The Magnolia Lie

I'm a Fixer Upper fan—who wouldn't be? Chip and Joanna Gaines are perfectly adorable, and the homes and designs one sees every episode are almost all winners. Last year I was browsing Instagram and saw Fixer Upper's Joanna Gaines's account. Filled with perfect photo of everything—perfect globs of dough, perfectly arranged furniture, pottery, scenic views on their farm. I coveted what she showed us—who wouldn't? The Gaines's sell a brand—a brand of casual comfort, shiplap and relaxed beauty. (I want that. I need that, right?) Anyway, she advertised a massive after Christmas sale at their Magnolia Market, and drooling, I followed the link and headed right over to the store. Minutes later, I put in the order for 2 fir trees. I thought they would look great in the house. Somewhere.

They weren't cheap. The original prices were:

Tall--$58

short—$48

Here's the photo of what I thought I was getting. Small photo, no real detail.

I ordered both sizes, and after the discount, I paid $35 total. This is still way more than I normally spend on superfluous decorating items, as I'm a DIY girl. But I justified it because I was getting something from Magnolia Market. I was that much closer to having the same beautiful home those lucky people on the show were given. Right?

Many weeks later (seriously, at least three), my order finally shipped. It arrived so late in the winter season that I couldn't even put the trees up. I just glanced in the box to see that they were in there, then put the whole thing in the basement for next year.

So imagine my surprise when I pull it all out again today and actually examine my Magnolia Market fir trees for the first time. With a heavy heart, I realized I had been had.

There is a nasty brown tinsel around the trunks of both trees. I thought I was getting wood. It was advertised as wood. It's not. There's an MDF or worse base and the tree trunk and branches appear like its a cardboard tube with wire and the nasty brown tinsel to cover everything. I would have even been more accepting of the brown floral tape. But this?

Here's what I got. :(

Magnolia Market didn't bother to re-brand the trees—they still has the wholesaler tag with Made in China glaring at me! I was hoping—really hoping—that there would be some US shop somewhere that that the Magnolia team was buying these items from, or had contracts with—I was so wrong.

Wholeseller website. Notice that everything looks like it could be on Fixer Upper?

With a heavy heart, I realized that Magnolia Market offers products no different than those found in a Michael's or Hobby Lobby. Everything is from China, and while it might look great in the staged photos, it doesn't support US jobs and because it's Magnolia Market, I was paying quite a markup along with shipping for no good reason. These trees weren't unique to Magnolia Market. And that's what I convinced myself that was buying. A Magnolia Market-Joanna Gaines-surely-breathed-on-this item.

The obvious thing I had a hard time remembering is that underneath the glitz and farmhouse wonderland of the Fixer Upper shows, the Gaines' are a wealthy family. A very wealthy family. They built up a brand, a relaxed way to live at home, and they are selling it at a high cost to people like me who just want that extra Joanna touch in our homes. I'm not supporting a cute mom and pop shop here, despite however much Joanna name drops her original little Bosque store—Chip and Joanna are business-savy millionaires who buy low and sell high, and I'm the sucker who kept the profits rolling in for them, all while landing myself a sub-par quality item. Did I bring that piece of Joanna inspired calm and beauty into my home? Not really. It's rather embarrassingly cheap to look at unless I'm standing twenty feet away and can't notice the low quality. No one would even know that it is from Magnolia Market—there is not a single piece of Magnolia branding on the trees.

Sure, this lesson might be obvious to many people. I guess it my disappointment came down to my desire to believe in a feeling from a look and buy (literally) into the lie. I give due credit to Chip and Joanna Gaines as business owners—they are brilliant at what they do—but after this experience, they've certainly lost a lot of polish.

DIY Floor Pillows

Tutorials for floor pillows are easy to find on pinterest, so I won't regurgitate the directions here. What I do want to add is getting into the specifics, like size and cost that some of the other bloggers fail to mention.

Both floor pillows I made are 32" squares, and that is massive. My 3 year old is dwarfed by it so I know that it will be very useful for years to come. Any larger than that and you're honestly giving up a lot of valuable floor space. Just keep that in mind.

The second thing I wanted to mention is the fiber fill itself. I highly recommend that in the interest of cost savings, DO NOT go to a craft store like Joanns or Hobby Lobby for the filling, because you will pay a fortune (I learned this the hard way). At 32", these pillows require about 100 oz of filling each. This number sounds useless, but trust me, the poly fill bags will have an ounce amount on them. The original filling I bought was a bag at 40 oz for a whopping $20 each at Joanns! Yikes! Sorry, but that's the whole reason I DIY--to make things on the cheap. The stuffing part of the pillow shouldn't be that much. So I went to Walmart and found a 50 oz poly fill bag for $7.44. I can handle that so much better. So there's my two cents on the stuffing amount and cost.

Happy sewing!

No More Head Banging! DIY High Chair Pillow

My little guy is a head banger. Aside from freaking out guests and making quite a bit of racket, it really bothers me that he is smacking his precious head into the back of his high chair that contains virtually no padding. 

I needed to do something about it, and it's been a long time coming. This is a quick and easy fix, and a bit ugly, but that's usually how my first editions go. Here's a brief tutorial to lay out the basic design so you can make your own hooded pillow to go over your high chair. 

You will need:

sewing machine

1 yd fabric (I used a soft flannel) 

 .25 yds of junk fabric (not seen)

scissors

the fabric cloth covering to your high chair

old pillow/stuffing

1. Trace the shape of your high chair cover onto the fabric. You will need to cut 3 pieces. 

    (Sorry, only 1 shown above).

 2. Sew your 3 pieces together like a sandwich: lay the ugly fabric down, followed by the pretty fabric face up followed by a pretty fabric face down. Sew along the outside edge.

3. Turn out your sandwich. You should have the good fabric facing front and back with the ugly fabric in the middle. Sew a line down 3/4 of your ugly middle piece and front piece (sewing them together). Note: Get your back piece of your fabric out of the way-it must be separate or your cover can't go over your chair!  

4. Take the stuffing out of an old pillow and stuff your new pillow with it through the 1/4 space you left open. Sew that space up when you're done. Hem the raw edges so it looks more complete.

Fit it on your high chair, and you're done!