Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!
I am so happy you decided to stop by!!
Blogging has always been a stress reliever for me along with an avenue to share my passions which are my home and my garden.....
I
feel it is a personal Journal that, hopefully, someday, my Twin
Granddaughters will be able to look back on to learn about who I
was....
I will be posting 3 times a week on MONDAYS, THURSDAYS and SATURDAYS....
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In my last post, I shared another Trunk and Treat we attended as a family, more Fall foliage and the Spirit of Halloween store....
And now for a few Personal Notes...
My late husband Joe and my oldest son, Joey, made an annual trip to Pittsburgh to see a Pittsburgh Penguins Hockey game starting when Joe first retired....
This is the second year now that Joey has honored that tradition that he and his Dad had....
Joey went to Pittsburgh on October 20 and saw a regular Season game at the PPG Paints Arena....
Ironically, it was Polish Heritage Night at the game!!!
Both my paternal grandparents and Joe's maternal grandparents with his grandmother never learning to speak English, immigrated here from Poland....
My Dad and Joe's Mom were proud first generation Birth right United States citizens....
I know if Joe was still alive, he would have come home with the special hockey jersey that was created for Polish Heritage Night showcasing the Coats of Arms of Poland which is the white eagle....
You can see that Polska is also written on it...
And of course, at intermission, Pennsylvania's own Mrs. T's pierogies were showcased
Yes, they were dressed as pierogies....
Mrs. T's is located here in NEPA in the small town of Shenandoah and still owned by the Twardzik family
Joey stayed in the Cambria Inn again which is right next to the Arena...
He was happy that he got a room with a city view....
On the way to Pittsburgh, Joey made sure he stopped at the Monroeville Mall where the movie Dawn of the Dead was filmed....
Joey is a huge fan of these movies....
Sadly, Walmart bought the mall and it will be torn down and a new Walmart will be built in it's place....
And this leads me into the subject of this post.....
Since my husband Joe passed away in April of 2024, I debated what I would do with all of his Pittsburgh Sports Memorabilia that he proudly displayed in our bedroom.....
It was overwhelming at first for me to even think about it.....
Then every time I looked at it all, it saddened me and brought tears to my eyes.....
I finally felt the time had come to for me to address it and make the bedroom mine....
WARNING: This is going to be a long post so grab a seat and a cuppa your favorite drink...
There were 2 areas in our bedroom where Joe had his Pittsburgh Sports items displayed.....
This is the area that is by where his side of the bed was....
And his dresser which I decorated in the Victorian style that I love....
And this is what this area looks like now......
I moved some pictures that I had on the walls around....
Taking down the collectible ones Joe had on the walls and gave them to my son Joey....
These are Home Interiors pictures that I have had for years....
Now this area is in sink with my Victorian style....
Joe's night stand....
I replaced the picture that was here with this....
The framed announcement my parents sent out when my Dad built the house that I grew up in....
A vintage lamp....
The bible was given to my Mom by a Veteran's group when my Dad passed away as he served in WWII....
Joe's dresser.....
I have my Dad's rosaries on the lamp shade and another pair on top of the bible along with my Mother's old brownie camera.....
Joey gave me the clock as he took Joe's alarm clock...
I had decorated it for Joe in a Victorian Gentleman's theme, which I decided to keep.....
I replaced all of Joe's Pittsburgh memorabilia here....
I removed all the bobble heads from this shelf....
But I still wanted this area to honor Joe....
So I placed the picture, that I took to church for his funeral service and had placed by the clock that holds his ashes, in the center with pictures of Joe holding our twin granddaughters on each side....
The twins will inherit these identical tea pots.....
When Joe's mother gifted me his maternal grandmother's tea pot, I was shocked to find out I had bought one just like it at a yard sale, which is why I have 2 identical tea pots!!!!
I thought that each of my son's would inherit them...
But almost as if fate knew, we would have identical twin granddaughters to which they will be passed on to....
No, I do not know which one was actually Joe's grandmother's and I prefer it that way....
I hung the hats Joe had worn on different occasions on the hooks that once held sports caps....
We had this history of the Barna family made up at a fair we attended when we first got married....
I did leave the beautiful silk scarf that Joe had bought for me in Pittsburgh over the top of the mirror.....
I also hung Home Interior's mirrors...
I had used the brass Home Interior's candlesticks to display those hats
and now I placed votives and candles on top of them....
I thought long and hard, for 18 months, what I was going to do with the top of the dresser...
And I came to the conclusion that since Joe and I enjoyed finding the pieces displayed here together that I would pretty much keep it as is.....
The left side....
These are pictures of what I call "Instant Relatives" meaning I bought these at a flea market.....
Antique razors, shaving brushes and a shoe stretcher.... 
The men's handkerchiefs belonged to my Dad....
Joe collected pocket watches....
A black bow tie is on the small mirror with 2 pocket watches.... 
The picture is of my maternal grandparents....
Joe's and my Dad's tie clips are displayed here...
In the center is the candle in honor of Joe that I received at a special All Soul's Day Mass last year in remembrance of those that passed away over the previous year in my Parish....
I burn the candle at every Holiday Dinner I host for my family!!
I had decoupaged the top of a wood hand mirror bought at a yard sale...
The right side....
More "Instant Relatives" and shaving brushes.... 
Another shoe stretcher, my Dad's pocket watch and an antique cuticle pusher with a celluloid handle...
I am happy I left the top of the dresser as is.... 
The handkerchief was my Dad's and has "K" embroidered on it for my maiden name....
I am happy I left the top of the dresser as is....
It now makes me smile...
Since I took these pictures, I added this picture of my Dad, as a very young man, to the dresser.....
In honor of the important men in my life that I lost, I am satisfied with how this area in my bedroom turned out...
Before....
Now...
And now we will move over to Joe's Pittsburgh corner that I created for him to display all his sports memorabilia....
Before...
Once again, I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do here...
I knew I had to do something though as every time I looked at this corner, it brought tears to my eyes....
I started by paring it down....
First of all, Joey went through it all and decided what he wanted as he is the Hockey fan and my younger son Jim is not...
Jim did pick out some ornaments from Joe's Pittsburgh Tree that I set up every Christmas for him....
These are pictures that ironically popped up in my FB Memories of Joe, painstakingly painting 2 ornaments we bought at Gabes....
Jim took one and Joey took the other one along with the rest of those from Joe's Tree....
Next I packed up all the Pittsburgh Steeler items and gifted them to friends that are fans....
As I went along, I decided to retain this as a Wilkes Barre Scranton Penguins area since we were Season Ticket holders for 25 years before Joe passed away and they play at the arena 5 minutes down the road from my home...
I decided that I would pay homage and honor Joe's love for Hockey and our home town team in this corner but I needed to change it and make it mine....
I did pack up all the Pittsburgh Hockey items that Joey did not want and will be donating them in a theme basket that I made up , adding a Visa gift card to, as part of a theme basket raffle for my church's annual Craft Fair...
Joe had 2 actual Hockey sticks that were used in play and they were gifted to my great niece Cortney , who worked at our Arena as part of the Ice Crew for the WB Scranton Pens before she graduated and started working as an RN....
A few other things will be also going to her...
I was originally going to box up all the bobble heads Joe received as a Season Ticket holder and collected as I will be checking on if I can sell them but in thinking about it, I thought it would be easier to just display them on the shelves I hung and painted for Joe so I could have easy access to them......
With Winter upon us here in NEPA, I decided to bring in the items from the little garden memorial I had set up for Joe in the front of my house....
I will not lie....
This was a huge undetaking and it took me 5 days to clean and rearrange my entire bedroom because of this...
And I shed many a tear in doing so but I knew it was something I needed to do....
So this is now what Joe's Hockey corner looks like....
I could not bring myself to get rid of all of it....
At least not now....
I had asked Joey if he wanted the Penguin's stained glass lamp that I had gifted Joe but he preferred that I keep it for now.....
Joey did take some of the Hockey pictures that were hanging on the wall here...
After spackling all the holes and touching them up with paint, I hung the paver that Joey gifted Joe in the center , along with 2 items Joe bought at a sports show...
I placed the garden stone that Joey also gifted Joe in the center of the shelf under the paver.....
And like I previously mentioned, I decided to keep out all the bobble heads until I decide what to do with them....
My great nieces will be given any that they like....
I hung 2 small hockey sticks on the left side of the shelves....
On the bottom shelf.....
I placed the Memory stone that I purchased this past Summer in the middle....
Pictures of Joe are displayed both on the shelf and hanging underneath it....
Joe with the WB Scranton Pens mascot Tux, who was his friend....
And our twin granddaughters wearing outfits Joe bought for them but he never got to see them wear....
On the other side.....
Another picture of Joe with Tux....
And the picture of Joe when he got to drop the puck at a game...
I placed 2 Tux figures on the small shelves.......
On the desk....
The lamp on the right was my late neighbor Elly's.....
I decided to keep the "Tree" we bought at a Craft Co Op in the center....
A picture of Joe with the Stanley Cup, pictures of my sons in frames that they made in school and a few items of Joe's sports collection....
I have already gone through the desk where Joe kept a lot of important papers and organized it to my liking....
I kept the chair that I made for Joe along with the things hanging on it ....for now...
Joe wore the Santa Hat when delivering the mail as he was a letter carrier for the US Postal Service...
...
To the right of the desk.....
On the shelves that I bought at flea markets and painted black for Joe....
More bobble heads....
And all the pucks that Joe collected....
On the closet door......
Both the cap and the flag are autographed by various players...
And hanging on the side of the chifferobe....
The shirt Joe received, not long before he passed away, for being a 25 year ticket holder and some other items....
AMEN!!
So this is how Joe's corner looks now....
Am I done with it????
I don't think so because I am sure that as time goes on, I will pass on more of Joe's items but this was all I could handle doing for now.....
And I am happy and can live with the changes I made as I feel I have changed these areas enough to make them mine...
It was an emotional 5 days that I worked in my bedroom rearranging things, cleaning and reorganizing it...
Last year, I could not bring myself to go to a WB Scranton Pens hockey game at our arena....
But on November 14th, the Diocese of Scranton is hosting a Parish Hockey Night and Joey and I are going to the game...
I know it will be an emotional night for me especially when I see Tux, the mascot, as he was Joe's friend and even reached out to me when Joe passed away...
But again, it is something that I need to do....
One last thing that I want to share is that my son Joey asked to borrow a photo of Joe so I gave him this one of one of Joe's proudest moments.....
Joey works for the Catholic Diocese of Scranton as an IT specialist........
In celebration of Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, the employees at the Chancery created an Ofrenda, a memory altar....
Celebrating the loved ones they lost.....
And on Monday evening, I once again attended the special All Soul's Day Mass in remembrance of those who passed away in my Parish over the last year...
I helped with the refreshments after the Mass and passed on to those family members that I now light the candle that I received at last year's Mass in honor of Joe, at every Holiday dinner we have....
Many loved the idea and said they were going to do the same...
This is the last post for now on my regular Blog, Debbie-Dabble Blog, as my next post on SATURDAY
will be over on my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!!
I will be starting my annual Christmas Home Tour, room by room, staying in my bedroom, sharing more of the changes I made and how I decorated it for Christmas.....
So I hope you will join me on SATURDAY over on my Christmas Blog, A Debbie-Dabble Christmas!
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......
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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THURSDAY
Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!
