Texas

Last weekend we went on our first Denning girls' trip ever. It was definitely memorable and had its ups and downs. We didn't arrive in Austin at our hotel until after 2:00am (3:00am our time) on Friday. We woke up and made the 2 hour drive to Waco. Fixer Upper inspired our trip as well as my brother and sister-n-law being in Austin for 6 weeks.

Waco was much bigger than I expected. I thought it was in the middle of nowhere and would be tiny, but having a college in the city might add to the size. Baylor University was beautiful based on what I saw from the tinted rental car windows. 

Magnolia Market was our number one priority. It was crowded, but could have been much worse. Apparently on Saturdays the line to even get into the store can be 2 hours long. We didn't even have to wait in line to get in the store! There were several food trucks lining the store and a cute little play area that Simon enjoyed outside.

They have hired people to stand and take your picture in front of this sign. Sign me up!

These are the bags you fill while shopping. No, we didn't all buy matching purses.

This is the view of the silos. It was beautiful and there is construction going on to expand.

I'm very into candles and love the warmth they add to houses. I now have my favorite smelling candle of all time from Magnolia Market. I'm kind of afraid to use it because it's that amazing and who knows when I'll be back to Waco to buy another one. I also got some wooden blocks that have the month, day of the week, and number on them. (P.s- taking the candle through security was ridiculous)

After leaving Magnolia, we drove by Clint's shop. He is a carpenter and makes tables to put in the houses on Fixer Upper. He lives next to his store, so it was fun to see his house that Chip and Joanna fixed up on one of the episodes. We ended the adventure by driving to the renovated bed and breakfast that Chip and Joanna have in a nearby city. Wow, it was really far out. 

Such a quaint town. This bed and breakfast is booked through the rest of the year!

Let's talk about the humidity in Texas for a minute. IT'S TOO MUCH FOR ME. Showering multiple times daily would be a reality if I lived there. After shopping for several hours on Saturday, we were all dripping with sweat and grouchy. We ended up finding a local library WITH AIR CONDITIONING.

We each chose books for each other in the library. Can you guess what book Jill choose for me??? (check answer at bottom)

The rest of our weekend included far too many episodes of Fixer Upper, Tiff's Treats, an excessive amount of food, famous Texas BBQ, games, and picture taking.

We headed to the airport Sunday evening. Due to weather, lightning striking a tower at the Houston airport, and who knows what else, we were delayed for 2+ hours. Also, several planes in Texas were redirected to the Austin airport. It was utter chaos. The restaurants in the airport even started to run out of food. 

Due to our delay, we missed our connecting flight. We did not make it home to UT Sunday night like planned. We ended up stuck in Phoenix. We arrived at our hotel around 11:15pm and our new flight was booked for 5:30am the next morning. We set 3 alarms for 3:45am to make it to the airport on time. (This time, I knew to take my candle out of my bag and put it on its own tray through security. It worked!) After all of that, we finally made it home around 8:30am absolutely exhausted!

I'm not in any rush to fly again after this fiasco. We are all just happy we didn't check our bags (after moving gates several times). Our weekend sure was memorable and I've never been more okay with 95 degrees and no humidity. :) 

(And if you guessed Jill chose the book "Mustache" for me, you were correct. Don't get me started on facial hair.)

Coming Along

We have now lived in our house for a month! Part of me feels like we just moved in, but most of me can't remember living in our old basement apartment just four weeks ago. Things have started to come together which is fun to see!

We have been eating on a card table (or the couch to be honest), but we finally got around to buying a table. Apparently I am quite picky when it comes to kitchen tables. Who knew? I have been looking for weeks and nothing has fit my style or budget. I stumbled across this beauty at DownEast Home Basics on Memorial Day weekend. It was half off and still spendy, but we went for it anyway. After having a cheap (ish) table from Target that got beat up quickly, we decided to spend the money now instead of having to replace it soon. 

Another project we have tackled is painting. Basically every centimeter of the house needs a paint job, so we are by no means done, but the bulk of the main living area is finished. We kept the soft gray the previous owners had on the walls, but repainted all of it including the ceiling. When looking at the house, we had no idea that the ceiling WASN'T white. We quickly realized it was beige. No wonder everything seemed so dark. Look at the difference between the family room and kitchen ceiling. A white ceiling makes a huge difference. (Special thanks to my Dad for helping us with this big project.)

From the instant we put in the offer, I realized how much more cleaning I would need to be doing. The cleaning never stops. The previous owners had 5 kids and as we have used different appliances and features throughout the house, the dirtiness has become quite apparent. Check out the picture below. I innocently started to sweep the kitchen and thought I would check behind the oven. I was disgusted and didn't anticipate spending 2 hours cleaning this. (I think a dirty oven is normal in any house though.) 

We realized pretty quickly that the blinds throughout the home are pretty beat up. Some of the blinds were so brittle that when I touched them, they would break. We have thrown away 5 sets of blinds and replaced them with elegant white sheers. (We may eventually put up blinds, but not anytime soon...$$$) We cleaned one set of blinds over the weekend which took over half of a bottle of clorox wipes. I can't get a good picture of the sheers because of all the light coming in from the windows.

We were given a king-sized bed (Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Denning) and we actually have a furnished spare bedroom! We were a little selfish and decided to put the king in the master and it has been dreamy.

The project list continues and I frequently remind myself that we can't fix everything right now, but we have made so much progress and I am in love with our house. Our next big task is hanging pictures and paintings. I'm especially eager to do this because I know pictures will drastically change the feel of our home.