Sitting Room Garden "Hearth" and "Hidden" Storage

 Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!
I am so happy you decided to stop by!!

I hope Blogger has fixed the issue of pictures disappearing because I held off doing this post.....

So here goes nothing.....

So far, I do not see any missing pictures from this post.....

Please let me know if you do.....

Today I will be sharing the "Hearth" are of my faux "Fire Place" in the Sitting Room......

But first, I want to Thank these bloggers who chose my post,Word of the Month for April, HOPE! ,
as one of their features from last week's Linky parties......

Thanks, Richella over at Imparting Grace, for featuring my post, from last week's Grace at Home Linky party!!!
 Thanks so much, Richella!!!

I want to Thank the authors of Create with Joy, for choosing the same post, as one of their features from last week's Inspire Me Monday Blog Party!!
  I also want to thank them for their kind words about the post!!

And Thanks to Angie, over at God's Growing Garden, for choosing my post  as one of her features from last week's Tuesdays with a Twist Linky party!!!
 Thanks so much, Angie!!

Please stop by and link up to this lovely parties!!!

A few Personal Updates.....

Joe finally decided on what he chose using the Gift Card that our oldest son, Joey, gifted him for Christmas from NHL.com.......

This is what Joe chose......
 His favorite Pittsburgh Penguins players and of course, Himself!!!!

Barna, #1 Draft Pick!!!
 Now, as a joke, he replaced one of the pictures on my Gallery Wall going up the steps.....
Very funny!!!

But SO not happening!!!

Soon, I will be sharing how I had to rearrange his ENTIRE Pittsburgh corner in the Master Bedroom.....
  And how his Collection now expanded over to this wall in my very Victorian Master Bedroom.....
 It turned out to be what I call a Snow Ball project.....kept getting bigger like a snow ball rolling down a hill!!!

On the weekend, Joe decided to trim the Lilac Tree in our back yard that was pushing our back fence forward.....
He cut the smaller branches off with the Tree Pruner....
Here is where I got scared!!!
Yes, he is up on a step stool!!!!
Now, I did tell him to move all the garden things out of his way but did he listen......
NO!!!

Surveying the situation.....
 Apparently, he did not think it would be easier if he had moved all those things out of the way!!!
Oh No!! Out comes the saw!!!
 I was waiting for him to fall and get impaled by that arrow!!!!
 I told him that if that happened , I was in no way going to take him to the ED since he had not listened to me!!!
Peek a Boo!!
Success!!!
And this project also turned into yet another Snow Ball project as I saw more branches that could be cut off!!!
Finally, all done!!!
Looks good from the Sitting Room window upstairs.....

This is why I say that our back yard is our Secret Garden.......
 Because with the trees and the lattice on the fence, no one can really see into our yard and especially not when we are sitting out on the Patio!!

When I was upstairs taking this picture, I noticed a Blue Jay in the Lilac Tree......
He then flew over to my neighbor's fence......
 We have lots of birds in the yard because of the Trees.....

And that's it for my Personal Notes for this post......

 I decorate the upstairs Sitting Room in a garden theme for the Spring and Summer months.....
In my last post, I shared my Fairy Garden Mantel in the Sitting Room.....
Click HERE if you missed it.....
I also mentioned that when I saw this piece of furniture in my MIL' s neighbor's house, I immediately envisioned a " Fire Place'!!!!
And this is what I turned it into.......
This is how the "hearth" area is decorated this year........
I took the doors off and removed the shelf from the middle section and then painted it black inside......
I placed an old Home Interiors mirror in the back......
Hanging from white porcelain knobs are 2 ornaments........
 A Seed packet ornament ......
And a Fairy ornament.......
On top of a large white lantern.......
Is a pretty toadstool........
The lights are a set of battery operated dragonfly lights from Dollar Tree......

On each side of the large lantern......
Are planters I made from these.......

2 Thomas Kinkade pots that I bought many years ago at The Christmas Tree Shop for $1.00 each!!!
I then spray painted these wooden candlesticks, bought at Salvation Army for $1.00, white......
And used my favorite glue, E 6000, to adhere them to each other.......
And filled the pots with some greenery.......

I clipped a pink Butterfly ornament, bought after Christmas one year, to the greenery......
  Hanging on the side door knobs are Garden plaques bought at Dollar Tree......
In the middle, is a large white lantern that was part of a set of 2 that a neighbor of ours left behind in their yard after they moved.....
Joe asked the owner of the house ( he rents it out) for the lanterns who gladly handed them over.....

I cleaned ( scrubbed) them up and put them to good use.......
I have a Bird's Nest filled with pretty yellow eggs and a set of fairy lights inside the lantern.....

On each side of the lantern are Dollar Tree birds set on top of inverted clay pots.....

And this is what this part of the fire place looks like decorated for this Spring and Summer season......
Usually, I have a piece of lumber that I covered with peel an stick floor tiles placed in front to finish off the "hearth" look.......
With my Teddy Bear Tea Party set up on it........
But these are all packed away down at our Storage Shed because since our son, Joey is staying with us now for the duration of the health crisis, he is using this room for his clothes and other belongings and I did not want him to trip over this........

So this is how my faux fireplace is decorated for this Spring/Summer Season......
This Sitting Room is where I store all my Decorating books and magazines along with the books that I would like to eventually read once I find time.....

I found the storage provided in this piece of furniture was perfect for storing my old decorating magazines!!!
Magazine holders, that I have bought at yard sales, thrift stores and flea markets, fit on these shelves behind the side doors, perfectly!!
Now over the past year since I stopped working, I have gone through and weeded out a lot of these magazines......
But these are the ones that I will keep as long as I can......
The Country Victorian magazine holder is empty because I have moved them downstairs to look through........
I rotate the magazines that I keep downstairs in the Living Room and Den to look through when watching TV.....
I always thought that this piece of furniture was a Martini Bar......
The shelves on each side could have stored stemware and the shelf that was originally in the middle could have easily been used to store liquor bottles......

And I could see this top shelf that opens up this way, being used as an area to mix drinks......
I have stored quite a few photo albums that I need to go through and re-organize, putting the pictures in acid free containers that I recently bought.......
So I think I have made good use of the storage that this piece provides.....
You may have noticed this on the left side.......
I will very soon be switching out the magazines that I keep downstairs for these Garden and Porch/Patio magazines.......
And one other thing I want to share today is the Garden wreath on the door that I made a few years back.........
I like to hang wreaths on all my interior doors........
 In my next post, I will be sharing my Garden Tea Table in the Sitting Room.......
So I hope you will stop by to visit again soon!!

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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