Disneyland Attraction Poster Display & Tiki Garden

So…. a lot of things are conspiring to keep me from blogging these days, not the least of which are the recording and editing of my weekly Disney Wedding Podcast and lingering disenchantment over the destruction of the places and experiences I loved most at the parks and resorts. But one of the biggest distractions has been settling into and decorating our new apartment over the last year or so. And since some of that involves finding homes for our Disney collections, I thought you might like to see what I’ve been up to!

The Old Place…

When the Disney bug bit me out of the blue in 2001, the only thing I allowed myself to collect was art. I amassed a pretty big collection of attraction poster art, and finding the prints in different sizes was the biggest challenge. Who has the wall space to display 18 full-size attraction posters? I splurged on two big framed prints at the original Disneyland Gallery and filled in the rest by scouring eBay for smaller posters, notecards and a fabulous desk calendar that the Gallery released years ago. I framed them by ordering inexpensive custom-cut mats from Light Impressions and buying frames during Aaron Brothers’ penny sales.

 

I did something similar in my old bedroom, where I had a Haunted Mansion wall, a Tomorrowland wall and a New Orleans Square wall.  Maybe I’ll do a separate post showing where some of these ended up.

…The New Place!

When we moved to our new place, I didn’t want to put ANYTHING on the walls. I was over it—the hassle of hanging things and just that cluttered,  encroaching feeling of having a gallery on every wall in your house. Finally, after months of cajoling and outright pleading, Patrick sat me down in each room and got me to decide where some of the art could go.

The attraction posters ended up mostly in the foyer/tiki garden. That’s right, we now have a TIKI GARDEN! The foyer is actually what sold Patrick on our place the first time we saw it. He spotted these rock “gardens” and was convinced there were planters underneath them.

He was right! We dug out all the rocks, lined the metal planters with waterproofing, put in these rad self-watering inserts (they only need to be refilled every 5 months!), and planted a bunch of indoor plants we got cheap at the Los Angeles Flower Mart. Over time we’ve added colored lighting and even a motion-activated speaker that plays the flowers’ song from the Enchanted Tiki Room!

The Roots kindly took some nice photos of the place on their recent visit:

 

 

 

 

Finally! A place to display our Kevin Kidney & Jody Daily tiki stuff (plus my dad’s fake monitor lizard)!

 

 

Patrick got this Stitch off eBay about 10 years ago, back when Disney’s “Big Figs” were actually big!

 

Chip and Dale were Patrick’s souvenir from Aulani.

 

Only one set of attraction posters made it into the rest of the house. I figured the corner just inside the living room door would be innocuous enough.

 

It doesn’t have any Disney in it, so I’ll just stick in one shot of the rest of the living room.

Tiki Garden… After Dark!

Tiki gardens are even more magical at night, so here are some shots that Patrick took!

Now if only we could figure out how to fix our Kevin Kidney & Jody Daily Tiki Room fountain! The pump just won’t work, even with new batteries and a whole new motor. Any ideas?