South of MaDi: Mama's Got A Brand New Bag: The Lucy Canvas

South of MaDi: Mama's Got A Brand New Bag: The Lucy Canvas: I'm very hard on my bags because I tend to carry a lot of stuff with me. - Laura Linney When South of MaDi discovers a product line t...

Mama's Got A Brand New Bag: The Lucy Canvas

I'm very hard on my bags because I tend to carry a lot of stuff with me.- Laura Linney


When South of MaDi discovers a product line that carries a good story with every stitch of its woven history, we can't resist but to share it.  And as the approaching Summer months begin, we restock our lives with flip flops, suntan lotion, and replace our rusty, worn and tattered warm weather items.  This season is about un-apologetically having sandy floorboards, bocce balls and horseshoes rolling around the trunk and a plethora of beach, river and lake gear that might as well stay put in the car since we cannot live without these essentials until Labor Day.  Without a good sturdy bag, we wouldn't be able transport these necessities from car-to-beach, deck-to-pool, or dock-to-boat.

With this notion of Summer essentials, we introduce you to Lucy's Canvas bags.  In the mid-1970s Lucy Mackall made her first canvas bags in her apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts and sold them from a kiosk in Faneuil Hall.  Back then, they were made by hand by Lucy and her cousin, Grace Rowe.  The line sold into the tens of thousands out of several Lucy's Canvas stores.  They became an icon of the late hippy/early disco Boston and Cambridge scene.  Some do say to hold on to the iconic things for they will rotate back into fashion eventually.

Fast forward to summer 2012, where Lucy's children, Savannah & Clayton, thought up the crazy idea of bringing back their mom's hit line of bags, with some moderate updating.  What you see now is the unadulterated result of their mother's brained idea from a second generation perspective.  If you are lucky, you have owned an original Lucy Canvas bag (now considered vintage).

We love this story of a young woman in 1974 who had a simple idea, brought the concept into fruition as a successful business, to later have it revived by her own flesh and blood.  Our favorite for this year is the Summer Breeze bag.  We can't wait tote the Lucy Canvas this Summer and share her and her children's story!

Shop the Lucy Canvas at www.lucyscanvas.com and visit their Facebook and Pinterest pages!

Lucy with Reynold, Sag Harbour, NY Summer 1985
Love the curly shag and beard!

Lucy with Clayton & Savannah, 1990
Sweet mama...sweet children.

Lema: Le French Skirt

"A good speech should be like a woman's skirt; long enough to cover the subject and short enough to create interest." - Winston Churchill

In the modern day era, many women have taken a very casual approach to day wear.  There was a time when most of our mothers and grandmothers wouldn't dare walk to the mailbox or heaven forbid, the grocery store without hair and makeup flawlessly intact.  Nowadays, it is not uncommon for women to be seen running errands, picking up the kids and shopping the do-lists in workout clothes, sportswear and all things Lycra.  Of course, the working woman remains in the mandatory professional attire; arriving at the office in the traditional slacks and conservative button ups, more or less. However, one may find that the closet space in-between work, church services and of course, the frequent gym stops, remain the fun and frilly component of a woman's wardrobe.

Alas!  There is relief in what the woman actually wants to wear, befitting to her mood of the hour.  For ladies, this definition of comfort is: to each, her own.  Nevertheless, when women (and men-alike), particularly think of the ultimate ladylike version of dress, the attributes of femininity lies in the simplicity of the skirt.

South of MaDi would love to introduce you to Lema: French Market Skirts; whose company motto is: Skirts that are wrangling ready!  Ready for that shopping list of errands, lunch with the girls, carpool pick up, picnic in the park or perhaps a day trip to the coast.  This one-size-fits-all approach to the wear-and-go Lema skirt feels as easygoing as a trip to the bakery for a baguette on your bicycle.  This wardrobe addition, created and designed by Florida-based, Dee Lea, has become a subtle rage in coastal towns up and down the Southern Atlantic coast and Gulf regions.

Originated in the Summer of 2010, Lea found herself wanting to find a basic concept skirt that she could "throw and go"; much like a skirt she had bought many years prior at a resort, which finally gave way.  "I couldn't find another one like it," states Lea.  So she bought some yards of fabric, hit up a local seamstress in the Florida panhandle and began her "cottage business" that could perhaps be worthwhile.  By the following Spring, Lema French Market skirts were being snatched up at a Seaside sidewalk sale where 25 out of her 30 skirts she brought with her sold.  What began as a hobby ermerged into a business that has been growing since and where currently Lema skirts can be found in small retail shops and boutiques throughout Florida and resort areas on the coast.

The product line was named after Lea's granddaughter, Lea Madeline, where the collections are inspired by the French lifestyle.  Every skirt is a creation of Lea's ideas as she touches every detail of a skirt she sells and has manufactured.  "My skirts are happy, fun and carefully handpicked," adds Lea.  The skirts are meant to be man-handled, gritty and so versatile that the basic concept is to turn the skirt into a dishtowel once it has gone through numerous washes.  The length isn't too long or short, and can be seen paired with ballet flats, wedges or even a pair of cowboy boots.

We wanted to know, how did the French inspire Dee Lea's notions of a skirt?  The spirited Lea reacts to her labels such as the Cote d'Azur, Pistache Bonbon, and Croisette with, "I love anything French!  I could be French if I had to be.  I am inspired by my travels to France and St. Tropez."  Nevertheless, Lea's life grounded in the South also infuses into the fabrication of the skirt.  Lea has an aversion to lining, for she believes that a skirt that is lined is way too hot for the Southern lifestyle.  Doubtlessly, women need to breathe when wearing a skirt; for the tangibility of the garment should flow freely like a dandelion in the summer wind; reminiscent of a little girl twirling in her best Sunday dress.

Where can we see Lema in the coming years develop as the business continues to cultivate in the local fashion market?  Dee Lea hopes to continue the farm grown, washed, dried and trimmed approach to her 100% cotton pieces.  Be on the lookout for the mini-me version for little girls in her secondary line, Willa, and mother and daughter sets as well.

Indeed, there is something so child-like and and oh so "et la douceur" in the essence of a skirt.  Ladies who wear a Lema skirt should feel like the deserving Girl from Impanema, where a whistle is blushingly and coyly appropriate as she walks by.

We believe Churchill would agree!

Please visit and shop Lema: french market skirts at www.frenchmarketskirts.com and on Facebook!

Curiosity and Creativity Behind the Letterpress: To And From With Love

"Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people." - Leo Burnett

How wonderful it is in life to meet and discover curious and simultaneously creative individuals who offer artistic expressions as their hobbies and work collide in a unified collaboration.

South of MaDi introduces the international company, To & From With Love, LLC; specializing in custom letterpress, stationary and paper goods design.  We had the pleasure to meet co-founder, Lizzie Britton, at a coastal Maine wedding in Boothbay Harbor last August.  Lizzie's cousin was the bride and she was the creator of the bride and groom's nautical-themed save-the-date and ceremony invitations.

Britton's endearment for all aspects of artistic arrangements, including our shared love for interior design, as well as her broad knowledge of graphic design triggered many conversations on how we were inspired to start our own businesses and continue creative endeavors in our work.

The company name, To & From With Love, whose motto is Global Design Close To Home, derived from they way that the business operates, with the back and forth creative ideas between to co-founding team of Sally (Indonesia), Julia (Germany), Grazina (New York City) and Lizzie who is based in Asheville, NC.  Lizzie informs us that, "It also refers to the personal relationships we develop with our clients.  We are there to make an event as easy as possible for helping bring creative ideas to life, and to make sure the client is getting a unique and custom invitation."

Britton has always been a huge fan of paper, printing and design ever since she was a young girl.  She remembers spending afternoons with her mother at her graphic design business.  But it wasn't until she interned and freelanced for Joy Cho at Oh Joy! Studio in NYC that she realized how much she loved the greeting card world.  "My experiences with Oh Joy!, combined with the planning of my own wedding, sealed the deal," adds Britton.  Individuals such as Caeciya "Sally" Sari were willing to take the leap with Britton to help build up To & From with Love from scratch and encourage her to get out there and pursue letterpress.  

South of MaDi wanted to know what inspires To & From with Love to bring creativity to the business and its clientele?  "So much of my creativity comes from the client, whether it is a bride, a business owner, or someone just looking for something fun and unique," responds Britton.  Like most good designers, the inspiration comes from the client's ideas and what their needs are for the project, and bring those ideas to life. 

Moving forward, where can we see To & From with Love's development in the future?  The company hopes to be more accessible in greeting cards in 2013.  Innovative ideas will spur from the company exploring gold foil stamping and linoleum block printing as well.  Britton will be participating in a workshop in the North Carolina mountains on calligraphy and experimenting in the handwritten type.  Also on the radar is the company blog which will feature weekly posts like "Type Tuesdays" and "Wrap of the Month" along with future design projects.

In a world that is now so concentrated on digital and mobile communication, one may wonder how To & From with Love feels about being in the stationary business in this modern day in age?  Britton turns to Guardian writer, Jonathan Jones, for the conflicting interchange.  Jones writes, "Words printed on paper give our written language the vision of colour, tone, size, shape, form and weight.  Print is the singing voice of the written word.  The voice invites us to engage our senses in the act of reading and looking."  Britton believes that print will always have its place and is a vital artifact to capture the spirit of the times.

Britton has chosen the Southern mountainous city of Asheville, North Carolina to grow her side of the letterpress business.  South of MaDi wondered why Asheville over high-profile cities such as NYC or LA?  "There are so many fabulous places all around the world, and part of my business is to promote and explore all design, whether it's in California, New York, Indonesia, England, Germany or India.  But there is no place like the South," acknowledges Britton.  She has lived in many different places over the years, but has always been completely hypnotized by the beauty and mystery that exists only down South.  Britton continues, "I am constantly influenced by the magical nature of the region; whether it is the grand Appalachian Mountains, the misty St. Johns River or the ancient oaks in New Orleans.  For me, it's just where I want to be.  I am hooked!"

And we are hooked on To & From with Love!  South of MaDi celebrates those who are curious to explore outside of the box and to push the envelope, so to speak,  in this fast-paced digital exchange of communication.  We can still experience the tangible elements of creative design in the simplistic form of paper.  

Please visit and share To & From with Love's website, blog and Etsy site at www.toandfromwithlove.com for exciting new projects and inspirations!

The Quest for Love: A Hometown Story

“Those that go searching for love, only manifest their own lovelessness. And the loveless never find love, only the loving find love. And they never have to seek for it.  - D. H. Lawrence

Many of us have heard the old English adage, "Good things come to those who wait," and several times that phrase is advised to those who are in the hunt for The One.  But sometimes true love is the result of happenstance; one stumbles upon love when it is least expected.  These are the tales and mystery of circumstances and coincidence that make up the best of love stories.

We begin this story in the late 1940's at Lake Shore Middle School in Jacksonville, Florida where Gene Harvey and Trudy Ralston (nee Foyt) were both attending when he gave her a ride on his bicycle handlebars one afternoon.  They were both in the Glee Club; Gene served as the President and Trudy an Officer.  The two classmates continued to know each other as teenagers and graduated from Lee High in the class of 1953. Life then carried them on in different paths and they went on to marry their spouses to start their own family's.  Both went on to have children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. After many years and decades of married life, Trudy and Gene experienced loss in the passing of their spouses along the way.

It was in 2010 when the sliding doors shifted and opened a conversation between Trudy and Pam Howard, owner of The Village Ladybug, in the Historic Ortega Village.  Pam was having a sidewalk sale on Corinthian Avenue when she met Trudy.  It was with the realization that Pam was Gene Harvey's daughter, that Trudy kindly asked Pam to tell her father and old classmate hello, for it had been many years since she had seen him.   Within a short timeframe, Gene returned to Jacksonville from a vacation in NC and heard about the exchange and called Trudy up to ask her out on a date.

Friendship developed into a romantic relationship, where Gene proposed to Trudy after a two-year courtship while dining at The Florida Yacht Club.  Family and close friends joined the couple on October 6, including Gene's children along with their spouses, Pam Howard and Mark Harvey, with Trudy's two sons, Bert and Foyt Ralston with their wives and children.  

The Rehearsal Dinner was hosted by Pam and Paul Howard at their home in Confederate Point. Floral arrangements were provided by Gardner's Florist of Ortega.  Frazier's Jewelers custom designed both wedding rings from a combination of inherited pieces and family heirlooms.  The wedding ceremony took place at Faith Lutheran Church.  Reception followed with family and friends at The Florida Yacht Club.  The couple honeymooned at The Greystone Inn in NC and will reside at their home in Ortega.

As we hear stories such as the one between Trudy and Gene, both now 76, we are reminded by the apostle Paul's words in Corinthians that love is patient, after all.  One can continuously search for love, but never find it.  One can find love over and over again throughout one lifetime.  But what Mr. Lawrence observed is that if we keep our hearts open by the act of selflessly loving others, we may discover the possibility that love will find its way to us through an old hello.

Blog article featured in the November 2012 issue of The Resident News.

Trudy Foyt and Gene Harvey (1950)

Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Gene Harvey

 Bert and Foyt Ralston with their Mother, Trudy and her new Groom.

Color Trends: End of Summer Falls into Blue

"......Blue poured into summer blue,

A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,

The roof of the silo blazed, and I knew

That part of my life was over....."

End of Summer by Stanley Kunitz

As Summer approaches its end, South of MaDi knows once the Labor Day weekend fades into the warm horizon, it is time to put the white shoes and seersucker away until next Spring.  In the South, since we get no real relief from the heat until around Thanksgiving,  September is a time for lingering summer breezes and the "not so quite ready to get those pumpkins out just yet" feeling.  So as the school buses begin to roll by and you hear the children's voices echoing off the playground, allow the endless Summer/Early Fall shades to linger.

One Fall 2012 color trend to look for by our friends at Pantone is Olympian Blue.  Just as the torches blew out in London, consider the hue in textiles and fashion that are inspired by the colors in nature and martime such as fresh blueberries off the farm and washed up bouys off the coastline.....

Fall Color Trend 2012

Soleil Bleu by JAB

Blueberry Buckle Dress by Modcloth

End of Summer blueberry pickin'......

Blue + White Bouys....

Necklaces by Buki Designs

John Robshaw Blue + White Block-print pillows at Horchow

A Tale of the Outdoors, Land and Sea: Captain Brett Cannon

“We need the tonic of wildness...At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature.” 
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods



Turkey season in the South is taken very seriously for its limited annual hunting span within just a few short weeks of the calendar year.  A man's exploration of the wild in the early morning hours in his hot pursuit of the game has long been a respectful endeavor that is understood among relationships; both business and personal.  Women who grew up with their grandfathers, fathers, uncles and cousins prioritizing the hunt above all calls of duties, learn the significance and the virtue of patience in the men around them during these seasons.

This is the premise to a story about a man who feels the outdoor life calling him albeit land or sea.  South of MaDi made an appointment earlier this Spring to meet the owner of Atlantic Coast Marine in Jacksonville and was beginning to worry that we had either been forgotten about or perhaps something else came up.  As we sat in the showroom lobby of the boat dealership; just several hundred yards from the Intracoastal Waterway near Atlantic Beach, we took in the environment of the interiors of teal green and blue shades on walls and hanging stuffed marlins while sifting through boat catalogs and brochures; surrounded by the wood columns and beams of the waiting area and the intercom system calls between the parts department and administration.  Forty-five minutes later, Captain Brett Cannon, whips into his establishment like a wild hurricane, similar to the harsh windy gusts that were stirring off the coast simultaneously brewing up just outside the aluminum and glass storefront. Fully dressed from head to toe in camouflage, Cannon immediately apologizes for his tardiness and excuses himself to dress more appropriately for this casual meeting.  He returns with a polo with his company logo and a baseball cap, but keeps the camo pants and hunting boots on.  This is where the two worlds collide, a man who loves the hunt of the land just about as much as he loves the hunt of the sea.

Entering into his office, we are greeted by the hardwood floors and pine furniture and the combination of taxidermy and sketch work of birds, fish and a charcoal drawing of a Labrador that Capt. Cannon drew himself.  With a deep breath and an ease into his leather executive desk chair, Cannon slowly shifts from his adventurous early morning tales into interview mode with South of MaDi's inquisitions.

Cannon's journey from a boy who loved to fish into ownership of a boat dealership began a few decades ago as a child growing up in Texas and Georgia.  "I always loved being on the water, fishing every day and I have always been a good fisherman.  That passion followed me."  His earliest memory of fishing and boating was in salt water at Shellman's Bluff as a 9-year old, as well as, fishing near his childhood home in Augusta and travels to Hilton Head.  He prefers the salt water fishing over freshwater because of the diversity of species...and you never know what you are going to fish out.

His call to become a captain came about in the mid 1990's resulting from graduating sea school in St. Augustine, after his family relocated to Jacksonville.  Cannon began fishing in local tournaments and becoming successful in doing so.  He also attended ABAC in Tifton, Georgia earning a degree in Forestry and working as a timber consultant for the St. Joe Company. In 1998, he started CBC Fishing Adventures in Jacksonville which eventually led to him owning Cannon Bait & Tackle and later co-founding Cannon Marine Partners, along with his father, Carl. In 2006, both men took over ownership of a 70-year old building, once known as Lovett's Bait & Tackle, which in its present day is called Atlantic Coast Marine.

Northeast Florida offers such a plethora of boating opportunities for boaters and fisherman, which is why Captain Brett Cannon calls Jacksonville his home.  "I like the amount of water here and being surrounded by water.  It still has a small time feel here and I'm 30 minutes away from hunting turkey."  South of MaDi wanted to ask Capt. Cannon how he has seen this industry change over the course of the years since he was a young man, specifically as the economy has taken such a hit.  Cannon states, "After the purchase of the dealership in 2006, which was the highest point in the boating market, 2008 and 2009 took its toll on the boating industry with revenue cut in half and a dozen local boat dealerships going out of business.  Everything is up against gas money and fishing regulations trying to kill a generation of fisherman."  Cannon is trying to push the next generation of boating and fishing lovers, regardless of strict government regulations.

"I really enjoy people who are new to boating. I love the service side of the business, for we have a great service department.  I like to see a smile on the faces of purchasers when they leave here after they have bought a boat," Cannon replies with enthusiasm.  He doesn't often charter boats like he once did, but he will offer to take a customer out on the water to test out the boating equipment and getting accustomed to their new boating vehicle.  "Every boat I sell is a customer for life" he adds.

When he isn't selling boats, Cannon is hunting, fishing or doing anything outdoors.  He also enjoys black and white pencil art and spending time with his wife, Brooks and daughter, Grier.  His goals are to fish three days a week and work three days a week and continue the business and to build revenue.

As one who truly savors the business of boating, he hopes to carry the legacy on to his family while passing on the continued service to the local community, to Northeast Florida visitors and to a new generation of young, eager fisherman and boaters alike who share his love of the water.  Whether he is in the wild on the hunt for the perfect game or assisting a customer in the hunt for that perfect boat; where land and sea merge in the great outdoors is where you will always find the delightful Captain Brett Cannon.

Please visit Atlantic Coast Marine at www.atlanticcoastmarine.com and on Facebook.