DEBBIE-DABBLE BLOG: A Tree With a Lot of Heart & a Few Bears in the Living Room, 2026

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!!!!!!

Monday, February 9, 2026

A Tree With a Lot of Heart & a Few Bears in the Living Room, 2026

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

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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....

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In my last post, I shared the corner of the Living Room by the stairs....

One of the Trees in the Living Room decorated for Heart Month....

And the stereo table....

Click HERE if you missed that post!!

I want to Thank Lisa, over at Boondock Ramblings who is also for PA., for choosing my blog post, Snowmen and Cardinals for Winter in the Kitchen, as one of her features from last week's Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot Link Party...

Thanks so much, Lisa!!

And I want to Thank my blogger friend Andrea, over at the Cottage Market, for also featuring my Blog Post, Snowmen and Cardinals in the Kitchen for Winter, as one of her features from last week's A Morning Cup of Joe Link Party!!

Andrea recently lost her sweet fur baby Alie and after reading my post, asked that a red cardinal would appear on her back deck so she would know that Alie is okay and she has been visited 4 times by a red cardinal!!

They never saw a cardinal on their back deck prior to this!!!!

I am so happy that Alie sent her that message that she is doing well and is waiting at the Rainbow Bridge for her....

Thanks again, Andrea!!

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

And now for a few Personal Notes...

For the New Year, I am trying something different with my 3 times weekly posts....

On THURSDAYS, I will feature what I cooked and ate during the week, showcasing local cuisine and a few recipes for things that I actually made...

I decided that on SATURDAYS, I will showcase What I Have Been Up To in the past week, sharing events and places I went to, if any....

On MONDAYS, I will be featuring What I Have Bought or Been Gifted Recently, if anything...

Today is Monday so that means it is time for me to share things that I have bought or been gifted recently....

I bought myself something that I saw on Good Morning America...

The one they showcased was called The "Comfie", the Blanket you wear........

I thought this would be perfect to wear around the house in the frigid cold weather we have been having....

Did I mention that here in NEPA we are at MINUS 2 this morning????

I decided to do a google search and I found a similar one in Walmart online...

And it was the same price as the one I saw on Good Morning America, $19 & change with free shipping...

It came on Saturday and I already used it when I go upstairs in the evening to watch TV, with my lap top, in bed.....

My neck often gets cold so I love the hood....

I love the cuffed sleeves...

And the zippered pockets....

Nice and warm...

When I do turn the heat on in my bedroom ( when it goes below 25 degrees), I still keep it at around 64 - 66 degrees as I have heavy blankets on my bed...

Wearing this while I am nice and cozy sitting up in my bed, keeps my top half warm....

I am very happy with it...

Even though I already mentioned this in a previous post, I wanted to share this again because I feel it is so important to stand up for Human Rights in today's America....

I will be hanging this mini flag up in my front yard today as it is going to actually get up into the 20's today!!

Both my late husband and I are grandchildren of Polish Immigrants and I could not be PROUDER!

The only people in this Country that did not come from Immigrants are those whose descendants are Native Americans!!

Remember that!

With that being said, I could not wait for Bad Bunny's Super Bowl Half Time show as I feel Latino Music is some of the happiest Music in the World and Music is Universal...

I grew up in a "Polish" church, where Polish Religious songs, including Polish Koledy ( Christmas Carols), were sung all the time..

Some of my most cherished memories of Christmas was my Dad and his brothers singing all the Polish Christmas songs when visiting for Christmas...

I now attend a church, who is named after Saint Maria Goretti, who is the patron Saint of Children and the sexually abused, who was Italian....

For the Feast Day of our Patron Saint, we are blessed to have Father Alex, who studied in Rome and our Deacon, who is of Italian descent, do all the Masses said that weekend in Italian!!

I do not understand the words but I do know the English translation and those Masses are one of the most beautiful Masses we have at my church as all the songs are also sung in Italian....

I took 2 years of Spanish and I am so disappointed in myself that I retained very little because Spanish is such a beautiful language...

BUT....

My greatest thrill of watching the Half Time show , which was the only part of the Super Bowl I watched as I HATE Football because it is such a barbaric sport that debilitates most players for the rest of their lives....

Was my girl, Lady Ga Ga!!

If you follow me on FB, you know that I am one of her little Monsters and a huge fan of this Italian girl from NYC!!

I have all of her albums and SCREAMED when the people parted after a real wedding and showed her on the stage!!

One of the BEST Half Time shows, since my Girl Ga Ga's Half Time show, as I was dancing happily around my Living Room!!!!

My Sister Barb came to visit last week so I want to share what she gifted me for my Birthday which was at the end of January....

This sweet solar light Gnome Cottage...

And she also gifted me Gift Cards for Ocean State Job Lot....

Barb is doing a lot of purging and when she asked me if I wanted these, I jumped on it!!

These were originally my niece Lisa's who did a floral arrangement in them...

Barb removed the floral arrangement , which was fairly old....

I love them.....

She then surprised me with this platter.....

The markings on the bottom of it....

Barb found it when cleaning out her Kitchen cupboards.....

It will be perfect to use with my blue transferware dishes....

I am thrilled with all of these.......

Thanks so much, Barb!!

I am finishing up my tour of the Living Room decorated for Winter/Heart Month today....

As I mentioned before I am celebrating Heart Month rather than Valentine's Day, paying homage to my Dad, who passed away suddenly in February 39 years ago from a massive heart attack....

And today, I am sharing this wall.....

Almost 2 years ago, I painted the brick paneling to look more like brick and I love it....

I am thinking of adding a bit of gray to the "bricks" come Spring to give it more dimension...

Above the round table....

Gold cherubs.....

I left out some greenery from Christmas and added red velvet roses....

Again, I put back out some of my normal Victorian style decor.....

And added a bit of Valentine's decor to it...

Red velvet roses and a bow...

That is a Valeitine's music box on the left....

An embellished bottle from the now closed Christmas Tree Shop....

A vintage Valentine that was my late neighbor Elly's.....

My faux window.....

Cherubs and a Dollar Tree envelope that I embellished.....

And a heart wreath I made a long time ago....

More envelopes and a Valentine's slate, gifted to me by my late friend Anne Marie....

I added a red cardinal throw.....

Pillow covers that I made out of red velvet like fabric that is embossed with roses.....

I keep the Bear, that volunteers at the Hospice unit where my husband was made for me out of one of his sweatshirts, in the center of the sofa as this is where Joe usually sat.....

Same as on the other side....

I moved red velvet bows that I made for Christmas here, hanging them above the bells....

My 7 ft. slim Seasonal Tree.....

It is decorated in a red and gold color theme for Heart Month...

I stripped the Tree down to the lights after Christmas....

And added a set of 200 more warm white LED lights, that I took off my old Dining Room Tree, to it....

I left the greenery, that I had tucked into the top of it for Christmas, as is and hung hearts from the hook in the ceiling that was put there to hold a lamp many years ago........

I made a bow out of beautiful red velvet ribbon that is embossed with flowers and has a gold backing...

And tucked a few heart picks into the top...

I made this beaded garland by twisting together 2 different types of beaded garland....

One has roses on the beads...

I made a lot of the ornaments for this Tree over the years....

I bought these gold frame ornaments in Dollar General for $1 a piece several years ago....

And placed Valentine's tags inside of them.....

I also took the gold candle ornaments that I had on the Dining Room Tree at Christmas.....

And used them on this Tree for Heart Month....

I amassed this collection of heart ornaments over a decade or longer....

The red and gold rose ornaments were bought at Big Lot's....

I also decorate the platform, that my Dad made for me 47 years ago, that this Tree is set up on......

I cover it with a vintage tablecloth.....

On the left side.....

A gold battery operated branch tree....

The tree to the right of it, which I made, helps to hide the electrical receptacle....

The floral arrangement, on a vase, of red velvet roses and gold leaves is one I made for tables at one of the Harvest Tea's where I was a hostess...

I embellished all of these heart candy boxes....

Vintage Valentine's....

All the Bearington Bears were gifted to me by my late husband Joe and friend Anne Marie....

This one is "Love Bug"

This year, I placed my white ceramic tree, that I leave out year round, in the center....

"Lover Boy" is on the left and "Thief of Hearts" is on the right.....

"Cutie"

More vintage Valentine's cards.....

The right side....

I left out a gold bottle brush tree after Christmas.....

Another vase filled with a floral arrangement....

More vintage Valentine's.....

And "Hottie"....

This red cardinal lighted ball was gifted to me a few years ago by my nieces.....

In the evening....

And that concludes the tour of my Living Room decorated for Winter/Heart Month for this year...

As I have mentioned before, I will be leaving these decorations up until the end of February as Easter is April 5th this year so there is no need to hurry to decorate for Easter after Valentine's Day...

I have to admit that I really enjoyed decorating with INTENTION and taking my time, incorporating things that I had out for Christmas into my Winter/Heart Month decor this year...

And I am really happy with how the downstairs looks right now....

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I tried to change things up a bit this year...

And I hope you will stop by to visit again on THURSDAY for my next post where I ll be sharing how I decorated the Dining Room for Heart Month this year....

Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!

And try to find JOY in every single day!

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......