelson Crest, my Victorian Doll House is .....

And of course, she is all decked out for the Summer in her Patriotic Finery....

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Americana Decor in the Den for the Summer....

In my next post on MONDAY, I will be sharing my July 4th Front Porch with an update on how my flowers are doing in the front ....

And maybe a Patriotic Tablescape or 2....

So I hope you will stop by to visit again on MONDAY...

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......