Did you love Amanda’s DIY projects in our fall issue as much as we did? The chalk jars…brilliant! Today we’re loving her blog and these fab prints available in her Etsy store.

Happy Friday!

I spotted this necklace last week and instantly fell in love. Isn’t it gorgeous?

You can rent it via Rent the Runway for $50 or buy scoop it up on the Dannijo website for $945.

We often get asked what the hardest part about putting together each issue of Southern Flourish is. I’ll give you a few hints: it’s not meeting deadlines, coordinating shoots, coming up with ideas or working with new writers. The answer to the question has been (and I think might always be) selecting which photos go into the magazine.

It’s as simple as this: the photographers that we work with rock (David Despeaux, Jennifer Kesler, Allen Clark, Ben Williams, Austin Gros, Eric Chapman, Bridgett Ezzard — just to name a few of the fabulous). We always end up with tons of amazing material and selecting which photos fit in the article can be really tough. You want to make sure the photos you select work together as a group, gel with the rest of the magazine, and play in to the vibe of the season in which the magazine comes out. With a digital magazine there is always the temptation to load in photos and have a 40-page feature, but we’ve learned over the past two years that y’all really prefer a bit more curating with your Southern Flourish photos!

Elise and I faced the usual “agony” of pouring over the hundreds of delicious photos shot by Laura O Zumwalt for our cover story with Erin Austen Abbott. We ended up using about 20 photos and I guarantee we could have picked 20 different photos and you all would have been just as smitten with the feature. Laura’s photography is bananas amazing.

Here are some of my favorites that didn’t make it inside the magazine…

Can’t see the preview issue above? Click here to view the non-flash version.

We’re so excited to share the Fall 2011 issue with you all. There is just so much inspiration packed into 108 pages!

Featured in the Fall 2011 Issue:

• Cover Story: Amelia and the Oxford Collective: Our intrepid editor Elise gets the inside scoop from Erin Austen Abbott, the brains behind Oxford-based boutique Amelia. Find out more about the boutique, tour her home and learn what’s on the horizon for one of our favorite Southern gals.
• Recipes: Unsung Heroes of the Fall Harvest: Ever wonder what in the world you could do with celeriac? The masterminds behind big girls, small kitchen will show you!
• Spice Up Your Kitchen: Three Crafty DIY Projects: One of our favorite new bloggers, Amanda from wit and whistle shares her crafty DIY projects with us.
• From the Pasture to Your Plate: How the Harris family from Georgia is leading the sustainable agriculture movement.
• Georgia Home Tours: A Tale of Two Decorators: The talented ladies behind Milk & Honey design give us backstage passes to their gorgeous homes.

Southern Flourish is a 100% digital magazine.
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We hope you enjoy reading the issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together!

One of the most exciting/fun/challenging aspects of putting together each issue is creating the cover. The cover really sets the tone for what’s the come in each issue and it’s incredibly important that we get it right.

The Fall 2011 issue comes out tomorrow (so excited!) and we thought it would be fun to share with you some of our almost-covers. All of these lovely images were shot by the fabulous Laura Zumwalt.

The first cover we worked on was a simple, but fab, shot of Erin at her shop. We loved the simplicity of this cover and the fall color palette. But, we just felt it was missing a bit of pizazz.

Our next cover featured one of my personal favorites from the photo shoot — a shot of Erin at home, surrounded by vintage finds and her adorable pup. As much as we loved the shot, we felt that it was a little too busy for the cover.

The next cover we toyed with is a fantastic photo of Erin at home with her fabulous decorating style in full view. We loved that everywhere you look there were great vintage finds and pieces of artwork. For whatever reason, however, it just didn’t get us excited as a cover image.

To be honest, as soon as Elise and I saw this shot we just knew it was the winner. The composition is unlike anything we’ve had on our past six covers. Plus, the dark wall provided the perfect space to preview what’s inside. Not to mention the shot provided us with ample color inspiration — which you’ll see carried throughout the entire issue.

We think it fits in marvelously with our previous covers, don’t you agree?

The Fall 2011 issue is only a few days away (it comes out on the 15th, so be sure to subscribe if you don’t already!), so it’s time for us to give you a sneak peek of the cover, featuring the insanely wonderful and talented Erin Austen Abbott of Amelia Presents (among her many claims to fame) on the cover. This feature was the brainchild of our fabulous editor Elise Yetton and it’s one of the staff’s favorites to date. We can almost guarantee that you’ll want to pick up and move to Oxford, MS — and become best friends with Erin — after reading the cover story.