Hole in the Wall

We used to love to watch the show "Hole in the Wall" where a moving wall with various shaped holes in it would move toward contestants who would contort their bodies into the same shape to avoid being knocked by the wall into a pool. Is that show still on? If not, what a shame, another brainless show bites the dust.

Luckily, we have our own hole in the wall in our house above the fireplace.


These are popular in newer homes and I believe they were designed for TVs but our TV would never fit up there and it just makes my neck hurt thinking about having to look up at the TV. Even if the TV did fit up there, I never could figure out how to hook up a DVD player and satellite receiver without cords running everywhere? I assume there is a way, it's just beyond my very limited electronics knowledge.

So over the years it's turned into a collection of misfit items with no clear inspiration. We have plans to fill in the hole to make a stone fireplace (someday) so lately it's been really neglected and has turned into this mess.

The vases of flowers were for a something else completely but somehow ended up here. My parents brought the geodes rock for JW to see and ended up here. There are 3 really good portraits of the kids that can't be seen, various birthday cards from months ago, school artwork, a 75% dead cactus, JW's Cubscout stuff that now that I've moved it elsewhere we will never find it, so on a so forth...

So this weekend I got inspired to do something, well, inspirational with this hole in the wall. I thought it would be fun to create seasonal or monthly themes with this space. I figured since it is spring and the azaleas are in full bloom, I would do a garden/azalea theme.

So I headed out to town to visit some local thrift stores.


These are 2 of my favorites and right here in our hometown. Our town doesn't have much, but it is not lacking in thrift stores. They are full of interesting things and it is fun to look through it all, especially with a theme in mind.

Here is what I came up with. It was harder than I thought it would be to figure out where everything should go.

I got the watering cans, the chair and the yellow flowers/vine at the thrift stores, the hat at the dollar store. Most everything was in the $2-3 range, so the overall cost of this was minimal.

I filled in the gaps with pretty quilted canning jelly jars filled with real azalea flowers. I got these jars a few years back. When I use them for canning, if I ever give them away, they always go with a sterner than normal warning to bring them back when empty.

I found this little bench at a thrift store too.
I like how the little doll makes the bench look huge. That was Casey's idea.

It was so much fun doing this, I may reconsider my plans for the new fireplace. I'm already thinking about what to do for my next theme.