Thursday, June 28, 2007

little king of coffeetown


little king of coffeetown, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I sold this painting yesterday, from Etsy. YAY! Though I will miss having it in my house. It is one of my favourites.

I'm proud of myself , I went to the gym yesterday instead of staying at home in front of the computer. I didn't do as much of a workout as a usually do but I really was tired. I may go there today and just do cardio but I probably will take a long walk instead.


Mostly I'm glad the heat wave has broken. Yesterday was so hot and humid it was painful. We have a window air conditioner in the bedroom but it's so noisy it's almost not worth it. It kept cycling on and off all night and waking me up.

Monday, June 25, 2007

This is me, on Saturday, all sweaty with messy hair but it's a good photo. I'm starting to lose more weight in my face.

I'm really enjoying the whole weight loss/working out in the gym thing. I love watching fat disappear from various parts of my body and get replaced by muscle.

The photo was taken on a bridge over the Don River. We went on a very long walk, from our house to Riverdale. It was about 13 kilometers. Then we had steaks at the Tulip, a Toronto institution, one of those restaurants that's been there forever. Dave thought the gravy was salty and I was surprised to see

I've gotten a commission for a painting, based on this painting, Saguaro Margarita. The original of the painting is 9x12, and this version is going to be 30x40! It's going to Arizona where it will hang in a bar. I'm excited to have such a large commission. Tomorrow I go to Tern Art Supplies and get the canvas. The people saw it on my Wonder Valley Desert page.

It's starting to get hot here. I put in the air conditioner a week ago and we used it for the first time tonight. Or rather Dave used it. I've gotten much more resilient to temperatures.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Sunflower Shirt


Today I painted a flower on a shirt. It had a very ugly grease stain front and center. I thought about making the shirt into a rag or just wearing it around the house, but I don't have a lot of these type t shirts and I wanted to save this one.

First I laid my shirt out on the table, and put papers inside, so the paint wouldn't transfer through to the back. Then I went to the kitchen to get the water and when I came back, it seems my cat Mintyfresh had other ideas for the shirt. At least there was no wet paint on it.



Then I started the painting. I did it freehand because I'm very used to painting flowers. But you could cut out a pattern or just sketch one with some tailor's chalk.

I used Golden brand acrylics. They are not specifically a fabric paint, but I have had much luck with them painting on fabric. In fact I prefer them to fabric paints. They are heavily pigmented and last well.

It's important to have a stiff brush to scrub the paint into the fabric. Usually I like to paint acrylics with a soft brush, but I use bristle here.

I ironed them to set (with a cloth over them).

I bought some copper colored iridescent seed beads, and I'm thinking of sewing them in the middle in a random pattern, kind of like seeds. But I'm thinking the comfort may suffer, and I wear this shirt to the gym.

We are also moving, so it's a time thing as well. This shirt is a little big for me, so I don't want to spend a ton of time on it. It looks good enough as is and I'm just glad I can wear it outside the house. I'm going to use the sunflower/seed bead idea for something else.

Here's me in the shirt:
Those are some of my paintings in the background, and what I didn't notice as I was taking this photo - my cat Oliver in the left bottom corner.

Click on any of the photos to see them larger.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

I've got to paint more



Where does the day go? I have all these painting projects that I have to finish before I start new ones, and I'm not finishing them. I need to carve out some time where I just sit down and paint.

We are giving our notice on July 1 for 60 days. I have a very bad feeling that I am going to be living somewhere I like a lot less than this. I'm very worried. I hope I can keep up with my walking and gym where ever we go. It's been so nice to see success in that area.

Today I went to the gym, then I went to mail my package and it was pouring, but I walked to the post office anyway, and to the butcher, and to the bulk foods store. I love living in a walking neighborhood.

I also painted a shirt today. The shirt had a huge grease spot on it so I painted a sunflower over it. I'll put a photo of that tomorrow.

The painting is one from a long time ago, a couple of years. I painted it while I was living in the desert. For some reason it looks a little odd on the photo, perhaps it is the way it was shrunk. But it really reminds me I need to start painting again on a regular basis. If you click on it you can see a larger image that looks better. Such a simple painting. I'm working on another painting that is a lot of patterns and it doesn't look that great. But who knows, I bet that it will look much better once it's done. If it ever is.

Another thing, I'm working on listing a bunch of beaded jewelry I have made.

I'm so nervous about moving.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Me in front of my computer


Me in front of my computer, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is where I spend too much time, in front of my computer. Usually I'm sitting down though.

We are giving notice on our place on July first. That means we have two months to move out. We are either moving to Albany or Mississaga. It's making me nervous. Dave has a Job interview on July 13, and then we have to wait and hear from them to see if we move to Albany. If they take a long time to tell us, we could be scrambling around to find a place at the end of August.

I painted a t shirt today, and wrote a restaurant review. That's about it. Dave and I took a long walk around our neighbourhood and I felt sad that we will be leaving.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Happy Dance!

I sold two paintings last night, YAY!

Beautiful Desert Day

And

Martini Paintings

The one with the yellow background is sold, the one with the sky background is still available.

Well, besides packing up those paintings to mail tomorrow, I am going to the gym. I've been doing really well on the weight machines. I'm enjoying it, and my body is really changing. My back and arms are particularly changed for the better.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Just put nude in the tags

Me in the Shower

This photo got over a hundred hits on flickr overnight, without me even putting it in a group. My husband took it and I cropped it. I'm thinking that a lot of people probably have their rss feeds set up to get all photos tagged with "nude".

I need a new scanner. The one we have just doesn't scan well. On things where there are subtle gradations of color, it turns them into too few colors and it looks so bad. Thats the main thing keeping me from listing stuff in my store right now.

I didn't get much painting done today, just some writing.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

I suck at bellydancing, but I look sort of good


Free Flying Floral, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I'm bad at any kind of dancing, not that I try a lot. Since recently I discovered I'm pretty athletic and have some stamina, I've tried two dance classes at my gym. One was way too advanced for me, it was some sort of fitness dance. Today I tried beginning bellydance. I had a very hard time. Some people can just look at the teacher doing a few steps and then just do it, and continue doing it. Not me, I get all confused. I learn one thing, and then all of the sudden they want you to do that thing in conjunction with some other new thing. Huh? If I ever decide to learn to dance, any sort of dance, it's got to be private lessons because I hold up the whole class.

The funny thing was though, I looked the best of anyone there, even though I was the worst dancer. I have a small waist and big hips, and when I do those moves, even badly, I look great. (I could see the rest of the class behind me in the mirror. I was in the front because the teacher made all the newbies come up front. Otherwise, I would have been in the very back and probably would have slunk off halfway through.)

I finished a new painting today. Hope to finish one a day because I have so many started right now. I also have to work on my table I'm painting.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

I had one of my photos published on Torontoist last January. I wish I had known at the time, it would have made me happy. It was this photo:
Toronto's Most Photographed Squirrel

I put some more stuff in my etsy store. I did a lot of housecleaning and laundry. I skipped two days on this blog, oops. I'm trying to write in it every day for the sake of continuity.

It's hot. I hate living in this house when it's summer. It's frustrating because when I go downstairs the foyer is nice and cool, and when I go in the basement to do the laundry, it's so nice and cool down there, it's lovely. The basement apartment was for rent recently and I did think about moving down there. But I think we are going to move closer to David's work.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Lazy Sunday


Fish Martini, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I stayed home today, made granola and later I'm making hummus. We ate mostly left overs from the barbecue.

My review of South Indian Dosa Mahal ran today.

I listed four small paintings in my Melsky Art Store. This fish was one of them.

Last night I started to get sick from my sinuses. It's the same thing, the roof of my mouth feels raw and I feel tired. I'm trying to fight it though, I'm taking those sinus tabs and irrigating with saline. I'm so tired of being sick. I think literally I've been sick for about 25 percent of this calendar year. I'm doing so well with going to the gym and my walking and working on my art, I just can't get sick. I think I am going to try to go on a walk tonight and tomorrow I'm going to the doctor because this is just ridiculous. The only reason I haven't gone to the doctor before this is that I don't really think they can do anything.

I don't feel too bad so I'm hoping that this will just go away. Please?

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

A giant chicken

I try to write in this blog every day but I don't always make it. Last night I went into the bedroom to read and ended up falling asleep with my computer on and the posting window open. I want to post every day for continuity, though a lot of my posts seem to be the stuff I wanted to do but didn't.

Like right now, for example. I have three windows open in Word where I'm writing things. One of them is due today, the others are just things I'm writing. Am I writing on them? Not at the moment. I have photos to process, things to paint, beds to make, dishes to do etc.

What I have done is henna my hair and make banana muffins. I made and packed a lunch for my husband to take to work. I put photos up of the Community Vehicular Reclamation Project.

I got up early today, so even though it feels like evening it's only 1:30.

Because I put a photo in every post, here's a giant chicken:
Giant Chicken

Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Meh


Poppies, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Well, not that productive today. I did manage to do two loads of laundry and some food shopping, return a dvd, go to the post office for Dave, cook a nice dinner, list one thing on Etsy, make granola and even do some painting on one of my paintings. So I guess I did some stuff.

Monday, June 04, 2007

I scream, you scream


I scream, you scream, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Having a non productive day, except for exercise. I went to the gym this morning and took a walk to the College and Shaw library this evening. In between I sat at the computer and didn't do a lot. Sadly I think I ate too much today too. I am stuck in my writing right now.

Most of the library books I've had on hold for a while just came in, so I have a bunch of books calling my name, telling me to get in bed and just read.

I'm really determined to finish those paintings tomorrow.


Sunday, June 03, 2007

An Orange Cat is Happy


An Orange Cat is Happy, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I did at least put a couple of things up on the Melsky Art Store on Etsy, this painting and another martini painting.

Today it was much cooler than yesterday. It got a little unpleasant in the afternoon but it cooled off with some nice rain now.

I'm drinking some wine and going to finish my story now.

Me in front of South India Dhosa Mahal on Bloor Street

Here's me getting ready to review this for TasteT.O. I like the photos they have of their food posted so you can see them from outside. That is my new short summer haircut. I can also tell I'm getting in better shape, my arms and legs are thinner and my waist is defined.

After I had lunch here yesterday I went on a long walk up Bloor Street. That was a bad idea, it was too hot and humid for a long walk and I got overheated. I'm taking it easier today.

I did a mini photo essay of Toronto Parking meters for my Toronto Photo Blog site.

I still have paintings to finish, writing to finish, I need to finish clearing off the deck and tidy up my studio. I feel lazy!

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Yawn


Bored?, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I went to the gym for the first time in a week, after being sick and then went on a long, long walk. I'm so tired. I always overdo it when I get well. It's only 9:50 but I'm going to bed.

Didn't do anything creative today, except walking and taking photos. But I'll have some good pictures for tomorrow.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Three is the Magic Number


Three is the Magic Number, originally uploaded by Melsky.

I didn't do much today artistically. I walked to the Annex to get my hair cut and then went home and cleaned the house (Friday is big housecleaning day). It's hot and sticky and I'm just not feeling that inspired. I did some gardening though.

Tomorrow I'm going to the gym for the first time since my illness. I'm still having sinus headaches every day. I start getting one in the late afternoon and I have to take pills. I really need this to stop.