These are included:
Oh. my. dear. sweet. salvation.
I repeat, this giveaway includes, but is not limited to, a box of delicious brownies. Who doesn't want...nay, need, that?
Don't Forget...
Don't forget Friday's giveaway...read about it here. I will try to mention it each day between now and then, but you might want to go ahead and take a moment to give it a looksee.
These are included:
Oh. my. dear. sweet. salvation.
I repeat, this giveaway includes, but is not limited to, a box of delicious brownies. Who doesn't want...nay, need, that?
These are included:
Oh. my. dear. sweet. salvation.
I repeat, this giveaway includes, but is not limited to, a box of delicious brownies. Who doesn't want...nay, need, that?
A New Collaboration - a Giveaway in Collaboration with Maria Kear and Her New Business, Send Out Cards
I am so blessed to introduce you to a life-long friend of mine (we've been friends pretty much our entire adult lives) Maria Kear. She is coming up just behind me, in terms of the "empty nest"...she will graduate her youngest from their home school next year. In searching for what God would have her do in her next season, she has discovered a new business venture that she's excited about - and I am discovering that God is really giving me a heart to see women succeed in business and ministry and art. So I want to get started exactly where I am (is there anywhere else you can start?) and promote a woman-friend and her business.
So I have invited my friend Maria to do a giveaway here on my blog! It is a generous giveaway...you will enjoy it, so much, if you win! We will draw a winner in one week - Friday, July 20th. If only one person enters, that person wins! I know Maria - she just loves to have fun with things like this, and is fine with one person or one hundred people entering her giveaway for her new business.
Please note: I am not a distributor for Send Out Cards. I receive nothing in exchange for promoting Maria's business.
Without further ado, may I please introduce to you a lovely lady friend of mine, who is as passionate about the health of the local church as I am - a trustworthy person, who will be a great business woman...Meet Maria Kear!
Hello friends of Sheila Atchley Designs!
I’m so blessed to have the opportunity to “meet” you.
My name is Maria Kear. I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for almost 22 years, and have home schooled my 3 children all the way through. My last one will be a senior next year. It has been one of the greatest journeys and “works” of my life. I am honored to have had the opportunity to teach and train 3 people who will impact the world in their own unique way. I’m in a new season of life and have been praying about what to do with myself….
My good friend Sheila asked me to be her blog guest, because like Sheila, I am a new business owner who is excited about sharing what I do. I love my new business, because at the heart SendOutCards is about showing gratitude simply for the sake of being a blessing. Sure, I am here to build a business, but I understand that we all “reap what we sow”. My heart is to “sow” hospitality and gratitude; to encourage those I meet to be the best they can be in whatever they put their hands to.
To get the word out about my new business, I will be holding a drawing right here on Sheila Atchley Designs. What I want to gift you with is two-fold. The Grand Prize will be a 30 day membership to use the SendOutCards system to bless 30 people with a real paper card, which SendOutCards prints, stuffs and mails FOR YOU.
I have done this myself, and my heart is forever changed. SendOutCards calls this the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge.
Added to this (30 days worth of free card giving) I am adding a box of the most delicious brownies you have ever tasted (I’m not exaggerating!). They are called Chocolate Indulgence Gourmet Fudge Brownie made by Cookietree Bakeries...
...AND a great book I’m almost finished reading called Appreciation Marketing by Tommy Wyatt and Curtis Lewsey
To view a video and get more information regarding the 30 Day Challenge, please visit this website:
http://www.socgratitude.com/MariaK
In addition to the Grand Prize, and because I want you to experience that great feeling of showing someone gratitude, I’m going to gift everyone else with the ability to send 2 free cards to someone you appreciate!
You may visit that website by following this link www.sendoutcards.com/MariaK
I hate to sound like an info-mercial… but there is no obligation. You may try the system, give me feedback, and if you love it, give it your own 30 day trial. But if you aren’t in love with the idea, I still believe your outlook will be changed in just thinking about others with a heart of gratitude.
To enter, I’m asking that you:
1. Take one second's time to “like” (on my personal facebook page) a video that I’ll post about the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge. https://www.facebook.com/maria.kear Leave a comment here on this blog, letting me know you did so - that will be one entry.
2. If you will also tweet “30 Day Gratitude Challenge www.socgratitude.com/MariaK", come back and leave ANOTHER comment here on this blog. That will be a second entry. Remember, come back RIGHT HERE, and leave another comment on this blog, and you will be entered again.
3. AND if you’ll join my good friend Sheila’s blog as a new follower (click "follow this blog" or "join this site" over in the right-hand sidebar), you’ll get a third entry.
4. If you mention the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge on YOUR blog, with my link http://www.socgratitude.com/MariaK , come back here and leave a comment with your blog URL. That will get you a FOURTH entry...and you'll probably win. :-)
Either Sheila or myself will draw a winner one week from today. I’ll work the details out with the winner by e-mail, or by phone if you want me to contact you that way. One thing I will tell you is that if you sign up for a gift account, no one will pester you! I alone will have your information, and I will not share it with anyone.
And I will likely send you a card ;)
So I have invited my friend Maria to do a giveaway here on my blog! It is a generous giveaway...you will enjoy it, so much, if you win! We will draw a winner in one week - Friday, July 20th. If only one person enters, that person wins! I know Maria - she just loves to have fun with things like this, and is fine with one person or one hundred people entering her giveaway for her new business.
Please note: I am not a distributor for Send Out Cards. I receive nothing in exchange for promoting Maria's business.
Without further ado, may I please introduce to you a lovely lady friend of mine, who is as passionate about the health of the local church as I am - a trustworthy person, who will be a great business woman...Meet Maria Kear!
This is Maria Kear
My name is Maria Kear. I’ve been a stay-at-home mom for almost 22 years, and have home schooled my 3 children all the way through. My last one will be a senior next year. It has been one of the greatest journeys and “works” of my life. I am honored to have had the opportunity to teach and train 3 people who will impact the world in their own unique way. I’m in a new season of life and have been praying about what to do with myself….
My good friend Sheila asked me to be her blog guest, because like Sheila, I am a new business owner who is excited about sharing what I do. I love my new business, because at the heart SendOutCards is about showing gratitude simply for the sake of being a blessing. Sure, I am here to build a business, but I understand that we all “reap what we sow”. My heart is to “sow” hospitality and gratitude; to encourage those I meet to be the best they can be in whatever they put their hands to.
To get the word out about my new business, I will be holding a drawing right here on Sheila Atchley Designs. What I want to gift you with is two-fold. The Grand Prize will be a 30 day membership to use the SendOutCards system to bless 30 people with a real paper card, which SendOutCards prints, stuffs and mails FOR YOU.
I have done this myself, and my heart is forever changed. SendOutCards calls this the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge.
Added to this (30 days worth of free card giving) I am adding a box of the most delicious brownies you have ever tasted (I’m not exaggerating!). They are called Chocolate Indulgence Gourmet Fudge Brownie made by Cookietree Bakeries...
...AND a great book I’m almost finished reading called Appreciation Marketing by Tommy Wyatt and Curtis Lewsey
To view a video and get more information regarding the 30 Day Challenge, please visit this website:
http://www.socgratitude.com/MariaK
In addition to the Grand Prize, and because I want you to experience that great feeling of showing someone gratitude, I’m going to gift everyone else with the ability to send 2 free cards to someone you appreciate!
You may visit that website by following this link www.sendoutcards.com/MariaK
I hate to sound like an info-mercial… but there is no obligation. You may try the system, give me feedback, and if you love it, give it your own 30 day trial. But if you aren’t in love with the idea, I still believe your outlook will be changed in just thinking about others with a heart of gratitude.
To enter, I’m asking that you:
1. Take one second's time to “like” (on my personal facebook page) a video that I’ll post about the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge. https://www.facebook.com/maria.kear Leave a comment here on this blog, letting me know you did so - that will be one entry.
2. If you will also tweet “30 Day Gratitude Challenge www.socgratitude.com/MariaK", come back and leave ANOTHER comment here on this blog. That will be a second entry. Remember, come back RIGHT HERE, and leave another comment on this blog, and you will be entered again.
3. AND if you’ll join my good friend Sheila’s blog as a new follower (click "follow this blog" or "join this site" over in the right-hand sidebar), you’ll get a third entry.
4. If you mention the 30 Day Gratitude Challenge on YOUR blog, with my link http://www.socgratitude.com/MariaK , come back here and leave a comment with your blog URL. That will get you a FOURTH entry...and you'll probably win. :-)
Either Sheila or myself will draw a winner one week from today. I’ll work the details out with the winner by e-mail, or by phone if you want me to contact you that way. One thing I will tell you is that if you sign up for a gift account, no one will pester you! I alone will have your information, and I will not share it with anyone.
And I will likely send you a card ;)
A Granddaughter Any Day Now!
We are in Sarah's final days of maternity...and I do mean "WE". Our whole family is in a state of high anticipation. Our whole church is in high anticipation. The picture you see, up there, was taken just today.
Isn't she the cutest, most beautiful little momma ever?
I plan on posting pictures of her nursery. Her sister Hannah designed it, sewed the crib linens, and decorated the room...it is so, so lovely and amazing.
She is due any day now, and I absolutely cannot wait. My second monkey, Miss Aidyn Esther Howe, will make her appearance, and I have a feeling she is as eager to be held by her Mimi as her Mimi is to hold her.
I'm pretty sure I am the most blessed and highly favored woman on the planet.
Actual Church Life
...when I think of the welfare and health of "the church universal" - her struggles, her flaws, her beauty, her care and tending and preservation, her value and her worth...I have had this place before me.
This one small particular represents the universal whole far more tangibly and accurately, demanding more pressing love and sacrifice and talent and commitment than any idea of the universal.
When I have considered grace, kindness, patience, betrayal or carelessness, devotion and worship, when I consider weariness, ecstatic joy, fresh babies and precious children, I have had in my mind's eye the people of this place, their faces and their words and their smiles and their pain.
I can recall the look of a hundred different daylights on all those faces, the worship postures and body languages of the men and women who have labored here, and those who do labor here to this very day - I can see them, in my mind's eye, tending their little patch of ground, because all of us know that you have to stick and stay to reap your harvest.
Harvest Church. You have given me the great privilege of living actual, versus imagined, church life. Your very (seeming) smallness has made you great among churches - your size forces honest connection.
I love you for that.
Post edit: this piece is a "riff"...it is my improvisational "take"...on a paragraph from a Wendell Barry book of, believe it or not, agrarian essays. He was writing about the countryside of his native Kentucky. I thought of the ecclesia. My mind is at the mercy of its associations. Likely, no one would ever recognize the similarities...because I took Barry's thoughts on agriculture and culture and definitely re-made them into my own thoughts on the church. But still...the inspiration was a very direct one, and I meant to say so! (And no...no one called this to my attention. I am self-editing, here. I meant to give credit where credit was due, and simply forgot.)
New Design - Might Already Be Sold
...a leather cuff watch...upcycled watch face...hand stained and hand stamped with 1/8 inch metal stamp lettering...trimmed in a brown dotted "torn" fabric, for a great vintage look...
...a side perspective...
...that you are LOVED.
This is the only one like it I've made, so far. Each watch will be a little different, since each one is hand made and hand stained, and each watch face, and the fabric choices will be different.
Another Huge-To-Me Beta Launch {My First W.E.L.L. Being Video Weblog}
I'm so Beta, I stare at my own bad self. And it ain't pretty, what I see.
All I can say to the Lord is, "Allright, already! I did it!"
All I can say to you is, "Here! Here you go!"
...and then picture me running out of the room. It is hard to be brave. Please be kind.
All I can say to the Lord is, "Allright, already! I did it!"
All I can say to you is, "Here! Here you go!"
...and then picture me running out of the room. It is hard to be brave. Please be kind.
And The Winner Is...
I wrote down every person who commented - and wrote them down again if they tweeted or Facebooked about Sheila Atchley Designs...
...and the winner is...
Rays of Sunshine!
Please email your mailing address to me privately, and I will get your bag and cuff out to you right away!
Thank you, EVERYONE, for tweeting and Facebooking, thank you for supporting me and for having fun with this. I want to do more (and better) giveaways in the future - sometimes in collaboration with other businesswomen and artists and shop owners - sometimes a bag or painting of my own. So "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again."
And don't forget that my leather cuffs are available in my shop...and soon I'll have a few one-of-a-kind bags available there, too.
Now Offering Prints (on select originals) - and Beta Giveaway Reminder!
For the first time, I am offering prints of select originals...please stay tuned as to which ones!
But to get started, here is a brand new original I've entitled "Beautiful Moments" ~
This is a 10x10 mixed media board canvas, rendered in acrylics, ink, oil pastel, and charcoal, on a ~gorgeous~ background of vintage papers. The watermark is only there in the photos, and obviously is not on the canvas. One of the vintage papers I used, is a genuine circa 1940's letter that dropped out of an old art book I bought at the antique store. I am so excited about that letter, love how it peeks through the paint, and so thrilled to use it - the original letter - in this painting! There are also other antique book pages and vintage papers. The quote says, "...in a woman's life, as in any work of art, it is the moments that are beautiful...".
(Original quote - I retain rights on all art.)
Don't forget to read about my Beta Launch Giveaway here, and leave a comment to be entered to win the bag and cuff...and if you tweet and/or Facebook about Sheila Atchley Designs, come back and leave me another comment - you'll be entered twice! This is your last day to enter...because...
...DRAWING IS TOMORROW!
But to get started, here is a brand new original I've entitled "Beautiful Moments" ~
(Original quote - I retain rights on all art.)
close-up of a partial watch - alluding to those "Beautiful Moments" of which a woman's life is made...
...right hand side of painting...
another perspective...
I am so blessed and excited to get to offer PRINTS of this "Beautiful Moments" original. Of course, the original will also be available in my shop as well. And again, stay tuned as to which originals (among the few I have left - I need to get busy painting more) will be offered as prints.
Don't forget to read about my Beta Launch Giveaway here, and leave a comment to be entered to win the bag and cuff...and if you tweet and/or Facebook about Sheila Atchley Designs, come back and leave me another comment - you'll be entered twice! This is your last day to enter...because...
...DRAWING IS TOMORROW!
Final Numbers Are In...
...and after all scholarships and a grant, after doing all we can do, we are still several thousand short of needed funds for the first year of college. How will it happen? What will God do? I have no idea. But I trust Him.
Please agree with me in prayer that God would make a way where there seems to be no way.
Pray with me that I sell lots of art.
This Gospel of Grace
...available in my shop...
This gospel of grace is so not new. I remember how that some, upon hearing The Preacher preach on the doctrines of grace with the same emphasis as Paul the Apostle preached them (mostly reading the epistles from the pulpit!)...they actually thought he was preaching something out-of-balance and newish.
It was so sad to me, but I was not surprised or upset. Most, in this generation of Churchianity, have heard little Biblical, New Testament Gospel. Truly, it is the performance-based Christian who is an unwitting member of the Cult of the Contemporary. Many a modern-day legalist thinks that just because a dead guy is a dead guy, that makes him a "classic", and his writing a more legitimate source of food for the soul.
It was so sad to me, but I was not surprised or upset. Most, in this generation of Churchianity, have heard little Biblical, New Testament Gospel. Truly, it is the performance-based Christian who is an unwitting member of the Cult of the Contemporary. Many a modern-day legalist thinks that just because a dead guy is a dead guy, that makes him a "classic", and his writing a more legitimate source of food for the soul.
Back up, and learn your church history. Or read Paul's writings instead of Finney or Wesley or even Owen or Chambers, or some rabbi born in 1962. I know, right? Novel idea.
Just as, in Scripture, grace preceded the law (and later superceded it), so it is also in eras and streams of thought in the Christian faith A.D. The doctrines of grace are foundational, they have always preceded a spiritual awakening; and excellent treatises on the Finished Work of Christ pre-date the writings of many a dead moralist.
But in direct contrast to what I just said, I am going to share my latest "underlined bit"...from the writings of Charles Spurgeon. Even though he joins the ranks of the Dead Guys, he was no moralist. He was unimpressed with any man obsessed with his own sanctification and self improvement. Spurgeon was Gospel obsessed...
...but he, though long since dead, is perilously close to being a contemporary source. Still, his sources streamed from far more original founts - the Pauline epistles and the writings of the early church fathers.
For your epic enjoyment:
The Lord's people delight in the covenant itself. It is an unfailing source of consolation to them so often as the Holy Spirit leads them into its banqueting house and waves its banner of love. They delight to contemplate the antiquity of that covenant, remembering that before the day-star knew its place, or planets ran their round, the interests of the saints were made secure in Christ Jesus.
It is peculiarly pleasing to them to remember the sureness of the covenant, while meditating upon "the sure mercies of David." They delight to celebrate it as "signed, and sealed, and ratified, in all things ordered well." It often makes their hearts dilate with joy to think of its immutability, as a covenant which neither time nor eternity, life nor death, shall ever be able to violate--a covenant as old as eternity and as everlasting as the Rock of ages.
They rejoice also to feast upon the fulness of this covenant, for they see in it all things provided for them. God is their portion, Christ their companion, the Spirit their Comforter, earth their lodge, and heaven their home. They see in it an inheritance reserved and entailed to every soul possessing an interest in its ancient and eternal deed of gift. Their eyes sparkled when they saw it as a treasure-trove in the Bible; but oh! how their souls were gladdened when they saw in the last will and testament of their divine kinsman, that it was bequeathed to them!
More especially it is the pleasure of God's people to contemplate the graciousness of this covenant. They see that the law was made void because it was a covenant of works and depended upon merit, but this they perceive to be enduring because grace is the basis, grace the condition, grace the strain, grace the bulwark, grace the foundation, grace the topstone. The covenant is a treasury of wealth, a granary of food, a fountain of life, a store-house of salvation, a charter of peace, and a haven of joy.
A Little Slice of Americana...
...East Tennessee style! I shot this at a music store, a few miles from my house, and this music store has been around for generations. It is iconic in my area. If you ever come visit me, I will cook you the best BBQ you ever tasted, and take you to see the Bull on the Roof. (And the amazing vintage guitars, banjos, mandolins, and on and on...)
Oh, and don't forget my Beta Launch Giveaway!
(the bag and cuff I'll be giving away this Friday!)
Leave me a comment here. If you tweet or Facebook about it, please come back and leave another comment - you'll be entered twice!
Thanks to all who've entered so far. You are helping me get started in what has so far been a hilariously happy (and brand new) art career, and a right fine season of life!
Time With A Friend
Met a good friend for breakfast this morning...and then we....
Oh yeah. We did. And I discovered that, when I shoot left handed (unlike this particular picture)...
I'm a Lights Out Layla.
Beta Launch Giveaway!
Michael Hyatt's post on permanent beta, just this past Monday, has had a profound effect on me this week. As a result, I am going to do a Beta Launch Giveaway.
When a company launches its Beta Project, they know it is imperfect. The whole idea is to launch the product "as is" and get the customer's feedback. Now...particularly in technology, quite often the customer still pays for the product, even in its beta state! The price is reduced, but customers willingly pay to be part of the project, and to get to use the product.
I've been working on my own line of bags, cuffs, and altered couture - not just art! I have a basic design for a bag in mind - I want it to be smaller, reversible, and to always have an inspiring word embroidered somewhere on the bag - sometimes very inconspicuously, sometimes boldly.
My vision is to help women live well-defined lives...artfully and soulfully...in context of the Gospel.
Typically, under the old "wait until it's perfect" mindset, I would tweak until I thought it was perfect - which isn't a bad idea in this context; however, I have a perfectly-imperfect, very use-able bag and a beautiful leather cuff, both of which would be wasted just because I am still tweaking the design!
I hate waste.
So, after mulling over Hyatt's thoughts on beta all week long, I thought, "Why not do a Beta Giveaway?"
I will give you my very, very, very first bag, and my very, very second cuff (first one went to daughter Hannah) - and you use and wear and give me feedback as to how I can improve the design. Tell me how it wears for you and what you might like for me to do better.
Go ahead. I can take it.
Here is the cuff:
...this is a narrow leather cuff, in a medium size, trimmed in a rich mustard gold embroidery - stamped with the word "LOVED" Who doesn't need to be reminded of that? If you have a tiny wrist (as I do), it fits like a bangle. If you have an average or large wrist, it will fit close - more like a cuff should. But I like how it looks on me! I wore this out to breakfast with the Preacher just this morning, and got a compliment on it!
Here is the bag:
Upholstery grade vintage-style fabric outside...
...ticking on the inside, a cell phone pocket (fits all Smart Phones), and a hand-embroidered label, just to whisper to you about the key to - not just a beautiful eternity - but also the key to a beautiful day...
It is reversible...here you see it with the embroidered pocket on the outside...
...and the vintage-style fabric on the inside.
Now I know three things about this bag: 1. It is a bit too floppy to suit me. I will have to tweak that - using something to make the sides stiffer. 2. I think it needs another interior pocket (or exterior, depending on which side you prefer facing out) and 3. There are tiny flaws, here and there. But overall, this is a super cute bag, and is use-able. I still love the shape and the size and the drop of the bag (distance from your shoulder to the start of the bag, when the bag's straps are on your shoulder. Perfect drop!). I know I am on the right track.
Hey - even if you only enjoy it for two days, you enjoyed it for free. If you decide it isn't right for you, you could pass it along to a daughter or granddaughter. Just please give me some feedback!
If you would like to participate in my Beta Launch, here's what I need you to do:
1. Please follow me here on my blog - click "join this site" on the button you'll see in the right hand sidebar.
2. Leave a comment, telling me that, once you receive your gifts, you'll let me know how these items wear for you. I truly want the feedback!
3. If you either: A. "like" Sheila Atchley Designs on Facebook, or B. share the link to this post on Facebook (click on the Facebook link in my sidebar) or C. tweet about my website (sheilaatchleydesigns.com) I will enter you twice. Just please come back and leave a second comment, letting me know that you did either A. or B. or C. and your second comment will be your second entry!
That's it! I will draw a name in one week - Friday, one week from today. If only one person enters, you win! That won't hurt my feelings. I just love to give.
Even if you are local (which lots of you who read my blog are!) I still want to mail your prizes to you, USPS, because I need for you to get the full experience - design, packaging, everything - and give me honest feedback on how special your package made you feel. This is an important aspect of developing my business. (Did I really just call it that??)
Whew. I am so Beta right now. Nothing is perfect.
If I succeed, you succeed with me. If I fail, just don't let me fail alone.
I could never design anything I would not wear myself in an East Tennessee Second. Imperfect as they may be, I. Love. These.
When a company launches its Beta Project, they know it is imperfect. The whole idea is to launch the product "as is" and get the customer's feedback. Now...particularly in technology, quite often the customer still pays for the product, even in its beta state! The price is reduced, but customers willingly pay to be part of the project, and to get to use the product.
I've been working on my own line of bags, cuffs, and altered couture - not just art! I have a basic design for a bag in mind - I want it to be smaller, reversible, and to always have an inspiring word embroidered somewhere on the bag - sometimes very inconspicuously, sometimes boldly.
My vision is to help women live well-defined lives...artfully and soulfully...in context of the Gospel.
Typically, under the old "wait until it's perfect" mindset, I would tweak until I thought it was perfect - which isn't a bad idea in this context; however, I have a perfectly-imperfect, very use-able bag and a beautiful leather cuff, both of which would be wasted just because I am still tweaking the design!
I hate waste.
So, after mulling over Hyatt's thoughts on beta all week long, I thought, "Why not do a Beta Giveaway?"
I will give you my very, very, very first bag, and my very, very second cuff (first one went to daughter Hannah) - and you use and wear and give me feedback as to how I can improve the design. Tell me how it wears for you and what you might like for me to do better.
Go ahead. I can take it.
Here is the cuff:
Here is the bag:
Upholstery grade vintage-style fabric outside...
...ticking on the inside, a cell phone pocket (fits all Smart Phones), and a hand-embroidered label, just to whisper to you about the key to - not just a beautiful eternity - but also the key to a beautiful day...
Now I know three things about this bag: 1. It is a bit too floppy to suit me. I will have to tweak that - using something to make the sides stiffer. 2. I think it needs another interior pocket (or exterior, depending on which side you prefer facing out) and 3. There are tiny flaws, here and there. But overall, this is a super cute bag, and is use-able. I still love the shape and the size and the drop of the bag (distance from your shoulder to the start of the bag, when the bag's straps are on your shoulder. Perfect drop!). I know I am on the right track.
Hey - even if you only enjoy it for two days, you enjoyed it for free. If you decide it isn't right for you, you could pass it along to a daughter or granddaughter. Just please give me some feedback!
If you would like to participate in my Beta Launch, here's what I need you to do:
1. Please follow me here on my blog - click "join this site" on the button you'll see in the right hand sidebar.
2. Leave a comment, telling me that, once you receive your gifts, you'll let me know how these items wear for you. I truly want the feedback!
3. If you either: A. "like" Sheila Atchley Designs on Facebook, or B. share the link to this post on Facebook (click on the Facebook link in my sidebar) or C. tweet about my website (sheilaatchleydesigns.com) I will enter you twice. Just please come back and leave a second comment, letting me know that you did either A. or B. or C. and your second comment will be your second entry!
That's it! I will draw a name in one week - Friday, one week from today. If only one person enters, you win! That won't hurt my feelings. I just love to give.
Even if you are local (which lots of you who read my blog are!) I still want to mail your prizes to you, USPS, because I need for you to get the full experience - design, packaging, everything - and give me honest feedback on how special your package made you feel. This is an important aspect of developing my business. (Did I really just call it that??)
Whew. I am so Beta right now. Nothing is perfect.
If I succeed, you succeed with me. If I fail, just don't let me fail alone.
I could never design anything I would not wear myself in an East Tennessee Second. Imperfect as they may be, I. Love. These.
Faith Can't Be Bought...
But the mixed media canvas entitled "Faith" has sold...
...and will bless its new home inAustralia! Post edit: make that the UK. Keeping up with my globe trotting girl Ursula is a full time job. ::grin::
...and will bless its new home in
More Beta - Stocking the Shop
Purchased a teaching DVD, invested in some equipment. I am teaching myself a new skill set this summer:
This is my very, very, very first cuff. Full of flaws. Very Beta (see previous blog post).
But somehow, probably because it is flawed, it is beautiful to me. And beautiful enough that my daughter Hannah coveted it mightily, so I gave it to her.
Both my hands are bruised. I thonked the junk out of first one, and then the other, using the mallet to pierce the leather. I am telling you, I raised my mallet high...I wound up big time, and brought it down hard.
Mother of a Black Bear. That hurt.
Hannah laughed so hard, she spit her Dr. Pepper.
I'll be working on making more for my shop.
Heaven help and heal and protect my hands. Prayers appreciated, friends...
This is my very, very, very first cuff. Full of flaws. Very Beta (see previous blog post).
But somehow, probably because it is flawed, it is beautiful to me. And beautiful enough that my daughter Hannah coveted it mightily, so I gave it to her.
Both my hands are bruised. I thonked the junk out of first one, and then the other, using the mallet to pierce the leather. I am telling you, I raised my mallet high...I wound up big time, and brought it down hard.
Mother of a Black Bear. That hurt.
Hannah laughed so hard, she spit her Dr. Pepper.
I'll be working on making more for my shop.
Heaven help and heal and protect my hands. Prayers appreciated, friends...
I'm In Permanent Beta Launch - Till Heaven
(mixed media art-in-progress..."Suspended in Grace"...with four being the number of Creativity...and the amount of children I have had to release to God and His unfathomable riches of Grace!)
Love Michael Hyatt's post today on living with Permanent Beta. This is when you find an acceptable level of imperfection, and you roll with it anyhow. (That's my succinct paraphrase, and I think it's great.)
My Spiritual Gift is "Roll With It". You won't find it in Scripture, not in those exact words, nor will you find it on any Spiritual Gift Test. But I promise, my gift is Roll With It.
Not so long ago, however, my gift was more akin to "Wait Until It's Perfect". The crazy thing is, nothing ever was. Perfect.
Thank God He imparted the gift of Roll With It to me. If He hadn't, very little would be getting done, except what I could do to please and bless myself. I wouldn't be actively mentoring other women, creating art and selling it, and we wouldn't even attempt college with our youngest. That situation is wildly imperfect, we have no college fund whatsoever, and he is undeserving.
But we Roll With It. What God says, we do, even when it is BigBig, even when we don't seem to have the resources, even when we can't do it perfectly the first time.
The big revelation (truly) for me was - and I didn't begin to really get it until I began naming my years, beginning with "Create" - that you always tweak as you go. I once knew a man, Godblesshim, who for years was hung up on pride. He worried that The Preacher was prideful, worried about the pride of teenage boys, and prayed endlessly for humility - especially that others who were doing Big Things would Stay Humble. He was the pride police, and of course, you aren't supposed to walk in pride.
So you sit and do little-to-nothing in the area of your true calling and passion, wearing pride turned inside-out like a reversible coat. We all know that pride is what keeps you sitting there until you are no longer proud. And the worst pride of all is to be certain of your own humility. Might be best to shed that deceptively-protective layer and stand up and do something imperfectly. By the way - be proud that you did.
Then you simply face up....man-up...woman-up....to the Tweaking Process. Someone is going to correct/critique/tell you how you must improve.
Hug them, when they do. I did...just last week - and they weren't just correcting my spelling or my grammar.
And I received correction a few weeks before that. If no one is critiquing you, you aren't out in front. (And if you are the one always critiquing...well...I've got sad news. You aren't out in front either. But I'll take your criticism on advisement.)
Does that mean I must embrace all correction? Nah. Only when it is for the Greater Good. Only when it does not compromise the Finished Work of Christ in my life. When it gets petty or personal, I toss it like year-old mascara.
Friend, it's all in the Tweak. Life is one big 80 year Tweak. Get over yourself, and move on. If you make a mistake, own it and fix it. I promise the juju of the universe is not moved when we screw things up. You were born wrong, and you'll be wrong again before dinner.
All my life I thought I had God's stamp of approval because my life wasn't going badly. Now I was faced with the fear that it might actually be the opposite. What if my life was going so beautifully because I wasn't chasing after God?
- Jennie Allen, Anything
Faith Is...
Faith is the substance of things hoped for...
...the evidence of things not yet seen.
And so we keep moving forward.
Small Is The New Big
(I took this via Instagram, about a month ago...a sweet church out in the country, here in East TN)
I love small church buildings, when they hint of history and good, simple, sturdy architecture. So much more beautiful than these huge monoliths I call "airport churches"...you know...when signs hang from the ceilings directing you down which wing is what terminal...I mean destination...I mean classroom or bathroom you need. As though you should never absolutely have to ask a person.
I got such great news this week! In fact, the news is so good, I dare not share it until all details are properly tended. But can I just hint?
Over. The. Dang. Top.
I hope to be able to share soon!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)