My husband knows birthday’s aren’t exactly my favorite thing to celebrate every year. It always feels like an awkward holiday where everyone comes out of the woodworks to say “happy birthday!”. My phone buzzed all day, but I admit it made me feel pretty darn special (thank you everyone, btw!).. but my inner introvert was looking forward to a nice quiet dinner (surprise, he didn’t tell me where until we got there)… when we were sat down my sweet husband surprised me with a few friends at dinner, and that we would be going to the Magnolia Market in Waco, TX the next day for a mini spontaneous road-trip. (I’m really glad, was shocked, and absolutely loved the surprise friends showing up, too, after all!)
So what is Magnolia? If you watch Fixer Upper you’ll immediately know why this is so exciting. We are big fans of the show and LOVE watching it any chance we can get. I have some serious future dream goals of a Chip & Jo that I swear I plan on meeting someday haha! We called Magnolia to double check that it was puppy-friendly. so we packed the leashes and my duffle bag and threw it in the hatch of the mini cooper with the pups and went for a ride to good ‘ol Waco! I hadn’t been in years, and I was so excited when we arrived. It was hard to find parking, but after a few drives around we found a safe place to make camp and get situated. I had Gypsy in my duffel bag and Annabella was being held by my husband (she’s a little bit bigger and skittish!) and we walked through the beautiful Magnolia. You’re greeted with Magnolia trees on the outside, huge silos, a turf lot for playing on, a covered area with food trucks and a lemonade stand!
It was packed (to say lightly) so I held Gypsy close to me in the bag, and had my camera in hand, squeezing in between people (while also trying to shop, I went through the store about 3 times!). You almost had to follow people in the line and go through it like a conveyer belt to get through. I think the next time we go, we’re going to go on a cooler, less-busy day 😉 I LOVED and appreciated being able to take my babies in with us and it made the shopping experience even more fun. I love that Chip & Joanna want it to be a family-friendly place to gather and shop, and it really felt like an upscale market. I enjoyed all of the creative art touches (especially the cascading book wall when you first walk in). There was so many neat ideas, and I had so much fun snapping a few shots as possible while I was being pushed around through the crowd 😉 As you can tell, it was CROWDED, so it was a little hard to catch much without people’s heads all around, but I tried my best! We actually found out via social media that Joanna was there AT THE SAME TIME WE WERE.. and we just never noticed.. so, that was a bummer, but maybe next time – because I can’t WAIT to go back! 🙂
Needless to say, this birthday will be pretty hard to beat in the future 😉
Things I picked up while I was at Magnolia (but can’t wait to order more online!).. That also came in a super cute Magnolia bag with a postcard note from Chip & Joanna about their store. It was an amazing shopping experience.. high-class boutique with reasonable prices.. and everything was so beautifully displayed with EXTREMELY kind and professional employees. (In fact, when I was struggling to get Gypsy situated in my bag, an employee started to help!)
- Gold glitter decorative wood feathers (not sold online)
- A rustic off-white stained vase
- A stem of wrapped cotton
- “I love you to the moon and back” metal cut-out sign
- (I had to get that one up asap of course)
- Mini pencil crayon set (not sold online)
- Homegrown Cookbook (not sold online)
- Two Magnolia Mugs
- A few stickers for my camera case (at the register)
- A Magnolia Market Waco, TX Grey T-shirt (it’s so so soft!)
- A wooden Magnolia postcard (at the register)
- 2 Boutique Soaps (Poppies and Honeysuckles)
*I love Magnolia everything.. and we love that our house even has Magnolia trees.. and you can see one in the corner right of the first photo, even!*