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.

Faith Can't Be Bought...

But the mixed media canvas entitled "Faith" has sold...

...and will bless its new home in Australia!  Post edit:  make that the UK.  Keeping up with my globe trotting girl Ursula is a full time job.  ::grin::

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...

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 churches, when they love big.  Like my church does.

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!

Kairos Time, When It's Difficult

I've heard many definitions for "Kairos" time...that Greek word for the sort of time that is held suspended as a "time between times"...moments when the veil between earth and heaven  is very, very thin.  Some actually call these moments "portals" in time.  Some experience Kairos as the ability to be completely absorbed in the creative...absorbed, and time doesn't feel like ordinary Chronos "tick tock of the clock" time, but is transcended into something otherworldly.

I've experienced breathlessly beautiful Kairos moments...and God-kissed days...stunning in their loveliness, and brevity.

And I have had a huge, whole day of Kairos time, today.  It has been a Kairos day, and it felt stressful and painful and peaceful and prayerful.

Painful and stressful, but the heavens were opened in a special way...I could feel myself praying into the future.  Leaning into the pain of today, transforming it into prophetic prayer.  I take a huge risk with a very small liberty, but I tell you this, for sure:  There are those times - those Kairos times, when access to heaven is instant and effective.  Sometimes they are achingly beautiful, sometimes they come at a price.

My definition of Kairos is exactly this:  a moment or day when past, present, and future collide.  A moment or day that has all the elements of past, present, and even prophetic whispers of the future, all wrapped up and colliding into one moment, one event, or the sequence of events in a day.  My daughters' weddings were very Kairos.  Time seemed to suspend itself, and my heart heard their giggle as small girls, beheld the beauty of them as brides, and saw the faintest hints of the smiles of grandchildren not even conceived yet.  All of it beautifully collided.  Kairos.

But sometimes Kairos feels like spiritual warfare.

That was today.

As I was in the spirit today...gratefully, completely submerged in bathwater and Holy Spirit, I was praying over our situation, praying into the future - which is what you do in a kairos moment, when past, present, and future collide and the veil between them all is so thin.  The Lord very clearly whispered to me:

"I make beautiful things.  It's all I know. It's what I do.  All this? All the pain?  Look at it this way, Beautiful One" (...yes, He called me that...) "Close one eye, and let the other see through the lens of faith...."

"There's your life.  There's your son's life. ...it's there in my Collide-oscope.  When it all crashes together, the pieces seem to fall apart, past, present and future churning in full view, know this:   I'm at work in the collision, making art of your life.  Turn your perspective around and around, and breathe into the future all the hope and grace and glory you've come to know.  Lean into the pain, and pray into the pain.  The picture will keep changing,as you turn and turn and turn your perspective - adjusting it to look like grace.  The eye of faith - my Collide-oscope - will rearrange it all until it is as beautiful as anything you've ever seen or could have created all by yourself.  I'm here.  I am with you.  I am very near."

He knows what He is making, here in my home.  He makes beautiful things out of the darnedest things.

Life, here at The Cottage?  My family?  We are the darnedest.  We really are.