When Audrey Duke started selling candles at farmers’ markets in 2016, she dreamed of one day making it to Magnolia.

Created by Fixer Upper stars Joanna and Chip Gaines, “Magnolia is aptly referred to as the Disneyland of home decor,” Duke said.

With her business OLIVE & PEARL — a hand-poured, small batch, coconut wax candle brand — Duke applied last year to be a vendor at one of Magnolia’s marquee events: Spring at the Silos in Waco, Texas. But she didn’t hear back and thought she must not have been selected.

However, while going through emails on a December morning, “it was in the last email account I checked that I received the notification,” Duke recalled.

OLIVE & PEARL was one of 90 vendors selected to participate in the 2019 Spring at the Silos, chosen from a pool of more than 700 applicants.

“It was like winning the lottery,” Duke said. “I literally screamed out loud when I read the invitation!”

Magnolia anticipated upwards of 10,000 visitors per day during the March 14-16 event — or, for comparison, the entire population of Cody.

For Duke, highlights included an instant feeling of community among the vendors and meeting so many creative people. She said she also loved seeing the working garden on the grounds; veggies harvested from the garden are served at Magnolia Table.

“… But the most memorable moment for me was when OLIVE & PEARL received a shout-out by Joanna Gaines herself at the vendor meeting!” Duke said.

During the Spring at the Silos event, Duke was impressed with the details and how every little thing was thought about.

However, “the takeaway from my experience doesn’t have to do with aesthetics,” she said. “It is the impact that this one family had on an entire community.”

Uber drivers commented on the astonishing growth Waco has seen over the past five years, she said, and hotels are being built to accommodate visitors from all over the world.

“And it’s all because someone dared to chase a dream,” she said.

Duke was pleased to learn that she carries many of the same lines at OLIVE & PEARL, a home goods, gift and lifestyle boutique in downtown Cody.

Spring at the Silos also opened new doors: OLIVE & PEARL candles can now be purchased at a Waco boutique just a few blocks from Magnolia, in addition to being available at about 30 locations across the country.

“There were so many connections made during the three-day event that the full impact of this opportunity is still unclear,” Duke said. “I have seen an increase in online orders, especially orders being shipped to Texas in the month since the event.”

Duke started pouring candles in her kitchen in 2015. OLIVE & PEARL grew from selling candles at the local farmers’ market in 2016 to a brick-and-mortar location on Cody’s Sheridan Avenue by February 2017. The business moved into its current location at 1183 Sheridan Ave. in May 2018, and will celebrate its one-year anniversary there with a ribbon cutting at noon on Friday, May 3.

Refresh a room

OLIVE & PEARL owner Audrey Duke suggests these simple and inexpensive ways to refresh a room:

• Channel your inner Marie Kondo and find joy in decluttering. Not only does decluttering transform a space visually, it makes it more efficient. It’s also been proven that a well-organized home actually has health benefits like reduced stress!

• One of the easiest and most affordable ways to refresh a room is with a new coat of paint. Walls have a large surface area, so changing the color has a great impact on the space. I gravitate towards timeless, neutral colors. My go-to wall color (if it’s not white) is a greige, such as Gray Mist OC-30 by Benjamin Moore.

• Make the most of your windows by hanging your window treatments correctly. A few rules of thumb when hanging curtains: First, select a curtain rod that is wider than the width of your window. It tricks your eye into thinking the window is larger than it actually is. Curtain rods should extend 8 to 12 inches wider than your window on each side. Also, the higher the curtain rod, the taller the window will appear, so place your curtain rod closer to the ceiling than the top of your window — ideally 4 to 6 inches above the window frame.