Very rarely do we see Joanna Gaines in anything besides comfortable sweaters and flannels, but in the issue of The Magnolia Journal that hits newsstands Friday, the mother of five is on the front cover in a beautiful, floor-length black gown.
“In our winter issue, we're talking about what it means to live with resolve,” Gaines posted on Instagram Tuesday. “Resolving to look beyond the surface of things, for better or worse, past the messiness, the rough-around-the-edges parts of our lives. This is how we get to discover our untapped potential, our own diamonds in the rough.”
The cover is a reflection of that sentiment, featuring Gaines in her black-tie outfit in front of a beautiful, unvarnished mantel and cracked walls.
“In all of these things, I am still learning that (resolve is) a daily choice,” she wrote. “But I’ve come to believe that it’s a journey worth pursuing, and I hope this issue might help point us there.”
The Magnolia Journal comes out every quarter and features content like recipes and design inspiration. According to Meredith Publishing, it launched back in the fall of 2016 and by December 2018, had around 5,585,000 subscribers.
Gaines and her husband, Chip, walked away from their hit HGTV show, “Fixer Upper,” early last year. They told TODAY they were ending the show to focus on their relationship and family.
“We didn’t want to push it, red-line it, for so long and wake up and realize we’re at a point of no return,” Chip Gaines told TODAY’s Savannah Guthrie in 2017. “I just didn’t want to continue pushing this envelope to the fullest extent.”
That choice worked out for the famous couple. At their family business in Waco, Texas, they continued running a marketplace and a restaurant, while expanding to include a coffee shop and hotel. In addition to the magazine, the Gaineses have also published several books and will launch their own television channel, the Magnolia Network, next summer.
The former “Fixer Upper” hosts were also honored this past spring as two of TIME’s 100 most influential people. The two rocked a black-tie look, with Joanna in a strapless midnight blue gown and Chip in a three-piece suit and tie.
