Joanna Gaines Has a New Series and Her Own Network

Good Morning, Sweet Friends! This weekend I’m making Korean BBQ. My initial plan was to take it to my dear friend, Rob. We’ve been buddies since college and have travelled and cooked together, but since Covid, we’ve been limited to “food porn” conversations on the phone. He loves spicy Korean food so my first thought was he could sit on his porch and eat, while I sat on the front steps next to the large stone gryphons that stand guard, but with 3,000 new Covid cases here in one day… I’m just going to drop it on the front porch and then talk to him from his driveway.

Speaking of food…

Have you seen Joanna Gaines’s new TV series? Magnolia Table? Like many of us I became besotted with Joanna and her practical, common sense, yet chic style on the Fixer Upper series she did with her adorable husband, Chip. Joanna’s new series, Magnolia Table, takes its name from their restaurant in Waco, Texas, as well as her best-selling cookbook. In Joanna’s new series, I’m drawn to her kitchen because, except for the fancy stove, it looks as though it’s been lifted straight from the architectural plans for the house James and I never got to build because of his death. It was 10 years ago, Christmas, he died unexpectedly while walking on our ranch. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long.

It’s uncanny how much my kitchen and the one in Joanna’s new series look alike. It makes me feel a bit melancholy. Like Joanna’s 1800’s gristmill kitchen in Waco, I wanted our home to look like it had been built in the 1800’s by the early German settlers who came to Texas. Joanna and I share the same white marble top, wooden island table (I’d already found one in my favorite antique store in Comfort, Texas, and put it in storage), as well as wide, plank pine floors, pine French doors and pine cabinets, but it’s “our” walls that I adore! They are showstoppers!

Take a good look at the walls of Joanna’s kitchen.

The technique is known as German schmear. Unlike most of the new limestone homes here in Texas — which have identical, straight, saw cut limestone blocks — German schmear features irregular sized stones and a heavy coating of mortar that not only sets the stones together, but overlaps or “schmears” onto the face of the stone. James and I did a lot of looking before we found “the” guy who understood how it was done. If you’re interested in this technique just know that home repair guy, Bob Villa, has it all wrong.

His idea of German schmear is to whitewash red brick. No, no!

Even bigger news than Joanna’s new series is that she and Chip have started their own television network. They’ve become a media conglomerate like Oprah, and their Magnolia Network is set to replace the Discovery DIY Network sometime this year. For now you can stream Magnolia Table on DIY Network or Discovery+ which is available for $4.99 a month. They have lots of inspiring lifestyle shows they’re filming for their network, so I’m looking forward to it.

“Of all heroic pursuits large or small, we believe there may be none greater than a life well loved.” Magnolia Manifesto