Cracked Sidewalk in Syracuse

Cracked Sidewalk in Syracuse, originally uploaded by Melsky.

We are on our way to Syracuse! I'm kind of excited. So much stuff to do first though.

Waiting...

Troy, NY, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Tomorrow we hear if my husband got the job offer in Albany or not, and from there we decide. It's nerve-wracking. We are at his office and and I'm helping him with some copying of files and stuff like that. There is a lot of work to do.

I'm looking forward to knowing which city we will be in.

Fabulous Newell Post

Fabulous Newell Post, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Wrought iron Newell post in Downtown Troy, NY

I'm getting more excited about the move now. Boy is real estate cheap down there, for beautiful old places with real wood and brick and iron. I hate stucco! Here in my neighborhood in Toronto it's been frustrating to watch all summer as several beautiful old brick homes have been stucco'd over. But back to upstate NY, yeah, cheap. I have been finding some good blogs too, mostly about Syracuse.

I'm helping Dave make some copies at his work. He's so busy.

Tomorrow I have tons of laundry to do and I'm going to start packing! I also have to reserve the van to move our stuff down to whatever city it is.

I would like to try to do some painting too.

We're moving to NY

Me at Niagra Falls, originally uploaded by Melsky.

So much has happened. I feel bad for not keeping up with this blog more. Dave had interviews in Albany and Syracuse, and he has an offer from Syracuse and will probably be getting one from Albany in the middle of next week. So we are going to be moving to NY for sure.

I have a lot to do. We have our current place until the end of August. At first I wasn't going to take anything that wouldn't fit in our car, but now we have decided to rent a van and take our bed, my green cabinet, some shelves and a bunch of other stuff. I'm selling our couch and this table:




because the couch is uncomfortable, we need one that you can lay on and not just a loveseat and the table I am just sick of looking at. I painted it three years ago and we have been eating on it every night.

I'll miss Toronto tap water. Toronto has great tasting tap water.

At first I was very nervous about leaving but now I feel better about it.

Arizona Margarita and Melis

Arizona Margarita and Melsky, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is a custom painting - it was ordered by a client in Arizona who wanted a terra cotta coloured sand like they have there. I usually put a more beige sand like I'm used to for my California deserts.Painting is huge - it's the biggest thing I've ever painted. It is going to be stretched on a 30x40 inch frame, but is actually about 35x45 so that when it's on the frame the sides will be painted too.I looked at a lot of flickr photos of Arizona so i could get the color of the sand right.I loved doing the big painting. I want to do more of them now. Also more desert paintings!

Here's me in front of the painting so you can see the size in comparison. The little black and white drawing is the sketch I was working from.I haven't had a margarita in a long time. Toronto is not a great city for Mexican Food or Margaritas.

I SOLD MY TABLE!

Thank you Craigslist.

I kind of miss the table but it's nice to have the room in our living room, and one less thing to worry about.

I'm working on my huge, huge desert margarita painting right now. Well, I'm taking a little break. I've been busy with helping David get ready for his job interview - printing out maps, sewing buttons on his suit, polishing his shoes and getting a hotel for us. I picked one across the street from a mall and down the road from a cemetery so I will have places to go while he's in the interview. There's a post office in the mall which is very, very convenient too. I have a bunch of stuff to mail.


This is my old table, the one I still have.

A new painting

Bright Flowers, originally uploaded by Melsky.

The working title is Bright Flowers. However, I may change it to something a little more exciting.

I've had this one kicking around for a while, partially finished. I was "Stuck" on it. Today I decided to just finish it. I did the background in a different way and I like it.

I've also just learned to paint lilacs. I love how this one turned out.

If anyone has any suggestions for a new name, I'm all ears.

Bright Flowers for sale here

The Table is finished!

The Table is finished!, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Here it is. I'm going to sell it on Craigslist.

Today we had people look at the apartment and a few of them were interested in my paintings. I gave them business cards. There's more people coming to look at it this afternoon.

I'm really tired. I'm having a hard time getting to sleep before midnight these days, and usually much after midnight. On Thursday I stayed up until 3.

Yesterday after the people came to see the apartment we went out and had sushi and sake as an appetizer, Cider at the Cloak and Dagger pub and dinner at Cafe Diplomatico. It was pretty cool to be able to have Japanese, Irish and Italian food all in a few blocks.

I finished my table and it looks great

Actually I still have to paint the clear sealant coat on it, but that's easy. What's hard is the table needs to be moved upstairs so it can be shut up in my studio away from the hair producing monsters (cats). But it's good to have it done.

Tomorrow people are coming to look at the house, I think multiple people and I need to get it tidied up and get stuff put away, like prescription drugs and our wallets and stuff. I hate this.

I'm sleepy but I am going to henna my hair before I go to sleep.

Table Top Pattern

Table Top Pattern, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is the table I'm painting right now. My goal is to finish it tomorrow so I can have it sold by the time we move. I'm going to put it on Craigslist I think.

It was a pleasant rainy day today. I'm enjoying the unseasonably cool weather. Today I actually wore boots because of the rain. I can't wait for fall.

A trip down memory lane

I'm working on my old web sites. I started doing them in 1999 I think. I have a bunch of web pages preserved in amber, with all these graphics, photos and paintings. I'm making myself a better page as my primary website. Mostly it will direct people to my etsy store, though I may set up a paypal store eventually.

It's strange to see all the old pages I made. Some of them were just started and never really developed. Some were totally outdated information - the one on San Diego web pages was last updated in 2003. Since I'm not interested in San Diego any more, I just deleted it.

This is a painting from 2002.

Yesterday we took a day trip to Rochester, New York to visit my husband's cousin and brother. The cousin lives there, the brother lives in Switzerland where he's doing post doctorate work in a lab in a university there. It was a nice trip. Rochester is pretty, many nice old houses and lots of trees. We went to a barbecue restaurant that I didn't like much, but my husband and brother in law really loved it so I was glad we went.