Eclectic Melsky

This is my first painting in a while! I put it in my Etsy store.

Surreal Joshua Tree Watercolor on Etsy.

I've gone part time at work now, I only work Thursday Friday and Saturday. I think that will take some of the pressure off and let me continue through the end of the season.

Now I am working on getting my house organized today, and also working on another new painting.

I've been going to Pilates every week too and seeing results from that. It's very hard!  The first week I did it I was very sore.  I'm also working out six days a week.  I'm glad I have really gotten into the habit of going to the gym regularly.

I'm planning on taking some computer classes so that I really know all of Microsoft Office well.  I'm good on Word and Excel but a little rusty, and I don't know Access very well at all.  I want to be able to get a much better paying job when the landscaping season is over in the fall.

So that's what's up with me.  I've been reading my friend's list but have not been commenting much but now that I have more time I will be able to.

It's really spring here, very pretty.

Isn't Oliver cute?

I hardly have time to be on my computer since I started working so much.

This is so funny!

Sorry I haven't updated, I was so tired from my trip and then very busy at work, gym and singing lesson that I just haven't had the energy to do much online. It's hard to get used to working full time after being such a slacker. I will write more about the trip and being on the show in a few days. It's the start of my weekend I am off on Sunday and Monday so I should have more time and energy, I hope.Hypochondria on the Today Show

In case you missed the first post, this is my web page  Health Anxiety Site

Sadly I didn't have time to do any activities or see any plays or anything like that. We pretty much got into town, checked into the hotel, walked around, ate dinner at the Oyster Bar, walked around, had martinis at a bar, went back to the motel, I had insomnia and read a lot while my husband slept. Then we went to the taping, where we mostly sat around in a waiting room with the other guests and had some stale food. Then we were filmed, walked around, checked out of the Hotel and the car service picked us up and took us back to the airport, where they told us our plane was delayed for several hours! But then they told us it was a mistake and our plane wasn't really delayed. We went back to Syracuse and I slept for twelve hours.

Here is a screenshot of me on the show. If you click on it, you will go to my flickr account where there's more photos of it. I'm going to upload some more from the trip soon but right now I'm going to go to bed.

We had a pretty uneventful flight and now we are in a fancy hotel across the street from Lincoln center.  We ate at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station because Andrew recommended it, and we did like it a lot.  Then we had martinis at a bar called Moran's.  I have taken a bunch of photos and I'll put them up when I get home tomorrow night.  Then on Thursday it's back to work.

I've started the part of my job where I'm actually drawing landscape plans and I like it.  Though I wish it was on the computer.  It's frustrating to have to change something and I'm thinking, "where is the undo key?"

It's exciting to be in New York.  I like being here to visit but I don't want to live here.  I just wish downtown Syracuse had some of this vitality.

On Wednesday, April 2 I will be on the Today show which appears on your local NBC channel if you are in the US.

It's because of a web page I did about hypochondria and health anxiety, which I used to suffer from.

I will be on sometime between 10 and 11 am, probably between 10:10-10:25.

The Today show is a big deal, it's a very popular show and I'm going to be on live tv! So I'm excited.

I got a new suit at the Salvation army for 6.99 that I'm going to wear. I always look for suits there and never find any, and now when I really needed one they came through for me big time. Not only does it fit perfectly, it's purple!

Yellow Tulips
Originally uploaded by Melsky

Just Listed on Etsy, a fun new floral painting for spring:

Sunny Yellow Tulip Painting

I'm working on a few new paintings, hoping to have them done by the time I start work tomorrow.

This is another painting in my spring watercolor series. I'm not selling these yet, I'm waiting to get at least 10 and then I'm going to frame them and try to get a show somewhere.

The big news is that I got a job - as an artist of sorts. I will be doing landscape drafting for a large landscape business and nursery. So this will be strange to go to a full time job after not working for seven years.

Yay, snow! About six inches.

We ate here on Sunday. It's a real old fashioned diner in a stainless steel building (you can see the building in the foreground). The waitress was really nice and very efficient. Sadly, the food was average and it's the type of food I regret eating right afterwards. I don't think we will be returning any time soon, but it's a lovely sign, isn't it?

This is the next painting in my spring watercolors series. It doesn't scan well, the scan turns out too contrasty and makes the background look all blotchy.

I'm doing a ton of painting today, but it's painting on the walls. I'm painting a room that I'm not sure what to call it - it would be an entryway but it's in the middle of the house and it's not long enough to be a hallway. It's the room with doors to our kitchen, dining room, living room and it's where the stairs start. I'm painting it the same creamy yellow as my bedroom (the paint was in the basement when we moved in so I'm using it). So far it looks great, it gives the room a warm and inviting look.

David has gone off to Buffalo to take the bar exam.

No, I'm not happy for spring, that's just the title of this painting. And it's not spring either. But I am happy to be painting again. I've just not felt very excited to paint lately. I did some collage and assemblage stuff but it wasn't really doing it for me. Then I got my watercolors out and I'm really enjoying them.

I decided to do a series of spring themed paintings because the watercolors are much more pastel colored than the acrylics I usually use. Plus it's almost spring and most people really like spring. I think spring is ok because I like flowers but it's the gateway to the truly terrible heat of summer.

I am probably going to list these on Etsy but I may wait until I have some more of them.

I saw this when I went on a walk around our neigborhood. I'd love to build one of these some day.

I had a good birthday. My husband took me to Bonefish for dinner. It's a fish restaurant which we like a lot. He gave me a cd of the Clash's London Calling which has extra songs and also video of them making the album.

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


I also sold something on Etsy, which made me happy.

The weather has turned warm again, and all the nice snow melted. I would have liked to have gone skiing on my birthday but I did go skiing on both Saturday and Sunday so I guess I can't complain. On Saturday my friend and I skied around the park by my house and on Sunday we went with some other people to the Heiberg Memorial Forest where there's not many groomed paths so you kind of have to hack your way through the snow using your skis. The other people we were with were much more experienced so we just followed in their tracks. We had to leave earlier than I would have liked to because some people just don't care for skiing when it is raining. That's understandable though.

Dave takes the bar exam in one week! He's been studying a lot. He already passed the California bar 15 years ago and he did fine with that. Mostly he has to study all the New York specific laws.

This is right by where I live. It's not my street but my street looks like this too.

For Valentines Day I made a nice dinner with salmon, sauteed vegetables and home baked bread. This was my first time making real bread, with yeast that has to be risen and kneaded. I've always been a bit intimidated by making yeast bread so it's good to know I can do it. The bread turned out very nicely, though it didn't photograph very well so I'm not including an image of it here. It tasted very good, and smelled really wonderful while baking. I think I may not have let it rise enough. I'm going to work on baking more bread.

This is another painting that I started a long time ago and just finished. She's Simpsons yellow! I didn't plan it that way.

I'm going to the store to get supplies to make black bean soup, cornbread and pumpkin muffins. It's for a party called Chilifest where you take a hike in the cold woods and then go back inside for vegetarian food.

I should have bought water skis instead of cross country skis.

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.

These were pretty easy to make, just remember as with any quickbread don't overmix the wet and dry ingredients together.

We got about three inches of ice pellets this morning.  One of the first things I do every morning is to check and see if there was snow, because I clear off my husband's car and shovel the driveway before he goes to work.  So this morning, barely any snow at 7:00.  Then I hear this weird crackling noise, like static.  It's tiny little ice pellets raining down.  Another hour later when I went out to shovel there was, I swear about three inches out there.  It wasn't that hard to clear off though, luckily, not like really wet snow that is super heavy and sticks to the shovel.  When I came in I ate three of the muffins.

I'm hoping this snow will stick around so I can go skiing at the park this weekend.  Not on Saturday though, I'm taking my driver's class, five hours in the classroom.  You can take the driving part of the test without any actual driving class, unlike when I did it in California twenty three years ago.  I can't believe it's been so long.

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skylines
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Welshman
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