 If you are an artist living in North Alabama, please contact me for a paid opportunity to show your work in underused retail display windows. This project is also seeking property owners looking to support local artist. Please email me at erin@southelondon.com.
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 I recently had the opportunity to join a crowd of fashion bloggers in Nashville, officially welcoming in Spring and pre-Nashville Fashion Week festivities in style. There were definitely a few eye-catching elements. Most noticeable - shoes. With the weather still playing fast and lose with temperatures and rain, a good way to transfer from one season to the next is by making fancy with your feet. Lots of shoe love was on display.  Another noticeable statement was heard loud and clear from Scout's Barbershop. Not only were the stylists handing out beard and braid love, they provided everyone with these awesome swag bags. I love that it can double as a reusable grocery or shopping bag. The Scout's team were also my favorite brand of authentic, modern Nashville style. They really made done-up look effortless, professional, and new. Like their website says, they are the place for scouting fresh styles and looks. With four locations, their vibe is easy to catch. They encourage your walk-in visit, and really understand making their place yours too. Cold brew coffee or local cold brews are just one of the enticing reasons they should be a community destination. Click the photo to link to the Scout's website or follow them @scoutsbarbershop.  If you were wondering who commanded their own personality and style, my attention was snagged by Breezy. A standout and a knock-out with a killer smile, this woman is more than a trifecta. She is a singer/songwriter, has an impressive follower count, styles an outfit with fierceness, is a personal shopper and a designer. The jacket she is wearing has a custom Breezy touch. She transforms out of date into dope for sure. DM @breezythebombshell for your own custom denim with a statement.  I especially enjoyed a brief conversation with the designer, Maria Silver. Her custom-made, donated denim patchwork jacket on display at her pop-up drew me in. Maria is wise to the ways of sustainability in a fashion business model. She will be headlining the local designer night at Fashion week. I'm betting she will continue to have a presence on Nashville and the world of fashion. Find her at @blackbymariasilver, and be sure to stay tuned for more sustainability insights from a designer perspective.   Learn more about The Un-Dress Project, and read the latest article about sustainable fashion by following this link, www.un-dressproject.com/blog.
 Walk! Deciding against the public transit was the best way to spend time in Paris. I got to take in details to and from the apartment that made my experience more lived in and less logistical. I understand the love affair with the city. One bite of a hot croissant from Boulangerie Utopie will unlock a great longing for the uneven streets of Paris long after your return flight. It is a beautiful city. Although it was wet, grey and cold in late March (your March traveling companions should include an umbrella, hat, coat, scarf, and comfortable, rain-appropriate shoes). There exists a unique composition of contrasts from Rococo to geometry. A blend of cultures past and new emerge around each square - as if the ghosts of Christmas past and what's to come have left their day job to play permanent travel host.  If you feel you need to warm your heart and your hands with something familiar, you should try Le Café des Chats. People and paw watching is very universal. I also found any Café garmond, three tiny desserts and a coffee with milk, to be quite comforting and a petite way to taste your way through the city's flavors.   ...County Moira Northern Ireland, specifically Craigavon, you must stay a night at Clenaghans. Never has a repaired barn apartment had such charm. To note, I stayed a couple nights while driving a loop from Dublin around the northern coast to Sligo and back again. Clanaghans was well worth the stop slightly off route. Coming from the Newgrange stone age passage tombs, it was fitting to stay somewhere older than anything familiar back home - including our country. This is actually not hard to do there. Our old is not nearly as old as theirs.
Best I could decipher, the Clenaghans property was a family farm passed way on down to Ivan. While easily mistaken for a mad scientist or a character from Mr. Bean, Ivan was a consummate host. I am grateful to have been there when the restaurant was still open. As an American and road-tripper, making reservations ahead was not part of my culture. Graciously I was allowed a table and in good time. They said farewell to the restaurant in 2015. I also hear that Ivan has passed along his post to the next of kin. 
Every detail felt lived in and relative. Fresh eggs, cream and bacon left for consuming in the fridge. Family photos hung on the wall. Poignant memories left in the journal (Ivan really is a character - "that'll do donkey"). A place that felt like home so much the state flower was blooming in an old whiskey barrel.   Catch a behind the scenes glimpse at https://www.instagram.com/southelondon/.
 - Bombarded by an unbalance of self-promotion, self-help, self-acceptance and looking for the truth of my own personality; I stumbled upon this question - what kind of woman am I? The complexities of life can gray a definition, and not us all color within the lines. We are what we are and ever searching more. Reality lives through a periscope and not always in front our own eye. And still, nature unearthed a freckled girl with no intent to keep her same. She laughs, and cries, and sings alone, and contemplates this name - Woman. There is a swell deep within, like a Tiesto crescendo - a need to create. And just as azaleas with winter rains, she becomes a well-bloomed artist with a little nourishing. Her path, never straight, flies along like the maple seed, and just as sure - planting greatness when she lands.
  Behind the tree line and nestled amongst the valleys, a hushed symphony plays - a metronome of nature, an untouched board long ago planed, a tuft of time slowed like honey dripping from the heavens, the sun dropped rain hopscotching on leaves in the forest. These are the musicians of the south. Like ghosts left behind to wander wild and grow up around abandoned home places, a legacy left as delicate as the creek of a rocking chair. Can you smell the memories - the footprints left where no one can see? It's like biscuits rolled and cut out by hand on grandmother's table - an impression digested and passed on. When the notions of happiness entrap you, when the noise is too loud both inside and out, follow that thorned path deep into what's been left behind. Find where the quiet lives.
Decatur, AL You must see the time lapsing from old to new. The old theatre has new company and community blooming all around it. This iconic landmark has made new friends and growing traditions as seen in a newly developed arts district. You have to visit the farmer's market across from the dry cleaners. If you don't find the perfect pepper for your salsa, local laid eggs, or a dream in jelly jar hand-canned by the sweetest woman in a lunch lady apron you've ever met...just stay long enough to watch passing train graffiti. Be sure to follow a local part way across the river to Hard Dock. Live music and a frosty Grateful Dead in hand, you're sure to meet a new friend or two.  |
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