Texas Inspiration with Wisconsin Flair
Joanna Gaines has always inspired me, Yes I love her style, after all, we’re both farm-girls. If I were flipping houses, they would definitely look very similar to the Fixer-Upper’s we see on TV, with a bit of Wisconsin flair thrown in. But my admiration goes a lot deeper than her talent for design. It’s the drive and passion for what they do, always a newer bigger idea. (I mean really, lets just turn some old silos into a retail store, and why not add a bakery and a restaurant while we’re at it) It’s also their faith & trust in God and the love of family, that we share as well. They truly are an inspiration!
But my admiration goes a lot deeper than her talent for design. It’s the drive and passion for what they do, always a newer bigger idea.
It was an early birthday present for me, I’m a January baby. But we wanted to go during December, to see the holiday lights and decorations, along with the holiday concert. They fill the Silo grounds with fun things to do and eat and lots of great live music. My mom agreed to watch our kids. We were so excited, our first couples only weekend in a very long time! But then, all the kids got sick, yup the puking fever, kind of sick. I decided I couldn’t do that to her and was going to cancel the trip. But, my mom is amazing, she said this wasn’t her first time with sick kids, and could handle it just fine… and then she pushed us out the door.
Sadly, we both got the same 24 hr bug in Waco, but on different days, so we each spent a day in bed, while the other was off touring (great romantic couple weekend right, story of our lives).
At the concert we got to see Chip and Joanna enjoying the music, they were perched high above on a balcony. How cool is that!! After the concert the crowds all left and we ended up having the whole place to ourselves We got super silly and dance and jumped around, gotta have a little fun, now and then!
We had to sample a few cupcakes from the Silo’s Baking Company, they were so tasty, a bit pricey, but super good. It was all so surreal having watched the show on TV how they turned that old building into a bakery. What did surprise us was how small everything seemed, it looks much larger on TV.
We also visited the Harp Design Co. and met Clint, he does a lot of the work for the show “Fixer Upper”. He takes salvaged wood and turns it into cool stuff for Joanna. What I didn’t realized is he also has a retail store, which is always inspiring to me, a fellow store owner. When we got back I wrote a post and tagged his company and he responded to it!! Totally made my day, (OK, more like my week)! He’s such a down to earth guy.
Our biggest take away was, we can do this, (ok maybe not the TV show, but If a producer calls, just point me where to sign) but a similar experience for our customers. Magnolia’s have a more traditional layout when it comes to product displays, I try to create a unique one of kinda look, and our customers seem to really appreciate that.
"Our biggest take away was, we can do this,"
A friend who lives in Baldwin, WI also went to visit Waco, (another time than we did) when she came back she said I don’t know why I traveled that far, I have that and so much more just down the street at Restyle & Co. (ok that one made my day and my year!)
We did come home with a few mementos, I mean Neil so needed a Demo Day T-shirt (what guy doesn’t, right?) and I got a pretty wall vase for my office that says Magnolia’s on it.
I hope you enjoy the pics we took down there, we had a great time and came home inspired. Be sure to come see what we have done with our little “Waco” in Baldwin, WI too!
Keep Restyling…