Luxury Handbag Designer Jada Loveless Exudes as Much Grace as her Designs
Jada Loveless is a Southern, luxury handbag designer who exudes grace and elegance. The same goes for her gorgeous luxury handbags.
Southern people are characters. This site is celebrating Southern people rising to the top of their professions. But still keeping their southern roots. We profile Southern artists, musicians, lawyers and photographers. Also, we celebrate chefs, celebrities, fashion designers, interior designers, stylists, curators and more. This region was built on Southerns and their charm. We are bringing them to the forefront.
Southerners and their culture have brought so much to the United States and the world. This is the place where we can be both high-brow and down home. We are lifting up their accomplishments here. This is a truly authentic place where Southerners can see themselves as well-rounded individuals.
Whether you’re from Charleston, Atlanta, Nashville or Birmingham, we want to hear your stories. If you are from below the Mason Dixon line and live in South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana or North Carolina, we want to hear stories of your life.
Jada Loveless is a Southern, luxury handbag designer who exudes grace and elegance. The same goes for her gorgeous luxury handbags.
Lisa Rayner is a PR maven, writer and a fan of other Southern women living in Atlanta. This fashionista has lived nine lives and is writing a tell all book.
I can’t be certain how I discovered Zoom cooking classes at Charleston Academy of Domestic Pursuits. (Yes, that’s the real name and yes, it’s fabulous!) It was during “Covid Times” for sure. The post du jour was for Carbs 101, a new series of Zoom cooking classes offered by the school’s dean, Suzanne Pollak.
A sought-after speaker, leadership guru, and entrepreneur with his own podcast, More Than Beauty, Daniel Mason-Jones is a force of nature. One with a thick southern accent. He’s the owner of Muse Salon & Spa, a high-end teaching salon in Johns Creek, Ga. Johns Creek is a wealthy Northern suburb of Atlanta where he works styles socialites, reality TV stars and all the Braves’ players’ wives. “We’re a unique model for salon or beauty business. Hundreds of stylists and salon owners come to tour our space and learn from us. We have had 120 salon owners that have come through. We call it the Shadow Project.”
The Kardashians have nothing on the Ruckers. Just as gorgeous, stylish, trendsetting successful sisters as that famous West Coast clan, this East Coast brood has also had their own reality TV show (“Love Thy Sister” on WeTV), were once married to NBA players and have incredible influence on social media.
First, The Story of the Pound Cake Recipe
You can’t get a more classic, simple Southern dessert then one made of sugar, butter, eggs, and flour. Combined just right, they bake a pound cake.
Traditional Southern pound cake has only the four ingredients listed above, but to me, it tends to be a pretty dense cake. I also believe in tradition and my Grandma Wilson’s pound cake recipe includes a small amount of baking powder and some milk, which leads to a fluffier cake with a crisp crust.
She was locally known for her cakes and desserts in her small town on the edges of Greensboro, NC. She took great pride in always having a pound cake in her baking tin. If you were lucky, there was a hot cake cooling on the stove when you came to visit.
Perfecting her pound cake has become one of my life’s missions since she passed in 2018. So much so that in 2019 I submitted a plain pound cake and chocolate pound cake into the North Carolina State Fair and I. Got. A. Ribbon.
My plain pound cake won a green Honorable Mention ribbon. But say I won fourth place due to how the cake submissions were placed in the case. (See above!) It was truly a moment of pride that I was able to continue my Grandma’s legacy.
While it took my mom 35 years of watching my grandma to get the full recipe, I’ll share it right here. I believe sweets should be shared rather than kept secret. And I know we all have our special take on a recipe to make it ours.
Now, for the Macaron Recipe…
Macarons are fancy and their typical price at a bakery confirms the class. I’ve seen a single 1-inch round macaron go for $5-plus. It’s two bites of goodness, but they can be pricey!
What makes them high brow is the ingredients are expensive and they require a good bit of finesse to properly bake them. Compared to a pound cake, you can’t just throw all of the ingredients into a mixer and come out with a batter. You have to follow the recipe to a T, but if you’re up for the challenge it’s totally worth it.
I took my first stab at baking macarons in early 2020. I was inspired by Instagram baking influencer Erin Clarkson of Cloudy Kitchen. She is a self-coined “New Zealander living in Brooklyn.” You should go give her a follow for her fun recipes. (Her cookies are killer!) She has a macaron recipe and Instagram highlight that inspired me to give this notoriously difficult-to-bake cookie a try.
My cookies came out looking right with the frilly foot and flat top. But they didn’t have the cakey texture that is challenging to get just right. A year later, after being pregnant with our second baby and not wanting to bake, I was ready to try again. This time I took a macaron baking class at Whisk Carolina to learn some tips and tricks. The recipe method below is a little different than Cloudy Kitchen’s, but I find it to be a little less tricky. It uses a mixer the entire time and also an Italian meringue base.
I’ve sprinkled in a few tips I learned in each of the steps below. In no way shape or form am I an expert at making these macarons. But maybe this will inspire other home cooks to give them a go. Even if you don’t get the texture right the first time, the cookie will still taste yummy.
Recipe adapted from Whisk Carolina baking class and Jacquy Pfeiffer’s “The Art of French Pastry: A Cookbook.”
Bryan Kirkland was named one of the Top 25 Designers in Atlanta by Veranda Magazine, Bryan Kirkland has been the owner of Showroom 58 at ADAC since 2018, and before that owned BAK Designs for over a decade. He’s also got a Jonesboro drawl to die for and is a Southern dandy through and through.
For over ten years, Lindsay Forlines represented the defendants in medical negligence and wrongful death cases. Now she’s gone out on her own and this Southern belle shares her homegrown secrets.
When the proficient and ingenious photographer Derek Blanks isn’t photographing Usher, Beyonce, Nicki Minaj or Regina Hall, he’s the creative director for Missy Elliott. I first worked with him on photoshoots for luxury magazines in Atlanta photographing the who’s who of the city’s socialites. His work was impeccable and… ooh lord, this man has style. He is always dressed like a champ whenever I see him and being in tip-top shape is so important to him. Just look at how he wears a suit! (Although he does enjoy the All-Star Special at Waffle House as much as a night out at Two Urban Licks).
Liz Moore Mcdermott owns any room. Whether she’s in Atlanta, Tuscaloosa, New York City, Austin, Palm Beach or Nantucket. She holds court. She is joy personified. Liz Moore Mcdermott is a talented interior designer and entertainer, and she frankly (my dear), doesn’t care if you like her or not. She’s going to have a good time no matter what. And isn’t that part of her incredible Southern charm?