One Thousandth Post, a JEANNE OLIVER GIVEAWAY, "I Love...Art" {February, The Month of Love}

Friends, this is a big day.

This post officially marks my one thousandth post. One thousand blah blah blabbety blabs...and I still have friends, and new "followers" (a term I am not fond of, but did not coin...we just have to roll with it, don't we? YOU know it is just a blog word...you are all leaders, not followers...say it with me: "We have minds of our own. We just like to win free stuff.")

I am beside myself to reveal that the sweet Jeanne Oliver, of Jeanne Oliver Designs- has graciously donated one spot in her upcoming ONLINE mixed media art class...her brand new class...the one entitled "Letting Go."

Here is where the good karma gets all weird and even better...I didn't plan that this would be my 1,000th post...I knew I wanted this post to be a special one!

Well, here at the cottage, the entire story of my life, in the last two years, has been a journey of "Letting Go"...wearing forgiveness like a crown...releasing my too-tight grip on situations and offended people and prodigal sons....none of it is under my jurisdiction anymore. I do not have to fix anything. Just let it go.  Guard my heart...keep relationships...let go of expectations.

Not only that, but wouldn't you know it, as I was planning this giveaway post, just this week, the whole "Letting Go" mojo has reached even newer levels in this house.

I am now a certified black belt ninja letter-go-girl.

So there is something of full circle-ness and fulsome sweetness and just rightness about this giveaway, as well as who the giveaway features, and our connection as mentor/mentee. (Jeanne teaches me online, I learn...)




Please visit Jeanne's website www.jeanneoliverdesigns.com - check out her shop, and once in her shop, check out her online classes. Take note of how amazing the "Letting Go" class is gonna be. Look at all the techniques you will learn, because Jeanne is a good teacher. You will learn. Promise.

To win the generous gift of a FREE spot in her class, please simply leave a comment on this post, first of all. Then, if you tweet about this giveaway (giving the blog address) - that is another chance to win...

...if you Facebook the giveaway or Pin it to Pinterest...same thing...as many chances to win as you can get the word out on social media, and come back here and leave a comment letting me know.

I am also opening this one up to my church ladies, but I promise to use a random computer generated number app, to pick the winner. I will in no way draw names or pick her myself. Everyone has as many chances to win, as they are willing to help promote the lovely Jeanne Oliver's class.

Honestly, if you had to pay her $58 or so fee, you are getting a product...a web workshop...worth over three times what you paid. I can direct you to online art classes all day long with a price tag of $149. Jeanne's classes are worth more than she charges. Homegirl is that good at her art classes.

Those of you who home school will want to win a spot for your student. Easily worth a semester's fine art (not just "crafts") credit.

I will announce the winner of this special giveaway (weeks of classes, tons of demonstration videos) on Friday of the upcoming week. So you have plenty of time to tweet, Facebook, Pin, and refer people to this blog to sign up. Those of you who bring referrals who follow this blog and sign up for the giveaway??? I will add your name yet again, as a "thank you" for the referral. Just make sure I am told that "so and so" sent them here!

FUN FUN!!! And thank you, thank you, Jeanne Oliver!

{www.jeanneoliverdesigns.com} Such a generous giveaway.

So get going, girls! Cannot wait to see who wins this one! Maybe we can take it together!

Letting Go What is His Burden, Not Mine...
Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

I Love...Pink and Tutus {February, the Month of Love}

(Post-edit:  This post was originally posted about February 2nd...I went in today to edit the title, and it is now posting for today, along with my "simple dresses" post, and I don't know how to fix it...sorry.)

I love...




...this baby girl. I know, right? You really want me to stop bragging and get on with my bad self. Is this not "hand on heart", gasp-and-squeal cute?!? I have the most beautiful granddaughter on God's earth. (Photo portrait by her artist daddy, Jonathan Howe, taken just one week ago...hard to believe we were having 70+ degree weather...today is frigid and snow...)

Look at that pouty mouth.

Homegirl is six months old today. Will someone please stop time for me? I want her to be all this cuteness a bit longer.

I Love...Simple Dresses {February, The Month of Love}

Oh, sweet, sweet goodness, I love me a pretty dress.  A simple, pretty dress.  Truly...they are hard to find.  The dresses in my mind are actually impossible to find, because they exist only {for now} in my imagination.

But here are a few that get close to my ideal...

Are you feeling the sheath-ey, A-line, simple sweetness?  Each of these styles would have to be adapted to my over-45-years-old age bracket...in each case, the mantra would have to be:

Lengthen the dress, shorten the heel.  Unless I am wearing that short dress as a long top, over jeans.  

Make the dress a tad bit longer.  Make the shoe heel a tad bit shorter.  No mini dresses and stilettos for this preacher's wife.  Not that I am against either of those things per se - I am just a huge fan of age appropriate dressing.  I'm pretty sure stilettos and short hemlines are for the under 30 crowd - and not even all of them can pull it off without looking a bit insecure.  Faith Hill might be the only exception...she's so country music.

Translate these designs above, into beautiful, heathered, solid colors in a medium weight linen or light wool or heavy weight knit...

{no prints or patterns, thank you, I am no longer a fan of them...and no more light-weight knits in either my shirts or my dresses...I am tired of flimsy fabrics.  I am a grown-up, after all.  I'm not a junior in college, and do not want to be...though I will still wear some of my patterned knit shirts.  Once in a blue moon.  Because it is what I have until I have what I want, or what I want to design - though it chafes my very soul to wear them, truly}

...add jewelry designs that are organic, a bit askew, unexpected - with mixed metals and always a scrap of leather here and there...

...add a chunky leather cuff with a word that feeds your spirit discreetly stamped on it - or boldly stamped...and no hint of a manicure, because you are an artist, and everyone knows a real artist cannot...cannot...keep a manicure looking good longer than one day.  If you think I am lying, ask a girl artist.

...add a patch pocket to the front left side of every dress, in the same fabric as the dress...

...with a word{like "grace" or "bliss"}  hand-embroidered on a tiny patch, and added to the  corner of the pocket...almost unnoticeable...it would have to be pointed out for someone to even see it...it exists for you, because you are "all that", and so worth the extra detail...

...with a tailored shoe, about two or three inches in the heel...preferably a lace-up 40's style, a flat spectator oxford style, or kitten heel pump...

...or a western boot, for that element of surprise...

...with one little layer, peeking from the hem of the dress, or a ruffle on the 3/4 sleeves - a petticoat, if you will, or a bell sleeve, but not both...

...throw in an unfinished seam or two {a la Alabama Chanin}...

...and a great bag - also in my head, not to be found anywhere, yet...

...and really, really cool bifocal readers...

...and medium to medium-long length hair - in a messy bun.  Buns are beautiful, no matter what your age or the shape of your face.  Say it with me:  buns are beautiful.

Put all the above in a drink mixer thingey, shake it, then pour it into a glass and pop an olive on the rim, and there you have my very own finished design.  My style.  My look.  Classic, not trendy {except in the jewelry - my jewelry is quirky sometimes and edgy other times} and good on any age, but great on a grandmother.

Smokin' hot on a grandmother.  No matter what size she wears.

Only, right now, I can't find dresses like that anywhere.  Such is the dilemma of having a designer brain.  Or...should that be a designer's brain??

Sooner than I think, longer than I wish.  I cannot wait to wear my own designs...someday.

I Love the Law {February, the Month of Love}

(My foyer vignette, with tiny original art)

I love the law more than any legalista. I love the law more than any woman who is convinced that she is "more blessed" if and when she keeps the law - whether that be Jewish ceremonial/celebratory laws, or the law etched in stone...I love the law more than even she.

Far more, in point of fact.

Legalists (and their legalista counterparts) do not truly love the law...they love their's and everyone else's perceived performance of it. If a legalist really loved the law, they would study harder in order to use it lawfully.

The old covenant is cancelled. The new has come. The law is to be used as a schoolmaster, to point inexorably to Christ.

No other use for it. None. It is no longer a source or conduit or channel of blessing.

Anyone who thinks that they are blessed to any degree by keeping the law has not studied the law in all its exacting and fierce force. The standard is a perfect standard, and only One has ever fulfilled the law....Christ.

All God's promises are "yes and amen" if you are in Christ. All God's promises are "no and maybe" in the law.

You choose. I choose Jesus.

I love the law for what it reveals to me of Grace. I may be the only person you know who has read the curses of the law (that must come upon your life if you seek to be justified by the law in any way) and wept with joy and excitement and passion.

Because of Christ, my experience in this life is one big fat "instead".

Blessing instead of cursing.
Instead of the thorn tree, up comes the myrtle tree...in full bloom. (Is. 55)
Instead of ashes...beauty.
Instead of sadness...the oil of joy.
Instead of broken relationships...restoration.

Not one curse can touch my life, because I have died to the law and am "married" to the Gospel...married to Christ. All that is His, is also mine.

Especially His righteousness. His righteousness belongs to me, as sheer gift.

Using the law lawfully has led me to utter fullness in Christ.

Written for you with love...
Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...

"I Love...The Church" {February, The Month of Love}

In celebration of this "month of love", why not begin a short series titled, "I Love..."

Pretty open ended.  I like it.  I could go anywhere with this...

...but I will begin with the church.  I.  Love.  The.  Church.  Not just Harvest Church, where my husband is senior pastor - but THE church.  The bride of Christ.  The called-out, chosen ones.  The family of God, the people of God. 

I love the organized church. 
I love the disorganized church.
I love home churches.
I ~love~ small churches.
I love big churches.
I love mega churches.
I love interesting church buildings.
I love church history.
I love all things church.

So, I'm pretty much a church chick.  If you are not part of...and I do mean part of...a local church, I strongly suspect, nay am convinced that you are missing out on one of the biggest, most wonderful, most tedious, most awesome, most wrenching, most indescribably sweet blessings this side of heaven.  You likely think you are blessed without the local church - but that's only because you think the level of blessing you have experienced is all there is.

There is more.

Like...way, way more.

Yeah, it comes at a price.  Most worthwhile things do. 

If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.

If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy.

AND THE WINNER IS...{Edie Wadsworth's 31 Days to a Heart of Hospitality E-Book Giveaway}

First of all, a HUGE "thank you" to sweet Edie for generously sharing two of her e-books with my readers/followers/friends.  Thank you so much!

Using www.random.org's number generator, we have winner number one:


True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:19
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Congratulations, Hayley!!

...and now, the second winner, again using random.org's number generator is:

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:6

Congratulations, Sandi Holman!!

 Now, if you will both kindly contact me with your email addresses, I will get you your free download! Now, for the rest of us who didn't win...Edie's e-book is only $5, and so well worth that price. You can still obtain it via her blog www.lifeingraceblog.com.

And...stay tuned...because next week...sometime...I will be hosting a BIG, WONDERFUL giveaway, featuring my small-business-mentor-and-friend Jeanne Oliver!

Original Art For Sale

She's finished...beautifully framed...and for sale in my shop

Written for you with love...

Sheila Atchley

All blog content is the property of the writer, including all "In the Middle" intellectual and visual art property...