Magnolia Fall Workshop with Chip and Jo Jo

Enjoy this post from November 2014 before the Silos…

I love HGTV’s Fixer Upper hosted by this sweet couple Chip and Joanna Gaines..

From Waco, Texas they flip falling down houses. They are a down-to-earth couple and have a great story you can follow on Joanna’s blog. I also follow Joanna on Instagram and when she posted she was hosting a fall workshop in Waco, I jumped at the chance to get tickets. I got two tickets and took my bestie from middle school for her birthday.

Mary and I met about 37 years ago in the school lunch line swooning over the lunch lady’s chocolate sheath cake and we’ve been friends ever since. She lives in Austin so we met in Waco and made a night of it staying in the Hilton and treated ourselves to room service. It was tons of fun to have no kids, dogs (and husbands) to take care of for 24 hours. When we checked into our hotel we were given goody bags with a map to Joanna’s favorite places to visit in Waco.

As we stood in line waiting for the event to begin, Chip made the rounds and we got a pic with him. His teeth are just as white in person.

The event was held in a restored warehouse with beautiful hardwood floors and beams, the perfect backdrop to the rustic elegance theme. The audience sat in long tables decorated with wooden boxes filled with pumpkins, greenery, and mini clip boards with chalkboard art.

Each plate was placed on top of a grapevine wreath with a napkin and a galvanized metal shaped leaf tied with twine.

Each guest had a card to record their blessings printed on craft paper card stock.

We enjoyed a buffet of hot butternut squash tomato basil soup with cheddar cheese croutons, pork tenderloin sliders, and six-cheese macaroni and cheese.

Joanna shared their story of how they met, married and started Magnolia Farms. How you have to believe in your dreams, no matter the obstacles. She talked about, as a mom, simplifying your life especially at holiday time. Less is more and it’s about time spent with family, not how the decorations look. I think we can all take a lesson from that.

Everyone got to take home a Magnolia Market swag bag with most everything at our place setting, including the galvanized metal leaf and clipboard.

At the conclusion of the event, they opened a boutique of gifts from their store and offered photos with Joanna. Mary and I were in line for so long to check out that we missed the photo time. I walked up to her assistant and used my dimples to real nicely explain we really wanted a pic and that we were buying stuff could they pretty please let us get a photo? We ended up with a pic with both Chip and Joanna!

Thank you Jonathan for making that happen for us. It was such a fun night. On Friday we headed over to their retail store and got pics in front of their store…

We look forward to seeing them in January when HGTV airs season two of their show.

1 Comment

Lilly Rowan on November 23, 2014 at 5:46 pm

Melissa, I love JoJo's sense of style and I have all the shows recorded so I can "watch at will." I enjoyed the description of your fabulous trip – I hope Julie and I get to go to the next one. We'd have a ball. Thanks for your blog – you inspire me!! �� Lyzz Pickle

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Lilly Rowan on November 23, 2014 at 5:46 pm

Melissa, I love JoJo's sense of style and I have all the shows recorded so I can "watch at will." I enjoyed the description of your fabulous trip – I hope Julie and I get to go to the next one. We'd have a ball. Thanks for your blog – you inspire me!! �� Lyzz Pickle