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....
As always, click on each picture if you would like to enlarge it....
PINTEREST
If you would like to Pin my pictures, please click on them to enlarge them to do so....
A NOTE ABOUT COMMENTS
I
enjoy reading your comments and will return the favor by visiting and
commenting on your blog or reply to you directly here if you do not have
a blog but I do have my comment section set to Moderation due to
spammers and hackers so your comment will not appear immediately...
And since I have a very busy life, like most of us do, it may take me awhile to return your comments but I promise I will....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In my last post, I shared how I am now looking for inspiration on how to deal with widowhood by looking at how my Mother dealt with it!!
Click HERE if you missed that post!!
I
want to THANK my Blogging friend Andrea, over at the Cottage Market,
for choosing my post,
I also want to Thank her for these kind words......"Debbie
is sharing some of her Fall Decor… but she is also sharing memories. As
you know… her wonderful husband Joe passed recently so she shares her
heart. Waving to Joe in the Heavens"
Thanks again, Becky!!!
Please stop by and link up to these sweet parties....
And now for a few Personal Notes...
I hope you all get to spend some time with those that you love this Holiday weekend!!
I will be hosting our Family Labor Day Celebration on Tuesday since that is when my son Jim and DIL Danielle are off....
They are working the weekend, as they work every weekend and also on Labor Day....
I bought 3 more dozen home made pierogies from my son Joey's boss Connie , who was selling them for her church!
All this deliciousness for $10 a dozen!!
I am making up one dozen with fried onions and butter ( the traditional Polish way) for my Labor Day celebration along with some Mac N Cheese which my twin granddaughters will eat...
Since beef, including ground beef, prices seem to have sky rocketed this Summer, I have been buying turkey burgers instead.....
These were only $6.99 for 4 compared to $10.99 for 4 ground beef burgers...
Plus they are healthier and honestly, I think they taste better...
I'll also be making these sausage patties as they seemed to be quite a hit on the 4th of July...
They were on sale for 2 packs of 4 for a total of $7!!!
Even the hot dogs with turkey, chicken and pork were cheaper than the all beef ones....
These were on sale for 2 packages for $5 compared to 2 packs for $7 for the all beef ones....
I also picked up these items from the Amish Farmer that sets up every Friday in the mall parking lot right down the road from me....
His sweet corn is delicious....
7 ears for $5....
Tomatoes and onions.....
And their home made Amish Butter Cheese!!!
This melts in your mouth and is great to add to Mac N Cheese and other casseroles....
I will be buying more to freeze so I have some to use over the Winter.....
Last week, I bought a large bunch of banana's from the Amish Farmer....
I got ambitious as we have been having some delightful cooler weather here and baked 4 loaves of Banana bread....
These are actually part of my Holiday preparations as I froze them to use when I have company over during the Holiday season....
Next, I will be making up some zucchini bread to do the same with.....
Thank Goodness my son Joey keeps almost nothing in his freezer because that is where all of this goes...
I also wanted to share that I made a very simple casserole the other day....
Penne, spaghetti sauce, mozzarella cheese, seasonings and breaded chicken cutlets ( bake in oven first) cut into cubes...
Mix together, top with the chicken cutlets, sprinkle more cheese over it and bake at 350 degrees for a half hour....
Could not be any simpler and it was really pretty good!!
I was finally able to check a project off my Retirement To Do List that I started 6 years ago when I retired!!
Don't I move at lightning speed?????
LOL!
The wood molding going up the sides of my stairs was all marked up from the black rubber that surround the Oreck hand sweeper that I use
Besides the fact that I had not painted this in over 20 years....
I got out the Frog Tape I had in my painting stash and taped the carpeting...
I did not tape the top because after doing all the painting for close to 45 years, I am an expert trimmer and really do not need to tape.....
I had half a gallon of semi gloss Antique White paint also in my stash so I used that....
You can see that I really did not need to tape off the wall as I used a double sided angled brush which made it quite easy....
The other side.....
Much better.....
Next up was shampooing the carpeting which is my 3rd carpeting that I have had in this house which is 47 years old...
When we replaced the carpeting downstairs with Pergo Max flooring, we did not replace the carpeting on the stairs so it is now 28 years old....
It did not come out too bad......
By the way, I placed white masking tape around the sides now of all my sweepers so they do not mark up the molding....
This turned into what I call a "Might as Well" project or a "Snowball Effect" project...
You know how it goes, don't you?
You do something and then you figure that you "might as well" do something else that relates to the first thing you did and the project becomes like a Snowball rolling down a hill, getting bigger and bigger....
I am sure this has happened to you as many times as it has happened to me!
So now the carpeting and the molding look nice and clean but the Gallery walls that I created on each side of the stairs looked rather dusty and dingy.....
Please bare with me because trying to take pictures of this wall is just about as hard as hanging all of this was and also cleaning all of it was.....
Yes, I took down as much as I could ( not the ones at the top and far over because I thought I would kill myself and fall down the stairs) , wiped everything down with a mixture of ammonia and water on a rag ( my mother's cleaning staple) and hung them back up....
It is easier to start at the top......
For these items that are up high and over too far, I wrapped the wet rag around a long handled swifter duster, with out the swifter on it, and wiped the items down and let them air dry....
I bought a lot of these things at yard sales, church flea markets, estate sales, etc. over 25 years ago.....
Many of the pictures were Home Interiors ones.....
I spray painted all of the frames so that they would match.....
If you are curious if I used a template to do this Gallery Wall like so many "experts" recommend now as Gallery Walls have made a huge come back????
I eyeballed it all!
A wonderful blogger who was an artist painted this amazing canvas of my 2 fur babies that crossed over the Rainbow Bridge and gifted it to me over 15 years ago when we lost our sweet Savanna....
Cassie is on the left and Savanna is on the right....
I bought a larger frame and just hung it so the canvas looks to be framed with a peach mat that is actually the wall....
These pictures were bought at an estate sale and are not Home Interiors.....
The plate is a Thomas Kinkade.....
I guess you already were able to tell that I tried to stick with an aqua and peach color theme....
Luckily, these colors were a big part of the Victorian decor that was popular in the late 80's-early 90's in the Home Interiors line....
I also cleaned the smaller opposite wall where I did what I call an Ancestor Gallery Wall....
Since this wall is exactly as it was when I first did it, I did not take any new pictures but you can read about the pictures, certificates and family treasures HERE in the post I did about it....
I do have enough paint left over to continue and paint the base board molding in the upstairs hallway along with the door frames of the 3 rooms and bathroom upstairs....
I hope to get that project done soon.....
Again.....
Enjoy your weekend!!
And I hope you will stop by to visit again on MONDAY for my next post!
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:
THURSDAY
Please take some time to visit these terrific hosts and all those joining in on the fun!
Fresh white paint on your baseboards really freshens up the stairway and walls! It all looks so new, even the cleaned carpet! That was quite the job taking everything down and cleaning it and rehanging it - you go girl!!!!
ReplyDeleteFantastic paint job, and even better as it didn't take you so long. We have a gallery wall too, not quite as big as yours as our stairs are split into two lots, where yours is all in one. Hope you are enjoying a lovely Labour Day Weekend.
ReplyDeleteThe stair baseboard looks amazing! I hope you have a wonderful belated Labor day celebration with your family.
ReplyDeleteThe stairways look absolutely gorgeous, and I can only imagine how incredible that Amish butter must have tasted! I hope I’ll be even half as creative as you are when I reach your age — you truly rock!
ReplyDeleteI need to go around and clean all of my frames: they are very dusty! Well done on sprucing up your staircase: that is not an easy project!
ReplyDeletewww.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com
Looks awesome Debbie. Such a nice transformation plus it makes you feel great too. I am happy to feature your gallery, stair makeover at Love Your Creativity. Hugs
ReplyDelete