New Here At the Cottage {Artfully Blessed}

Funny, how every blessing is right on time. How every blessing comes in its season. My blessings seem to always fit with who I am, really.. Not who I imagine myself to be, but deep down. God equips me for every good work that corresponds to my fundamental identity.

I have limited ability to bless myself. This is an important point. I cannot fancy myself an artist, or an original art lover, and buy my way into the persona. Either something is a fundamental part of my calling and identity, and God equips me, or I try to accumulate the accoutrements of a life I am not actually living. I can't just go out and purchase beautiful original art, or vintage storage, or business supplies. My business pays for additional canvases and paints, so far. That's about it.

For now.

But Abba must see something in His daughter (um, that would be me...'tis fun to refer to oneself indirectly, sometimes) that is nurtured by beauty and message. God is intent, and even intense, about providing me with tools and inspiration.

New, here at the cottage, where we live large in small spaces:




New original art by our son-in-law Jonathan Howe...




Original black and white photography (also by Jonathan Howe...find him at Jnhowe.com




More original art...in my Preacher's home office. This guitar looks somewhat like his custom Gibson Les Paul. (My preacher is way...way...like, way more than a preacher. He is a drummer, a guitar player, a singer with a David-like anointing for intimate worship, and is a craftsman who can build almost anything. And fix old cars. He is repairing a daughter's water heater even as I type this...)




More original art...a close up of what hangs in my hallway...because the Preacher and I are rabid backyard bird watchers.




Also new, and original and by J Howe. This one means the most, because this one is my oldest son. My son Josiah is a musician, through and through. He plays in bars and restaurants all over town, and has auditioned for the reality show The Voice. (He is waiting to hear whether or not he made the initial cut...we are so proud of him for auditioning!)

This painting is of him, playing and singing at the Timewarp Tea Room, on his father's first guitar, which is now his. This painting constantly tugs at the tender spot of my heart, as we wait for our son's full return to his father's God. I am beyond blessed to have been given such a gift.




This was my Christmas gift from the Preacher...with cash God gave him, and he used to bless me...a vintage cabinet, with a locking cash drawer! Love the chippy blue paint...the whole thing is the kind of storage I have dreamed of having in my studio, and it was serious love at first sight. The Preacher managed to hide this from me until the week of Christmas!




The top drawer locks, and will be my cash drawer at art shows. For now, it holds all my paper scraps for mixed media.




Second drawer holds jewelry design supplies. The ceramic "leaves" each hold a project designed, but not yet assembled.




Third drawer, packaging and correspondence business supplies...also shopping bags with my logo.




Next drawer, stamp carving tools, inks, large wooden alphabet stamps, and paper punches...




Small frames and small future projects in this drawer...




Miscellaneous past, present, and future project supplies in the very bottom drawer...the things I reach for less than once a week...




On top, fresh flowers, paints, soldering stuff for jewelry design...and six active art journals...you read that right. I play in six different journals.

When I remember where I was a year ago, and see where I am today, I am amazed. When I see how much was sheer gift...supernaturally provided...I am overwhelmed.

And filled with a sense of calling and responsibility.

I have not purchased a persona...I can't afford to. I have been divinely equipped with tools and inspiration. I have been invested into. To whom much is given, much is...and will be...required.

In what unique and special way has God equipped you? Because He has. And He is equipping you right now.

Who are you, truly? Who are you, apart from who your friend is, apart from whoever the person you most admire is. You are not that woman...you are you. In what way do you bless the world, that is different from anyone else you know?

Good questions. Hard questions. Identity can't be imagined or bought with the swipe of a debit card.

If God is the One who equipped you (versus you blessing yourself...nothing wrong with blessing yourself with fun things, but it will not create your identity. God equips what is His original plan for you...) I promise He has equipped you to succeed!

What an adventure this life is!

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...

Grandbabies In Snow

My daughter Sarah with my Aidyn-Esther-Babygirl (warning: heart stopping cuteness ahead. I repeat...you have been warned):





Who is cuter? Momma or baby? I know. I can't decide, either.





Aidyn said, "Everyone please note the Laura Ashley Snowboots my Mimi got me..."




"Hi dad!"




I know, right? You want me to stop it, already. Stop my dang bragging and get on with my bad self. Well...





Ain't gonna happen.





Deal with it. Deal. With. The cuteness.




...and note the view, through all the snow, from the deck of their new house.



"Um...mommy...my bottom is starting to feel cold..."



"Mommy, I can't feel my face anymore. How about we go inside and you put hot chocolate in my bottle???"


Last, but far from least, I have one picture of my grandson (well, sort of a picture of my grandson) that says it all:





Homeboy don't need no girly snowboots. Real men wear striped socks and quart size ziplock baggies.




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A Snow Day in East Tennessee





Double-click on image to enlarge

{Shot by The Preacher, straight out of the camera, using my Nikon...the show-off.}




This is just a fun little iPad shot, double-processed. Mine. I am so not a show-off. My art is accessible, don't you think?


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...

The Every Day Sort of Joys...






If you, like me, have ever struggled with actually doing the little things each day that bring you joy, if you have ever wondered if you were being selfish...can I speak some love over your life?

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Taking joy...every day...will make you a better wife, mother, boss, employee, entrepreneur, preacher's wife, you-name-it.

All I will remind you, in your quest for deep joy and sustainable pleasure, is this:

" 'tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free. "

Keep your joys as simple as a wood fire; as satisfying as a glass of Merlot; as sustainable as making roasted rosemary chicken for you and your love for dinner. Keep your joys free from comparison and competition. Leave comparison and competition to the unimaginative souls who must utilize those mindsets to be motivated.

You and I? We are so rich in Christ. All things are ours, indeed. A bouquet of sunflowers is our gold, and the stars twinkling above on a winter's night-walk are our diamonds. Holding the hand of the man of our dreams, grown deliciously and delightfully mature, is the stuff of fanciful girl-talk.

Daily, our God loads us with benefits. Rarely do they strain our budgets. Souls of artists, down through time, have discovered the tiny treasures tucked into the travel-trunk of each new day....and have written or sculpted or painted about them.

Take joy. Simple joy.



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Underlined Bits - CS Lewis




“Good and evil both increase at compound interest. That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance. The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point from which, a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories you never dreamed of. An apparently trivial indulgence in lust or anger today is the loss of a ridge or railway line or bridgehead from which the enemy may launch an attack otherwise impossible.”

~CS Lewis

XO,

Sheila Atchley

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

Mixed Media Art





This mixed media original is waiting for words to be put on the canvas. I dearly love this girl...she popped out of my heart and my paintbrush, and her message needs to be special.






This girl is all done. 11x14 mixed media original entitled "She Knew She Was...{blessed and highly favored}".

I could already have buyers for both pieces...four people have sent me emails, inquiring as to price...these girls might be getting new homes as fast as I can get their paint dry! Funny, since I am trying to build up inventory for a show...

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...

Art Show in Atlanta






Who knew I'd be invited to a by-invitation-only art show, in an affluent suburb, just north of Atlanta? Certainly not me.

After a lot of hesitation and brutal introspection, I said "yes" to the invitation.

May God have mercy on my soul...



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...

The Year of the Harvest



As a body of believers called Harvest Church...as a spiritual community...as a passionately artistic and musical and prophetic tribe...as a bunch of friends who love to laugh and do life together...

...we are so sold out to the Gospel.  We are still smack-dab in the middle of a torrent-flow of grace, and there is no going back...ever.  We have, each one, paid a high price to be faithful to the message of reconciliation.  Many of us are being forced to live it out painfully, in our own households, where no one applauds or appreciates.  Those not having to live out the grace-Gospel in their own households, are - with all their hearts -  standing with those who daily watch with longing for a prodigal's return.  When you love someone, their prodigal becomes yours too.  And it hurts.

No easy life...no "marshmallow world in the winter" for a Harvester.

But just you wait.  Just you wait and see what God will do.

In the summer of 2009, a prophetic minister out of the UK called the Preacher and I out of a crowd, and spoke over us a word of incredible financial prosperity, an unquestionable affirmation of  "the Gospel we preach" (this minister had never met us, and had no clue what we were, that very day and that very week, going through);  he said that God was pleased with what we preach, but more importantly, He was pleased with how we were painfully (the very word used!) living it out in our home...and he spoke a declaration over us that there is a strong anointing on our lives for the return of the Prodigal.

We knew right then that 1.  We were in for some financial hits, and 2.  The accusations against us and what we preach would continue, and 3.  That we would have to stand in utter faith for who knows how long until we saw even one prodigal coming "a long way off".  The prophetic is like that...a word from God rarely comes to pass on Tuesday.  Rather, it is meant to equip you to wage war...for the long haul.

But the Preacher and I were, at that moment, equipped to stand strong...caught up into heaven, so to speak, and given an inexplicable ability to see from the vantage point of the Finished Work of Christ.

And then...a year ago...we saw the First Fruits of our prophetic word:



Do you see the man, towards the center of the frame, hands clasped in front of him, lifting his voice in praise?

A prodigal of 25 years.  Suddenly... he came home.  Is still home.  I mean...he's home.  Every Sunday, when I hear this man worship God with all his heart, I know that if God can bring this son home, He can bring ANYONE'S dear one home.  There is not a man anywhere like Bobby - all he has to do is show up, and your faith is built, and you find yourself believing that all things are possible.  He has the strongest anointing for encouragement I have ever seen on anyone, period.  No lie...all he has to do is show up, and you are changed.

I think every prodigal we see come home will be like this one...exactly like the First Fruits of the word of the Lord to us and to Harvest Church. Each one...strongly anointed for prophetic worship...with the affection of the Father hovering over them like a sweet and heavy perfume.  Just like Bobby.

If you know and love a prodigal of any age...Harvest Church is the place to be.  Get here, fast.

Just sayin'.

I would be less than honest not to tell you.  And it would be less than faith not to declare it.

Word For 2013





2012 was an outrageously blessed year...

...it fulfilled the name I named it. 2012 so, so lived up to its name: "Cultivate"

Many amazing things were accomplished in 2010, named "Create". Create, I did...everything from a whole wedding event, to teaching myself how to knit.

Giving 2011 a name was life-altering. I was set utterly free from oppression I have yet to really talk in detail about...stories are still inside me, waiting for their time to be told. 2011 was named, "Sow!" There was an urgency to the word. I sowed with all my heart, in unexpected places, not where it was "expected" of me. I shook off the false expectations of others that year. I began to conceive of a life apart from the typical roles I had played all my adult life.

And it made me a far better wife, mother, and Preacher's Wife.

2012, I simply kept up the momentum. I continued to cultivate the conditions for personal growth, apart from the blessing of my sons, who are working on their testimonies, and even the blessing of daughters, who are working on their beautiful lives. The successes and perceived failures of daughters or sons didn't even slow me down. I just stayed rightly related, enjoyed life, and cultivated my own gifts.

The payoff? The Preacher's namesake now lives next door...an insanely perfect blessing. My grandson, daughter and son in law moved out of our home, buying the house next door. It felt amazing to know that living with us for a season (while Justin finished his Master's and internship) helped them achieve that dream.

A youngest son's high school graduation. A home education triumph, to be sure.

New business started. My art...in a Knoxville boutique! My art...sold as far away as New Zealand, the UK, and California.

New art studio designed and installed.

New car.

New granddaughter....who just last week moved to a cute house, with her mommy and daddy...a house with a studio and workshop for her artist-daddy...on 11 acres...2 miles away from my front door. Insanely perfect blessing! My cup runneth over.

And now...2013 also has a name. And it is big. For me, this is a leap of faith that excites me out of my mind! My word for 2013?

HARVEST



An explosion of new life. Abounding fruit. Abiding fruit. To my account.

Every prayer that I've prayed.

Every seed that I've sown.

Desires of my heart, He's preparing to grow.

Am I ready???


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...

Hal Borland, from his lovely book Sundial of the Seasons






(Image from the lovely blog Dear Lillie)

Sundial of the Seasons is a nature / natural science book I often utilized in the home education of my four children. It is out of print, but is worth tracking down for middle school nature studies. I always found Borland's writings to be factual, yet beautiful and comforting....and most importantly for educational purposes, his words encouraged wonder.

An excerpt, entitled, "The Winter Stars - December 28"

"The Great Bear is now down on the horizon at evening, come down, the legends say, to wash his paws in the deep December lakes before they are all iced in. And the Little Bear hangs by his tail from the North Star. Cassiopeia, the queen, sits high in the sky, and off toward the west, Cygnus, the swan, is in flight toward another hemisphere, the eternal migrant. The Big Dog and the Little Dog, off to the east, watch Orion, the Hunter, as he faces Taurus and the Zenith. Almost overhead are the Pleiades, those seven shy sisters who are best seen from the corner of the eye.

These are star nights, with the moon late rising, in its last quarter today, and with Winter-Brilliant skies. Walk the countryside these evenings and the whole universe accompanies you, for the earth is all open now to the starlight, leaf fall complete. The stars lean so close that if one stood tiptoe on the highest hill, he might grasp at least one star in his tingling fingers.

It is illusion, of course, but the December stars seem twice as brilliant as those of June, for the sky is doubly clear, the mist chilled out of it, and the dust of summer settled at last. An illusion, but a pleasant one on a brittle night; the sun seems so far away that the stars should come closer. We should be able to glimpse eternity through those spark holes in the blanket of the long night. And perhaps we do. Where else is such order, such eternal pattern, as in those stars that light the winter sky?"


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Faithful Friends Who Are Dear To Us...Gather Near To Us Once More...






We sincerely pray...




....that you and yours experience the value of faithful friends...




...and a loving, grace-filled family....
.




....as you celebrate Life in Christ, this weekend, and on into next week....




Thank you, from my heart, for the even more new art and business community friends I have met both online, and in person in 2012, and those new friends who we hope and plan to meet sometime in 2013. As our own children have grown up and become our true friends, we are struck by the wealth one has, in the form of a few faithful friends.


We love and greatly esteem our parents....and those young ones...and those middle age and aged ones, in addition to our faithful children and their spouses....we who have stuck and stayed, have built an artful, soulful, faithful continuity....in fact, a strong spiritual community...we did it, through good and bad times.


Merry Christmas to our faithful friends. Can't wait to go before The Lord with you in the morning..."dancing with our Father God in fields of grace..."

Hope You Are...





...enjoying this time of the year as much as we are.


In the Grip of His Amazing Grace,

Sheila Atchley

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T'was a "Hobbit In 3-D" Sort of Evening...






I gotta tell ya...it rocks to be young and in love. We had so much fun this evening.



Grace and Peace,
Sheila Atchley

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

5 Ways To Celebrate the Simplicity of This Simple Season

(The Preacher, our Monkey-grandson, and me...riding the choo choo at the mall...)

Years back,  the holidays used to bug me. And they still can, if I don't remain vigilant to look past the trappings and into the heart of God.  The crude commercialization. The old Christmas carols, ruined by pretty-boy bands. The extra work combined with the shortened energy levels that come with less daylight. Yet - at the same time, I have always found ways to love Christmas.  Each late-November, I begin to reach down deep inside - where the presence of God dwells -  and I figure out how it is that I, Sheila Atchley, celebrate the Reason for the Season.

So.  I'm not a "bah-humbug" in any sense of the word.  Even though the song "Santa Baby" still gives me a fit of tourette syndrome.  I twitch.  I exclaim.   

In spite of it all, the last several years I've not encountered the slightest negativity inside. After a great deal of amazed pondering, I offer you a few thoughts - humble, not at all earth-shaking, and maybe not even blog-worthy, but nevertheless...I've discovered what, for me, puts the joy in this simple season. 

1. Celebrate your way

In years past, I had begun allowing others to dictate the season to me (and much of my time all year 'round, in fact), in the sense that if they invited me over, I felt obligated to accept for various reasons - to help them through a time of transition, to cheer them up, to just have fun, to assist in this or that, to prevent them from having to be alone. This translated into me always "going", and cutting way, way back on what I love - which is nesting.  Having people in my home, spending time with my family. Over the months and even years I had allowed others to dictate my time, I didn't realize how deeply it was suffocating me. Out of love, out of an honorable motive, I was allowing myself to be squeezed and molded into someone else's agenda. So, these last several years,  I have spent the Christmas season exactly how I want to spend it...doing what I love, for heaven's sake! Filling my home with people and things and activities I love. No apologies. I've had a stern talk with myself. I said, "Self, never again will you take what makes your own heart sing, and put it on a shelf in a misguided effort to help someone else's heart sing. They must find their own song, and they must learn to sing it."

2. Get outside

"....and heaven and nature sing..." remember the old carol? Creation - nature -  is God's means of soothing the human heart. Don't let the cold weather prevent you from getting outside, filling your bird feeders, taking a walk, surveying your winter landscape....just breathing in the chill air, appreciating the change in season. Embrace it.

3. Make something

Pick just one or three projects you've always wanted to try (but never had time, because you were too busy being somewhere else all the time) and block out an afternoon or two and just do it. Arts and crafts are vastly underrated for their therapeutic benefits.  Each and every year, I make a real-green wreath, all sorts of evergreen arrangements, cookies;  this year, I am making hand painted ornaments, blocks for my grandbabies, holiday aprons, sugar scrubs for my girlfriends, and  I plan to clove some oranges for a scented arrangement...and I am going to take glittered snowflakes, and hang them from bare branches in a large cachepot, as a winter arrangement I'll keep in my house until March 1st.

4. Read what inspires you. Self explanatory.

5. Selah. (in Hebrew, it means "pause and deeply consider"). 

Selah over what God is saying to your heart this season. Mull over the good news of grace. Ponder "peace on earth, and goodwill to men". Your God is in a good mood, friends, His anger was completely spent at the cross. Christ took the penalty and punishment for you, and for your children. This is crazy-good news. Reason to rejoice. Those swaddling clothes wrapped the baby Christ, He submitted to them, and then those graveclothes were removed once and for all in the tomb, as the Risen Christ came out of it victorious...for you.

Trust me, this gets dangerous when you begin to take the truth of it and apply it personally. Everyone is comfortable with the doctrine of grace, so long as it stays on the pages of the Bible...where it can't mess with their actual beliefs.  Where it can't challenge their self sufficiency.

But Christ is all about incarnation. Those who preach the gospel must be incarnational about the truth of it. Let it invade.

These thoughts have totally transformed my experience of Advent for about four years now. Oh, my soul waits for Him, and in His word I do hope!

Bits of Beauty

...just bits of beauty I've discovered...these images aren't mine, and I didn't pin them to Pinterest, so I do not remember sources....but can I share the sweetness with you?





Oh, that shade of green! So beautiful, I can't even stand it.





I desperately want to find time to make my grand babies stockings like this, only with their names embroidered at the top. And I wouldn't want to stencil "Noel" on them. I'd just leave them plain.

HOWEVER...this year I will not have the time. I will be helping my daughter Sarah and her artist-husband. With something. Something big.





That is my "I-know-something-you-don't-know" face. No, they aren't pregnant again. But I will be busy with something. Real, real busy.

Those embroidered burlap stockings will have to wait till next year.





I am really feeling this wrapping style.





And this. But without the silk flowers...bleh. Love the newspaper bags, the black ribbon, and I'd add a sprig of greenery, like the picture before.

Grace and Peace,

Sheila Atchley

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

Legalists

(for the record, a "legalist" is any person whose functional belief system consists of thinking they are justified...made righteous to any degree whatsoever...or even just "more blessed"...by keeping the law, whether that law be the "written in stone" version or the 600+ Jewish ceremonial and civil add-ons)


In checking my analytics tonight, I'm seeing that my copious writings on grace-theology are getting scores of views.


One person found my blog by Googling:


"legalists are unhappy"




Truer words were never Googled.


XO,
Sheila Atchley


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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...