Our Fixer Upper Road Trip

We took an impromptu road trip down south to the Waco Texas area recently. 

Until we moved north in 2011, we lived in a small town near Waco. Every day I drove to Waco where I worked in the small downtown area, just a mile or so from where the Fixer Upper folks now have their market place and nearby restaurant.

Magnolia Table - Joanna and Chip Gaines' New Restaurant

As old folks sometimes do, we started talking about taking a road trip one morning around 9, started packing a suitcase at 10, and we finally hit the road about 11. 

We did some shopping at Joanna's 'Magnolia Market at the Silos' first, then took a ride by Chip's new restaurant, Magnolia Table, even though we knew it was already closed for the day.  

I only bought a few things at Magnolia Market (a Fixer Upper T-shirt and these sweet little flowers) because we are downsizing our "stuff" these days, but there was so many wonderful things to see and do.

When we got home and I was unpacking, there was a cute little "Thank You" card in the bag. The card talks about how Chip and Joanna hope their market place area will become a gathering spot for families and friends to come and enjoy themselves. I can assure you it already is!

There's so much to see and do at the Magnolia Market shopping area, but that's a story for another post. 

Because the landscaping at both places was so lovely, I took a lot pictures. I want to share the landscaping with you, especially if it's dark and dreary where you are.

Just like the homes they do on Fixer Upper, Chip and Joanna's buildings and landscaping were the real star of the show!

The new restaurant is open from 7 a.m. until 3 p.m. and is only a short driving distance away from Magnolia Market at the Silos. 

The Magnolia Table restaurant has already opened for business, but the landscaping was still being "tweaked" when we were there.

At our house this winter, we've lost some plants in our own bedding areas that we'll need to replace when the weather warms up. Seeing the simple (but beautiful) landscaping Chip and Joanna did on their grounds inspires me to make ours simple too.

If you're a big fan of white and black with beautiful landscaping, you won't be disappointed at either the Magnolia Market shopping area or the Magnolia Table restaurant.

Boxwoods, olive trees, and various plants (with primarily dark green leaves) are mixed throughout the rich brown bark at the restaurant. 

Flowering plants are kept at a minimum here, but wait until you see all the wonderful flowers at the market place!

Around the corner to the left of the building below, there's an open dining area for sitting outside with a little side shop that sells pastries and juice.

I would have gladly walked around and taken pictures of the open air dining, but a couple of security officers were giving me the evil eye...so I was happy to get the photos of the front before we were wisely on our way.

Here's an interesting article about Chip and Joanna when they were starting out broke and finding it difficult to pay their bills, and also talks about the effect their business success and TV show has had on the little city of Waco. See it here on Entrepreneur.com

Thanks for dropping by!

Tea Time And The $5 Bouquet

It's been cold and rainy in NE Texas this week, perfect weather for a cup of tea and some flowers to brighten the kitchen. 

I'm usually not a purple person, but the granddaughters are coming and they both love purple just like most little girls do.

The flowers weren't meant for the kitchen, but when I went to make a cup of my favorite English Breakfast tea, the room was kind of dreary due to the overcast weather. 

And it seemed I may have made the kitchen a little bland in my effort to tone down the yellowish brown cabinets. 

All the brown, black and white of the kitchen seemed to need a pick-me-up. 

It was then I remembered my $5 worth of flowers I'd just bought in bright cheerful colors of purple and yellow.

The pig seems happy with his cheerful bouquet. He didn't seem to care that they came from The Dollar Store and were only a dollar a piece for each bunch.

I'm trying to think of something witty for the chalkboard, but all I can come up with so far is "Happy Easter!"

Yeah, I know that's not too original...in fact it sounds exactly like "Happy 4th!" which is what I got stuck on for 2 or 3 Julys in a row!

I'm open to suggestions for a kicky phrase. Meanwhile, I plan to repaint the little chalkboard black to get rid of the residue of chalk.

Sharing my tea post this week at the Friend's Sharing Tea party at Bernideen's. I hope you'll join me there.

Thanks for dropping by!

Finally March...Spring Is Near?

We have so many birthdays in March it's ridiculous! Out of 17 immediate family members, 8 of us were born in March. 

Livvie's 1st Birthday in March 2014

My Mother-In-Law, oldest Son-In-Law, and I were even born on the same day in March. Three generations on one day! 

Wild Bill wasn't born in March, but he was an only child born on his father's 24th birthday in October.  Oddly enough, I was born on his mother's 24th birthday in March, so we are them 24 years later. 

His parents were even married on the 1st of March, so today they celebrate their 71st wedding anniversary!

Mom and Pop - 71 Years Together As Of March 1st

Our Youngest Daughter's March birthday is always the first day of spring and our oldest granddaughter Phoenix was born on her birthday in 2002, though she only got to stay with her parents for a brief moment that special day before she flew to Heaven.

Youngest Daughter's husband has a March birthday too about a week after hers. Handy because you can just celebrate them together... until you have kids that is!  

When the kids get old enough to notice, they always want Mom and Dad to have separate cupcake celebrations. I think I know why.

That's Youngest Daughter below on her first birthday. Middle Daughter is the one on the right crying with Oldest Daughter cuddling them both.

Youngest Daughter's First March Birthday

Middle Daughter was the sweetest little girl who shared everything she had with her little sister, so she just couldn't understand why she didn't get a present too on that March day. 

Every birthday after that picture was taken, we always bought one present for her too on her little sister's birthday. Sometimes you just have to consider a child's personality in the decision making. 

Treating everyone equal doesn't necessarily make it fair when you have a child who shares with others from the bottom of her heart. I always wonder if other mothers had that problem too and had another way of handling it?

This year will be a special birthday for our oldest grandson Jack, who turns 21 this year! 

Here's Jack and I way back when...

Oldest Daughter was over 23 when she had Jack, just a few months younger than I was when I had her. It shouldn't have, but it really hit me hard to think of my little baby as a mother. 

The night she told us her happy news, I even wrote a poem titled: Do I Look Like A Grandma To You?  Of course the answer was a resounding "YES!" but I just wasn't ready to face it yet.

Jack was the only grandchild on both sides of his parent's families for 10 years until his brother was born. Some "only" children might have turned out different, but Jack has always been retrospective and mature. 

Trip Advisor. Dodge City Kansas

Jack, his mom, and I took a long road trip from New Mexico to Illinois and back the summer when Jack was 5 years old. Jack was fantastic on the trip and seldom complained along the way. 

We stopped at every crazy roadside attraction we passed...the deepest well, the Jesse James Gang hideout, Dorothy's House and Land of Oz in Liberal Kansas, Frontier Town in Dodge City Kansas...and through it all he was a trooper.

Here's a picture of Jack from an 'old timey' photo the three of us took in Dodge City. 

Jack Age 5

I think Jack looks like he could have actually been alive during that time in the Old West...his mom and I not so much! 

One thing I will say is that you should always take one of those crazy photos whenever you get a chance. They are so much fun to look back on and laugh over.

The last family member born in March is our youngest granddaughter, Livvie Lou. She's a sweet girl like her mama, but enough of a Tom Boy that she can hold her own in any situation.

Here's Liv (in the middle) with her two best friends, Miley and Riley. I love to hear her talk about them because she stumbles over R's and L's, which means "Mywee" and "Wywee" is the way she pronounces their names. I'm going to be sad when she outgrows that!

Liv always gets referred to by everyone she meets by three words: "Oh...That Hair!" 

Even when she was a baby, but back then it was because it was so straight, not because it's so curly like now. 

Oh...That Hair!

Happy March and Happy Birthday to anyone who shares our birthday month. It's gonna be a great year for us. How about you?

Thanks for dropping by!

High Dollar, Low Dollar Carrot Wreath

Here's a cute idea for a carrot wreath created by Kimberly at Serendipity Refined last year for Spring 2017. 

Serendipity Refined

I saw a similar wreath at Pier 1 Imports last week, but it was priced at $79 so I passed it up. 

Here's a photo from Pier 1 Import's website of the carrot wreath they're selling this year in 2018. 

Pier 1 Imports

Pier 1 Imports is running a clearance sale and has dropped the price of their wreath to $55, but I still think I'll try making Kimberley's with maybe a few extra carrots to fill it out more.

According to Kimberly's post here, she used an old grapevine wreath, some leftover burlap and ribbon, and about $9 for the carrots.

The carrots are the same carrots I bought last week at Hobby Lobby and Pier 1 Imports. The ones I bought at Hobby Lobby were half the price of the other store by the way. 

I'm using them to decorate the mantle for Easter with a Peter Rabbit theme...

If you are interested in making a carrot wreath, I hope you'll pop over to Kim's Blog and read her instructions and show her some love! She says it was really simple and took her only 10 minutes to do.

Thanks for dropping by!

Faux Vegetables For Easter Decor

We haven't seen the new Peter Rabbit movie yet, but we saw the movie trailers for it when we were at the movies recently.

I really love all the colorful plants and animals associated with the new Peter Rabbit movie and decided to gather up some vegetables and flowers to create a Peter Rabbit theme for Easter on our mantle. 

Our four youngest grandkids (ages 3 to 9) will be here for spring break this year, and I'm hoping they will enjoy a colorful mantle.

I found the striped carrot bunches at both Pier One and Hobby Lobby. Pier One had lots of adorable carrot wreaths and banners, but they were way too expensive for my budget.

Hobby Lobby had the same striped carrot bunches for half the price as Pier One since Hobby Lobby's Easter decorations are already marked down to 40% off.

The colorful flowering cabbage I found at The Frisco Mercantile on my last visit. As Texans say...it was high-dollar...but so pretty I had to buy one! 

The blueberry stems and smaller green cabbages are from Hobby Lobby and were a great price at just a few dollars each. 

Here's a group shot of the mixture of veggies. Can't you picture Peter Rabbit having a good time in this mix?

I cleared off the mantle and started rounding up some faux mustard greens and a tiered wire basket I had on hand. 

In addition, I'm going to use the faux flowers, watering can, and the bunny in the picture below, all things I found around the house. 

How about you? Do you decorate for Easter or just a few of the major holidays? 

Poinsettias and Greens Finally Got Put Away

I have to admit I still had some Christmas decorations up on the mantle until I took them down just the other day. 

I left the Christmas twinkly lights up for Easter though. What's a holiday without twinkly lights?

Thanks for dropping by!

The Greatest Showman

Have you had a chance to see The Greatest Showman?

We saw it last Thursday and thought it was wonderful! We're not the only ones...

Our 9 year-old-granddaughter saw it with her dad on Friday night and asked her mom to take her again today.  Mom loved it too.

It's just that kind of movie, and it's worth seeing on the big screen because some of the scenes are larger than life. If you get a chance to see it, take it.

Thanks for dropping by!

Friday's Favorite Things

There's a great place in Frisco, Texas (just a little north of Dallas) called The Frisco Mercantile. 

Here's a few of my favorite things I saw there when I was out and about last week.

The Frisco Mercantile

 Isn't this huge mirror fantastic? I don't have room for it, even with 12 foot ceilings, but I'd love to do a smaller version of this around our bathroom mirror. 

And then down a side isle, this cute little shelf was hiding on a wall out of the way. It wasn't for sale, just display. 

Frisco Mercantile

Come closer...

I love this rustic thing! I was so busy admiring the shelf, I didn't even notice the cute things on it until I was looking at the photo just now.

I think this shelf looks pretty easy to put together...what do you think? 

Here's a view of just a few of the rows of vendor's shops. Their Facebook page says they have over 200 vendors inside the Mercantile. 

Frisco Mercantile

I never have enough time to see them all so every visit I start at a different isle so eventually I cover the whole place.

I bought this vintage library table at the Mercantile recently. It's narrow at 35 inches, but it's not the long harvest table I've been hoping for.

I'm in the painting process and for me it always takes a while. You know the old "put the paint on then sand it off and start again" process? Yup...that's me! 

My Work In Progress Table

Here's a table that's used for display at the vendor where I bought my recent table purchase... 

I'm starting to think I do have a "type" and it's old, white and flaky, but sturdy even though it has seen better days...seems my husband and my favorite tables have a lot in common!

I'm very fond of this larger display table, especially the white chippy paint on those legs, but it's way too large for our dining area and it's not for sale anyway.

 The Frisco Mercantile

I don't do paid endorsements on this blog and all opinions are my own. Just sharing a favorite shopping place with you in case you're in the area. 

The Frisco Mercantile's address and phone information can be found here. You can also find them on Facebook. It's a great place to shop for new things, as well as vintage and antiques.

Joining the Amaze Me Monday party at Dwellings and the Vintage Charm party over at My Thrift Store Addiction here. Hope you'll join me at both.

Thanks for dropping by!