Preface:
Why, sweet Lindsay, would you go to Waco,TX?

Have you ever seen the show, Fixer Upper?  Well, in a nutshell, it’s a wonderful Christian couple, Chip & Joanna Gaines, who met while at Baylor Univ. in Waco.  Their strengths collided and blossomed into a real estate/decorating/refab/house flipping dream!  It really makes your heart pitter patter…and Nathan enjoys watching it with me, so I’m lovin’ it.

#WacoRoadtrip and #FixerUpper Day

I have been planning this trip to Dallas to see my wonderful friend Tricia for some time now, and when I found out that Waco, TX was only 1.5 hours away I flew through the roof!  I had the roadtrip planned in seconds and had Tricia convinced in a day!

Ok, so here we go..

#WacoRoadtrip with Tricia MG!

• I convinced her to wake up at 5:15ish am and hop in the car.  We would head STRAIGHT to the coffee shop, Common Grounds.  
  Common Grounds is this Awesomely Unique coffee shop right across from Baylor’s campus, but even cooler, the couple that owns it has their house flipped on Fixer Upper.  The place was totally eclectic and totally the place I would be should I be back in Waco.
• Then we jumped back into the car and drove around a little, then headed to Cameron Park Zoo.  We basically had an hours to waste between coffee and the Magnolia Market opening at 10am.  The zoo was definitely the answer.
  
  We mostly had fun avoiding the school kids that were there on a field trip and taking pictures.  The top right picture is a slide that goes through the sea otter exhibit and Tricia was taking their pictures. We have way too much fun being grown ups.
• THEN, The #FixerUpper Tour commenced!  First stop… MAGNOLIA MARKET!
  It was filled with MANY of the good & beautiful items from the show.
  PS I made Tricia sit and watch about 6 shoes before she went so she knew what she was in for.  I converted her for the weekend…This pictures make it look cloudy but it wasn’t.  The sun was shining both outside & IN MY SOUL!
• Next stop, I found some address online of some of the flipped houses…one of which was the Harps!  So, we headed over and found…
  
  
  Harp Design Co. was BEAUTIFUL.  It smelled DIVINE in there….like cut wood…I know.  Nose-gasim.  
  And of course…this happens.  We are soo inconspicuous.  Spies really… (That’s Clint in the blue…)
  
  He then came over shook our hands and headed out for his day’s work.
• After we calmed ourselves down, we headed out for our next adventure!  I surprised Tricia with a used bookstore!  So you know that analogy of a kid in a candy store…let me show you a similar analogy.
  
  She’s in heaven.  Funny….I think I have this same picture only 12 years (WOW) ago in upstate New York.  I will definitely be posting that when I get home!
• Finally, to our last stop…SPICE VILLAGE!  Coolest!
  
  Basically, it’s the upper level of this factory turned into these awesome vendor booths with GREAT crafty shops.  They had everything from cool jewelry and beautiful dresses to refinished furniture and Baylor memorabilia GALORE!!  These were some of my favorites:
  
  We ended up eating lunch at this cool little bakery downstairs called Olive Branch.  DELICIOUS!
  
  
• Before we left, we snagged a sweet treat at Mrs. Thompsons Cupcakes Food truck outside.  I got the Salted Caramel & Cookie Dough Cupcake.  Tricia got an Oreo Cupcake.  (Cupcake food trucks will be in heaven…just so you know.)
  
• Finally, we had a little bit of time before we needed to head back to Dallas, so trough clues on the show, I tried to string together an idea of where they might live. We headed out to Crawford to see if maybe, just maybe I could find their farm.  Now, I understand this may show stalking tendencies, but I wasn’t going to go to their house, just take a picture of their gates.  AND WE FOUND IT!!!  
  Chip, JoJo…if you see this, please don’t think I’m a stalker…I promise, I will leave you alone now.
  But what a stinkin’ fun day.

Oh!  Also, apparently the thing to do in TX when it’s blue bonnet (that’s a flower) season is take your picture with blue bonnets…so only naturally, we stopped along the highway and ran to the field on the side of the road and took our picture.  🙂

All in all, we had an AWESOME #WacoRoadtrip & #FixerUpper tour!  I feel like now when I watch the show, I’m gonna squeal and say, “I saw that!” or “I’ve been there!” or some other obnoxious annoying fan geek thing.

ICING ON THE CAKE:

Yesterday, I found on IG that it was #FixerUpperFanDay so I posted this awesome collage…

I think the winner may receive a call from Chip & JoJo, but I was mostly just excited about the day and LOOKING for ways to exclaim my excitement.  Then, when I checked my notifications on my phone this morning, LOOK!!!

JoJo commented on my picture.  DAY MADE!

Well, all in all, like I posted in the picture, my heart was filled to the brim because EVERY place we went, was a Small Business…a person’s dream in form.  The shops were the result of God’s will & BIG hearts.  I was super willing to support/buy stuff from people/business like that!  Can I coin the hashtag #SmallBusinessBigHeart

oooo….I like that!

Ok, I’m sure I’ll post more about this later…I’ll have to show you my awesome plunder from each store.
mmmm. so wonderful.

the end.