The Eclectic and the Random

Show Date Moved

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 02:54:00 +0000

Tiger Lilly Kitty City, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I completed six paintings for my show so far, but I've decided to move the date up to Monday because I'm doing a web page for the shows.

I'm exhausted today. I've had a cold and it makes me really tired.

I found out why my tomatoes have big holes in them. They are being eaten by squirrels! I thought those holes were to big for bugs to be eating. I went out there today and surprised a squirrel in the act of taking a big bite! I did not know that they ate tomatoes but I have seen the evidence.

I'm having an art show!

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 15:46:00 +0000

Roses and Fish, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I decided to have an art show. My show is called September Stream of Consciousness and it will be an online show. The art will all be 8x10 watercolor paintings with pencil and ink. The show will open this Friday, September 20. Artwork will be for sale in my etsy store.

The paintings all will start out as pencil drawings. They will then be colored in with watercolor, and finished off with black ink pen outlining.

This painting, Fish and Roses, is the first one. The rest will be unveiled at the show opening.

I'm having a good time creating the paintings. It's very good to have a deadline to work under. It's fun to create a series of paintings in similar style and materials.

I hope you will join me on Friday.

Melsky's Guide to Fantastic and Healthy Smoothies

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:48:00 +0000

smoothie ingredients, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I was born and raised in California, and I grew up eating smoothies.

What is a smoothie anyway? In many restaurants they are merely a fruit milkshake, no healthier than having an ice cream sundae with strawberry topping. To me a smoothie is a healthy food, made from yogurt, milk, frozen fruit and sweetener. They are an important part of my diet. I love starting summer mornings with a delicious sweet and creamy treat that is healthy and low in calories.

Here's how I make smoothies.

First of all, it's important to have a good blender. I bought this one about eight years ago and it's still going strong.

I gather together all my ingredients. I use milk and plain yogurt, either non-fat or low fat. I use frozen fruit, which I usually buy frozen. I use flavorings like cinnamon and vanilla, and I use a sweetener, usually splenda. In this case, I'll be making one of my favorites which is a peach and cinnamon flavor.

I don't have set amounts of ingredients that I use. I just eyeball them. First add the frozen fruit, then a few serving spoons full of yogurt, then the milk, sweetener and flavoring. Blend! You may need to add a little more milk if your smoothie is hard to blend.

For this smoothie I used the following (amounts are approximate)

3/4 cup frozen peaches – 50 calories
½ cup nonfat yogurt – 55 calories
1 cup 1% milk – 110 calories

That adds up to just 215 calories!

Some people use ice in their smoothies, I do not. If you use ice make sure that you have a very powerful blender.

Sometimes I add cereal to my smoothie. After it's done I pour it into a bowl instead of a glass and I top it with grape nuts and eat it with a spoon.

Another thing I add sometimes is bran or psyllium to get extra fiber. It's pretty hard to tell if psyllium fiber is added. The bran definitely adds texture to it and takes away from the creamy deliciousness of it. I usually only do this if I will be eating it with cereal, in which case I don't notice the bran at all.

Many people add dates to smoothies; in fact my parents did this. I don't like dates in general and I don't like the texture they give smoothies but if you like dates that is something to try.

There are a wide variety of fruit combinations to use in smoothies. Almost any type of berry makes a great one, especially strawberries. You can get bags of blends of fruits, usually tropical blend or a mix of berries.

I find that a little vanilla, the same bottled kind that is used for baking, really enhances my smoothies. On some fruits like peaches and pumpkin, cinnamon adds a great flavor.

Pumpkin smoothies are unexpectedly good. I freeze canned pumpkin in plastic bags. Just make sure to freeze it in small enough chunks that it can be blended. Pumpkin pie spice is great with this, or just use cinnamon.

I’ve been meaning to try this with butternut squash too.

Bananas are one fruit that you never find frozen, but it’s quite easy to freeze them yourself. Just peel them, break into chunks, pop them into a plastic bag and freeze. This is good to do with over-ripe bananas. I frequently freeze and use in smoothies bananas that I would never eat by themselves. Bananas are great with tropical fruits or strawberries.

Smoothies are quick to make in the morning when you have all of the ingredients on hand. You can even have one on the way to work, just put it in a travel mug. That is a lot healthier than stopping for a donut.

They are not just for breakfast either. Sometimes I like to eat one as a desert.

If you have any great smoothie recipes, hints or suggestions please leave them in the comments, I would love to hear about them.

Summer Fragments

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:59:00 +0000

Summer Fragments, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is a paining I finished last night. It's 11x14 and done with watercolor, acrylic and ink on watercolor paper.

I started this painting when I was doing the Art on the Porches festival. For some reason I had the idea to do a painting with a woman's face, a guitar and a cat. The painting was going to be kind of serious and somber and have darker colors in it.

The cat and the guitar turned out good but the woman's face turned out horrible. I wish I had taken a before picture of this painting! When I took it out and started working on it again I painted over the woman's face with green and white. Do you see the part in the middle with yellow paint and copper colored stripes with the sunflower in the bottom part? That was part of her hair.

I like how it ended up but of course it's not somber at all. I can never seem to paint things that don't look happy and bursting with good cheer.

Anyway I put it on etsy:

Summer Fragments painting on Etsy.

Flowing By

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 01:07:00 +0000

Flowing By, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is a new mixed media painting I just finished. It has acrylic paint, ink, pencil, postage stamps, and a picture of my cat Oliver and a water tower in Syracuse. I put it on my livejournal and it sold right away!

I have had a lot of business on Etsy lately - including this latest one I have had four sales in the past week. I'm working on some more paintings now too.

I have clear envelopes and stiff acid free paperboard backing for my paintings now and they look so nice and professional when I send them out.

I'm going to California a week from tomorrow. Kind of excited about it, kind of numb. Mostly I want to get it over with so I can settle down and get a job. I'm not really a traveller and I don't want to go to California really. I am going because I need to see my family and I need to get some stuff that I have had in storage in the Mojave desert for a long time.

Lots of new things up on Etsy

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 14:39:00 +0000

These are signs on wood that I did for my craft fair. Only one of the new things I did just for the fair sold! But at least I have lots of stuff now. I am moving into another direction and I don't think I will keep doing these so if you were thinking of buying one of my welcome signs now would be a good time.

It's the strangest thing, one of the pictures comes out sideways when I load it on blogger but it is normal on my computer and on Etsy. So I'm not just being careless but I also am busy today and don't have time to mess with it.

I've been working a lot on my exercise. I set a personal speed record walking downtown. 38 minutes to walk 2.9 miles on a warm day. I've also been taking yoga and pilates classes and working out in the gym and on cardio equipment. I'm trying to eat better too. That is the hard part. I have come up with some good recipes though. I am working on writing a blog entry about my favorite invention, breakfast ice cream. Actually it's a smoothie that is so thick you eat it with a spoon. So very good.

Melsky Art on etsy

My first craft fair in a long time

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 22:53:00 +0000

I did the Art on the Porches festival yesterday. I recorded a little synopsis of how it went. You can listen to my story on the player at the bottom of this post.

record yours

I'm living in a swamp

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:31:00 +0000

Little Paintings, originally uploaded by Melsky.

It's 93 degrees and very humid. Yuck. Can we have winter back now, please?

I bought a chaise lounge so I can go in the basement where it is cool and read. We don't have air conditioning. Our windows won't fit an air conditioner!

This morning I went to yoga and now I have been busy painting all day. These are indoor/outdoor paintings on wood. They have a protective varnish on them. I think they would be fun on a porch, especially the welcome sign ones of course. But since I am doing the Art on the Porches festival next weekend I think these are very appropriate.

Wildflowers

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:00:00 +0000

Wildflowers, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Also known as weeds! I got these from my back yard. This is a like an abstract floral painting, except it's a photograph.

I'm getting ready to do my street fair in one week. I'm very excited. I have a lot of new paintings. They are indoor/outdoor paintings/signs on wood. Some of them say welcome.

Tomorrow I'm going to yoga early in the morning and the rest of the day I'm staying at home and painting. I also need to design some business cards and promotional materials.

Summer Night Sky Cat

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:54:00 +0000

Summer Night Sky Cat, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I've finished a new painting. I decided to paint with acrylics today and see what happened. This is the result and I'm very happy with it.

This one is 8x10 on watercolor paper.

Summer Night Sky Cat painting for sale

I'm going to be doing the Art on the Porches festival on June 14th. It's really exciting to be doing a festival again, I have not done one in a long time. I hope the weather is good.

That's one thing I miss about California, the certainty that it would not rain on festival days. It doesn't rain in the Summer in most of California. I do like that it rains in the summer here in New York, it's just that I would like to be able to choose the days!

Summer Day

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:05:00 +0000

Summer Day, originally uploaded by Melsky.

A new painting. This one is a watercolor and ink, but with brighter colors.

I've listed it on etsy:

Summer Day Watercolor Painting for sale

I've been working a lot with my Wacom tablet. That's a method of using a pen to draw digitally on a big tablet so you can do drawings that will show up in an illustration program. It's hard to get used to drawing and painting with it but I am getting better.

I plan on starting a new watercolor soon, something with a cityscape theme I think.

I also went horseback riding last weekend which I enjoyed a lot, and to a picnic.

I did some gardening, mostly pulling up weeds. I'm not sure if I'm going to have any sunflowers in my garden though. I found a lot of sunflower hulls where I had planted them. In related news the birds and squirrels around here are looking fat and happy. Maybe I should try again and bury them deeper.

Spring Makes People Happy

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Mon, 19 May 2008 03:39:00 +0000

Spring Makes People Happy, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Spring even makes me happy, grouchy old lover of winter that I am. But I am enjoying doing some gardening. Most of what I planted is seeds and I can't wait until they come up. I planted four varieties of sunflowers, dill, marjoram, basil, cilantro, chives, mint, cosmos, and a a bunch of packets of mixed flower seeds.

I've also been doing more watercolors. They are coming out great, I'm very happy with them. This one is for sale - Spring Makes People Happy Painting for sale on etsy. It's an 11x14 watercolor.

Orange Sunflower Watercolor

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:29:00 +0000

Orange Sunflower Watercolor, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I just finished another painting. It's good to be back to painting again!

Orange Sunflower painting

I've cleaned up my studio too, so it's a lot more pleasant to paint in here.

Today I was walking to the library and I walked into a branch on the sidewalk and it punctured the top of my foot. That really hurt! So now I am trying to stay off it and I will go to the doctor tomorrow if it doesn't get better.

Oh and I quit my job, if I didn't mention that already.

Surreal Joshua Tree Watercolor

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Tue, 06 May 2008 11:29:00 +0000

Surreal Joshua Tree Watercolor, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is my first new painting for quite a while. I started and finished it this weekend.

It is watercolor over pencil and I didn't do any ink lines on it. I wanted to do a familiar subject but with new materials and style.

I have been accused of laying watercolor on with a trowel. Yes, I know that watercolor is supposed to be much more watery, but this is the way I do them.

I tried doing my tumbleweeds in a new style. They look just like cabbages! Little desert cabbages. That's a funny image.

Ollie and Minty

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 00:16:00 +0000

Ollie and Minty, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Hi, sorry I haven't written for a while. I'm working full time now, and not that much time for internet. Don't have much time now, as a matter of fact! But here is a cute photo of my kitties.

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:50:00 +0000

Busy painting today, but not on the thing I should be working on. I have started a painting that I want to enter into a show. It needs to be finished. But here I am finishing up these little paintings I started a couple of years ago.

But at least I'm painting!

Psycho Kitty

More Watercolors

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:52:00 +0000

New Watercolor on my Studio Table, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I haven't titled this one yet. It's the second one in my series of spring watercolors.

I am having a hard time scanning it because my scanner renders the image in too high of a contrast, making the background all blotchy.

Happy for Spring

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 14:39:00 +0000

Happy for Spring, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I've been in kind of a funk lately, about painting. I've been finding it hard to get motivated and paint every day. So I decided to work in some other formats. At first I did some collage/assemblage pieces, and they were ok, but I still wasn't feeling excited about the art.

Then I got out my watercolors and I'm really enjoying them. This first painting turned out very well. I've decided to do a series of spring themed watercolors.

I've already completed another painting in the series but it's not scanning well. It has a lot of variations in the coloring, and these are not coming out in the scan, it's showing up at a much higher contrast than it should be. I may have to use photographs, which will be hard to set up. But anyway, I'm happy that the paintings are coming out well.

This painting shows up very badly in this blog, click on the picture to see it larger.

39

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 15:24:00 +0000

39
Originally uploaded by Melsky

Yesterday was my birthday, it was pretty low key but enjoyable. My husband took me to dinner at a seafood restaurant which we have been to several times and like. He gave me a new edition of the CD London Calling by the Clash which has extra songs on it and video footage of the Clash recording some of the songs on the album.

I also got this Dutch Oven , which I picked out myself. I really love cast iron.

This morning I found that I had sold something on Etsy which I was very pleased about.

The snow has mostly melted, but I did manage to go skiing twice this weekend before the dreaded rain started.

Today I will be taking a long walk, part of which will be to the post office to mail my etsy sale.

Crock Pot Black Bean Soup or Dip (and it's vegan)

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:03:00 +0000

This is great for a cold winter day.

Melsky's Crock Pot Black Bean Soup or Dip

All amounts are approximate; it’s a good recipe to experiment with

3 15oz cans beans

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon red pepper flakes

1 red bell pepper

2 onions

3 cloves garlic

3 stalks celery

2 large carrots

1/3 cup olive oil

Slice red pepper and put in crock pot with cumin, red pepper flakes and olive oil

Slice and add onions, carrots, garlic and celery

Cook on high for at least an hour, preferably two. Stir every half hour or so.

Add 2 ½ cans beans and cook for several hours

With a hand blender, blend until soup is smooth, adding water if needed

Add the remaining beans.

If you want to make bean dip instead, just don't add water. If it's too liquid, cook it for a while with the top off.

You can also make it chunky style, just don't blend it.

Another distance in time painting

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 17:55:00 +0000

Woman and Leaf, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is a painting I started in 2003 or 2004. I remember I was still living in the desert. I've been going through and finishing up a bunch of my half finished work.

I like doing this, sometimes it's as if the painting was started by someone else.

Unseasonable Thaw

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 02:55:00 +0000

Unseasonable Thaw, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I went on a long walk yesterday, from downtown Syracuse up Erie street to Eastwood. It takes an hour. The snow was melting and there were rivers of water everywhere. I was glad I was wearing my waterproof snow boots.

I really wish it would snow though, I want to go skiing in the park. I should have bought water skis instead of cross country. It's supposed to snow for the next few days so hopefully it will.

I haven't been doing too much creative the past few days except for photography.

Syracuse Street Scene

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 03:30:00 +0000

This is an Artist Trading Card (atc). It's the same size as a baseball card. It's my first painting of Syracuse. I don't know what happened with the scan. It's kind of blurry.

I'm happy to be painting some more local things. I started this last fall.

I drove for the first time the other day. It felt very natural and easy, I forgot that I hadn't driven for three whole years. I just need to schedule the actual driving part of the test and take it and I will have my license.

Easy Pumpkin Muffins - so moist and good.

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:24:00 +0000

Best Pumpkin Muffins Ever, originally uploaded by Melsky.

These were so good! They were also very easy. I used this recipe, but I used whole wheat flour. I did use the whole can of pumpkin like she did. They are incredibly moist. I didn't add the sugar/cinnamon mixture on top. I think they would be good as cupcakes with frosting on top. Next time I make them I plan on adding walnuts, which I meant to do this time but forgot.

They are not good when warm, they were a bit gooey at first but when they cooled they reached a perfect moist yet firm texture. It's a little bit like pumpkin pie, with the large amount of pumpkin and the two eggs.

Instead of pumpkin pie spice called for in the recipe I used a quarter tablespoon each of powdered ginger, cloves and nutmeg, and a tablespoon of cinnamon.

On edit: I have made these muffins a bunch of times and have included my version of the recipe since I've made so many changes.

Melsky's Pumpkin Muffins

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup whole wheat flour

½ cup bran

1 tsp baking powder

1 15 oz can pumpkin

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 tsp cinnamon

½ teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon cloves

½ teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1.25 cups sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Generously butter a 12 cup muffin tin, or use paper liners

Whisk together flour, bran and baking powder in a small bowl.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, spices, vanilla, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then stir in dry mixture until just combined. Do not over mix, that can make muffins too dense.

Divide batter evenly among muffin cups

Bake until muffin springs back when touched, 25 to 30 minutes.

These are best eaten when cool, because they are slightly mushy when you first take them out of the oven. If you would like to eat them warm, I recommend slicing them in half and toasting them.

Variation: Add ½ cup walnuts, dried cranberries or raisins if desired

You can also omit the bran and just use another half cup wheat flour.

Sky Fish Mirror

noreply@blogger.com (Melis) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:59:00 +0000

Sky Fish Mirror, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is a mirror I just finished and put up on etsy

Sky Fish mirror.

I passed my written drivers test this morning on my first try with 100 percent correct. Now I have to take driving classes and then the driving part of the test.

I already know how to drive, I learned when I was 16 and drove for 20 years, so I'm not worried about it.