Sheila Atchley Designs

It's Looking a Lot Like Christmas {Here at the Cottage}

...this is the first thing you see when you walk in my bedroom. A Christmas tree, my pretend fireplace, and the rocking chair where I rock my grandbabies. Plural. I am now the proud owner of two.

Or maybe they own me.

I'm quite busy, decking these halls. This fumpty nest (both full, and empty) is getting its holiday groove going, big time.

Christmas tree in the Master Suite?

Yes. Yes, indeed.

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

New In the Shop - Little Bits of Beauty and Goodness

Magnets!

$5!

Available in my shop...

...and a big shout-out and a thank you to my beautiful friend Wendy Cantrell for the suggestion!

Grace and peace to you,

Sheila Atchley

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

Small Business Season Discount!

This is the season to support small businesses, and local artists, versus Wal-Mart, where much is made in China.

To celebrate my first Christmas in business, I am offering a 30% discount on EVERY item in my shop....every print, every original, every collection, all jewelry.

I will not be having a sale in my shop every other week. You might see three a YEAR, because I only paint or create what I love, so if one or three things don't sell, I am beyond content to let art hang in my home or send it to my brick-and-mortar retailer, or wear the jewelry myself. No fire sales at Sheila Atchley Designs. No need.

So this is my first sale, my first ever discount, and it is through Monday.

Please peruse My shop and see if there's anything you or a friend would love to have. Then just type in "smallbusiness30" at checkout.

One of a kind original art, and jewelry pieces. You cannot find these things at any price in any mall...and you know....I love that.

I truly love that. Made in the United States. By yours truly.

It's a good cause, people!

::smile::

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...

Sold Before She Could Be In The Shop...

Another "In The Middle" girl has sold...literally, the paint wasn't dry on her. She sold right off of Facebook.
Everyone celebrates beginnings, and they commemorate endings, but the middle gets lost in the...well, the middle. Particularly, few celebrate the beauty of the middle age woman. I aim to change that, both in life and in art. Thus, the birth of my "In The Middle" art theme. ("Mercy In The Middle" is also the title of the message I spoke, at the Master Builder's National Conference - our church's network - in Florida, back in '03. I plan on making that message available via MP3 download soon...)
The middle is what you make of it. If you need a little perspective, I would be privileged to help you see the beauty inherent in your middle.
Two other of my girls did make it to the shop today (they weren't featured on Facebook). They aren't "In the Middle" girls, but I think you'll find them lovely just the same...

"Shared Secrets"...and...

"She Cut Her Own Hair"...(subtitle, "Crowning Glory)

"Shared Secrets" made me smile, but "She Cut Her Own Hair" made me laugh out loud. I don't know where she came from, I promise. She may or may not be autobiographical. I may or may not have needed to reassure myself one day recently. I so love the crown that sits on top of her "Crowning Glory".
Both these 5x5 mixed media originals are available in my shop.

Enough about me...what do you think about my hair?

(All intellectual and visual art property entitled "In The Middle", featured on this blog and in my shop, belongs to Sheila Atchley Designs. Thanks for respecting that... )

"Thanksgiving and Advent"...no wait, this should be "Sheila Atchley Is a Walking Blooper" (W.E.L.L. Being - a Video Weblog Series)

Happy, happy Thanksgiving to all my friends - new and old. What a blessed year this has been so far - I've made so many new friends in the art world. And in other worlds.

Um...other areas. I've made friends in other arenas, such as business and nonprofit and ministry. My friends are all earthly. Let me repeat: I have no alien friends.

Nevermind. Another installment in my W.E.L.L. Being Video Weblog Series

Lillian Has A New Home

...the Lillian Collection has sold. She will soon be shipped out of the country. I confess, I am a bit nostalgic about it, as I named this collection after my great-grandmother, Lillian Marie McCommons.

She's the first collection I ever made...and I was so afraid to begin deconstructing all my vintage pieces (bought at an estate sale, at what for me was a dear price) and reinterpreting them into new, original designs. I created the Lillian first...before the Aidyn and the Kaitlyn Marie and the others...because I was so partial to the elements I created her with...the crystal bracelet, vintage earring, and vintage pocket watch. From the earrings to the tassel on the end of that watch-pendant, the Lillian is stunning and beautiful.

The woman who wears her must wear her with grace and must be....or become...confident of her own innate beauty....the Lillian simply comes with that sort of mojo all over her. She'll make that wearer feel so special....because Lillian knows there isn't another piece of jewelry like her, anywhere in the whole world. She was resurrected literally from the dust of a huge old box, redesigned, remixed, and given a brand new life, and she is a work of art that is completely, completely unique. You cannot buy her at any price in any department store.

She's born from the heart.

I love that. Call me imaginative, but I believe she'll impart a blessing to the wearer.

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...

Oatmeal-Cherry-Chocolate Cookies

Credit for this recipe must go to the sweet Kimberly Taylor of Kimberly Taylor Images. I discovered it via the online class "Creatively Made Home", the lovely Jeanne Oliver has outdone herself putting these classes together...I have been so inspired by everything I've seen there.

So here is my riff on Kimberly's awesome recipe....

First, take your own picture, because you are. that. girl. You are a goober-blogger-geek. Own it. Work it.

Gather your ingredients...unbleached flour, oats, salt, baking soda, flaxseed (grind it first)

(No grits in this cookie recipe...no lemon either...the grits sit there, and the lemon went in my water earlier...). Eggs, brown sugar, regular sugar, dried cherries, dark chocolate chips, vanilla, and walnuts...

Toast the walnuts and chop them super-fine...

Mix your dry ingredients ( salt, baking soda, flour and oats)

Cream your butter and sugar...

Toss your chocolate, walnuts, and dried cherries into your dry ingredients...then add your dry ingredients half at a time (mixing between...to avoid a flour explosion)

Hear your KitchenAid make that satisfying sound...working hard...

Get your scoop out, sistah. Go big or go home. No sissy cookies allowed.

I mean big...

Bake 'em at 350 for about 15 minutes...

Cool on wire racks, and serve these guilt free to your family. Walnuts? Superfood. Oats? Superfood. Flaxseed? Suuuupahfood, baybay. Cherries? Yeah.

Sugar? Evil in excess, a blessing in moderation. Try having one cookie, not three.

This is what happens when your preacher jacks your iPad and forces you to pose. And for the record, I am from East Tennessee...and what you have heard is true...we drink our corn from a jar.

Just kiddin'.

The recipe:

2C. Unbleached flour
2C. Oatmeal
1/4C. Ground flaxseed
1tsp. Baking soda
1/2tsp. Salt
1C. Softened butter
1C. Brown sugar
1/2C. Regular sugar
2 eggs
2tsp. Vanilla

Add dry ingredients to wet, then toss in:

1C. Chocolate chips
1/2C. Dried cherries
1/2C. Walnuts

Combine and bake.

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