Melissa Ellen's Loft

A New Season

29 June, 2015 by Melissa Leave a Comment

Happy Summer!:)

It sure has been a while since I have written in this space. We have been enjoying this season and taking time to get outside, work in our garden, take evening walks as a family… basically spend as much time outdoors as possible!:)

I wanted to share with you that I have decided to take a break from this blog for now. I may come back to it in the future, but for now I will not be updating through this space. With having a little one at home, I spend the majority of my days with her, which I am so thankful I am able to do. With that, the time I have to create is much less than it used to be and so I want to spend that extra time creating. Putting this blog aside for now will help in putting my time into being present with my family and spending time creating rather than writing behind a computer screen.

I will continue to create and have my work available through my Etsy Shop and will also be sharing creative progress, paintings, and everyday life over at my new Instagram account. I would love for you to stay updated and follow me there.

I am so thankful for all of you who have been followers and kept up with what was happening in this little space. Thank you for your comments and encouragement along the way!

I look forward to continuing to share with you through Facebook and Instagram.

New Print: “Hope Breaks Through”

9 April, 2015 by Melissa Leave a Comment

Just stopping in to say hello and let you know that I am re-stocking several prints in my Etsy shop, both mixed media and watercolors.

Also, this new print is now available for the first time in my shop.

“Hope Breaks Through”

The original painting was specifically created for the annual Let them LOL Water Gala as an auction piece. You can read more about the organization and this painting in my previous post.

Stop on by the shop to see details about this print and various others I have re-stocked.

Have a wonderful day!:)

New Original in the Shop

1 April, 2015 by Melissa 2 Comments

Hello to you all! It’s been a while since I have stopped by here. Life has been seemingly full with a little one, who is quickly growing and is already 4 months old! Motherhood has been an incredible adventure thus far and full of so much learning… about myself, about caring well for Evie, about priorities, the list could go on.

Time for painting has been less, but I have been able to get my paintbrush out here and there. I am excited to share with you a painting that is officially complete and ready for a new home. This painting reads “Your Life Journey is a Lovely Adventure,” certainly fitting for the season of life I am currently in.

Bicycle

A lovely adventure does not come from a perfect life, one that is always challenge free or free of risks, but it is lovely because it is a gift. In this painting I hope to communicate that your story is important and beautiful even through the messiest of life-seasons.

I was inspired to create this specific painting because this message is important to me… seeing the value in the process of walking through your life-journey and not just in the destination (If you stop by here regularly I am sure this is not the first time you have heard me talk about this message). It is something I am passionate about because I continually struggle to embrace my own journey. Believing my story is a beautiful one is a challenge for me and I am so easily tempted to fixate on destinations; to allow myself to see only what is not perfect or desirable about my life and myself, instead of being thankful for the ways I am blessed, growing, and loved. I want to be a sharer of truth and this painting overflows from a heart that has and continues to struggle to believe that my journey is a lovely one… but it is. And so is yours.

I hope this will be an encouragement and reminder to those who see it; that your life, the simple and little pieces that make up your story… that all of the little pieces are coming together to write a beautiful story that you are living. The adventure is your beautiful unfolding story and you are the only one that can bring your unique story to this world.

so I hope you embrace the adventure and believe that as messy as it can feel at times, that it is lovely and worth being be shared.

You can find more details about this painting over at my Etsy Shop.

Thanks for stopping by!:)

Kitchen Adventures: Homemade GF Pizza

26 January, 2015 by Melissa Leave a Comment

There is something about homemade pizza that says comfort and a cozy night in. I haven’t made much homemade pizza because I have had a hard time finding a gluten free crust recipe that we like. We often use this cauliflower crust recipe, which is delicious, but is also very different than an actual breaded crust. I am super excited because I found this amazing recipe last week and let me just say… I can now add homemade pizza nights to our regular meal plans!:) The thin crunchy crust compliments the topping flavors so well!

I used this recipe from Minimalist Baker. I didn’t have white rice flour on hand, so I used sweet rice flour instead. I also like to substitute ground flax seed in recipes that call for xanthan gum, so I added about 2 tsp. ground flax instead of the xanthan gum in this recipe. Other than those two changes, I followed the recipe. And seriously, this was such quick prep and I used my rolling pin to roll it out onto our pizza stone (which if you have experienced GF crust before, its really hard to find one that isn’t wet and sticky). I highly recommend this dough recipe!:)

Now for the fun part – I wanted to share what we topped our pizza crust with!

Caramelized onion :: Mushrooms :: Pear :: Mozzarella:: Fresh Thyme

Caramelized onions – melt a little butter or olive oil, add onion slices. Cook in skillet over medium high heat for a few minutes. Sprinkle with some sugar, salt, and about 1-2 tbsp. of balsamic vinegar. Cook until onions are soft and brown.

Add mushrooms and a little more olive oil into the skillet and cook the mushrooms with the onions until mushrooms are soft.

Take pre-baked crust out of the oven, sprinkle with mozzarella cheese, add onion/mushroom mixture, then arrange the thin slices of pear on top. Brush or drizzle the extra juice from the skillet over the pizza. Top with more mozzarella cheese.

Once the pizza is baked through, sprinkle with fresh thyme and enjoy!:)

This is a delicious topping combination! If we had goat cheese on hand, I would have went for that instead of the mozzarella, but that will be for next time!

What are your favorite pizza topping combinations?

Photo Documenting: Vintage Bicycle

20 January, 2015 by Melissa 2 Comments

Hello! It’s been a while since I have written in this little space. Spending my days with Evelyn has proven to be so amazing, challenging, filled with so much joy, unpredictable, fun, overwhelming at times, just to name a few!:) To get a blog post in these days seems a little more (actually a lot more) difficult, but we are slowly finding a new normal with our family of three and loving the journey with all of its ups and downs. I hope to share more on motherhood in future posts.

For now, I wanted to share what I have been working on during some of my free moments.

I have been slowly working on this mixed media painting of a vintage bicycle. You can read more about this piece and why a bicycle here.

After sitting on my shelf for a while, I have been inspired to keep working on this painting and wanted to share my recent progress through photo documenting.

I think this piece is in the final stages, so I hope to finish it in the near future and can’t wait to share the finished piece with you all!

Have a wonderful day!

Project Embroidery

30 December, 2014 by Melissa Leave a Comment

Hello! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and time of celebrating! We traveled to visit family and had our first overnights as a family of three.:) We were a little apprehensive about how it might go with a one month old, but Evelyn did great and we were so thankful to be together with family! I think Evelyn had a wonderful first Christmas!:)

I wanted to share with you an embroidery project I worked on a few weeks back. It was really simple and a lot of fun to create.

I really like to incorporate words or little phrases around our home because I believe they can be such helpful reminders of what really matters and of truth. If we are surrounded by messages of truth in our home, I think we can be continually pushed to re-evaluate our perspective. I also love that having words and phrases that are meaningful to our family around our home, it allows us to share more of ourselves with others. My hope is that the words in our home bring encouragement to those who come into our home and see them.

I was at a local thrift store recently and found a pretty large sized embroidery hoop and was immediately drawn to the color and look of the hoop. Now, I haven’t ever used one of these hoops before, but I love the look and style of embroidered wall art. So I thought for the few dollars that the hoop cost, it was worth a try to make something for our wall!

I wanted to create something simple, so I decided on a short phrase that to stitch in writing and then added a simple vine/flower design.

Embroidery2

I stretched a piece of fabric inside the hoop and used pencil to sketch out the words and flower design.

Then I just started stitching the words using the pencil lines as my guide. I didn’t want all the flowers to be embroidered, but more hints of embroidery throughout the design, so I decided to paint the flower design onto the fabric using watered down acrylic paints.

From there, I embroidered flower centers…and may add some embroidery to the petals, but I haven’t decided yet!

This is a super fun and simple project to do and there are so many different ways to create an embroidered image. It is also really nice because its a project you can work on here and there when time allows (which is my new reality with a newborn). The best part is that you can make several and change them out! I think I could really get into this whole embroidering thing!

Next on my list: I want to create an embroidered hoop for our daughters nursery with her name, Evelyn, embroidered into a floral vintage fabric!:)

Free Download: Gift Tags

9 December, 2014 by Melissa Leave a Comment

One way I like to make a gift extra special is to wrap and dress up gifts with little extra embellishments like ribbon, twine, mini bells, and gift tags. The past two years I shared with you gift tags that I created and wanted to make them available again this year!

You can download the tags and print them for free to use on your own gifts for others!:)

Click Here for your Gift Tags

*I didn’t indicate a dot for punching a hole simply because depending on how you want to use them, you may want the hole in various places.

Enjoy!:)

Kitchen Adventures: GF Pumpkin Bread

5 December, 2014 by Melissa Leave a Comment

GF Pumpkin Bread

Because we are a gluten free home, good bread recipes can be difficult to find, especially recipes with ingredients that we tend to have in our home on a regular basis. So, when I find a good recipe, it makes my day!:)

I wanted to share a delicious pumpkin bread recipe with you all that I tried a few weeks ago! It is so good, we were averaging two loafs a week!:) Whether you eat gluten free or not, this pumpkin bread is the perfect blend of sweet and spice, with a hearty taste. We enjoyed the bread with some apple butter given to us by friends.

GF Pumpkin Bread1

you can find the recipe here from Against All Grain.

Coconut flour can be expensive, but what I like about this recipe is that it only uses a very small amount of the flour, so one bag can go a long way!

I followed Version 2 using the coconut flour. I substituted honey for maple syrup and used peanut butter instead of almond or sunflower butter. I also substituted almond extract for vanilla in the recipe.

I imagine you could use regular flour for this recipe if you are not a gluten free eater.

A slice of this bread with my morning coffee. Perfect!:)

Welcome to this world Evelyn

29 November, 2014 by Melissa 5 Comments

Just popping in to share some news from our little family. We welcomed Evelyn Grace into this world and into our family Thursday, November 20th. To be honest its hard to find words to express the joy we feel. Evelyn is an incredible gift and we are so thankful and privileged to be her parents! What an adventure it has already been!

This season of thanks has a whole new meaning and what better way to celebrate than in the giving of thanks for this new little life.

I wanted to share a few photos of her first few days!:)

first hours of her little life at the hospital

daddy daughter time. Pretty sure she has the best daddy!:)

We are so in love and thankful for this life!:) I will share more of our adventures with our growing little family on this space!

I hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving!

Today is a Gift

17 November, 2014 by Melissa 2 Comments

first snow1

I Woke up this morning to this beautiful snowfall outside (view from our back deck)! There is something so peaceful and beautiful about the white covered tree branches and shimmering flakes falling to the ground.

I just finished creating a sign that now hangs in our living room which reads “Today is a Gift.” As I woke up and saw the beauty outside, I was reminded of just that, today is a gift.

In these last few days of waiting as we are now almost a week past our baby’s due date, it has been a struggle to take each day as a gift without wishing it away or looking toward the future.

There is so much value in today, whatever it may hold, and I am thankful for the beauty of a freshly fallen snow to remind me of that this morning!

May you find the simple beauty in today and be reminded, like I was, that today is a gift!:)

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