We can’t wait to share the Holiday issue with you! Featured on the cover is designer, blogger and Rock & Shop Market organizer Michelle Smith. Subscribers: keep an eye on your email inbox this Thursday, December 1.

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.
PURCHASE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION TODAY!

Subscriptions for the remainder of 2011 are just $8 and include the Fall and Holidays issue. Save $2 when you use discount code LOVEFALL.  Already a subscriber? Login using the form in the top right of the side.

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?

Did you know that every week our editorial director picks out her favorite must-have item? You can find these items in the blog sidebar. This week we love this Zig Zag Sequin Shift Dress from Trina Turk.

You can buy it on the designer’s website for about $325 or
rent it from Rent the Runway for $50!

Since March 2010, we’ve published a handful of really fabulous Long Weekend Travel Guides. With summer in full effect and lots of our readers planning fun trips, we thought it was time to refresh our collective memory on the guides that are available. Some guides exist only in our paid issues, but we’ve listed the free ones below for your convenience!

This question remains: where should Southern Flourish go next?

In our very first issue, Spring 2010, our now-Food & Travel editor Olivia wrote a fantastic guide to Charleston, SC:

In our Summer 2010 issue, The SoHo Blogger Natalie Broulette wrote a great guide to Savannah, GA:

In our Fall 2010 issue, we featured a Nashville, TN guide written by Mollie McCormick:

If you’ve scrolled down our sidebar lately you’ve probably noticed that we have created a few new “love” buttons. If you’re a fan of Southern Flourish, feel free to add a button (or two!) to your blog, site or other super savvy web presence.

Also, if you’re a blogger interested in writing about Southern Flourish we put a small sample of our layouts on to flickr so that bloggers have high quality images to use. You can find those images here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/45791165@N06/sets/72157626959145674/.

The preview issue:

We are so excited to share our beautiful Summer 2011 issue with you all! If you don’t already have a subscription, be sure to subscribe today and get immediate access to the great articles, photos and Southerners featured in this issue!

Learn more about our featured articles by clicking any of the photos below:

Already a subscriber? Login using the form at the bottom of the page or the one in the top right sidebar of the blog.

Our summer issue release is on two days away! We are so excited to share the issue with you all. In the meantime, we want to give a shout out to our wonderful summer issue contributors and editors.

Top row: Elise Yetton, Typically Southern Editor | Ben Williams | Cara & Phoebe from Big Girls, Small Kitchen | Stylist featured on our cover: Laurel-Dawn McBurney

Second row: Liz Agricola | Austin Gros | Natalie Kilgore, Home + Garden Editor | Erica Jackson Curran

Third row: Dana Humphreville | Elizabeth + Myers, featured in an interview about their wedding | Emily Wall | Kate Hash, Editorial Director

Fourth row: Olivia Rae James, Food + Travel Editor | Matt Moore | Jan and Melissa Kozak, featured in an article about backyard gardening | Elizabeth Ragland, Creative Assistant

Stayed tuned for more goodies from the Summer issue!