I am a crocheter. As a crocheter, I challenge myself with new projects every now and then. Every valentines day is a perfect time to take on new challenges and I've taken on one myself. I wanted to create a realistic looking sunflower. It turns out this challenge - from start to finish - was a perfect way to test my patience.
My crocheter friend 
The sunflower head is indeed the most difficult part in the process. There's a lot of BLO rounds, and there are parts where I needed to insert wires so that the petals would look pointy, there are a lot of yarn color changes. Oh, and by the way, the yarns I used here were the ones I bought at the Hangar Market when we went to Baguio last January. My daughter felt the Igorot Stone Kingdom was paradise, that was exactly how I felt when I was looking at all the yarns in the Hangar Market. I couldn't decide which ones I'll take home. I wanted to take everything home. LOL.
While the yarns were not too pricey, the time I spent making these sunflower made me understand why these were being sold a lot more expensive than crochet roses or crochet tulips. It took so much time, so much patience, and so much prayers to all the stars in the skies for a crocheter to complete it. This is one of the few tutorials that I needed to jot down notes while I watch the video tutorials. So I told my husband I'm not going to sell it at a low price. In fact, I'm not going to sell it at all. It was too precious to me.
I ended up giving it as a gift instead. Yesterday was my husband's grandmother's 83rd birthday. She is a very adorable woman, all her grandchildren loves her. I love her too. I got to experience her grandmotherly love too. I never really met my own grandparents and having Grandma around shows me how it's like to have a Lola. I adore her so much and I wanted her to feel special on her special day. My husband's gift for her is cash, my gift is flowers, so I put them all together in one bouquet.
Now here's the tricky part. Wrapping the bouquet. It is every crocheter's nightmare. Every time I try to wrap the flowers I make into bouquets, almost every single time, I want to pull my hair, or cry, or call out to all the gods and goddesses in the universe. And even after all those rituals, I still end up with an average looking bouquet. I mean I like the bouquets I made. They look decent enough. But this one, the one I made for Grandma, I am actually, truly proud of it.
This was also the first time that I made a money bouquet too. I stocked up for Valentines day and braced for orders so I have all the tools I needed for this bouquet. I folded the paper bills to make them look like roses and attached them to barbeque sticks. Yes, barbeque sticks! That was when I found out it's a lot easier to use barbeque sticks for heavier flowers like a realistic rose or a realistic sunflower. So the next time I have to create a realistic sunflower, I'm not going to use up 3 or 4 floral wires, instead, I'm just going to use barbeque sticks. That's more economical and I am assured that it won't look like it's wilting.
Grandma loved the flowers, of course, the cash in there too. I'd love me some money bouquet too. Maybe I should plant some seeds of suggestion to my husband as early as now for the next flower bouquet giving season. Or maybe I'll just make myself one. Coz just like Miley Cyrus said, I can buy myself flowers. Or better yet, I can make myself flowers. Whatever. I am just so happy and so proud of this bouquet.
