I ate at the Dosa Grill and it was great

This restaurant is getting a lot of positive attention, and it is well deserved. This is an Indian Restaurant at Erie and Genesee in Dewitt in the small plaza across the street from the new fire station.

I've eaten there twice. The first time we went for dinner and ordered off the menu, and the second time I went with a group and we ate at the Sunday Brunch Buffet.

If you are not familiar with Indian food, start with the buffet so you can see all the dishes and try some smaller samples of the various foods.

The buffet setup is a little awkward, having the condiments first, then the main dishes!

Raita is a yoghurt sauce, and it helps tone down the richness and spiciness of the sauces. I also like tamarind sauce, a somewhat sweet sauce that goes well on pakoras (vegetable fritters).

After the condiments/salad area there is the main dishes area. It has naan bread and basmati rice, and then a selection of curries and other sauce type dishes which change from week to week. Dishes when I went included butter chicken, chana masala (vegetarian chick peas in sauce), mutter paneer (cubed cheese and peas in a red sauce), a spinach dish, and the previously mentioned pakoras.

There is also an area with tandoori chicken, which is marinated chicken cooked in a special clay oven, and biryani, a rice dish with vegetables. Deserts were rice pudding, which seems to be manditory in Indian buffets, and this one was decent but nothing special. They also had an orange colored "fruit pudding" which I tried. One of my dining companions asked me what flavor it was and I was unable to answer - it was incredibly bland with very little flavor.

At the end of the buffet is an actual dosa grill. Dosas are very much like a crepe, and come with a filling of thick curry. They are dipped in a coconut chutney or a red sauce that is hotter and I'm not sure what it is. I consulted the menu to find out what it was, but oddly enough they do not mention the sauces or even dosas on the menu at all!

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Here comes the snow!

It's snowing this morning, and we are seeing some accumulation. I'm sick with a sinus infection and I am not leaving the house today! I'm resting all weekend and hope to be better by Monday. I'm lighting a fire and relaxing in my new recliner.

The importance of staging

The other night I met a friend for coffee and he told me about buying his current home. He and his wife had been looking for a long time. They had very specific requirements as to area and size, and were not looking in a price range with a lot of homes available.

They went to see one home with their realtor that had sounded promising. It had the right location, size and price. However, when they got there they felt like walking out right away.
Everything in the house was pink - walls, carpets, furniture, curtains. Every available surface was crowded with doilies, wreaths, fake flowers and dolls. There was so much furniture in the rooms it was hard to walk around in. No way could they live in this cramped unpleasant space!

Six months later, they still had not found anything, and they were getting anxious for their son to start high school in the new school district. The pink house had a drastic price reduction, and since they did remember it had a nice back yard they went back for a second look, mostly just to rule it out.

This time, some of the stuff was gone, as the owner had to move for her new job. It didn’t look so bad to them now and they made a low offer which was accepted! They got their house at a great price. They painted the walls their colors and got new flooring and they love the house! So the story has a happy ending for them.

But what about the owner? She had her house on the market for six months longer than she needed to, and sold it for a much lower price. If she had only painted the walls neutral colors, packed up her nick nacks and decor in boxes and cleared out some of the furniture, it would have appealed to buyers and she would have sold quicker and for more money.

If you want to sell your home, stage it!

Vinomania, My Favorite Wine Store

Vinomania is awesome and well worth seeking out.

When I first moved here and didn't know the area well, I kept seeing signs for this place and then forgetting where it was when I wanted to go back. I finally did see the signs when I was ready to buy some wine and I stopped in. I'm glad I did.

I'd had this wine at Alto Cinco, a 2007 Callera Chardonnay. I tried to find it in a couple of wine stores, and I finally found one that would order it for me, if I ordered one case at 19.00 per bottle and paid an ordering fee. But when I went in and asked Gary, the owner of Vinomania about it, he told me if I liked that one, he had one that I would probably like just as much and it was only 9.99 a bottle. He was right!

He explained to me that the vineyards were in the same part of California and produced similar grapes because of the weather conditions. So now I know that if I like a type of wine from a certain area, try that type of wine from nearby areas and I'll probably like it too.

That seems very elementary but how long have I been shopping in wine stores and no one ever told me that?

Gary is good at recommending wines that go with certain foods too. It's not just expensive wines either - I've been in stores where they seem to steer their recommendations to pricy bottles. One of the wines he pointed out to me was a 6.99 Savignon Blanc from Australia, and my guests raved about it.

Vinomania is officially the coolest store in Syracuse. Would you look at this place? I just love it. The first time I walked through here I felt like I was home. Gary has a collection of cool stuff to rival mine, and he's got a better place to display it.

This is my current favorite - it's a nice buttery chardonnay from the central coast of California. It's very similar to the wine I first came in for and it's only $8.99 per bottle!

The store is located in Nettleton Commons, which is an old shoe factory that was converted into shops and offices. It's close to the Columbus Bakery and Thanos Greek imports.

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Great RENT TO OWN Opportunity on ACADEMY HILL, Manlius Village

This is a great house! My favorite thing about it is the huge finished walkout basement. There's a big sliding glass door out to the back yard. It doesn't feel like a basement! I can totally imagine putting my home gym there - perfect! There is also a separate room for an office or hobby room.

The house has a sunroom off of the kitchen so you can enjoy the beautiful back yard in all seasons. There's a small deck too, just the right size for a kitchen table and chairs.

The house is close to shopping in the Village of Manlius and very near Fayetteville Manlius High School.

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Call Melissa at 315-395-7523 for more information on the house or to schedule a viewing!

2000 NYSAR Grants for first time homeowners now available!

The New York State Association of Realtors is providing 2000 first time homebuyer grant for low to moderate income households in the state of New York.

For this program, a first time home buyer is someone who has not owned a home for 3 years and does not own any income or investment property anywhere in the world.

In Onondaga County, buyers must have an income of no more than $49,049. You are also required to qualify for a mortgage before applying for the grant.

If you are in this income level and have been thinking about buying a home, you owe it to yourself to call me. I'll help you find a lender and get you pre approved and then you can apply for the grant.

The grant application is not that long or hard, just one page of filling it out, you need to submit your 2009 taxes, fill out a one page form, and answer 3 questions:

1. How has your volunteerism affected your community and what to do you plan to
contribute to your new community?
2. How would receiving this grant affect your ability to purchase this residence?
3. How would purchasing this home affect your quality of life?

Even if you are not sure if you can qualify for a loan, call me at 315-395-7523. I will set you up with a lender who will be able to tell you what to do in order to buy a home. Even if you don't qualify right now there are steps you can take to repair your credit in order to become a homeowner. It might even be sooner than you think!

Just Rented! Great Onondaga Hill house.

This is on Fay Road, a great 5 bedroom house! The people were just thrilled to find it and it rented very fast. In fact I didn't even have time to put it on my blog before it rented.

Call me at 315-395-7523 if you are looking for a house to rent in the Syracuse Area, including Onondaga Hill, Manlius, Fayetteville, Dewitt, East Syracuse, Liverpool, North Syracuse, Clay, Cicero and more.

Click here to see some of my rentals. I do have more than are on this page though. Because I'm a licensed Realtor I have access to a lot of other ones.

If you have a house to rent, please call me. Don't pay to heat your vacant house this winter. Call me and I will find you great tenants. 315-395-7523

House for sale - a great price for TIPP HILL!

This is my listing on Tipperary hill. It's in a great location, right across the street from the zoo and Burnet park with skating rink, swimming pool, golf course, baseball diamonds and more.

Great location by Tipp Hill's Irish Taverns. Close to Coleman's (about 3 blocks) Nibsy's pub, George O'Dea's. But you are still far enough away that the noise of patrons returning to their cars at night will not bother you.

Close to downtown, about a mile and a half. 5 minutes in car. It's about a ten dollar taxi ride home if you decide to go to the clubs and bars in Armory Square in Downtown Syracuse.

It's an easy drive down the hill to get to shopping in Western Lights for Wegman's Market, Price Chopper Market, a liquor store, dry cleaning and a bunch of other small stores and restaurants.

This is at a great price and would make a perfect rental property. A lot of grad students live on Tipp Hill and will pay good prices for a single family home. I do a lot of rentals and I get asked all the time for houses on Tipp Hill!

Please call me at 315-395-7523 for more information or to view the house.

Thinking of moving my blog to wordpress

Note: Blogger has now changed the way you put photos in and it's much, much better.  You can put captions on them too.


There are also apps that let you post to blogger from an android phone.  Yay!


So thanks Google/Blogger/Blogspot for changing this.


Original post below:

I really want to like blogger, (the service I run this blog through). It's free, and I have had the blog for a couple of years now. I keep hoping they will improve it.

The limitations are huge. Posting photos, you can't move the photos around easily. If you are writing text and I want to put a photo in right where I am writing, it's difficult. That should be easy. However, uploading a new photo puts it at the top of the post. Even though the new photo goes to the top of the post, it should be easy to just drag it down. Not so. The window where you write the post is very small. It's very hard to drag a photo down because there's no room. So I have to upload all the photos in the opposite order I want to use them, before I start writing the text.

Blogger is a Google product. I'm using their own browser, Chrome. It shouldn't be hard like this.

Also, I have an Android phone. It's a Google operating system. It integrates with my gmail account and Google Voice. But it doesn't integrate with blogger. I can edit posts on blogger but I can't take a picture with my phone and upload it to my blog.

However, if I had wordpress, I could do that.

I keep thinking Google will change this. I've talked to a lot of other people who have been frustrated and for several years now I've been thinking it's got to get better. Still waiting.

Ocean Sushi in Liverpool

Ocean Sushi is a small sushi restaurant in a strip mall on Route 57 in Liverpool, New York. It's right next to the Starbucks.
I have heard this place gets really crowded. My husband and I went there at around 5:30 on a Saturday in September. There was only one other table occupied when we got there, and only one other party came in while we were eating.

It's basically your average upstate NY sushi bar. The sushi was good, not great, average in price. Service was prompt and pleasant. You'd expect service to be like that if the place is pretty much empty, however that is not always the case. The server was a young man who seemed very confused by me ordering a glass of wine - like this had never happened before. It was an average house wine type chardonnay for about six bucks and it was not chilled. But as I frequently drink white wine at room temperature, I didn't really care.

Ocean sushi also has a full bar, where they were showing sports. Thankfully the sound on the TV was off. I don't mind watching sports but I don't like listening to them while eating, and I sure don't like listening to TV commercials while dining out. Thanks Ocean Sushi, for keeping the sound down.

We got a tempura vegetable appetizer. It was good, not fantastic but we enjoyed it.
Sushi is served on a big boat. The menu has a mixture of fancy rolls like dragon rolls and caterpillar rolls and all the regular rolls like california rolls and plain fish rolls.
One roll that was unique was the spring roll, sushi wrapped in a spring roll wrapper like Vietnamese cold rolls come in. It had sweet sauce on it.

For 2 glasses of warm chardonnay, a soft drink, tempura appetizer and sushi it was around 70 dollars. I felt we got good value for the money and I would return.

I would post a link to their menu or web page here, but as far as I can tell they do not have one online.

They do however, have a Facebook page. It's an example of how not to do a Facebook page for your restaurant.

Social media is about interaction. What they did was just put up a page and ignore it. It's got people asking questions, people posting photos of the food, people saying they like the place and it even has the CNY Menus guy asking for a menu to put on his site! Also, it's got spam.

We have been thinking of eating at this place for a while now. I actually joined their Facebook page back in April and asked them if they had a menu online! No answer. If they had answered, I would have been reminded of their restaurant and probably eaten there sooner.

Added July 1, 2011 Link to Ocean Sushi Liverpool NY Menu from CNY Menus -

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Oneida Lake in Brewerton

Yesterday I went on a fall foliage cruise on Oneida Lake. It was supposed to go through the Erie Canal but the water level was too high from the recent rains. We went around the lake instead. It was a beautiful day, the sun kept going in and out of the clouds and the lighting was majestic.

I was on the open top deck of the boat and the open view of the sky and water was worth the slight chill. There wasn't a lot of Fall Foliage though, it's still a little early. I think the tours shut down for the season in mid-October so if you want to do it this year better hurry.

One of my goals was to go on a canal boat cruise this season and I'm counting this even though we didn't actually go on a canal.

Seaway Navigation and Tours

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Half and Half

I love the symmetry of this tree! Leaves are really starting to change now. This is my favorite time of the year.

RENTED!!!

This house at 216 Conklin in Eastwood rented quickly! Do you have a house you'd like to rent? Are you looking for a single family home to rent in Syracuse? Please call me at 315-395-7523.

People are especially looking for rental homes in Tipp Hill, Eastwood, and Strathmore in the city of Syracuse. Outside the city I get a lot of requests for Liverpool, Clay, Cicero.

Stuff I meant to do

Yesterday I realized it was Tuesday. Sadly, I realized that too late to go to the farmer's market at Clinton Plaza. This is the market held May-October that used to be in the parking lot of the Chase Building. This year they moved it to a much better location, where it's more visible from main streets and is in a prettier location with the Clinton Square statues and fountain and the nice old buildings. So much nicer than a parking lot and as an added bonus, it doesn't take up any parking spaces.

Another thing I didn't do this year was kayaking or canoeing. It's still not to late, there's a possibility I could, but a lot of places stop renting boats after labor day.

Starting a garden is another thing I've meant to do for several years, and as you will see in an upcoming post I will have a big added incentive to do this.

I also didn't go to the State Fair. It's funny, people love to complain about it and I say I have never been. Then the response is "But you HAVE to go!" I'll probably go some year.

I didn't go to the Irish Festival either, which did make me sad as I love traditional Irish music. But I was really busy that weekend.

I put the Farmer's market on my calendar for next week! Next year I will make a point of going to the Irish Festival and going kayaking. The fair, I know I'll end up going someday but it's not a priority and I make no promises!

Syracuse Nostalgia

New York State Fair commercial - WSTM Channel 3 News Syracuse

I was searching YouTube and I found a very interesting group of videos by Syracuse Nostalgia, who also has a blog and a site. Since I didn't grow up in the Syracuse area it's very interesting to see what things used to look like! There's a lot of old commercials and clips from news shows. His sites concentrate on North Syracuse in the 1980s but he's got stuff from various other decades and is looking for more material. You can contact him through his site.

I chose this one just because the State Fair is going on now.

Syracuse Nostalgia Site

Late Summer Tree

This is my neighbor's tree. Every year it gets these intense orange berries on it. I'm not sure what kind of tree it is. I'm pretty sure the berries are not edible - not that I have tried any. But it's a beautiful tree.

Books and Memories

I used to live in the neighborhood of Eastwood (that's in the city of Syracuse) on Woodbine Avenue. I was thrilled when we moved in that there was a great bookstore up on the corner - a huge cavern of a bookstore, untidy and full of surprises and cheap cool old books.

The bookstore changed hands, and I braced myself. Surely it couldn't possibly be as cool. They will get rid of all the old books and make it into a Borders wannabe type place.

Imagine my surprise when the store was actually vastly improved. They remodeled, changed where the entrance was, cleaned up the store and got rid of a lot of junk. It was actually easier to find books. The new layout of the store made

more sense. Instead of cash registers right by the door which would get blocked when people stood in line, there was a roomy, airy cafe setting where you could buy your books without feeling hemmed in.

The new owners kept a lot of what I liked about the old store. There is furniture to sit on, and interesting things to look at, such as the old typewriter

s, old ads and posters. They added a bulletin board with local flyers and business cards, as well as intersting old bits of ephemera.

They plan to open a cafe soon, but for now the

coffee is free.

Books & Memories LLC

2600 James Street
Syracuse NY 13206

Open Monday thru Saturday from 11AM to 7PM

Books and Memories Web Page

Phone: 315-434-9268

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Rain, I love you, but why today?

It's raining, a nice cool fall type rain, not a summer thunderstorm. I love fall! I'm just not a hot weather person. I melt in the heat, especially humid heat. My hair frizzes out. Fall weather makes me happy and I have nice smooth hair.

The only thing that bums me out about the rain is I have an open house scheduled today. It's hard to imagine anyone showing up in the rain, I hope it stops. I guess if anyone does show up, they are a motivated buyer! Why couldn't it rain yesterday when I stayed at home most of the day.

We will still probably have some more hot days, but once it's mid-September it does start getting a lot cooler.

My old friend cactus, it's been a long time.

I went to a great open house the other evening. It was a broker's open, which means that it's an open house just to show other real estate agents.

They are usually held during the day but

this was held in the evening. It was a lovely night and the house had a nice pool patio area.

One of the things that I miss about California is cactus and succulent plants. So I was surprised to see this prickly pear cactus at Michele Nastri's open house!

It's kind of flat and low to the ground, and in a sheltered back yard. I'm wondering if they put straw or burlap over it to shelter it from the winter.

The house was amazing too. It's a 5

+

bedroom house with an in law apt in the attic, and an in ground pool, and a great big 2 car garage and even a treehouse. It would be so great for a big family, or for someone who wanted to live in one part of the house and rent out the other, or for a group of college students.

Please contact me if you'd like more information! 315-395-7523 or Click here to see the house on my site. This is not my listing, but I can help you with this house or any property in central New York.

YARD SALE to benefit Central New York Cat Coalition

The garage sale for the benefit of CNYCC is this coming Friday and Saturday, August 13 and 14 from 8 am to 5 pm at

6915 Woodchuck Hill, Fayetteville!

It is rain or shine, there's a tent in case of rain!

Proceeds from this will be used for spaying and neutering homeless cats so they can be adopted.

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Thistles

Along the Erie Canal. I like way the black smooth fence contrasts with the spiky light colored flowers.

Giannis Bronx Style Pizza is Awesome.

I read about this restaurant in the Chus On Chow blog, and a couple of weeks ago I was driving down the Burnet Avenue in Eastwood feeling kind of hungry and I realized I was driving by the great pizza place I had been meaning to go to. So I stopped and got a couple of slices of cheese pizza.

I asked Gianni what Bronx pizza was, and he explained to me that in the NYC area there is a lot of competition for pizza, and people make their own sauce and dough, so that the pizzas have a unique flavor. Here in Syracuse, everything is called New York Pizza, so he decided to differentiate himself from the masses by calling it Bronx Pizza. Well, also he's from the Bronx.

Next Saturday I was driving around hungry again and pulled into his parking lot. Then I realized I had no cash! But that was ok, I rummaged around and found some change and had enough for a slice of vegetable pizza, ($2.76). He remembered me from the week before too. I came in at the same time as another customer, and he gave us both a free sample of tomato pie.

Now, I had never heard of tomato pie before coming to Syracuse. When I came here, I didn't feel inclined to try it. "tomato pie, that's just pizza without the cheese, why would I eat that?"

But as soon as I tried this, I forgot all about the cheese. The bottom of the crust was slightly crisp, yet chewy, and the inside of the pizza has a pleasing sponginess, nice and light. It's topped with a really wonderful sauce, slightly tangy, and not too much of it. Perfect.

The vegetable pizza was great, with a nice thin crust and thick layer of cheese. I loved the breaded eggplants and ricotta cheese.

I'd be tempted to eat there every day, but I'm on a fitness program right now. Every Saturday I get to eat whatever I want and I'm planning a visit.

The shop itself is hard to see at first, it faces out into the parking lot off of Burnet Avenue. It's right next to a golf shop, and down the street from Shifty's Bar and Grill and Domenic's Restaurant.

Google Maps page for Gianni's Bronx Style Pizza

Syracuse NY Pizza Blog and Reviews

Gianni's Pizza

1428 Burnet Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13206-3519(315) 425-7770

Erie Canal in Camillus

Today we went to the Erie Canal for an early morning walk. Good thing it was early because it got HOT later in the day. Even at 7:00 we were sweating.

It was a beautiful morning and the canal was very reflective.

This part of the canal has a restored general store called Sim's Store, and several vintage boats, and this old bridge.

When we were leaving some people were launching canoes and that made me really want to canoe the canal. But there's some parts of that canal that are a little stagnant and I really wouldn't want to tip over into that.

Cherub Fireplace

This is a non working fireplace in an apartment I recently rented. I just love it! Very unusual to see something like this in Syracuse. It's a building with 4 very different apartments in it. The outside of the building is white with similar cherubs. I really wonder what it used to be. It's obvious it didn't start out as a 4 family building, the upstairs at least has been chopped up into two apartments. It's also much fancier than the downstairs. It could have just been a single family home created for someone with a real sense of style, or perhaps it was a dance school or something like that.

Cat Family

Mocha (dark Tortiseshell) is the mother of Luna (grey) and Imp (light orange). I rescued Mocha from the basement of an apartment building that I was renting out. Of course she was pregnant! Today the cats have very happy lives.

Buildings

This was taken from the parking garage where I park to go to the YMCA to take exercise classes at lunch.

I've acquired some more fine art for my collection.

I got this at the Salvation Army. I love it! It's so delightfully tacky and the epitome of 70s art. I go to the salvation army every week or so and I kept seeing it there for weeks and weeks so I bought it for 2.99.

I used to work in an art supply warehouse in San Francisco in the 1990s. I was the manager of his close out store. He had owned several large craft supply stores in the 70s and they did very well, until all of the sudden the bottom dropped out of the macrame market. 70s crafts like macrame and decopage went out of style overnight and he was left with tons of supplies. It was my job to sell them every weekend. This reminds me of that store!

Roses up against my window

I love the way these roses press up against my window.

Franklin Square Watertower

Franklin Square Watertower, originally uploaded by Melsky.

A painting I started two years ago and forgot about!

Clinton/Fayette renovation

This is at the corner of Clinton and Fayette. They added balconies to the one building. I like it.

Another Demolition

Before
After

SNOW, this weekend, it did not, not even one tiny flake

Last week everyone was saying that it was going to snow this weekend, we were going to get a storm, it was going to be cold. Well, it didn't! It was a cool spring day, very pleasant. I stayed indoors though. I spend so much time outside for my job, and so much time going all over Syracuse in my car that when I have time off I just want to stay inside with my cats.

On Saturday we were going to go out to dinner and my husband suggested that we try the new Japanese Steak place on Erie Blvd but I didn't want to get in the car even for a ten minute drive! We went to Smoral's on Avery by our house, though we did drive because my husband wanted to. I wanted to walk. And I did write notes for a review of Smorals. It's funny, I said months ago in my blog that I was going to review them and I get a lot of hits on the phrase "review of Smorals" or similar. Well, sorry for the delay and I should have a review up within a week. It is a good place, evidenced by the fact that we keep eating there.

Cemetery Gates

Cemetery Gates, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Looking from Sacred Heart Cemetery to St. John's across the street

More Spring Trees

I saw this one today in Franklin Square.

End of the line?

This house on Delaware Street is one that I always notice because it is really tilting. It had a for sale sign on it for a long time. Now the sign is gone and I think they are going to tear it down.

Early Spring Evening

I took a walk from my house on Tipp Hill down Milton Street to look at a rental property. Spring trees have really started to bloom. I was struck by the image of this one in the low light of the early evening.

More Industrial Syracuse

Another image. This one and the one from my last post were both taken on a walk from Tipp Hill to Downtown. We walked down Fayette Street. There are a lot of old warehouses, railroads and industrial buildings on that stretch. There is also Lipe Art Park, a large stretch of grassy area with sculptures made by local artists.

Industrial Syracuse

I'm thinking of doing a series of paintings of industrial buildings in Syracuse. This is one of the photos I've taken for inspiration. Notice the giant pile of dirty snow! That is gone now.

St Patrick's at Colemans

St Patrick's at Colemans 002, originally uploaded by Melsky.

They have a big tent and people drink outside and it spills out onto the street. I didn't go, I was waiting for the bus and it stops right in front of Coleman's. I'm not into big drunken parties like that for myself but it was interesting to watch for about the ten minutes it took the bus to arrive. Then I went downtown and had a quiet dinner at Pastabilities - with a few cocktails! There's more photos of Saint Patrick's Day at Coleman's on my flicker page, just click on the photo to see the rest.

Happy St Patrick's Day

St Patrick's day is a big holiday here in Syracuse. We have a lot of people of Irish ancestry, mostly 3rd and 4th generation. Last Saturday the St Patrick's parade was held and I went for the first time (last 2 years I was sick!) I enjoyed it except for one thing, I was not dressed warmly enough! We had a week of mild sunny springlike weather and I was fooled into thinking that it would be a little warmer than it was. It was windy and rainy and my hands got very cold! Next year I am wearing a hat, huge coat and gloves.

I did walk to the parade from my house which I enjoyed. It's only 1.7 miles.

I didn't take any photos at all of the parade! Now I wish I did. I took a few on the way there though. My favorite thing in the parade was all the bagpipe bands.

Anyway, happy St Patrick's Day. Please don't drink too much and if you do please don't barf on my lawn.

Spring Cat

Spring Cat, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is an old painting that feels new to me! It's one I did for the only art fair I have done here in Syracuse - the Art on the Porches festival in the Strathmore neighborhood. I had forgotten about it until I unearthed it from storage while going through my backstock of artwork to go on Etsy. It's a 5x7 acrylic on watercolor paper.

It feels good to be getting back into doing artwork, I'm very happy.

Snowdrops - first flowers of spring

Snowdrops, originally uploaded by Melsky.

We have had a few days of springlike weather, and now these flowers are growing in my yard. We will probably get a lot more snow before the season is over though.

New Artwork!

Bright Roses, originally uploaded by Melsky.

This is an acrylic painting on paper which has also been digitally modified. This version is not much different than the original painting, I just painted some brighter colors onto it as highlights and made the background a darker orange.

Prelude to Spring

Prelude to Spring, originally uploaded by Melsky.

Doesn't this look like a tree in bloom? But it's just heavy wet snow sticking to the branches.