Fixer Upper Tour

Like the millions of other people watching HGTV, I love to watch Chip and Joanna Gaines transform bulldozer-worthy houses into beautiful homes on Fixer Upper.  Now that they've opened a new store in Waco, people are making the trip there to visit the Magnolia Market and shop at some of the stores featured on the show.

Earlier this summer, we decided to take our first out of town girls' trip with Evelyn, and headed out on the open road (or in our case, windy, wooded, narrow country roads).  Let's just say my first tip is to thoroughly review your driving route in advance of your trip, and don't always trust your phone's navigation system to get you there the best way.  I couldn't even tell you which towns or roads we took there and back, there were a ton of Farm to Market Roads and County Roads.
We checked in at the Candlewood Suites.  This was cheaper than even the Hampton Inn or a regular hotel room.  It had a small kitchen area with a full size refrigerator, microwave and stove top.  It also had two queen beds.  It was only a month old and was about $129 a night.  It was right under $300 for two nights.  It's designed more for people working out of town who are on extended stay trips.  It's a very basic hotel, not luxurious or anything.  It had a swimming pool and a small area to purchase food and drinks, but no breakfast in the mornings.
We did a lot of shopping in the first day.  We hit stores like Spice Market, which is a craft mall close to the Magnolia Market.  We basically just googled stores in Waco and drove all over town.  We also went to Craft Gallery, another craft mall, and Junque in the Trunk and the Findery.  Many of the stores sold the same things, farmhouse decor, and they were all priced pretty high.

We also went to Harp Design, which featured items made by Clint Harp, who regularly appears on Fixer Upper.  His store is right next door to his home which was also on the show.

Many of his items were really nice, but very expensive.  The store is small and items like this cutting board were way over $100.  Small wooden letters were in the $30 range.  

That night we ate at Chuy's, a mexican restaurant.  It was very good and this is what our table looked like.  Needless to say, we left feeling very full.

The next day we went to the Magnolia Market.  We had heard that parking nearby was $10 but there were some lots in the back that were free, and you can also park along the streets.  We parked on the street and walked quite a bit to get there.  We also lucked out because it was the grand opening of the bakery, Magnolia Flour.

This is the menu.  The bakery is very small so you wait outside and they give you the menu to check off your selections.  The cupcakes are $3.50.  I got the peanut butter cup cupcake.  It was very good but my advice is never, ever, eat a cupcake when it is blazing hot like it was that day.  It felt like 110 degrees outside and I thought I would be sick after eating that cupcake.  It was super rich.

 So here's my review of the actual Magnolia Market.  It's not in the Silos like I thought.  It is in another building.  It's still not as big as I thought.  It had some cute things, but they weren't any different that what you see in other stores across town.  It's also very expensive.  My first thought was to get one of the small candles with the Magnolia logo on it, but it was $26 so I passed.  My daughter got a tiny white ceramic bird for $5 and I bought an overpriced wooden crate with the Magnolia logo on it for $48.  My sister talked me into it.  Here are some pictures of the store.

They also had some cute photo opportunities outside and a big lawn with swings, chairs and some toys for kids to play with.  There's also a small seed shop that sold gardening supplies.

We kind of thought we would spend half a day here but it was much smaller than expected.  We talked to many people who drove in from California and Arkansas just to come here and they were really disappointed.  We spent two nights in Waco and we really could have spent just one, but we didn't want to drive two days in a row.  

For lunch we ate at a funky restaurant called Twisted Root.  We were told it was famous for its hamburgers.  We were really unsure about this place.  It seems like a hangout for the college crowd.  There were no windows and it was super dark.  We went out of our comfort zone and stayed and it definitely was worth it.  The hamburgers were great.  They give you cards with famous names on it, and they call them when your food is ready.  I was "Adele", so when my burger was ready the man sang over the microphone, "Hello from the outside, Adele, your burger is ready."  It was very entertaining.  

For dinner we ate at a family Italian restaurant called Baris.  It was also good and the prices were very reasonable.

We had a great time and it seemed like it took forever to get home.  We took a different route through some more country roads and ended up on the interstate.  We stopped in Huntsville for lunch and ended up going through more twisty roads.  It's fun to say you've been to Magnolia Market, but I wouldn't plan to stay more than a couple days and brings lots of money if you plan on buying anything there.