i-Friday ~ Bloom ~

'Chocolate Bloom'

For some reason the first thing that came into my head when I saw this weeks Illustration Friday topic was 'chocolate bloom' which is the white-ish streaks that appear on chocolate if it's been stored somewhere too warm- you can see what it looks like here. I decided that drawing the real thing would be beyond my capabilities so I thought I'd put a flower (or 'bloom' ... see what I did there?) on the chocolate and as it's nearly easter and my Mum's birthday I thought I'd do a bit of multi-tasking and create a handmade birthday card. The thing I find funny about chocolate bloom is that the first time I heard about it was from a card inserted in a box of chocolates assuring the purchasor that chocolate bloom is a beautiful thing and not to fear it and going running into the street screaming or complain and return the chocolates, or words to that effect anyways. If you haven't bought your easter eggs yet then please think about getting Fairtrade ones ... take a look here - I myself have asked hubby for a Green & Black Maya Gold egg which is dark chocolate with orange and spices ... hubby did baulk somewhat when he saw one on sale for £4.99 but I assured him that where ethical issues are concerned size doesn't matter and there is a smaller version available for a less princely sum of £2.99 (I'm secretly hoping he'll splash out on the bigger one though ;-) So now you've switched to fairtrade coffee and tea and sugar ... you have switched, right? ... keep up the good work and go fairtrade with your chocolate. If you need more convincing then take a look here (and think about signing up for the boycott while you're there).

So anyhoo, I did this picture on the back of a blank postcard using my watercolour pencils, white acrylic paint and gold and silver pens (which I *might* have mentioned before) for the lettering which reads "Happy Blooming Birthday ... and a wonderful easter too". I feel certain my mum will love it :-)

And then I was mucking about with the leftover white paint and experimenting painting clouds on a blue painted background (which itself came about from me using up leftover paint a couple of weeks ago) - I was having a fine and dandy time and then noticed that if I tilted my head and squinted my eyes, the two clouds I'd hastily painted looked like a pregnant lady, sort of ... so that's how I ended up doing this bonus painting below. I'm thrilled because it's the first painting I've done that has evolved from just messing around with paint ... that's one step further for my creative recovery, hoorah.


'Bloom and Blossom'

I can't really explain much about this 'blooming lady' except that I think her hair might be petunias ... oh yeah and if you tilt your head and squint your eyes you might just be able to make out two clouds.

By the way ... if you happen upon yesterdays entry you'll see that I had a rough day ... just want to reassure any blog wanderers that do stumble on it that I am feeling *much* better today (hooray for St John's Wort and my own coping abilities). And for those of you who were curious and asked, the job I was going for was a student welfare and education advisor for York Uni's Student Union ... it was a dream job but I didn't get it so I've licked my wounds and am on the look out for the better job that must *surely* be on its way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
... and I you wouldn't believe what monkey mind said about this weeks topic being bloom after my picture last week told you all that we can't have flowers in our house ;-}